Exploring the Scandinavian Woman with Ida and Mina
Nancy L. Coleman, Eva-Marie Syversen, Anne Kari Vasaasen
This is the remarkable story of two sisters who immigrated to the United States from Norway and became pioneers in the field of journalism.
The Jensen Girls from Ringsaker
Ida Hermanna Jensen was born August 13, 1853, and her sister Mina (Wilhelmina Amalia) Jensen on October 2, 1857, daughters of Anne Pedersdatter Kjos (1824-1908) and Vern Jensen Tande (1819-1882). They were born at Vesle Ringsaker farm near Ringsaker Church in Hedmark, where they lived until 1863, when the family moved to Kommerstad farm in Veldre parish. In May 1870, Anne, Vern, and their four youngest children immigrated to America, sailing on bark Nordlyset with about 215 passengers. The journey was arduous. The trip took three months, they sailed into a terrible storm, eight children died on the crossing, and passengers ran out of food and water. Anne Kjos was a generous woman. She had given much of their food to poorer passengers and had given away the remainder the morning the ship sailed by Newfoundland. People on the shore threw bags of food to the ship. Anne Kjos said that food had never tasted better!
The three eldest sons had emigrated a few years before and were working in Minooka, Illinois. The Jensens settled in Chicago, but in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire broke out, and the Jensens lost all their belongings.
On January 8, 1875, Ida married Niels Frederick Hansen (1854-1935), a Dane from Flensburg, and settled in Chicago. The couple had seven children, and in 1882, they moved to Davenport, Iowa, then to Kendall Park outside Cedar Rapids in 1884. Here they started a publishing business, and Mina joined them in the work.
In 1904, Ida and Niels moved to California, where they lived the rest of their lives. Ida died in 1938. Mina eventually left the publishing business, serving as postmistress, then running a grocery store in Texas. She spent her last years with her nephew Nelson in Nebraska, and died there in 1941.
The Monthly Magazine Kvinden og Hjemmet
In Kendall Park, Niels Hansen founded a magazine called Fra alle Lande (From all Countries), and Ida wrote the column, “For Husmoderen” (For the Housewife). That magazine folded in 1888. Ida had seen that women appreciated her column, and it did not take long before she and Mina decided to start a magazine for women. They named it Kvinden og Hjemmet, and published the first issue in May 1888, with Ida as editor and Mina as typesetter.
Both in American and Norwegian journalism history, Kvinden og Hjemmet was a pioneering venture, a rare example of an enterprise created and run by women, for women. The largest women´s magazine in the United States, Ladies’ Home Journal, was founded 1883 by Louise Knapp. Similar to Kvinden og Hjemmet, it was developed from a column, “Women and Home” in the weekly newspaper Tribune and Farmer, originally written by Louisa´s husband Cyrus Curtis. Louisa took over that column and soon developed it into a supplement and then a magazine. She served as editor only until 1889, when Edward Bok succeeded her. Except for a husband-and-wife team 1935-1962, the editors were men until 1973. By contrast, Ida Hansen served as editor of Kvinden og Hjemmet for 50 of its 60 years, and subsequent editors were all women.
Two magazines in Norway are akin to Kvinden og Hjemmet – Nylænde, founded in 1887 by the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights (Norsk kvinnesaksforening) with Gina Krog as editor, and Urd, founded in 1897 by journalist sisters Anna and Cecilie Bøe. Nylænde focused on women’s organizations and followed the American movement closely. Like Kvinden og Hjemmet, Urd supported progressive policies and public education to liberate women. Translated articles from Ladies’ Home Journal, Nylænde, and Urd appeared in Kvinden og Hjemmet. In 1902, the magazine founded its own women’s organization, Freja, with Ida Hansen as president. Its objective was to empower women. Goals,
however, were more concerned with bettering the welfare of orphans, the elderly, and poor than with women’s rights.
