Audio clip from an interview with Olga Skaftfeld, 1989

Bio: Olga Skaftfeld was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on January 17, 1917. Her parents were Leifur Oddsson of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Helga Vilhjálmsdóttir from Húsavík. Her stepmother was Asta Austmann Oddson of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Olga died on October 22, 1997.

Duration of Audio Clip: 2:43 

Transcription of Audio: 

Laurence Gillespie, interviewer: What did your mother think about suffrage or the issues of women’s rights? 

Olga Skaftfeld: Oh, well, now you’ve opened a whole beehive there. And my youngest sister is still living under that influence. But she was very, very strong that way. And, in fact, resented being a woman in many ways because women were looked down on in her time. It wasn’t until the year I was born. The women in Manitoba got the vote before anywhere else. 

Laurence Gillespie: Well, how could you tell that your mother felt that way? 

Olga Skaftfeld: Well, for one thing, she was a teacher, and she, especially after WWII, she was teaching the, what do you call them, the veterans who came back. 

Laurence Gillespie: After the Second War. 

Olga Skaftfeld: Yeah, the high school English. But she wasn’t being paid as the male teacher was. 

Laurence Gillespie: So there was an actual difference? 

Olga Skaftfeld: Even then. Well, there still is. 

Laurence Gillespie: Can you remember any other incidents where your mother came out a victim because of her sex? 

Olga Skaftfeld: No. Yeah, she was a victim in some ways, but she did as good a job as any man could do bringing up her kids. 

Laurence Gillespie: Well, how would you describe your father’s view on suffrage? 

Olga Skaftfeld: Well, I don’t; I never heard about his opinion, I just heard about my afi’s because when he came in 1888, he was horrified to find out that his wife was not considered a person, that she was chattel. So, I guess my father was the same. 

Laurence Gillespie: So he may have inherited the views from his grandfather. 

Olga Skaftfeld: I think so because it wasn’t known of in Iceland. I got a big boost out of a bit I read in the Icelandic paper about somebody who had visited Iceland, and they wrote a little article about it. And the ladies over there said, “I understand in Canada that they have to take their husbands’ names. I would never do that.” And I’ve got a little bit of that too because I did not want to give up my name. 

Laurence Gillespie: And was it difficult to hold on to that, to your name then? 

Olga Skaftfeld: Well, in my time, yeah, I was married in ’37. And it would have gone over like a lead balloon with my husband and his family. But I did not want to change my name. I didn’t see why I should. He didn’t. He didn’t have to change his name in any way.