Description
AMTMANDENS DØTRE – REIS KJERRINGA! // MARTA BREEN
The Oslo group Amtmandens Døtre can be said to have been the very soundtrack of the Norwegian women's movement. The band was formed during Kvinnefronten's annual meeting in 1974 by seven girls who were themselves active in the movement. Already the following year, the group's first and only album "Reis kjerringa!" was released. - produced by Harald Are Lund and released on the radical label Mai.
The pop songs were about themes such as self-determined abortion and women's right to paid work. One of the songs was called "Synonymordboka" and in this text they used all the words in Gyldendal's thesaurus related to women and men. On the women's side, they found words such as ”prostituert”, ”fjolle” og ”tykksak” while on the men's side it read skapningens herre”, ”gentleman ” and ”det sterke kjønn.” The song led to the publisher revising the book.
Amtmandens Døtre got off to a flying start and went on a nationwide tour. They set as a requirement that they should always have a girl band as warm-up, and the organizers managed to achieve this almost everywhere. Often a band was put together for the occasion, and most were on stage for the first time.
About the author:
Marta Breen (b. 1976) is an award-winning non-fiction writer and one of Norway's most prominent feminists. She has written a number of books about women's history, music and feminism, including ”Piker, vin og sang”, about women in Norwegian pop and rock, ”Radka Toneff, hennes korte liv og store stemme” and ”Om muser og menn” there she comes to terms with the historical male dominance in cultural life.