Writing about the World -Danish ’ International Engagement as framed in Periodicals

Christina Fiig

Draft for citation by author permission only

Paper for the 5th European Conference on Politics and Gender (EGPC), University of

Lausanne, Switzerland, June 8th -10th 2017

Panel 001: 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage: Implications for Women’s Political

Representation Today?

*

Author details:

Christina Fiig

Associate Professor, Ph.D.

Aarhus University

School of Culture and Society

Department of Global Studies (European

Studies)

Jens Chr. Skous vej 5, 1463/628

8000 Aarhus C/

Mail: [email protected]

Phone +45 8715 0000 / direct +45 8716 2219

Twitter: @cfiig8200

1 Writing about the World

-Danish Suffragettes’ International Engagement as framed in Suffragette

Periodicals

The context for the Danish struggle for women and men’s enfranchisement was primarily local and national. However, international research has emphasized that there are reasons to move beyond the “national container” and to analyze the activities with a focus on the international women’s movements and international engagement (Hannam 2005; Nørregaard

Hansen 1992; Rupp 1997;Rupp & Taylor 1999; Vellacott 1987; 2001). This takes a Danish perspective investigating suffragettes’ and feminists’ international engagement as it was presented and framed in periodicals of the most influential Danish women’s organizations and suffragette organizations in the period of 1900-1915 leading up to the universal enfranchisement. As these Danish periodicals have not previously been subject to much research, the analysis draws on research based on British and American suffragette periodicals and feminist print media (DiCenzo, Delap & Ryan 2011).The analysis documents that the periodicals offer a window for understanding the suffragettes’ political engagement with and reflections on the “internationalization of ”.

Keywords: Enfranchisement, feminism, internationalization, periodical studies, politics, suffragette organizations, women

The decade of the 2010s has been characterized as a ‘suffragette moment’ in terms of celebrations of centenaries of women’s enfranchisement. This celebration took place in

Norway in 2013, in Denmark in 2015 and will take place in Austria and Germany in 2018, in the Netherlands in 2019 and in Sweden in 2021. There are reasons to reflect upon these events as national milestones (Rodríguez-Ruiz & Rubio-Marin eds. 2008) and equally to

2 analyze their international and transnational inspiration and significance. In many respects, women’s suffrage presents a paradox. As a demand it has usually been formulated within a national context and campaigns have been directed at particular governments. The aims, methods and nature of the suffrage movement have, therefore, been inextricably linked with the specific political context of individual countries. On the other hand, the movement for women’s suffrage has also been an international one (Grimshaw 2009; Hannam 2005:550).

Danish research has focused on the national particularities of the struggle for universal enfranchisement with an emphasis on a historical- political context of political participation, representation and justice (Koefoed 2015:61) and democratization (Borchorst & Dahlerup,

Dahlerup 1977; eds. 2015; Fiig & Siim 2012; Larsen 2010). The approach, in what follows, is different, focusing on Danish suffragettes’ international engagement. I understand

‘international engagement’ in terms of writings by and about Danish suffragettes’ participation in international meetings/congresses and as reporting on other countries’

(struggle for) enfranchisement.

My empirical data is the writings on and framings of the international engagement by the

Danish women’s and suffrage organizations with a particular focus on participation in the international meetings and congresses. The scarcity of sources has turned my attention to periodicals of the time period leading up to the universal enfranchisement of the Danish suffragettes.

Bearing the above in mind, I ask the following research questions: what did the Danish women’s and suffragette organizations write about in terms of their international engagement and reflections in the time period of 1900-1915? How did they represent their international engagement? When we set out to study the international engagement of the Danish

3 suffragettes, it becomes evident that there are very few systematic examinations of their international engagement before 1920. This is due to the fact that the Danish suffragettes did not hold many official posts before the 1920s and therefore have left few sources about this engagement. Little attention has been paid to researching the Danish women movements’ international engagement (an exception is Nørregaard Hansen 1992) making the analysis of this field a key purpose of this article. Besides, a study of the Danish case extends the discussion of international engagement “beyond the more familiar histories of the dominant international women’s networks” (Sinha, Guy & Woollacott 1998:349). It is well-known that the aims, methods and nature of the suffrage movement worldwide have been overshadowed by the experience of the British and American struggles for the vote (Hannam

2005:543).