Kvinden og Hjemmet was notable in circulation and lifespan compared with the over 800 Norwegian-American publications. The average lifespan was only 10 years, and circulation numbers were usually modest. At the start, 1000 copies of Kvinden og Hjemmet were printed and transported to the post office by wheelbarrow. Circulation increased rapidly: 15,000 in 1894, 70,000 in 1901, peaking in 1907 with 83,000. The largest Norwegian-American newspaper, Skandinaven, had 54,000 subscribers in 1912, and DecorahPosten peaked at 40,000. By 1903, Kvinden og Hjemmet had its own printing press, and each issue filled eight wagon loads weighing 16,000 pounds. By 1903, the business employed 40 people, many of them family members.
The first issues were eight pages, with no illustrations or advertisements. By 1901, the magazine was an illustrated journal of 40 pages with many advertisements, and in 1912, it had 54 pages, including two supplements.
The Contents of Kvinden og Hjemmet
In the first issue, Ida introduced her vision for the magazine. From her own experience, she had seen that Scandinavian women needed help in adjusting to their new homeland, and since very few were competent in English, they needed information in their native language. The magazine could help them develop their knowledge, talents, and skills with the goal of becoming contributing citizens in their adopted country. She wrote:
I have come to believe that among the Scandinavians over here there is a real need for a journal dedicated to women, their interests, and daily chores. And there is no doubt in my mind that such a magazine as it gains wind in its sails will win the support of intelligent women and men who want to promote our goals, and it will potentially have great influence on women’s life philosophy and level of knowledge. (K&H, May 1888)
The magazine was written in Dano-Norwegian, the main written form of Norwegian at the time and almost identical to Danish. Many Norwegian Americans settled on the prairie, separated from mainstream (Yankee) American society. Isolation especially impacted women, who did not learn English. If they were to become good American citizens, they needed to be informed and educated in their native tongue.
The contents of the magazine were planned to be original articles and translated ones. Ida’s vision emphasized three objectives. First, the magazine would provide information and educational articles of value to Scandinavian women in America. Second, the magazine would create a meeting place, a forum, where everyone could exchange “thoughts and opinions as well as experiences in doing practical chores.” (K&H, May 1888)
The third objective underlay the first two – private life should be connected to public life. Women were encouraged to share insights with a larger community. Ida’s ideal was women who participated actively in the public conversation.
An important goal for the magazine was to develop the readers’ intellect. This type of public educational project is called danning or dannelse in Norwegian, and it aims to shape personality, behavior, and morals. An article, “Kvindens Aandsdannelse” (“Forming Women’s Intellect”), in the September 1902 issue discussed the topic. Ida explained that she wanted the magazine to achieve the spiritual emancipation of women through teaching them to live a robust, rich inner life.
What kind of cultural ballast did Ida Hansen bring with her from Ringsaker in Norway that formed the basis for a magazine project based on this ideal?
The Enlightenment
During the years before 1800, a comprehensive change in mentality took place in the Western world, known as the Enlightenment. Instead of looking to the past to address contemporary challenges, people asked what the future could bring. The dean at Hamar Teachers’ College, Jørgen Jørgensen (1841-1922), explained the new direction or movement thus:
…everywhere the movement is characterized by comprehensive reform efforts; transforming society in all directions is the ultimate goal, involving greater freedom for independent thinking and beliefs without feeling compelled by either religion or traditional culture and their inhibiting demands for uniformity and submission to the authority of the Church or State. (Jørgensen, 1)
Enlightenment philosophy was given various expressions, developing in a political-revolutionary direction and bringing new concepts in science, teaching, and public education. State officials started producing treatises on botanical, zoological, anthropological, marine, geological, and meteorological subjects. These topographical writings formed the intellectual portfolio when the first university was founded in Norway in 1811.
Innovative thinking was particularly noticeable among the clergy. A typical example was Reverend Hieronymus Heyerdahl (1773-1847), who received prizes for his treatises on mineralogy and botany and experimented with new cultivation methods. For Heyerdahl, educating the public was the linchpin of Enlightenment reform work. If people from all walks of life could learn to use this knowledge, they could improve their lives and “lessen the economic pressure and they could in general live a happier and fuller life.” (Jørgensen, 3)
With this in mind, Heyerdahl founded a three-year teacher training program at his parsonage in Toten, across Lake Mjøsa from Ringsaker. One of his students was Lars Jensen (1784-1852), grandfather of Ida and Mina.
