Emma Asson

Emma Asson

Emma Asson (13 July 1889 – 1 January 1965),^[1] was an Estonian politician (Social Democrat). She belonged to the first women to have been elected to the Estonian parliament. She participated in the creation of the first constitution of the independent Estonia, particularly within the fields of education and gender equality. She also wrote the first textbook in the Estonian language in 1912.

Biography

Emma Asson was born in Vaabina Parish, Võru County, Governorate of Livonia, part of the Russian Empire, as the daughter of a teacher. She studied at the A. S. Pushkin Girl's School in Tartu and graduated in history at the Bestuzhev Courses in Saint Petersburg in Russia in 1910; she was then employed as a history teacher at a girls college in Tartu.

Emma Asson was active within different women's organisations for social- and education issues. In 1919, she was elected in to the Tallinn city council as well as to the first national parliament of the independent Estonia for the social democrats as the first of her gender. She was a member of the Education Ministry in 1919-21, secretary for the Estonian Women's Association and Head of the Education Department in 1925-1940.

She was married to the politician Ferdinand Petersen in 1921-41.

Sources