Alexandra Gripenberg

Alexandra Gripenberg (30 August 1857 in Kurkijoki, Viipuri Province – 24 December 1913 in Helsinki) was a Finnish social activist, author, editor, newspaper publisher, and elected politician, and was a leading voice within the movement for women's rights in Finland at the turn of the 20th century. She served as president of the Suomen Naisyhdistys (Finnish Women's Association) and was one of the nineteen women elected to the Parliament of Finland in 1907, among the first women ever to serve in a national parliament in Europe. She was also known as a Fennoman.

Biography Gripenberg was born in 1857 into a Finland-Swedish noble family, the second youngest of twelve siblings. Her father, Johan Ulrik Sebastian Gripenberg, died when she was twelve years old; the family had by then been living for several years at the Majby estate in Kirkkonummi. She was educated at home by her older sisters, and throughout her life she regretted having had no access to formal schooling, which later drove a sustained interest in educational questions and self-directed study.

As a young woman she worked for several years as a copyist in the household of the celebrated author Zacharias Topelius, at his home at Björkudden in Östersundom. The experience brought her into contact with his daughter Toini Topelius, with whom she struck up a lasting friendship; the two later co-edited the children's magazine Nya Trollsländan together for a number of years.

In 1887 she travelled to England, intending to study English literature, but found herself drawn into women's rights circles there instead. Gripenberg was also the editor-in-chief of the magazine which acted as the organ of the Suomen Naisyhdistys.

Politics Finland granted women's suffrage in 1906. Gripenberg responded to the news with a degree of surprise and scepticism. In her view, the Finnish people were not yet ready for universal suffrage, and the outcome reflected the broader political circumstances in Finland more than it represented a victory for the women's movement. Blind (1884) Strån (1884) Åtta timmars erfarenhet (1884) I tätnande led (1886) Tili Aavasaksa.(1886) Från läktaren (1887) Ett halfår i Nya verlden (1889) Qvinnofrågan (1890) Naiskysymyksessä (1890) Orjien vapauttaminen Pohjois-Amerikassa (1892) Reformarbetet till förbättrande af kvinnans ställning (1893-1903) Det röda folket (1894) Elizabeth Cady Stanton och kvinnosaksarbetet (1896) Zacharias Topelius (1899) England (1900) Skottland (1902) Irland (1903) Fredrika Runeberg (1904) Vaaliaikana (1906) Slöjdförhållanden i utlandet (1908) Makars äganderättsliga förhållanden i olika länder (1909)