Gitta Jønsson (5 October 1869 – 6 March 1950) was a Norwegian Labour Party politician and proponent for women's rights.

Early and personal life

Jønsson was born in Tromsøysund Municipality, a daughter of Johan Widding Larsen Hagerup and Eline Marie Moe. As a young woman she worked as housemaid in

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

and

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

, and was eventually running a milk shop along with her sister. She married saddle maker Anders Jønsson in 1903, and they settled in

, where he established a workshop and she opened a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

. Their daughter Bengta Andrea married composer Bjarne Amdahl.

Political career

Jønsson joined the Labour Party in 1909, and founded Tromsø Arbeiderkvinneforening in 1911. Taking part in local politics, she was elected member of the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

Tromsø Municipality Tromsø Municipality is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Other notable settlements in the municipality include the vi ...

from 1913 to 1925. She was a member of the board of the Norwegian Labour Party from 1923 to 1945, and chaired the Northern Troms chapter for many years. She was elected deputy member to the

Storting The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...

for the period 1934–1945. She died in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

on 6 March 1950, aged 80.

Literature

References

1869 births 1950 deaths Politicians from Tromsø Labour Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian socialist feminists Troms politicians Norwegian women's rights activists Deputy members of the Storting {{Norway-politician-stub