Eline Hansen

Eline Johanne Frederikke Hansen (22 October 1859 – 6 January 1919), was a Danish feminist and peace leader.

Biography Hansen was born 22 October 1859 in Assens, the daughter of Christian Jacob Hansen (1832–1880) and Johanne Margrethe Rasmussen (1822–1891). From 1876 to 1877 she was a student at N. Zahles privatlærerindekursus for governesses in Copenhagen; she graduated as a teacher in 1883 and worked as one at Aarhus højere Pigeskole from 1884 to 1889, and at the public schools in Copenhagen from 1889 to 1910.

Hansen became interested in gender equality as a student, and during her career as a teacher she worked for equality between male and female students and teachers. Hansen became a pioneer in Denmark as a school kitchen inspector, when she was educated in this profession in Norway at the expense of the Danish government and employed as such in Copenhagen in 1897. In 1898, she petitioned the government with a demand to start professional university courses for cooks at school kitchens, which was granted and enacted in 1899. She herself became a teacher at this course. Upon her return, she co-founded the peace movement Danske Kvinders Fredskæde, later , with Thora Daugaard, Clara Tybjerg, Louise Wright and Eva Moltesen. She was also active in the struggle for women's suffrage, and chairperson of one of the Danish suffrage movements. In 1918, the first election after women's suffrage, she was nominated for parliament, but was not elected.

Hansen died on 6 January 1919 in Copenhagen.