The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1994, Page 14

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SPRING, 1994
lectures in the Icelandic commun-
ities, and personal contact, the work
progressed. Margret Benedictsson
was a capable speaker and so she
extended her campaign to the public
lectern in Winnipeg and the rural
districts of the province. By 1906
Icelandic Ladies Aids throughout the
province had written the struggle for
woman suffrage into their platforms.
In 1907, Logberg officially stated
sympathetic support of the struggle.
Freyja was no longer alone in the
field.
As Freyja entered its tenth year of
publication in 1908, Benedictsson
greeted readers with the announce-
ment that in January of that year
“The First Icelandic Suffrage Assoc-
iation in America” had been estab-
lished in Winnipeg with herself as
president. That same year this
organization was invited to join the
Canada Suffrage Association. The
invitation was accepted and thereby
automatically made the organization
a member of The International
Woman Suffrage Alliance as well.
The following November, a group
of Icelandic women gathered in
Argyle for the purpose of seriously
discussing the subject of women’s
rights. The outcome of this gathering
was establishment of a woman
suffrage society in Argyle “Von,” as it
was named, the first such organ-
ization among Icelandic women in
rural Manitoba. Suffrage organi-
zations in the other Icelandic com-
munities throughout the province
soon followed.
The Icelandic women at Gimli were
the first to circulate a petition
requesting that women be granted
the franchise. In January 1910,
members of Gimli’s Woman Suffrage
Association, “Sigurvonin,” set about
gathering signatures under such a
petition within their constituency.
The following month, a delegation
from "Sigurvonin” presented “The
Petition of Johanna Jonsdottir, et al.,
praying for the passing of an Act to
enfranchise all women, whether
married, widowed or spinster, on the
same terms as men” before the
Manitoba legislature. Other petitions
by the Icelandic Women’s Suffrage
Associations followed, but all to no
avail.
While they were waging this
campaign, it became increasingly
obvious to the members of the Ice-
landic Woman Suffrage Associations
that if positive results were to come
of their efforts, they would have to
begin working together with their
English-speaking sisters in the pro-
vince. In 1911, the Winnipeg Wom-
en’s Labour league and the First
Icelandic Suffrage Association in
America held a joint meeting in the
Winnipeg Trades Hall to discuss
whether it was an opportune time to
present another petition to the
Legislature: they decided that the
time was not right.
During 1912 and 1913 the Ice-
landic Suffrage Associations in
Manitoba continued to work quietly
in their respective communities.
Freyja was no longer published, but
the two Icelandic weekly newspapers,
Logberg and Heimskringla (which
threw its support behind the struggle
for woman suffrage in 1910), kept the
Icelandic community informed of the
latest developments in the struggle
for woman suffrage.
In 1914 the First Icelandic
Suffrage Association in America
accepted the Manitoba Political
Equality League’s invitation to join in
a meeting with Premier Roblin. Again
in 1915 the Association joined the
League in a delegation to the Premier.
Later that year, following the Liberal
Party election victory, members of
Gimli’s Woman Suffrage Association
toiled industriously alongside their