Women's and gender history

Whalers dressed up as women and slept snugly together

7 November 2023

At the same time, life on the whaling vessels was both boring and extremely dangerous, according to one researcher.

Reading Nikolai Astrup's paintings in light of his mother's art

29 June 2023

A recent doctoral thesis highlights new perspectives on the famous painter. In particular, the influence of his mother, wife and handicraft provides new insights into his oeuvre.

Interactive technology and "co-creation" foster diversity at the museum

31 May 2023

Digital technology and interaction with the public will help increase diversity and highlight women in the Technical Museum's exhibitions.

When the state apologises, history must be rewritten

11 April 2023

When victims of state abuse achieve recognition, the identity of the entire people will change, according to Eirik Vatnøy. He has analysed the rhetoric of an Irish rights campaign for women detained in Catholic laundries.

Danish research on violence under political pressure

7 October 2022

Last year, Signe Uldbjerg’s research on digital violence against women became a hot political issue at the Danish Folketinget. Followed by a political statement on the relationship between activism and research, outrage from Danish academia and a debate on academic freedom.

Wants to make it easier to share experiences of abortion

5 August 2021
The Women's Museum Norway recently launched the abortion exhibition HYSJ! (‘HUSH!’). Their goal is to create a space for talking about a topic that is still shameful for many women today.

The versatile Hamsun

16 April 2021
New research demonstrates expressions of women’s liberation and homoerotic desire in Knut Hamsun’s works from the 1890’s.

Ancient objects shed new light on women’s role in the Viking raids

13 January 2021
Kitchen equipment from the British Isles has been found in graves belonging to Viking women from aristocratic families. “We can gain new knowledge about women’s participation in the Viking raids by posing new questions to old findings,” according to researcher.

“Pandemics affect women and men differently”

8 July 2020
Our knowledge about previous pandemics gives us invaluable information on how to handle today’s corona pandemic, according to researchers.

“Women’s historical contributions are still ignored”

11 September 2019
“Women’s history brings forth knowledge concerning one half of humanity, and makes sure that the discipline does not become gender blind,” says professor of history at University of Oslo, Hilde Sandvik.

Calls for a revival of the artist Hannah Ryggen

15 February 2019
“What was written about Hannah Ryggen in the eighties and nineties does not reflect the quality of her art and her significance during her own time,” according to art historian Marit Paasche.

Still embarrassing to talk about menstruation

22 January 2019
“Norwegian women are perhaps not as modern and liberated today as we like to think,” says researcher Camilla Mørk Røstvik. She has examined how women – and some men – describe their experiences with menstruation in the twentieth century.

Queer lives find their way to the museum

11 January 2019
How have the limits for what is considered acceptable sexuality been drawn and negotiated through history? This is the question we need to ask in order to understand not only the past, but also our present, according to Tone Hellesund.

The rocky road to sex change treatment in Norway

2 July 2018
In the 1950s, the first successful gender reassignment treatment was carried out. Since then, major developments have taken place within medicine and law, but also when it comes to our perceptions of gender, according to historian Sigrid Sandal.

Simone de Beauvoir: From Sartre’s secretary to feminist style icon

30 April 2018
When Simone de Beauvoir’s feminist classic The Second Sex was published in Norway in 1970, both sexuality and existentialism were downplayed. “She was made popular,” says Ida Hove Solberg, who has examined the Norwegian translations of de Beauvoir’s work.

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