page_title: Mary Westenholz
section_title: Folketing incident
hierarchical_section_title: Mary Westenholz / Folketing incident
caption_attribution_description: Dansk: Mary Westenholz på Folketingets talerstol 19. august 1909
context_page_description: Mary Bess Westenholz, pen name Bertel Wrads, was an influential Danish Unitarian, women's rights activist, writer and editor. She was the aunt of the author Karen Blixen, and is remembered for encouraging her niece to publish her first short stories.
context_section_description: Like her brother Aage, Westenholz was deeply interested in defence matters. Partly as a result of delays in parliamentary progress on a defence bill and partly in connection with the Alberti scandal, on 19 August 1909, unnoticed she gained access to the Folketing where the speaker had just announced the appointment of Jens Christian Christensen as the minister responsible for defence. She snatched the speaker's bell, rang it vigorously and, pointing at the ministers' benches, declared: "Before you begin your work, you should know that in this chamber there is a man who has brought disgrace to Denmark. Here you sit, you Danish men, haggling about the country's rights and wrongs in your lust for power and self-indulgence, but it needs to be said from this rostrum that Denmark's women despise you and brand you as a bunch of unpatriotic hirelings who betray the honour of Denmark." This was the first time any woman had spoken in the Folketing.
  She had expected to be arrested but was simply escorted out of the chamber. With the assistance of the Danske Kvinders Forsvarsforening (Danish Women's Defence Association), a demonstration of support was organized outside her home.
caption: Mary Westenholz holding forth in the Folketing, August 1909
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