Alexandra Gripenberg 1857 – 1913

She 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 instrumental in the establishment of the first official women’s rights organization in Finland, the Suomen Naisyhdistys (Finnish Women’s Association), in Helsinki in 1884 and became one of its active members.She served as the president of the association for two terms. Between 1887 and 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 published in 1889. The same year she also founded one of the earliest Finnish women’s magazines, Koti ja Yhteiskunta, which was published until December 1911. Gripenberg was also the editor-in-chief of the magazine which acted as the organ of the Suomen Naisyhdistys. Gripenberg was one of the nineteen women elected in 1907, making her one of the first women to get elected into the Parliament of Finland