Alexandra Gripenberg

Who was Alexandra Gripenberg?

Alexandra Gripenberg, also known as Alexandra van Grippenberg, 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 was also known as a Fennoman.

She founded the first official women's rights organization in Finland, the Suomen Naisyhdistys, in Helsinki in 1884. Between 1887– 1888, she traveled in England and the United States, to study lessons from the women's movements of those countries. The tour inspired her book A Half Year in the New World. She served as the treasurer of the International Council of Women from 1893–1899.

When Finland granted women's suffrage in 1906 Gripenberg was one of the ten female conservatives elected, along with nine other women belonging to the Social Democratic Party, making her one of the first women to get elected into the Parliament of Finland. She was elected through the conservative Finnish Party, which proved somewhat difficult for her at times as she was Swedish-speaking and the party was Finnish-speaking with strong grass roots support in the Finnish countryside.