Education
Lars Jensen was a tenant farmer’s son without means. His transformation began with his education at Heyerdahl’s teachers’ school and its innovative curriculum. Lars completed the three-year course in 1807 with top grades. He tutored at various local farms for a few years before he bought the farm Vesle Ringsaker in 1835. In addition to running the farm, he served as a member of the Norwegian parliament Stortinget and ran a school and a teacher training course. By 1850, almost all teachers in Ringsaker had attended Lars Jensen’s teachers’ college.
Lars Jensen’s school proved influential far beyond Ringsaker. A man who attended Jensen’s school, the journalist and editor Sylvester Sivertson (1809-1847) from Skjåk in Gudbrandsdal, wrote about educational advances in the weekly Folkebladet (People’s Magazine) in 1832. He points to Hieronymus Heyerdahl’s school in Toten and Lars Jensen’s school in Ringsaker as prime examples.
Lars Jensen died one year before his granddaughter Ida was born. But the teachers’ course at Vesle Ringsaker continued. Ida grew up at the teachers’ school until the
family moved to Kommerstad farm. She probably attended school from 1860 to 1867, and her teachers had certainly been educated by her grandfather, Lars Jensen. In any case, Ida was well educated for her time. Family members say that she was the only girl who went to a secondary school seven miles from her home, and that she knew eleven languages.
The Press
In addition to schools, the press was the formative institution most influential for public education and efforts to better living conditions for common people. It did not take long before representatives of ordinary people set the tone within both institutions. Similar to the way Lars Jensen became a leading figure in the development of schools, his student Sylvester Sivertson became a pioneer in developing the press. Sivertson’s journalistic career began at Folkebladet, where he wrote about education.
Sivertson is considered Norway’s first professional journalist and editor, a pioneer in the local press and founder of journalism as a study. In an editorial in the newspaper Nordlyset (Northern Lights) in Trondheim, he wrote in 1843 that “the wisdom of the learned should as much as possible be the wisdom of the general public.” To achieve this, “nothing has had a more powerful effect than journalism.” The reason he gave is that the language of the journalist “approaches oral discussion.” (Storsveen, 232) No doubt the family at Vesle Ringsaker subscribed to several publications that Sivertson contributed to or edited, such as Folkebladet, Morgenbladet, Lillehammer Tilskuer, Statsborgeren, and Stortingets Efterretninger.
Even though women made up half the population, their role in the press was long limited to subscribers and readers. After 1900, women were employed by newspapers that provided them with a living wage. But as early as the 1830s, many newspapers and periodicals established socalled “basements” – articles separated from news and politics by a black line. Articles in the “basement” were often called “women’s concerns.” Readers could find literary and art criticism, biographies, travel, short stories, poetry, and articles about houses, homemaking, children, food, clothing, and health, written by women. This material proved very popular, and it became an important part of newspaper product development. Eventually, newspapers engaged women as editors of the “basement.” (Nøding)
Ida Hansen’s journalistic career is in many ways parallel to this development. Her “basement” was her column “For the Housewife” in her husband’s magazine, Fra alle Lande. But Ida’s product development took a radical turn when she founded her own magazine dedicated to “female enlightenment.” In contrast to most publishing companies up until our own time, Ida’s business from the start in 1888 employed mostly women. Articles that were once called “women’s concerns” or “housewife matters” have become conventional news.
Feminisms in Kvinden og Hjemmet
Women’s rights advocates at this time distinguished between two kinds of feminism, termed “equality feminism” and “difference feminism.” Around 1900, these were seen as diametrically opposed to each other. The typical equality feminist backed equality between the sexes and often spoke
derogatorily of difference feminists as anti-feminists. Equality feminism focuses on basic similarities between women and men and advocated for equal opportunities in education, vocational choice, and voting rights.
Difference feminists were not opposed to these goals, but emphasized the biological differences between women and men. They claimed that typical female attributes like motherhood, compassion, and caring should be emphasized. These would stimulate humanity to improve society. Critics, however, argued that this view would not promote equality between the sexes.
Arguably, these terms do not represent two opposing views, but two aspects of the same. Equality was crucial for both views. Difference feminists wanted society to change –future society should build on so-called feminine values. The goal was to raise women’s consciousness and strengthen these values.
