Kirsten Hansteen (5 January 1903 – 17 November 1974) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

editor and librarian. She was appointed Minister of Social Affairs with

Gerhardsen's First Cabinet Gerhardsen's First Cabinet, often called the Unification Cabinet ( no, Samlingsregjeringen), was a Norwegian government appointed to serve under Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen between 25 June and 5 November 1945, in the aftermath of the Second W ...

in 1945 and was the first female member of cabinet in Norway.

Biography

She was born at

Lyngen Lyngen ( se, Ivggu suohkan; fkv, Yykeän komuuni) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lyngseidet. Other villages include Furuflaten, Lattervika, Nord-Lenangen, ...

Troms Troms (; se, Romsa; fkv, Tromssa; fi, Tromssa) is a former county in northern Norway. On 1 January 2020 it was merged with the neighboring Finnmark county to create the new Troms og Finnmark county. This merger is expected to be reversed by t ...

, Norway. Her parents were Ole Christian Strøm Moe (1866–1907) and Gerda Sophie Landmark (1871–1934). Her father died when she was only four years old, and her mother moved her five children to

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

(now Oslo). She graduated artium in 1921 and later studied German and Norwegian at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. In 1930, she married attorney

Viggo Hansteen Harald Viggo Hansteen (13 September 1900 – 10 September 1941) was a Norwegian lawyer. He was executed during the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. Biography Harald Viggo Hansteen was born in Oslo, Norway. As a student he was a part o ...

(1900-1941). Her husband was executed in 1941 during the

Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

. She edited the underground resistance and feminist paper ''

Kvinnefronten The Women's Front ( no, italic=no, Kvinnefronten) is a Norwegian radical feminism, radical feminist organization founded in 1972. It was historically associated with the now defunct Workers' Communist Party (Norway), Workers' Communist Party Hist ...

'' (The Women's front) during the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

. After the liberation of Norway at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she co-founded the journal ''

Kvinnen og Tiden ''Kvinnen og Tiden'' (meaning ''Woman and Time'' in English) was a Norwegian magazine for women published between 1945 and 1955. History and profile ''Kvinnen og Tiden'' was started in 1945 with Henriette Bie Lorentzen and Kirsten Hansteen as ...

'' with

Henriette Bie Lorentzen Henriette Bie Lorentzen (18 July 1911 – 23 August 2001), born Anna Henriette Wegner Haagaas, was a Norwegian journalist, humanist, peace activist, feminist, co-founder of the Nansen Academy, resistance member and concentration camp survivor dur ...

(1911–2001). Lorentzen and Hansteen served as joint editors-in-chief of the journal which was in publication from December 1945 until 1955. Kirsten Hansteen was also a Member of the Norwegian Parliamentary from

Akershus Akershus () is a traditional region and current electoral district in Norway, with Oslo as its main city and traditional capital. It is named after the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. From the middle ages to 1919, Akershus was a fief and main county ...

as a representative of the

Communist Party of Norway The Communist Party of Norway ( no, Norges Kommunistiske Parti, NKP) is a communist party in Norway. The NKP was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. It was Stalinist from its establishment and, as such, supported t ...

from 1945 to 1949. Between 25 July and 5 November 1945, she served as Consultative Councillor of State in the Ministry of Social Affairs under Prime Minister

Einar Gerhardsen Einar Henry Gerhardsen (; 10 May 1897 – 19 September 1987) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party of Norway. He was the 22nd prime minister of Norway for three periods, 1945–1951, 1955–1963 and 1963–1965. With totally 17 years i ...

. From 1959, Kirsten Hansteen worked at the University of Oslo Library as a librarian until she retired in 1970. She died during 1974 in Oslo.

References

Other sources

* 20th-century Norwegian women politicians 20th-century Norwegian politicians 20th-century Norwegian women writers 20th-century Norwegian writers 1903 births 1974 deaths Academic librarians Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian magazine editors Norwegian women editors Norwegian magazine founders Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian socialist feminists Women government ministers of Norway Women members of the Storting Women newspaper editors {{Norway-politician-1900s-stub