Framing the Analysis

If we turn to existing research on international dimensions of women’s suffrage, on feminist print media and suffragette periodicals, three conclusions stand out. One is that the international engagement and inspiration, which the suffragettes brought back home to their organizations is central for our understanding of the struggle for enfranchisement and pacifism in the time period (Miller 1998:570). Rupp (1997) argues that there was a sense of benefitting from the very process of belonging and contributing for the involved women as well as concrete outcomes of politics. Another conclusion is related to feminist print media or suffragette periodicals. The latter are considered vehicles for the organization and mobilization of women for particular campaigns, not only to provide a forum for debate about women’s roles in politics and society, but also to influence public opinion at a time when print media were the most effective means of circulating ideas (DiCenzo, Delap &

Ryan 2011:2). It is argued in the literature that periodicals speak to various interests – and 4 interest groups- at once, often juxtaposing editorial commentary, news reporting, literary material, visual material, advertising, cultural analysis in the form of book reviews, theater reviews, and more (Green 2011). A similar description covers the Danish periodicals in the decades around 1900.

A third conclusion is related to the significance of the international engagement both in terms of the empirical and political events of the time period and in terms of ‘international’ as an analytical perspective (see next section). We know that early activists for women’s rights were aware of transnational dimensions of women’s experience, and of the comparability of cross-national gender discrimination (Rupp 1997; Tyrrell 2001: 355). We also know that women’s suffrage was a critical motive for international networking from the middle decades of the nineteenth century onwards (Sinha, Guy & Woollacott 1998:348). My argument is formulated along the lines of Dicenzo, Delap & Ryan’s approach: that while it is difficult to measure or make claims about what these (suffragette/CF) papers actually achieved, it is possible to examine how they framed their goals (Dicenzo, Delap & Ryan 2011:73).

Approaches and Methodological Considerations

Selecting an analytical lens through which one studies the writings of international engagement raises some questions in terms of approaches and methodology. Before proceeding, I will raise four points for clarification concerning the concept of politics,

‘international’ as an analytical perspective, the empirical sources and the methodology.

5 Blom argues that the concept of politics in historical research needs a broader definition than the one related to party politics and the parliamentary arena in order to make visible women’s political engagement. Blom exemplifies this point by asking whether politics also include the efforts of the voluntary organizations (2004:22)? The concept of politics, which Blom points at, focuses broadly on women’s access to politics as more than a question of a top-down- process around the Parliament. A Parliamentary approach fails to reflect the importance of women’s suffrage movement constituting an organized international protest mobilizing women around the world (Blom 2004:17). The movements, their actions and writings prove the importance of approaching politics in broad terms, i.e. redefining what politics is outside the Parliamentary sphere. Blom mirrors a distinction between politics as a level for institutionalized power and administration of political decision and the political as a level for decentralized conflicts, politization and non-institutional praxis (Laclau & Mouffe 1985).My analysis is based on a broad and extra-parliamentary concept of politics also drawing on the thinking by DiCenzo, Delap and Ryan and their emphasis on publications of suffragette periodicals as political acts coined as the power of ´words as deeds` (2011: 118).

Analyzing international engagement raises the question of what the ‘international’ dimensions of women’s suffrage entail both in terms of the empirical-historical events and power structures and in terms of the analytical perspectives, which the researcher applies

(Hannam 2005; Miller 1998; Tyrell 2001). Geopolitical, empire and colonial power- constellations played out in the time period influencing the knowledge and approaches we can apply today. We know that during its first wave, the international women’s movement remained heavily Euro-American in composition and leadership (Rupp & Taylor 1999:367) and that the organizations International Council of Women (ICW) and International

Women’s Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) were primary an organized elite of older Christian women of European origin, representing the interests of liberal, bourgeois feminists (Rupp

6 1997, here from Hannam 2005:552).

A similar type of bias characterizes my empirical sources. These bring forward a Danish perspective on the international engagement reporting on events and congresses organized by the three dominating international organizations at the time (Rupp & Taylor 1999). My analysis will not be able to avoid this bias fully, as the Danish suffragettes attended the international events organized by the major organizations at the time and for the same reason reflect the established organizational power structures and their work. Hannam’s own example of the early achievements of women’s suffrage in Australia and New Zealand concludes that suffragists from these countries could be seen as having something to teach feminists in the “Imperial heartland” (Hannam 2005: 554, also Grimshaw 2009). Hannam

(2005) pinpoints this dilemma by underlining that it is the intention of her article to ask what the suffrage movement would look like if viewed through the eyes of women from outside

Britain and North America (2005:545). The same line of thinking applies to my analysis.

