Severine Andrea Casse née Engelbreth (1805–1898) was a Danish

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

activist and an influential member of the

Danish Women's Society The Danish Women's Society or DWS () is Denmark's oldest women's rights organization. It was founded in 1871 by activist Matilde Bajer and her husband Fredrik Bajer; Fredrik was a Member of Parliament and the 1908 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The as ...

. Intent on social and political reforms for women, she successfully fought for a wife's right to dispose of her own earnings.

Biography

Born on 15 November 1805 in Lyderslev on the

Stevns Peninsula Stevns Peninsula is a peninsula on Zealand in Denmark. It is separated from Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size ...

, Severine Andrea Engelbreth was the daughter of the provost Wolf Frederik Engelbreth (1771–1862) and Kirstine Marie Petersen (1779–1868). Thanks to her father, she came into contact with many of Zealand's religious figures. In 1930, she married Andreas Lorentz Casse, the Danish minister of justice, with whom she had seven children. From 1871 to 1873, she was a member of the board of the Danish Women's Society where she fought for changes in the marriage laws. She successfully involved the jurist Carl Goos (1835–1917), encouraging him to work with the pacifist politician

Fredrik Bajer Fredrik Bajer (21 April 1837 – 22 January 1922) was a Denmark, Danish writer, teacher, and pacifism, pacifist politician who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 together with Klas Pontus Arnoldson. Life He was son of a clergyman born in Næ ...

who stood for a wife's right to dispose of the income she had earned. With the support of the Danish Women's Society, new legislation along these lines was introduced on 7 May 1880 under the so-called Bajer's Law (''Bajerske lov''). A talented public speaker, Casse was one of the oldest and most respected members of the Danish Women's Society. When she was 90, she was granted the status of honorary member. Severine Casse died in the

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...

district of Copenhagen on 20 October 1898.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casse, Severine 1805 births 1898 deaths 19th-century Danish people Danish feminists Danish women's rights activists People from Stevns Municipality