Aasa Helgesen

Aasa Helgesen born Aasa Røinesdal (11 February 1877 – 29 April 1968) was a Norwegian midwife and politician. She served as mayor of Utsira Municipality from 1926 to 1928, and was the first female mayor in Norway. She worked as a midwife in Utsira from 1903 to 1942.

Early years, family and midwife career Born at a small croft Røinesdal in Bjelland Municipality in Southern Norway, she started working as a servant girl after finishing primary school. Wanting further education, she obtained a loan from a farmer she worked for and the local lensmann in order to go to Kristiania to become a midwife. Having finished the education in 1902, she got a position as midwife a year later at the small fishing island of Utsira in Western Norway. In 1907, she married local fisherman Sivert Helgesen.

Mayoralty

Utsira became a municipality when it was separated from Torvastad Municipality in 1925. An interim municipal council was elected and Aasa's husband Sivert Helgesen was elected interim mayor of the new municipality. The first municipal election for Utsira was held on 29 October 1925. The members of the interim council expected to be elected without having their names on a list. Radio assistant Reidar Nordås did however put up a list of eleven unsuspecting women plus one man. Aasa Helgesen was one of the names on the list. Most

The only man who had been elected to the council declined to become mayor and Aasa Helgesen was chosen to become the first regular mayor of Utsira in 1926,

A bust of Aasa Helgesen was placed outside Utsira municipality hall in 1994.

In 2013, which marked the 100th anniversary for female voting rights in Norway, Haugesund Theatre in cooperation with Utsira municipality and Den kulturelle skolesekken (culture project for schoolchildren) performed a newly written play formed like a monologue called "The female coup on Utsira" about the event. The play was first performed on Utsira and later other places in Rogaland. A great-granddaughter of Aasa Helgesen played the role of Helgesen.