page_title: Norwegian Association for Women's Rights
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Norwegian Association for Women's Rights / History
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Majorstuveien 39 og Jacob Aalls gate 24. Arkitekt: Olaf Boye,
context_page_description: The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights is a Norwegian nonpartisan political advocacy organisation and Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organisation.
  It was founded in 1884 on the initiative of Gina Krog and Hagbart Berner by 171 prominent women and men, including five Norwegian Prime Ministers. Its basic principle is that full and equal enjoyment of human rights is due to all women and girls, and it works to advance women's social, economic and political situation in Norway as well as internationally. Historically associated with the Liberal Party, NKF is today broadly representative of the political spectrum. The association has always been Norway's most important mainstream feminist or liberal feminist organisation and has successfully campaigned for women’s right to education, the right to vote, the right to work, the adoption of the 1978 Gender Equality Act and the establishment of what is now the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud.
context_section_description: The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights was founded in 1884 by 171 prominent Norwegians, led by the liberal politician and women's rights pioneer Gina Krog and liberal Member of Parliament and the first editor-in-chief of Dagbladet Hagbart Berner. 
  From its establishment and well into the 20th century, the organisation was strongly associated with the Liberal Party; its 171 founders included several Norwegian Prime Ministers, leaders of the Liberal Party and many liberal Members of Parliament as well as the editors of the large liberal newspapers and public figures such as novelist Alexander Kielland. Three of the first Presidents of the organisation, Anna Stang, Randi Blehr and Fredrikke Marie Qvam, were all wives of Norwegian Prime Ministers. Membership has always been open to both men and women. NKF grew out of overlapping milieus connected to the political elite and liberal media in Norway, including the feminist association Skuld, Læseforening for Kvinder (founded by Camilla Collett in 1874), Nissen's Girls' School, Kristiania Lærerindeforening, the influential political and cultural magazine Nyt Tidsskrift  and the liberal newspaper Dagbladet. 
  Among the important causes that the NKF has campaigned for are women's suffrage (achieved in 1913), the right to work (in the 1930s), abolishment of the common taxing for spouses (the 1950s), right to equal schooling (the 1960s), the establishment of the Council for Equality between the Sexes  (Norwegian: Likestillingsrådet) 1972, later replaced by the Centre for Equality between the Sexes (1977), later by the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud (2006). Members of the organization, such as its long-time chairman Eva Kolstad, who served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, also pioneered United Nations gender equality policies.
  The association also initiated the establishment of the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association (Norwegian: Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening), a humanitarian organisation, which grew to become Norway's largest women's organisation with around 250,000 members at one point. Historically, the NKF was the most important association of the Norwegian bourgeois (or liberal) women's movement (associated chiefly with the Liberal Party), in contrast to the labour women's movement (associated with the Labour Party). Today, it is a nonpartisan organisation, focusing on women's political, legal and human rights as well as equal opportunities, and on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in particular.
  The NKF has co-operated with the National Association for Women's Suffrage and later with the Norwegian National Women's Council. Some of the prominent post-war leaders were Eva Kolstad, who later became a cabinet minister, leader of the Liberal Party and the world's first Gender Equality Ombud, former UNICEF Chairman Torild Skard, and supreme court justice Karin M. Bruzelius who became President for the second time in 2018.
  The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights has been affiliated with the International Alliance of Women (IAW) since 1904 and is a member of the Norwegian Women's Lobby and the Forum for Women and Development. It addresses the United Nations Economic and Social Council through its IAW membership.
  The organisation had its offices in Sehesteds gate 1 in Oslo for many years, and now has its offices in Majorstuveien 39 at Majorstuen in central Oslo.
  Elisabeth Lønnå describes NKF by 1970 as "an almost dignified organisation" that had its "origins in the Liberal Party and had a liberal platform, centered on the main idea of equality for all citizens and based on the idea of fundamental human rights." Lønnå notes that NKF had long traditions, a clearly defined form of organisation, an established network and well formulated policies and principles, and that it spent most of its resources on lobbying government bodies in a professional way. While NKF was influenced by the second wave of feminism during the 1970s, it was the "only feminist organisation that was 
caption: NKF's current offices in Majorstuveien 39 in the borough of Frogner in central Oslo
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