Anna Caspari Agerholt (1892–1943)

Anna Caspari Agerholt was a pioneering feminist and social work educator in Norway. She became an activist for women's right to vote at a young age. She studied philology at the University of Oslo and earned a Ph.D. degree in 1917. The following year, she took the exams to become a teacher in higher education. She worked as a teacher at Lillehammer high school and later -- after traveling in Italy and Germany -- held positions at a number of high schools in Oslo. In 1923, she married Peter Johan Agerholt, the first archivist in the Norwegian National Archives. From 1925, she taught social history and Norwegian at the Norwegian Women's National Council. She was a leader for this curriculum, which until 1950 was the only education for women who wanted to go into social work. During World War II, when the Nazis invaded Norway, she had to go into hiding. She wrote articles for various journals, particularly on literary topics, but her master work is considered Den norske kvinnebevegelses historie (The Norwegian Women's Movement), first published in 1937. It was the first complete modern history of the Norwegian women's movement and the first written by a woman with a university education. It has become a classic reference work.
Anna Caspari Agerholt served as chairman of the Norwegian Women Academics Association from 1932 to 1934, and for a short time was the secretary of the Norwegian Women's National Council. She participated in several international women's congresses, and was a close friend of many leading feminists.