The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1994, Page 11

SPRING, 1994
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
21
Icelandic community. Women quickly
became accustomed to working in
organizations and in 1881, they
founded the first Icelandic women’s
organization , the Icelandic Women’s
Society, in Winnipeg. The Women’s
Society was founded primarily to aid
people in difficult circumstances, but
also to support undertakings that
would keep young and old away from
the pitfalls of city life. But, even in
early years, priority was given to
education; two Icelandic girls were
provided with the funds necessary to
enable them to study music at a
convent school. The Icelandic
Women’s Society also inaugurated in
Winnipeg the traditional Icelandic
mid-winter celebration, borrablot.
Featured at this first gathering in
1884 were speeches by B.L. Bald-
winson on equal rights for men and
women, and by Kristrun Sveinunga-
dottir on the cultural position of
Icelandic women.
Around or before 1887, however,
the struggle had begun particularly,
as a result of granting women the
right to vote in church matters. The
establishment of Ladies Aids followed
quickly wherever an Icelandic church
organization existed. The Ladies Aids
were the first step. The women began
to govern, and discussions regarding
women’s rights arose, both in the
Icelandic press and through local
public debates. Early in 1890,
Heimskringla published a column
entitled “Women’s Affairs” sponsored
by the Icelandic Ladies Aid of
Winnipeg. Written by a member of
the Ladies Aid, the column discussed
matters ranging from the affairs of
women’s organizations and the right
of free speech to temperance and
emancipation of women. Thus the
foundation was laid. What was
lacking in those early years was some
dynamic leadership, but that soon
followed in the person of one Margret
J. Benedictsson (1866-1956).
Born in Iceland, Margret Bene-
dictsson emigrated to North America
in 1887. She settled first in North
Dakota. There she worked her way
through grade school and two years
at Bathgate College. She then moved
to Winnipeg where she attended night
school and completed a course in
shorthand, typing and bookkeeping.
Shortly thereafter she was married to
Sigfus B. Benedictsson and thereby
undertook the duties of wife and
mother. In addition to the duties of
her household she and her husband
operated a printing and publishing
business, and she found time to give
herself to literary work, mostly of a
controversial nature, in support of
human causes in which she was
keenly interested. Of these women’s
rights was foremost in her mind. As a
young girl she had read about patriot
Jon Sigurdsson’s (1811-1879)
struggle for Iceland’s autonomy from
Denmark. In 1874, Iceland was
granted independence in domestic
affairs from Denmark. She admired
his unrelenting quest for independ-
ence. “Sorrowful and angered” she
had read stories of oppressed people,
unhappily married women and un-
fortunate young girls. “This aroused
in me an unquenchable desire to
break all chains.” She read about
Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and many others who were doing
battle for women’s rights and later
made their personal acquaintance
through correspondence. “But she
wasn’t satisfied with a merely passive
interest in justice for women, she
determined to do something about it.
She felt that her part in the struggle
would be that of converting the
Icelandic women to the Cause.”
On February 2, 1893, Margret
Benedictsson delivered her first
lecture on women’s rights to mem-
bers of Winnipeg’s Icelandic com-