Helga Karlsen

Helga Aleksandra Karlsen (20 November 1882 – 15 October 1936) was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party, and the party's first female Member of Parliament.^[1] Coming from humble origins, she gradually made her way up through the organisation of the labour movement. She served two non-consecutive periods in parliament (1927–30 and 1933–36), but died shortly before she could be elected for a third term. She has been called the Labour Party's foremost female politician in the interwar period.^[2]

Karlsen was born in Oslo (at the time called Kristiania), to rail-road engineer Karl Arnesen (1860 – 1923) and Hilda Alette Torgersdatter (b. 1855).^[3] It seems as though her mother died while Helga was still young, and the girl had to go into foster care; in early records she appears under the name of Helga Pettersen.^[3] She started working at the age of fourteen, first as a maid, later in a café and in a candy factory. She then worked at a trading company for three years before entering into politics.^[3]

Karlsen had been involved in the labour movement since she first joined their theatre group in 1899.^[3] In the early 1920s, she was elected to the city council for the Labour Party.^[2] Here, among other things, she argued against municipal funding for the building of the so-called Markus Church on Grünerløkka, on the basis of the acute shortage of housing in the city.^[4] Karlsen was also deeply involved in the party's organisation of children's groups.^[3]

In 1927 she was elected to Parliament as the first female representative of the Norwegian Labour Party.^[a] It was during this period that she was fined the sum of NOK 500, for donating money to striking construction workers.^[2] After a poor election for the party in 1930, she lost her position, but regained it in 1933.^[3] In the meanwhile she was, as the first woman ever, elected chairman of Oslo Arbeidersamfunn (Oslo Workers' Society) in 1932.^[2] In 1935 she participated at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.^[1] Here she delivered a well-received speech in favour of the 40-hour week.^[3]

In 1936, while running for a third term in Parliament, Karlsen fell ill. She was rarely unwell, but the busy schedule of the campaign had taken a great toll on her.^[5] She died only four days before the election.^[3] Karlsen was buried from the People's Houses in Oslo, where the eulogy was delivered by Martin Tranmæl.^[5] She was survived by her husband, Fredrik Emanuel Karlsen (1873 – 1942), whom she had met through the labour movement.^[3]

• Syvertsen, Sigrid; Thina Thorleifsen (1960). Kvinner i strid : historien om Arbeiderpartiets kvinnebevegelse (in Norwegian). Oslo: Arbeidernes opplysningsforbund.