ABSTRACT
Political activity is mainly preoccupied with the public sphere. Consequently, ‘politics’ is primarily concerned with the undertakings of men, and political activity is generally considered proper for men, not women. As in all male-dominated societies, the most striking fact about the participation of women in political elites in Norway is that there are so few of them. In 1901 women were allowed to vote for the first time; that is, those women having certain economic means could vote in local elections. The newly elected women were declared to be ‘incompetent’ in spite of the fact that all had been accepted as candidates by their political parties, and countermeasures against the women were announced. Women’s pressure for increased political participation has aimed at greater representation on the different public committees, even if this field has not created as much interest as women’s role in the elected assemblies.