A third consideration concerns the primary sources for the analysis. There are few Danish organizational sources describing the international engagement before the 1920s. However, there are personal letters and memories, which document some of the early liaisons between the Danish and international suffragettes (see Hansen 1992; private archive of Elna Munch;

Peck 1944). The sources for this paper are not systematically based on letters nor on organizational protocols as there are not sufficient materials. The fact that the largest and oldest Danish women’s organization, Danish Women’s Society founded 1871, has not been object for research in terms of its organizational history and self-understanding (Nielsen &

Hansen 2015:86) also means that there are few sources and analyses to consult. The main source to the Danish Women’s Society is still Lemche’s publication (1939), which is characterized as an ‘insider-story’ (Nielsen & Hansen 2015:86). The history of the other

7 organization researched here is Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret, which has not been

8 written (Rambusch 1990). The available sources on international engagement have made me turn towards the periodicals as a source of information. My thinking has been informed by the valuable analysis and considerations by DiCenzo, Delap and Ryan (2011) and by Green

(2011). The Danish women’s and suffrage periodicals –like the ones in other countries-have existed in “relative obscurity “ (DiCenzo, Delap & Ryan 2011:15) and can gain from a systematic study. Their digitalization on the site of the gender library KVINFO has contributed substantially to this piece of work. A close look at the content and framings of periodicals of women’s and suffragette organizations puts flesh on the idea of Danish suffragettes’ international engagement by working as a window into descriptions of role model countries and individuals, of reflections and discussions. The periodicals were

(..) “vehicles through which constituencies within the movement framed their

grievances, mobilized support, challenged one another within the movement,

and engaged externally with the larger ‘Public’ they were trying to convince”

(Dicenzo, Delap & Ryan 2011: 36)

A final reflection concerns the methods for analyzing the sources. I have identified two

different types of readings of the materials, which have been applied on suffragette

periodicals. Theoretically, one is based on social movement theory and the second on theories

on the public sphere. DiCenzo, Delap & Ryan (2011) use social movement theory in order to

make sense of the British suffrage papers for “understanding how participants in women’s

movements used print media to organize, mobilize, disseminate ideas, and engage with the

social and political groups and structures around them” (DiCenzo, Delap & Ryan 2011:29).

The authors argue that they by means of social movement theory are able to track processes,

methods and change (p.30). In my previous work (Fiig 2014), I have applied a theory of

Habermasian public sphere on a reading of a Danish suffragette periodical emphasizing the

democratic significance of women’s access and voice to a public sphere around the turn of

9 the 20th century. I identified the type of public as an opinion-forming one articulating and debating identities, the construction of women as political subjects etc. In what follows, I consider the suffragette periodicals as part of a Danish public sphere but focus more closely on how the international engagement is discussed and reflected upon - and framed. In terms of methodology, I am inspired by Entman (1993) and his approach to framing as a way of describing the power of a communicating text (1993:51). Entman points at selection and salience as two key elements in framing:

“To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more

salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular

problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and /or treatment

recommendation for the item described” (Entman 1993:52)

My primary sources include two of the biggest women and suffragette organizations’ periodicals. I generated two sub-corpora that forms the basis for the analysis based on the idea that the study could not be comprehensive. The periodical of the Danish Women’s

Society (1871-) (Kvinden og Samfundet KS ) has been published since 1884 with approximately 25 issues pr. year. The periodical of Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret

(1908-1915) (Kvindevalgret KV) was published between 1908-1915 on a monthly basis. My selection focused on the international events and the international congresses in 1902, 1904,

1908, 1909, 1911, 1915. The reason for this selection is that Danish suffragettes were very active internationally during this time period and wrote about this engagement. When reading through the periodicals, it becomes clear, that the international conferences spurred discussion, reflections and reports and form a core in the writings on the international.i I have read the periodicals during the year of the international events searching writings prior to, on the event and after the event.

1 0 The object for the analysis is writing on ‘international engagement’, which needs some clarification. By this, I both understand writings on the international events listed above and the single country-items which the periodicals also consists of – describing case-based country-specific developments in terms of good examples etc. An implication of this is that it can seem artificial to distinguish between writings on the international and the national as the writings about the international engagement is seen through the eyes of the national author and reader.

