Jenova Martin

Jenova Martin (1866 – March 5, 1937) was a Norwegian-born American suffragist and writer. She was one of the founders of the Scandinavian Voting Association and from 1907 to 1913, she was the first president of the Scandinavian Woman Suffrage Association (SWSA), which fought for universal suffrage in Minnesota and the United States.

Early and personal life Not much is known about Jenova Martin's early life. It is known that she was born in Norway and emigrated from Oslo to the United States in 1882. She is said to have been married, however her husband's name is unknown. She had a daughter.

Campaigning for women's suffrage Martin was one of the founders of the Scandinavian Voting Association. From 1907 to 1914, Martin took an active part in the campaign for American women's suffrage. When the Scandinavian Woman Suffrage Association was founded in 1907 by Ethel Edgerton Hurd, Martin became its first president, a role she held from 1907 to 1913. After her retirement, she was succeeded by suffragette Nanna Mattson Jaeger.

While she was president of the SWSA, Martin placed a large focus on the association's ethnicity. By looking at all the Scandinavian immigrant group (Norwegian, Swedish and Danish) as a whole, the membership would surpass all Scandinavian individual groups. As a Norwegian, Martin recruited many other Norwegians through various Norwegian cultural events, such as plays, speeches and lobbying campaigns. She was concerned with preserving the Scandinavian cultural heritage, in contrast with her successor Jaeger who championed the assimilation into American populace. In 1913, Martin told the Minneapolis Tribune that Scandinavian women in Minneapolis "had no interest in woman suffrage" as Scandinavians in this country have been so busy making money that they are 50 years behind the times", a statement she retracted two days later with an explanation.

Martin died on March 5, 1937, in Hennepin County, Minnesota, at the age of 71.