Pauline Matilde Theodora Bajer (4 January 1840 – 4 March 1934) was a Danish women's rights activist and pacifist.
Life
Pauline Matilde Theodora Schlüter was born on 4 January 1840 in Frederikseg, Herlufmagle Sogn,
Næstved Municipality
Næstved is a municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') in Region Sjælland on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in the south of Denmark. The municipality includes the island of Gavnø. It covers an area of 681 km², and has a total population ...
, Denmark.
Her father was a landowner. She married
Fredrik Bajer
Fredrik Bajer (21 April 1837 – 22 January 1922) was a Danish writer, teacher, and pacifist politician who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 together with Klas Pontus Arnoldson.
Life
He was son of a clergyman born in Næstved in 1837. Baje ...
, whom she had known since adolescence, and convinced him that women should have an equal position to men in society.
For a short period Mathilde Bajer was chairperson of the Danish Women's Society (''
Dansk Kvindesamfund
The Danish Women's Society or DWS ( da, Dansk Kvindesamfund) is Denmark's oldest women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in th ...
''), which she helped found in 1871.
In 1885 she was co-founder and a leading member of the political wing of the Women's Progress Association (''
Kvindelig Fremskridtsforening'') which fought for women's suffrage, and succeeded in 1915.
Mathilde and her husband always supported each other, and Mathilde Bajer was active in the Danish Peace Society (''
Dansk Fredsforening'') to which Fredrik Bajer was dedicated.
The English Quaker and pacifist
Priscilla Hannah Peckover
Priscilla Hannah Peckover (27 October 1833 – 8 September 1931) was an English Quaker, pacifist and linguist from a prosperous banking family. After helping to raise the three daughters of her widowed brother, in her forties she became involve ...
met Fredrik and Matilde Bajer at a Nordic Women's meeting in 1888.
Peckover paid Matilde Bajer's expenses so that she could participate in international peace meetings.
Mathilde Bajer died on 4 March 1934 in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
.
See also
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List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work ...
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bajer, Matilde
1840 births
1934 deaths
Danish feminists
Danish suffragists
Danish pacifists
Pacifist feminists
Danish women's rights activists
19th-century Danish people
People from Næstved Municipality