Existing Research

The research literature contains three fields with crucial insights for this article: one is research on the Danish struggle for enfranchisement and the Danish organizations’ international engagement and inspiration. A second is analyses of women activists and their international work for and enfranchisement often with a specific inter- organizational and Anglo-American focus. A third is the tradition of periodical studies and work done on suffragette periodicals in the same time period. I aim through this presentation to pinpoint existing knowledge within these fields and to sketch a context for the following analysis.

First, the literature analyses the time period of the 1880s -1915, which represents a turbulent period in Danish political history. Ideologically, an influential way of thinking was formulated by the liberal British philosopher and politician John Stuart Mill, who presented a strong argument for the political equality of men and women. His writing influenced the thinking about women’s emancipation and political participation internationally and in

Denmark (Fiig 2014; Mill 1867; Munch 1906). Women’s demand for citizenship, equality and independence would have a radical influence on not only their status but equally on society’s institutions and balance of power. Politically, the specific Danish context for

10 women’s enfranchisement was part of broader political debates in terms of universal enfranchisement (Koefoed 2015:61) and democratization (Fiig & Siim 2012).

The question about equality was already an issue during the second part of the 19th century during which Danish women obtained gradual access to education and different professions

(Busch 1965; Larsen 2010). The universal enfranchisement broke with an earlier understanding of women’s position and place in society (Koefoed 2015:61,63). The process towards universal enfranchisement has been characterized as a ‘domino-effect’ by Koefoed

(2015:79). Danish women’s enfranchisement to the parochial church council in 1904 brought forward arguments for enfranchisement for the municipalities in 1908 and for Parliamentary enfranchisement in 1915. Koefoed concludes that the general resistance to women’s enfranchisement was (already) overcome during the 1890s (Koefoed 2015:80). This conclusion is not directly reflected in the writings of the suffragette periodicals in times after the 1890s, which still express a spirit of struggle.

If we zoom in on the landscape of the women and suffragette organizations in Denmark at the time, the picture is mixed and conflictual. This mirrors the picture in other countries

(Rodríguez-Ruiz & Rubin-Marín eds. 2012). The Danish organizations were in many ways rivals characterized by cleavages in terms of class-based differences, political orientation, an urban-country divide and by disagreement about the priority of enfranchisement (Dahlerup

1977; Hansen 1992).

The Nordic Assembly for Women took place in in June 1888. The spur for this meeting was a hope for new inspiration and energy for the women’s cause. The women’s movement was hit by a type of ‘crisis’ due to political events in the Danish Parliament. A bill proposing women’s enfranchisement for local politics was defeated. The political deadlock meant that there was now prospect for new reforms –and for change. The

11 meeting turned out to be successful hosting 700 participants. 13 organizations were present; six were from Finland, and Sweden. The main themes of the program were enfranchisement, abstention and pacifism. Besides, subjects related to working class women’s life conditions, co-teaching of and boys in school, cooperation between the

Nordic working class women and cooperation between the Nordic women’s organizations were discussed (Hansen & Nielsen 2015).

Applying a class-perspective, Hansen and Nielsen’s analysis (2015) focuses on the cooperation between the different groups and organizations of the early Danish women’s movements in the 1880s and 1890s. This cooperation was both local, national and Nordic with the Nordic women’s meetings as an important platform. Hansen and Nielsen (2015) document that there were networks and cooperation about political issues among female actors across the political spectrum but also that this unity was fragile and broke down before

1900. A central line of disagreement was the priority of the question of enfranchisement.

Conflicts and ideological differences characterized the organizations for the decades to come also in terms of international engagement and participation in the boards of the international organizations (Nørregaard Hanen 1992; Rambusch 1990).

Secondly, the literature analyses the international engagement. Research on the Danish suffragettes’ international engagement is limited. Nørregaard Hansen’s (1992) analysis of

Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret provides an analysis of one organization and some of its members’ international engagement and this particular organization’s relationship to the

International Women’s Suffrage Allliance (IWSA) (1907-1915). Landsforbundet for

Kvinders Valgret was inspired by the British suffragettes and applied a moderate version of their strategies in terms of public relations and agitation. The leadership of the organization became very engaged in the international work for enfranchisement, which was also reflected in the organizational periodical (Fiig 2014).

