Anna Rogstad

Anna Georgine Rogstad (26 July 1854 – 8 November 1938) was a Norwegian educator, women's rights activist and politician for the Liberal Left Party. She was the country's first female Member of Parliament. A teacher by profession, Rogstad was deeply involved in the educational policies of the nation. She also fought for women's rights, particularly the right to vote. In 1911 she met in parliament as a deputy representative for Jens Bratlie, and held this position full-time after Bratlie became Prime Minister in 1912.

Rogstad was born at Nordre Land to legal clerk Ole Rogstad (1805–1876) and Anne Cathrine Møller (b. 1807). Anna started teaching in primary school in 1873 in Trondheim. Four years later she moved to Kristiania – today's Oslo – where she worked at various locations before settling in Grünerløkka, where she stayed for thirty years.

While living in Kristiania, Rogstad became involved in issues of women's education and worked to strengthen the education of girls. In 1889 she became president of the Kristiania female teachers' organization, which she changed from a social club to a trade union. Initially she advocated the creation of a separate teaching academy for women, but during the 1880s she changed her position to favour admitting women to the all-male teaching academy, which became policy in 1890. She was also active in the Norwegian Teachers' Union, where she served as vice president in the period from 1892 to 1907. When the Norwegian Association of Female Teachers was created in 1912, Rogstad was the president until 1919. In 1899 she started a secondary school for girls, with voluntary evening classes for twenty-five students. The school became popular, and in 1909 the city took over. Rogstad remained the school's principal until she retired in 1923, at the age of sixty-nine.

Anna Rogstad was among the founders of the Norwegian Women's Rights Association in 1884 and the Association for Women's Suffrage in 1885. She was vicepresident of the Association for Women's Suffrage during 1885-97 and 1902-13. In Kristiania she represented the female teachers in the municipal school board from 1894 to 1916. She was elected deputy representative of the Association for Women's Suffrage to the city council in 1901, representative of the city council of a group of three center-right parties in 1907 and deputy representative to the city council for the Liberal Left Party in 1910.

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