The fight for women’s rights in Ås — through the ages
The fight for women’s rights in Ås — through the ages
Journalist: Marie Tjelta
Illustrator: Rebecca Øistad
1854
The Higher Agricultural College at Aas is founded.
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1864
Studentsamfunnet i Ås is founded
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1900
First female revue participant
Gudrun Hirch, daughter of Johan Hirch, director at NLH and founder of the student association Hankatten, participated in the revue as the first woman.
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1904
First female student
Sophie Frölich, was educated at NLH in horticulture as the college’s first female student.
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1906
First female student association (founded by men).
Despite the fact that there were almost no female students, the“Ladies’ Club” was founded at Ås. The male members defended the name by bringing in female college officials and from the town.
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1922
First female leader of Studentsamfunnet
Astri Frisak, became the first female “chairman” of Studentsamfunnet i Ås. Admittedly, at this time she was also the college’s only female student. She marked her time by going to the government and holding an appeal for the chairman of the finance committee, which led to a grant of NOK 100,000 to build today’s Samfunnet. She was also politically active in Venstre and was the only woman on the board of Ås municipality.
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1960
The first female student association in Norway is founded.
In October 1960, the female student association “hunkatten” was founded as the (actual) first female student association. This was an association consisting of the only 10 female students at Ås.
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1968
First female Tuntreet editor.
Mette Eggen became the first female editor of the student newspaper, Tuntreet. She was responsible for both a major change in the appearance of Tuntreet but also the content. From dealing mainly with internal debauchery and fanfare, the student newspaper switched to also dealing with more serious current affairs.
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1969
First female professor.
Ragnhild Sundby becomes NLH’s first female professor. She had applied for the job earlier in 1950, but was turned down as it was thought that it would be too difficult for her to work in a male-dominated environment.
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1972
First mixed choir at Ås.
Sangkoret Lærken will be the first mixed-gender choir at Ås. It was founded in February 1972 by nine men and one woman, “Elsopran” Kari Aalvik Buset.
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1975
Feminism on the agenda.
Women’s rights are on the rise on the students’ agenda and is frequently discussed in debate posts in the student newspaper. Has feminism become too extreme or is it a battle that should be fought?
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1976
Odelsloven is changed.
Odelsloven was changed, giving equal rights to both sexes in the peerage order for girls born after 1965. For NLH, a school for people with allodial rights, this had great significance for equality.
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1979
The abortion debate.
Self-determined abortion has become legal and it is discussed among students whether this is women’s liberation or violates human dignity.
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1980
The gender quota debate.
The gender debate rages amongst students at Ås. One side believes women are underrepresented at NLH and are discriminated against in education, teaching, admissions, and employment. The other side believes it is natural to have fewer women at the college and that gender quotas will be at the expense of competence.
Tora is created.
Tora was introduced, and ever since, it has been Torvald and Tora. Now 40% of students in the first year were women.
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1982
First female UKE and revue managers
In the same historic year, UKA got both its first female Head of UKA, Guri Drottningholm Aarnes, and Head of the UKErevue, Eivor Bråthen.
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2014
First female rector.
NLH becomes NMBU and Mari Sundli Tveit becomes the university’s first female rector.
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2016
Ås feminist students is founded.
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2017
The committee for equality and diversity at NMBU.
The purpose of this committee shall be to contribute to an inclusive university for everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, national origin, language, philosophy, political outlook, sexual orientation, and disability.
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2018
The object debate.
The Object debate concerning the hankatt association’s objectification of women in their regulations flares up in the student community.
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2020
First female street name.
The first roads on campus named after women are unveiled.
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2023
Where are we now?
March 8th 2023, The International Women’s Day was marked at Ås this year as well. It was a jam-packed program with a democracy class on “Gender and academia”, marking with slogans in the town centre and a cultural show at Samfunnet. Women’s rights are on the agenda for students and staff. But what are today’s battle issues?
This year’s slogans were:
• Woman, Life, Freedom
• Solidarity with women in war and flight
• Equality is about women’s health
• Kvinner rammes hardest
• Women are hit the hardest - raise disability benefits and the minimum pension
• Consent cannot be bought
• Crush the patriarchy, not the globe.
Here we see issues that reflect our times—the climate crisis, war, and the riots in Iran. It became clear that women’s health, was especially important to many, both at the marking in the town centre and at the cultural show.