12 In her much-lauded book, Rupp (1997) analyzes the first wave of the international women’s movement focusing on three of the major international organizations: the ICW, the IWSA and the later Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILP). These were also the organizations, which the Danish suffragette organizations orientated themselves towards. Both Rupp (1997) and Bosch (1990) point at the complex and many-layered relationship between feminism, nationalism and internationalism (here from Hannam

2005:551).Rupp underlines that the international congresses provided a setting in which dedicated workers and new recruits could meet face to face and establish the kind of bonds that held the movement together (Rupp 1997:175). She coins the concept of ‘politics of personal interaction’ and points at the significance of women’s interaction for our understanding of international feminism. As in other social movements, friendship networks and personal connections served as the most effective means of bringing new members into transnational women’s organizations (Rupp 1997:180-181).

Rupp and Taylor use the case of the international /transnational women’s movement in the early 20th century to investigate feminism proposing a collective identity approach to defining feminism (Rupp and Taylor 1999:364). These movements brought women together from different contexts, albeit primarily women of “European origin from the industrialized nations of the Western world” (Rupp and Taylor 1999:366). They point out that such a concept is not essentialist or exclusive or apolitical. Rather, it allows an understanding of feminism as a political identity that is continuously negotiated and revised (1999: 365). With

Gamson (1991), they suggest to think of three interacting layers of collective identity: organizational, movement and solidarity. The organizational layer consists of identities constructed around networks. As members of connected groups, they expressed organizational identities. The movement layer subordinates individual organizations to a

13 larger cause. Movements may or may not be based in even broader solidarity identities

(Rupp & Taylor 1999:366).

Thirdly, the literature presents analyses of suffrage periodicals. In identifying these periodicals as an important source of information, Dicenzo, Delap and Ryan (2011) have conducted a study of some of the British suffragette periodicals pointing at their multiple internal and external functions in terms of identity formation and mobilizing collective action. In an earlier piece of work, DiCenzo (2003) emphasizes the significance of both the periodicals and the ‘women newsy’, i.e. the suffrage paper-seller, who in the British case was crucial to the distribution of the papers and contributed to the construction and visibility of the politically active, modern (DiCenzo 2003:16). She characterizes the three main functions of the pressure group periodicals as inspirational, informative and integrating.

Besides, Vellacott’s work (2001) is focused on a later time period and consists of an analysis of international feminism and pacifism between the two world wars. She picks up the baton from Rupp (1997) by analyzing actors who had received their political training in the suffrage cause in their own countries and had developed a wider personal acquaintance through the

IWSA (2001: 375).Vellacott concludes that the women of WILP made the radical claim “that the affaires in which women had in interest has no gender limitations, and that the peace of the world was at least as much their concern as it was that of men” (Vellacott 2001: 393). In an earlier piece of work, Vellacott (1987) examines the thinking of some of the British suffragists around the First World War- also in relation to international peace work.

Analysis

Before introducing the analysis, it may be noted that the Danish Women’s Society was international in its core. When the co-founders, Mathilde and Frederik Bajer in 1871 decided to establish a Danish women’s organization, it worked as the Danish brand of the

14 international women’s organization L’Association International des Femmes founded in

1868. A few months later, the Danish branch decided to discontinue membership and to establish a national women’s organization The Danish Women’s Society. Danish Women’s

Society focused on national work; on establishing the organization and a range of schools for women. It was not until 1888, that a renewed focus on international work took off as a result of two events: the Nordic Assembly for Women in Copenhagen (1888) and the Women’s

Congress in Washington D.C leading to the formation of the ICW in 1902. The other organization, analyzed in what follows, is Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret was established in 1907 as a unique suffragette organization (Rambusch 1990).

With the foundation of the IWSA, a new disagreement developed among these two Danish organizations. This was a conflict related to the representation in IWSA- about which of the organizations had the right to represent Denmark. At the IWSA-congress in 1909, it was decided that each country could only be represented by one national organization. Despite a diplomatic effort carried out by the President C.C Catt, the result was that Denmark as the only member country had two organizations represented in the alliance from 1910-1923

(Hansen 1992; Lemche 1939).

At the first Nordic meeting in Copenhagen 1888, the delegates agreed to appointing ‘national correspondents’ writing news items and articles about the ‘women’s issue’ in the other

Nordic countries. This meant that the Danish women’s organizations, Danish Women’s

Society and subsequently Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret managed to keep their readers

15 updated on activities, events and lived experienced of being a woman involved in politics in the other Nordic countries. Both periodicals ran a regular column with ‘international news’ with different foci.