Around 1900, Hulda Garborg (1862-1934) was a leading difference feminist in Norway. She was born in Stange and grew up in Hamar, not far from where Ida and Mina grew up. Hulda Garborg was extremely active and a pioneer in several fields, among them folk dancing, theatre, cookbooks, and national costumes (bunads). As an author, she published plays, novels, and poetry. Much of the culture she promoted was mirrored in Kvinden og Hjemmet.
In an article, “Woman and Society” (“Kvinderne og Samfundet”), Hulda Garborg wrote: “Women should not be liberated from themselves and become men but be given help to become whole women, stronger and womanlier than they are now.” This statement may be a typical expression of difference feminism, but it does not claim that women and men should not be equal.
Homemaking as a Science
In Norway during the 1890s, housewives were skeptical toward the women’s movement, because it focused on economic independence and equality in the workplace and politics, and they felt that homemaking was not valued in the same way. They saw homemaking as a profession and wanted girls to be educated for the job most of them eventually would have. Homemaking was a science, and girls should have the advantage of studying it and learning scientific methods. Nutrition, hygiene, and childcare should be school subjects. The first school for homemakers in Europe was established in Norway by Minna Wetlesen (1821-1891) in 1865. In Kvinden og Hjemmet’s homemaking articles, we glimpse a similar philosophy: Educating women is empowering and improving the conditions in the home is a way to improve society.
Both Norway and the United States were pioneers in developing domestic science as a college and public-school subject. In 1809, Norway started a program to educate farm women in animal care and hygiene in the production of dairy products. In the 1850s, Norwegian sociologist Eilert Sundt (1817-1875) studied conditions on the farms, living with families on tenant farms to see how they ran their households. He quickly discovered that women were the key to family welfare. Most wives had worked as maids in wealthier households, and many had learned about hygiene from their mistress or the wife of the pastor. The 1840s saw the first textbooks in domestic science, when Catherine Beecher (1800-1878) in the United States published Treatise on Domestic Economy and Hanna Winsnes wrote Lærebog i de forskjellige Grene af Huusholdningen (Textbook on Homemaking) in Norway. In the United States, Land Grant
Above: Advertisements in the publication let women know of all the new products available. Kvinden og Hjemmet, October 1906.
Colleges offered domestic science in 1871. Iowa State University at Ames was the first college to put the subject on the curriculum. By the 1900s, home economics was a subject in public schools.
Women’s Rights
Kvinden og Hjemmet was a feminist project in both the sense of equality feminism and difference feminism. There were articles on vegetable gardens and house plants, sewing and repairing clothing, child rearing and motherhood, and recipes, as well as a wealth of articles about women’s rights. Woman suffrage was promoted from the first issue, and progress toward women’s liberation closely followed, including the first women medical doctors, lawyers, farmers, businesswomen, and government employees. Milestones in woman suffrage were monitored. There were feature articles on activists, letters to the editor that expressed support for woman suffrage, and in the 1890s, Ida added a column called “On Woman Suffrage” (“Om Stemmeret for Kvinder”).
Norway was the first independent country to grant women suffrage, in 1913, following the British colony New
Kvinden og Hjemmet shared patterns for handwork like in this October 1906 issue.
Zealand in 1893 and the Russian Grand Duchy Finland in 1906. In Norway the process began in 1901, when women who paid taxes or had money could vote in local elections. In 1907, these women could vote in national elections. In 1910, universal suffrage was granted in local elections, then national elections in 1913. Kvinden og Hjemmet’s contributor Helga Tokstad Blystad (1873-1968) from Ringsaker saw 1907 as a major milestone. About 300,000 of the 550,000 voting age women in Norway could vote, and she was sure that universal suffrage would soon be granted. (K&H, Aug. 1907)
Another issue was equal pay for equal work. An article in February 1894 pointed out that women were being employed in many capacities, and their work was often excellent. Employers praised them for their stamina and sense of duty. Why then, were they paid less for their work than men, even though they did the same job and often outperformed them? One reason was that employers often preferred hiring women so they could keep more of the earnings for themselves. Many thought working women went against the world order and did not need money. But many women had children to support and often needed money more than men, who in many cases refused to support their children. Wages were a necessity, the article argued, and society needed to recognize this by paying equal wages to women and men.
