Dr. Clara Holst (1868–1935) ‒ an important but long forgotten Norwegian linguist and woman pioneer

Abstract

Clara Holst (1868–1935), a pioneering Norwegian linguist and academic feminist, was the first woman to defend a PhD in Norway (1903). Her research focused on German, in particular Low German, and the long-lasting contact between Low German and the Scandinavian languages during the Hansa period of the Late Middle Ages. Some of her work clearly points forward in the direction of structuralism. However, due to her gender, she was never granted a university position in Norway. When she finally protested against the discrimination she faced, she was quickly relegated to obscurity and nearly forgotten. Until quite recently, her scholarly and feminist contributions were rarely acknowledged after she left academia in 1910. This represented a significant loss for Norwegian linguistics, as few linguists in the country were as experienced or up-to-date with international linguistics as she was. This paper outlines her biography as a pioneering female academic and linguist.