In terms of timing, the analysis is organized around some of the key organizational, international congresses. The analytical focus is set on the framing and less so on the way the periodicals engage with other publications and participated in public debates (Dicenzo, Leap and Ryan 2011:73 argue differently for their analysis).

A. Role models

Role modeling in the sense of explaining the individuals’ thinking on enfranchisement and countries’ progress is an important part of the writings in the analyzed periodicals. One type of story dealt with ‘status’ reports about other countries’ struggle for enfranchisement, another with reports on the actual situation in countries where women had gained access to formal political institutions. A third type of story described contributions by individual, foreign women with an emphasis on their outstanding individual achievements both in terms of their ‘local’ and national achievements and their contributions at international conferences and gatherings.

Country reports dealing with the struggle for enfranchisement is a frequently used theme with

Britain as a paradigmatic case. In the decade before the First World War, the British WSPU

Women’s Social and Political Union’s militant tactics, public demonstrations and striking imagery captured the imagination of women around the world and provided a model for others to follow (Hannam 2005:543). The Danish suffragettes had an ambivalent relationship to the British suffragettes, whom they both admired and distanced themselves from (KV

16 1908:8:2, KV 1908:3:3. KV 1908 4:4,KV 1900:5:3) (Hansen 1992). In 1909, an item provided a report from ‘the Land of the Suffragettes’ about Britain in which the different strategies used by the British were employed (the suffragette periodicals, written items by the leaders of the movement and about the hunger-strikes which some of the suffragettes used in prison (KV 1909:9: 2-3). The situation in Russia is also commented on several times in relation to the ban on women to enter university and to the first Russian women’s congress

(KV 1909:1:2, KV 1909 2: 1) as well as the situation about women’s political rights in the

USA and Italy.

Reports on the countries where women had gained enfranchisement were followed closely as their political situation developed. An example here was Australia where the first consequence of the right to vote was the educational effect. Women got the political responsibility and worked hard to be found to be able to manage this (KV 1908:1:5). ‘Letters’ from the other Nordic countries presented their sister organizations, their ideas, initiatives and ways of functioning –such as the Swedish (KV 1909: 2-3). Finland drew particular attention with the obtained universal enfranchisement from 1906. A contribution by a Finnish female

MP in 1908 provided an insight into the role and situation that the newly elected female MPs experienced and into how their great task was to prove their ability to manage the position

(KV 1908:5:3). In 1909, a Finnish writer confirmed the female MPs’ engagement and their ability to bring new questions onto the Parliamentary agenda (KV 1909: 5: 2). Norway was described as a success especially at the time when its first female MP entered the Parliament in 2011(KV 2011:4:1)

Individual women were presented both in terms of their lectures ‘at home’ and because of their performance and rhetorical skills at the international events. A German lecturer was reported for a speech emphasizing women’s interests in politics (KV 1908:2:5). A range of items focused on women’s interest in politics.

17 Another frequently used frame in portraits of female actors was a focus on these women’s rhetorical skills. Examples here are the British Miss and Madame , whose rare rhetorical skills and untired energy were put forward (KV 1908:4:3). A similar description covers the speakers at the Italian women’s congress in Rome in 1908 (KV

1908:6:1,KV1909:7:2). Over the years, special attention was paid to the President of the

IWSA, C.C.Catt and her outstanding speeches and rhetorical skills (KV 1908: 8:2). As

President, she led the international congresses with continuing superior authority and firmness and equally understanding the variable opinions (KV 1908:8:3).

B. International Congresses

A recurrent theme in the periodicals was the international congresses. They were presented in the periodicals as a type of description, travel log and as a normative call for further action.

The themes mentioned above are all at stake in the framings of the conferences.

1902 Washington D.C.

The International Women’s Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) was founded in Washington in 1902 by the National American Women Suffrage Association, whose chairwomen Carrie Chapman

Catt was elected president for the IWSA. The intension of the IWSA was to create a platform for national enfranchisement organizations to meet and inspire each other in their struggle for enfranchisement.

