The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1994, Side 12

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SPRING, 1994
munity.
In November 1897, Olafia
Johannsdottir, president of the
Women’s Christian Temperance
Union in Iceland, arrived in Manitoba
for a visit. For the next three months
she travelled throughout the pro-
vince, visiting the Icelandic commun-
ities and lecturing on the subjects of
temperance and women’s rights.
The visit of Olafia Johannsdottir
appears to have given Margret
Benedictsson the final impetus
required to commence publication of
Freyja, “the only woman suffrage
paper published in Canada.”13
Together with her husband Sigfus,
she set up a printing press in Selkirk
in 1898, and in February of that
same year the first issue of Freyja,
dedicated to Olafia Johannsdottir,
rolled off the press.
The title page declares Freyja’s
purpose as “devoted to woman’s
political, economical and social
rights”; and in her first editorial,
Benedictsson describes the policy of
the paper. Freyja shall be completely
independent in all matters. It aims to
enlighten and delight. Freyja will not,
without cause, become involved in
matters that are likely to cause
dissension such as religion and
politics. There is, however, no subject
matter pertaining to human and
moral issues which Freyja considers
irrelevant, and will not be obliged to
keep silent about such matters...
Freyja's foremost concern will be
developments in women’s rights.
Freyja will support prohibition and
anything that leads to the
improvement of social conditions.”
Freyja began as an eight page
monthly which at its height reached
forty pages in length. It is to be rated
a literary as well as a woman suffrage
paper. About a quarter of the paper
was taken up with advertisements,
mostly in Icelandic, but occasionally
in English. Included were serial
stories appropriate to the policy of
the paper; biographical sketches of
prominent people such as Herbert
Spencer and Henrik Ibsen, in
addition to those of Lucy Stone,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others
doing battle for women’s rights;
literary reviews and a Children’s
Comer. There were articles signed by
pen-names (“Plain Dealer” “Lucifer”),
but most articles were either written
by Benedictsson or her husband, or
were translated by them from the
writings of American feminists.
Periodically there were lists of new
subscribers, and in each issue space
was devoted to announcements of
events in the Icelandic community.
Freyja was an immediate success,
apparently beyond the wildest
expectations of its editor, for with the
publication of the third issue, the
paper was being welcomed into three
hundred homes. Criticisms made of
the paper were not of the content
material, but of a poorly printed
product and one containing too many
grammatical errors. By the time
Benedictsson launched into the
second year of publication the paper
had five hundred subscribers. Both
women and men subscribed to the
paper and it travelled, not only to
homes in Manitoba, but elsewhere in
Canada and to the United States.
An examination of Freyja’s articles
reveals Margret Benedictsson’s
radical views on tum-of-the-century
feminist issues. Women living in
poverty were often the subject of
articles. To improve the living con-
ditions of such women, Benedictsson
argued that the state should be
involved in social welfare schemes.
Singled out was the plight of the
married woman who had no choice
but to bear children without inde-
pendent means of supporting them.
Divorce was another topic fre-