The final issue in August 1947 had several articles on global progress in women’s rights and opportunities, for example, Leonie Mitchell’s work at the United Nations to track women’s status in the 55 member nations, as well as Dorothy Kenyon’s (1888-1972) for the earlier organization, League of Nations. Others tell about a Japanese program to recruit
women farmers to the frontier in Manchuria and Hokkaido, the accomplished female operator of Pennsylvania Railroad’s signal and track system, and the first woman to be sent to the United States to study extension service methods.
Children’s Rights
Kvinden og Hjemmet was also concerned with children’s upbringing and rights. The first issue included an article about how to bring up independent-minded children, certainly an early example of progressive child-rearing. In the September 1904 issue, Helga T. Blystad wrote about the right of illegitimate children to inherit from their fathers. During the early 1900s, this topic was debated by the Norwegian government, city councils, and women’s organizations. Katti Anker Møller (1868-1945) from Hamar worked tirelessly for this cause, collaborating with her brother-in-law Johan Castberg (1862-1926), a member of Stortinget, to better the prospects of unwed mothers and their children. Castberg proposed laws several times, but not until he became Minister of Social Welfare, was he able to get six laws through Stortinget that ensured better economic and legal rights for mothers and children. Norway was a pioneer in legislating children’s rights, and the laws are now included in UNESCOs World Heritage Centre documents.
In her article, Helga T. Blystad wrote that she did not want to convince anyone to be for or against inheritance rights for illegitimate children, she only wanted to inform. She pointed out that there were 200,000 illegitimate children in Norway (population in 1904 ca. 2,300,000), and only Austria-Hungary had a larger percentage.
Fashion and Politics
Fashion articles and sewing patterns could also serve a political purpose. In the early years, these articles were a factor in helping women adapt to American culture. Following fashion helped them look and act American and could also show the folks back home that they were prospering in the New World. After settling in America, it was common to send photos back to Norway, and in these we can see how fashionable clothes transformed the wearer. Later issues of Kvinden og Hjemmet, however, reveal that fashion could serve other purposes.
Articles about corsets in 1902 are good examples and discussed how devastating to a women’s health wearing a corset could be. Gall stones, for example, were much more prevalent among women than men. The corset pressed on the stomach and other organs and squeezed them together. A corset also made a woman more susceptible to tuberculosis because she could not take an hour’s walk in the forest without being exhausted – though she could amuse herself for a long, heavenly evening in a dusty ballroom. (K&H, Jan. and Mar. 1902)
The corset was a straitjacket that kept women in their place, a symbol of what kept them from freely using their bodies and minds. Even though it was hidden from view, women nevertheless constantly felt its limitations. Around the turn of the century, women activists in the suffrage, anti-slavery, and temperance movements refused to wear it. Emancipation undergarments replaced it, and the so-called reform dress was introduced – a loose garment that did not inhibit movement. The dress received wide support from women active in politics and sports, and doctors promoted it as way to improve women’s health.
From the 1850s, women activists wore trousers gathered at the ankles with a short dress over them. Editor and women’s rights advocate Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894) was the most well-known exponent of the fashion, and the pants were soon dubbed “bloomers.”
In 1908, Kvinden og Hjemmet wrote that “the fragile girl, forced into shape by her corset, is now as if blown away, and robust young maidens with roses on their cheeks are now a common sight, and a most pleasing one.”
An article in the sewing supplement to the October 1919 issue promoted practical clothing for active women.
Woman of our time! Yes, that means most of us, unless they have fallen asleep or been dreaming during the struggles of the past few years [World War I]. And it looks like a lot more ‘common sense’ is required of us than women have shown to get over the storm and restlessness that the ‘Great War’ brought with it. That we women are now expected to do our part in all areas is evident, not least in the way we dress ourselves for the work ahead. (K&H, Oct. 1919, 1)
The pattern presents a practical outfit consisting of blouse and bloomers and a long overdress. The war brought cloth shortages, and straight skirts were used to save cloth.
Top right: Pattern for a reform dress, consisting of blouse, bloomers, and overdress. Kvinden og Hjemmet, October 1919.