Berlin 1904

18 Returning home from Berlin in 1904 with renewed inspiration and in a context of a new

Liberal government’s promise of political rights for women in Denmark, the work for enfranchisement gained momentum. New organizations working for women’s enfranchisement were founded and the first working meeting took place in Copenhagen in

1906. The periodical Kvindevalgret (KV) describes the foundation of the IWSA in Berlin retrospectively in an item 7 years later. A text is presented that explained the establishment of the IWSA. This presentation focuses on the strong personalities behind the organization: the founder Susan B. Anthony and the future president C.C. Catt. The two women were described in very admiring terms (KV 1911:4:2-3).

1906 Copenhagen IWSA

The selection of the city of Copenhagen most likely took place because Denmark was the

only Scandinavian country where women had not been granted the vote for the local or

national level (Peck 1944). This meeting contributed with increased enthusiasm for the

enfranchisement organizations and equally created more media attention. This was also due

to the fact that the IWSA-president C.C. Catt and her staff stayed in the city for some time

before and after the meeting and gave a number of interviews to the press (Peck 1944).

1908 Amsterdam IWSA

A short description of the practical arrangements for the IWSA conference in Amsterdam

1908 (KV 1908:7:3) is followed by an extensive reportage in a later issue (KV 1908:8:1-3).

There is a focus on reports from countries where women had gained the right to vote –Finish,

Norwegian and the Danish enfranchisement for local elections. The ‘broad- minded’

19 Norwegian government had sent an official representative, which created a lot of attention.

Several of the speakers’ rhetorical skills and self-confidence are underlined, both the

President C.C. Catt and the young Hungarian Rosika Schwimmer, who later became a very

influential suffragette (1908:8:1-3). The British suffragettes get a specific mention as they are

invited in to speak at the conference: it was underlined how women world-wide followed

their struggle intensely (KV 1908:8:2).

1909 London IWSA

The conference took place in April 1909. Prior to the conference, the KV-journal wrote about the British suffragettes’ particular political struggle for enfranchisement (KV 1909:5:3, KV

1909:5:4, KV 1909:7:2). The reports from the conference also included a description of the foundation of the IWSA. It was argued that the organization was rooted in a platform of international sisterhood (1909:6:2-6).It praised the president’s ability to lead and her personality (KV1909:6:3). There were several reports on the situation for women in other countries as well (KV 1909:6).

1911 Stockholm IWSA

The congress in Stockholm in June 1911 was described as a world event with international

news coverage and delegates from many countries (1911:6:1). During the spring, the

conference was mentioned a several occasions – also in terms of a praise of the IWSA (KV

2011:1:1). A key part of the reportage focused on the well-functioning and managed congress

(KV 1911:7:1) and on the state of the art in terms of the process towards women’s

20 enfranchisement in a range of countries (KV 1911:7). It is underlined how ready women in these different countries are with experienced ‘pens’ and great rhetorical skills (KV 1911:7).

1915 The Hague IWSA

With the First World War, international cooperation broke down, partly due to logistics and more importantly, due to the fact that the national organization in the warring nations chose a patriotic stand, suspended the suffrage campaign and concentrated on supporting their governments’ national efforts in the war. IWSA’s 1915 congress was scheduled for Berlin, but was cancelled due to the war. A group of active suffragists initiated an international women’s congress in The Hague the same year. On the agenda were the war and the women’s efforts to ending it. The invitation was published in the member journal of the

Danish Women’s Society (KS 1915:7).

In April 1915, nine months after the start of the war, over a 1000 women from combatant and noncombatant nations, mainly active in the international campaign for women’s suffrage met at the Hague to discuss ways of mediating between the warring nations, stopping the war, and finding was of resolving future conflict without recourse to violent means (Sharp 2013:155;

Vellacott 1987; 2001). And the congress was successful. The delegates saw working to end the war and to achieve female suffrage as inextricably linked (Sharp 2015).

Discussion

In the introduction, I raised the question of what the Danish women’s and suffragette organizations wrote about in terms of their international engagement and reflections in the time period of 1900-1915 ? And how they represented their international engagement? We can now sketch a discussion based on the sources analyzed above. My analysis fits with what

21 existing research has concluded and on the studies done on the periodicals at the same time period, but it also takes the analysis a step further by focusing on the Danish case and the way of entering the international organizations for members from a small country.

First, the distinction, mentioned above, between politics as a level for institutionalized power and administration of political decision and the political as a level for decentralized conflicts, politization and non-institutional praxis (Blom 2004; Laclau & Mouffe 1985) becomes useful for our understanding of the Danish periodical writings on the international engagement.

