Norwegian Association For Women's Rights - History

History

The organisation was founded in 1884 by 171 prominent Norwegians, led by Dagbladet's first editor-in-chief, liberal Member of Parliament and Mayor of Oslo Hagbart Berner and teacher Gina Krog, who became its first President and Vice President. From its establishment and well into the 20th century, the organisation was strongly associated with the Liberal Party; its 171 founders included several Norwegian Prime Ministers, leaders of the Liberal Party and many liberal Members of Parliament as well as the editors of the large liberal newspapers and public figures such as novelist Alexander Kielland. Three of the first Presidents of the organisation, Anna Stang, Randi Blehr and Fredrikke Marie Qvam, were all wives of Norwegian Prime Ministers. Membership has always been open to both men and women and in the early years several men were members of the board of directors.

Among the important causes that the NAWR has campaigned for are women's suffrage (achieved in 1913), the right to work (in the 1930s), abolishment of the common taxing for spouses (the 1950s), right to equal schooling (the 1960s), the establishment of the Council for Equality between the Sexes (Norwegian: Likestillingsrådet) 1972, later replaced by the Centre for Equality between the Sexes (1977), later by the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud (2006). Members of the organization, such as its long-time chairman Eva Kolstad, who served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, also pioneered United Nations gender equality policies. The association also initiated the establishment of the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association (Norwegian: Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening), a humanitarian organisation, which grew to become Norway's largest women's organisation with around 250,000 members at one point. Historically, the NAWR was the most important association of the Norwegian bourgeois (or liberal) women's movement (associated chiefly with the Liberal Party), in contrast to the labour women's movement (associated with the Labour Party). Today, it is a nonpartisan organisation, focusing on women's formal rights and equal opportunities, and on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in particular.

The NAWR has co-operated with the National Association for Women's Suffrage (Norwegian: Landskvinnestemmerettsforeningen) and later with the Norwegian National Women's Council. Some of the prominent post-war leaders were Eva Kolstad, who later became a cabinet minister, leader of the Liberal Party and the world's first Gender Equality Ombud, Karin M. Bruzelius, who became a supreme court justice, and former UNICEF Chairman Torild Skard.

The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights has been affiliated with the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1904 and is a member of FOKUS, the Norwegian national committee for UN Women. It addresses the United Nations Economic and Social Council through its IAW membership.

The organisation had its offices in Sehesteds gate 1 in Oslo for many years, and now has its offices in Majorstuveien 39 in Majorstuen in central Oslo.