Bottom right: American through clothing. Fashionable dresses in 1906. Kvinden og Hjemmet, October 1906.
It was not easy to move in them. Bloomers provided freedom for a range of activities, like climbing ladders to clean the house or doing sports. Bloomers, however, could raise eyebrows and bring on disapproving glances on the street. The overdress could quickly conceal bloomers and transform the wearer into a well-dressed paragon of femininity.
Scandinavian Women Show the Way
The period during which Kvinden og Hjemmet came out was a seminal time for women, for their education, opportunities, and participation in society. The magazine shows that Ida Jensen Hansen stood squarely in this context and wanted to do her part to create a new type of woman, a woman who developed her talents and skills and used them to build American society. In both the cultural and practical articles, there is an underlying message – often a bit smug – that Scandinavian women have a culture suited to forming the “New American Woman” and can lead the way. In 1909, Ida wrote: “Nordic countries stand first, as everyone knows, since they have granted women rights that many larger countries cannot even dream of granting yet.” (K&H Aug. 1909, 1)
Norwegian women were a good example. Most of them worked on farms side by side with men. They even ran the farm while the men were working at fishing and road and railway construction. Though largely invisible in the public sphere, Norwegian women were indispensable and could wield authority. Far from being poor, helpless immigrants, Scandinavian women had the ballast to build and improve American society. They could be a model and inspire their Yankee sisters.
Kvinden og Hjemmet’s Legacy
With the August 1947 issue, publication of Kvinden og Hjemmet suddenly ceased. There was no indication that the end had come. Subscribers were asked to renew, a coupon offered two free months to new subscribers, and readers were encouraged to gift the magazine to relatives and friends in Norway and Denmark. Some mystery shrouds the reasons for the demise. In any case, Kvinden og Hjemmet had fallen on hard times. World War II made publication and distribution difficult. Paper was scarce, advertisers dwindled, and the Postal Service had problems with transport and delivery. There were few new emigrants from Scandinavia. Most Scandinavian-American families were at least in their third generation, and descendants struggled to read the gothic script and Norwegian that were common for earlier immigrants. Even the editor, Ida Wilhelmina Manville (daughter of Ida Hansen’s sister Anne) could not write Norwegian. She is said to have written her articles in English and had them translated. The core readership was now aged, many had died, and subscriptions had fallen.
In the decades since 1947, the legacy of Kvinden og Hjemmet has been obscured. As part of the immigrant press, written in Dano-Norwegian and Swedish, the magazine has fallen into oblivion. It deserves to be known. Kvinden og Hjemmet filled an important role in Scandinavian-American culture, and it formed readers whose views inspired mainstream America. Kvinden og Hjemmet influenced the mindset of Scandinavian Americans on the prairie and in the urban setting, emphasizing opportunities in America and raising their consciousness regarding the culture they had brought with them. The magazine empowered women to realize themselves and create homes where children were
taught to take advantage of opportunities in America. And it strengthened progressive culture in the ScandinavianAmerican community.
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About the Authors
Nancy Louise Coleman was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. She settled in Norway 1970 and holds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian literature. She is a retired teacher at Hamar Cathedral School and the author of works on Norwegian literature, onomastics, women in the Viking Age, Norwegian immigration to America; a textbook; and an English-Norwegian dictionary.
Eva Marie Syversen was born in Bodø, Norway and grew up in Rosendal, Hokksund, and Hamar, Norway. She has a Ph.D. in Scandinavian literature and is Associate Professor Emerita at The Inland University of Applied Sciences. She has edited and written several books and articles on 20th century Scandinavian literature and was a visiting lecturer at Concordia College, Morehead, Minnesota.
Anne Kari Vasaasen was born in Stange, Norway. She holds a Cand. Philol. Degree (a Norwegian degree between M.A. and Ph.D.) in Scandinavian literature and history and is a retired teacher at Stange High School. She has researched women’s history and literature, particularly the Norwegian author Hulda Garborg (1862-1934) and different types of feminism. References
July 30 postcard sent to Elise’s niece Esther with the message, “We are in Norway now where BesteMor came from [meaning Ragnhild, Esther’s grandmother]. We will go into the mountains to Valders Friday then come here again for 3 days or so again. Love from us, Elise.”
