Felicija Bortkevičienė

Bortkeviciene

Felicija Bortkevičienė (1873 - 21 October 1945), was a Lithuanian politician and publisher. She was one of the first women in the Lithuanian Parliament.

Life

She was the daughter of the noble Juozas Povickas and Antanina Ona Liutkevičiūtė. She was tutored at home, then at the Marinskaja School in Kaunas and finally at Warshaw. She married engineer John Bortkevičiaus (1871 -1909) in 1901 and lived at Vilnius, where she became involved in social work and participated in the revival of the Lithuanian language and culture. She assisted persecuted Lithuanian language writers and participated in an underground Lithuanian paper. In 1905, she became a member of the Lithuanian Women's Association. She was arrested on several occasions for printing illegal newspapers. In 1915, she became the first female Freemason in Lithuania. In 1917, she was a delegate of the Lithuanian conference in Stockholm. In 1920, she was elected to the first parliament of independent Lithuania as one of the first women.

Bibliography