Eye, space and body – these are three key words that apply not only to the work of art historian Anne Wichstrøm on female artists from 1850 to 1900, but also to her own life.

Getting married was not the only way for a woman to live her life, even in the 1800s. As art historian Jorunn Veiteberg shows in her new biography of the Norwegian sculptor Ambrosia Tønnesen, an alternative lifestyle was not necessarily filled with self-denial and loneliness.

In 1959, the Norwegian Parliament ended the practice of establishing lower wage scales for women than for men.
“The Norwegian Employers’ Association used deliberate, cynical means to ensure that female-dominated jobs remained low paying. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) failed the cause of equal pay by accepting this,” says Professor Inger Bjørnhaug.

Why is killing one’s enemies regarded as more important than raising children? This question was posed by the philosopher “Sophia” as early as the 1700s. “Feminist philosophy didn’t emerge in the 1960s. Questions like these have a long-standing tradition in the field,” says philosopher Tove Pettersen of the University of Oslo.

According to doctors during the interwar period, wide hips made women unsuitable for running long distances. In her recent doctoral thesis, Kerstin Bornholdt looks at how researchers reached conclusions like this.

A book on a shelf at the university bookstore in Lund was the start of a research career for Karin Widerberg, Professor of Sociology at the University of Oslo.

In the 1800s, Norwegian missionaries had to strike a balance between Christian virtues and the new, modern man’s role. The solution was to be meek before God and mighty before men.

A minor revolution took place in the course of one generation: Norwegian women went from being homemakers to wage-earners. This has been highly significant for the Norwegian economy over the past 40 years.

Badly written, trivial, unlikely plot, rubbish, aimed at immature young women. Comments on modern Pulp Fiction? No, these reviews are approximately 250 years old.  

If a nineteenth century country girl wanted to show romantic feelings for a boy, she might give him a self-knitted codpiece as a token of love. The knitted codpiece is one of many objects displayed at an exhibition about women’s rights and living conditions in Norway.