Pioneering Pages: Forming the New American Woman

Sisters Ida and Mina Jensen were born in Ringsaker, Hedmark, Norway. In 1870 they immigrated with their family to Illinois. Later, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ida and husband Niels Frederik Hansen started a magazine called Fra Alle Lande (From All Countries). Ida wrote a column for homemakers. After the magazine folded in 1888, Ida and her sister Mina, who had become a typesetter, decided to put the publishing equipment to use and produce a magazine for women, which they called Kvinden og Hjemmet or Woman and Home. The first issue, edited by Ida and typeset by Mina, came out in May 1888. The magazine would continue for 60 years and peaked with a circulation of 83,000 throughout the United States and abroad. The magazine was written in Dano-Norwegian, the language of Denmark and Norway at that time. One of the aims of the magazine was to offer information to help immigrant women learn customs and skills to adapt to American ways of life. But the magazine was much more. Unusual at the time, this was a publication by and for women. Kvinden og Hjemmet was also remarkable for its content. From the first issue, Ida Jensen Hansen advocated for women’s education, equality, and suffrage. She offered articles to stimulate and develop readers’ intellect and make them aware of how they could use their knowledge, talents, and skills to benefit society.