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2 minutes to read Posted on Wednesday March 2, 2022

Updated on Monday November 6, 2023

portrait of Georgia Evans

Georgia Evans

Senior Editorial Officer , Europeana Foundation

Marking Women’s History Month with the Women’s Museum of Norway

As we mark Women’s History Month in March, we speak to different projects and cultural heritage institutions to find out more about their work and what they are doing for the month. We interviewed the Women’s Museum of Norway to hear about their history, new exhibitions and plans for International Women’s Day. 

Museum visitors looking at a wall with sketches of women's faces on it
Title:
A school class visiting the exhibition SHHH! Stories about abortions and sexuality
Creator:
Ali Suliman
Date:
2021
Institution:
Women’s Museum of Norway
Country:
Norway

Thank you so much for speaking to us today! Can you tell us about the history of the Women’s Museum of Norway? 

Thank you for the invitation! 

The Women’s Museum of Norway is the result of years of networking, fundraising, building a collection and finding a suitable building. The museum was founded in the town of Kongsvinger in the late 1980s, with the purpose of collecting, studying and disseminating the history and culture of women in Norway. The founders were influenced by emerging academic fields of women’s history and women’s studies (now women’s and gender history and gender studies), whose early common goal was to increase women’s visibility and status.

In 1995 the museum opened in the former childhood home of the avant-garde poet, Dagny Juel (1867‒1901). At the time Juel was nearly forgotten, but thanks to the Women’s Museum her story was made visible again.

A large house with tables and chairs placed outside
Title:
The museum building - the former childhood home of the avant-garde poet Dagny Juel
Institution:
The Women’s Museum of Norway
Country:
Norway
A large house with tables and chairs placed outside

What exhibitions and projects are you focusing on at the moment? 

We recently opened a new exhibition: SHHH! Stories about abortion and sexuality. The right for women to control their own fertility, including the right to safe abortions, has been a core issue for the women’s movement globally, and SHHH! is one of the museum's biggest productions. It was a collaborative project with the museum network International Association of Women’s Museums (IAWM). It collects approximately 60 stories from women (and some men) who share their experiences with abortion. We have stories from around 20 countries all over the world. The physical exhibition opened last summer, and an online international version will open during spring/summer 2022. 

In the photo below, you can see a student in a part of the exhibition which showcases underwear from a demonstration in 2018 initiated by the Norwegian radical feminist group Kvinnegruppa Ottar to protest the government’s suggestion to add a restriction to the abortion law. They encouraged women to write protest slogans on old underwear and send them to the Prime Minister’s office. After the demonstration, the Women’s Museum wrote a letter to the Prime Minister’s office who sent the collection to us. The underwear now a part of the museum collection, and as you can see from the photo, a part of the exhibition SHHH! in the room dedicated to pro-choice activism. Explore the collection

A student looking up at an exhibition with women's underwear hanging from the walls with slogans written on them
Title:
A school class visiting the exhibition SHHH! Stories about abortions and sexuality
Creator:
Ali Suliman
Date:
2021
Institution:
Women's Museum of Norway
Country:
Norway
A student looking up at an exhibition with women's underwear hanging from the walls with slogans written on them

In 2022 we will also open two new exhibitions in our temporary exhibition room. One will be an exhibition about lesbian feminism in the 1970s and 1980s as in 2022, Norway will mark and celebrate that homosexuality was decriminalised 50 years ago. The Women’s Museum will focus on lesbian activism in the 1970s. The exhibition opens in April. 

In August we will open an exhibition about the famous glaciologist and polar explorer Monica Kristensen (b. 1950), who managed to build an international career in a male-dominated sphere and profession. A truly fascinating story.  

What role does digital technology, practices or engagement play in this work?

For the permanent exhibition SHHH!, it was very important to add a digital platform for the exhibition in addition to the physical exhibition at the museum. Since it is an international project we want to make our colleagues at women’s museums around the world able to show their visitors the stories we have collected. 

What plans do you have to celebrate Women’s History Month in your institution? 

The Women’s Museum is involved in our local 8th of March (International Women’s Day) committee, which normally celebrates with a parade ending at the museum. The evening continues inside with speeches, poetry readings, songs and other contributions that the committee have put together for the program. This year we have to settle for an outdoor event, because of the pandemic. 

Additionally, every year a local upper secondary school class makes posters for the event, and this year is no exception! We will share the posters in our social media channels and in the town of Kongsvinger. Have a look at this year's poster

Can you share with us a woman who inspires you either from history or is still alive and explain why?

In our research for SHHH! I learned about the Norwegian-Swedish sexual educator Elise Ottesen-Jensen “Ottar” (1886‒1973). In the 1920s she became an advocate for sexual reform in Sweden. She educated people on abortion and contraception. She travelled around the country to poor working-class families, and in outside toilets and wood sheds, she helped mothers of large families to get diaphragms fitted, all at a time when there was still a ban on sharing information about contraception. 

In 1933 Ottar founded the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). Between 1959 and 1965 she was the president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world’s largest federation for sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

What advice do you have for cultural heritage institutions who would like to acknowledge, surface and highlight women’s history in their own collections?

If the institutions are already interested in making an extra effort to acknowledge and highlight women’s history in their own collections, they have already taken an important step. There are many fun and easy ways to highlight women’s history on your museum platforms, such as 'object of the month' on your webpage and social media channels.

For museum professionals to succeed in integrating this work in their daily practices, they need support from both museum directors and general management. It cannot only be the responsibility of individual curators and registrars who have an interest in women’s history. To have the support of upper management teams, it is necessary to implement a long-term strategy for improving museums’ work with women’s history. In addition, institutions need to formalise their priorities in documents such as exhibition plans, collection plans and strategy plans. 

Women’s history is everywhere! But sometimes we have to ask new questions of the collection and museum objects to find it. For example, there can be more women’s history related to the use of objects, instead of their production, which is more often related to men. If the museum presents object stories about both use and production the collections become richer and more interesting. 

Follow the Women’s Museum of Norway on Facebook and Instagram

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