Describing international events such as the congresses as a venue for women to act politically works well in the construction of political subjects. The ways women in politics are pitched as active, engaging and contributing to politics in role model countries with universal enfranchisement works as good examples. These countries’ success contribute to an understanding of women as politically mature, able to navigate in politics and as contributing to politics often with different perspectives. That is, taking action as responsible citizens and getting inspiration in Scandinavia (Hagemann 2009:126-127). This contributes to constructing women as political subjects in a time period, where the issue of their ability to participate in the political institutions was questioned. Framing them as subjects in politics is on the one hand part of a political-ideological current at the time with John Stuart Mill’s writings (Mill 1867) and is also an argument against the Danish Conservative perception of women being represented in politics via their husbands (Koefoed 1915).

International suffragettes amplified their political and diplomatic skills when the First World

War broke out. The participants at the IWSA-congress in the Hague in 1915 demonstrated the possibilities of international female solidarity and cooperation in the cause of peace at a time when other international organizations had largely suspended their links and few anti-war arguments. The delegates saw working to end the war and to achieve female suffrage as

22 inextricably linked: they saw women as providing the strongest moral influence for peace and it was vital that their demand for greater democracy in international affairs should include women (Sharp 2015). Women were demanding to be heard and given a share in political power, not as mere apprentices to the male system, but seeking an opportunity to bring a new set of values to bear in the most important areas (Vellacott 1987: 94). This demand can be seen as a long-term outcome of the international engagement and the international women’s organizations. The involved actors seized the moment afforded by the First World War to move women’s rights out of the area of national politics and into the international realm

(McCarthy et al. 2015).

Secondly, individual descriptions of strong and powerful international suffragettes also work as role-modelling women in politics. The descriptions of these women are warm and admiring in relation to their rhetorical and their leadership skills. These women are also the ones travelling the world and contributing to the politics of personal interaction (Rupp 1997).

The reports from the international congresses bear witness to the ways that Danish suffragettes became part of an international network, which provided a sentiment of international sisterhood and solidarity. Personal networks between women supported strong organizational links (Rupp 1997) and underpinned the formation of international organizations that transcended national boundaries. The sources document how a sense of commonalities between women of different nationalities encouraged transnational transferences of methodologies and ideas between the women’s movements in different countries in the 19th and 20th centuries (Cowman paper without year; Nørregaard Hansen

1992). The IWSA is framed as a venue or platform for creating international sister solidarity.

Via network, empowerment, intimacy, the feminists spoke a language of universal sisterhood

(Hannam 2005) and familiar language was used to express their connections with each other

(ibid). An open question is how well such a language of universal feminism resonated with

23 the Danish organizations and individual members. My thinking here is informed by the valuable criticism by Grimshaw (2009) and Sinha,Guy and Woollacott (1998) in their emphasis on other country-perspectives outside the British and American cases.

The Danish periodicals bear witness to Rupps’s analysis about the learning potentials of international engagement: that women learned new skills, gained external recognition and confidence and found fun, solace, and support in the process (Rupp 1997:182).

Conclusion

From its early days, the Danish women’s and suffragette movements were part of the international work for enfranchisement and international feminism. The Danish periodicals are rife with examples of writings on the importance of the community, the organizational networks and friendship for the Danish organizations as well as framing countries and individual suffragettes as role models and good examples. In conclusion, it has been suggested in this article that Danish suffragettes’ international engagement was of importance already from early on in the struggle for universal enfranchisement.

The story of the foundation of the international women’s organizations and the politics of internationalism point towards modern time’s reasoning about global politics and transnational activism. The power of ‘words as deeds’ (DiCenzo,Delap & Ryan 2011:118) characterizes the framings of the international engagement in Danish suffragette periodicals.

Researching these can add a new chapter to our knowledge about Danish and Nordic struggle for enfranchisement and to the general foundation for the internationalization of feminism and gender equality which took off during the decades around 1900.

24

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Kvinden og Samfundet 1885-1920 (KS)

28 Kvindevalgret 1908-1915 (KV)

i The ICW-congresses took place in 1888 (Washington DC), Chicago (1893) and London (1899). The IWSA- congresses took place in Berlin (1904), Amsterdam (1908), London (1909), Stockholm (1911), the Hague

(1915) and Zurich (1919).

29