Kirsten Hansteen was the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 appointed Minister of Social Affairs in 1945, and the first ever female member of cabinet in Norway. She represented the Communist Party of Norway

Communist Party of Norway

The Communist Party of Norway is a political party in Norway without parliamentary representation. It was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. The party played an important role in the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War, and experienced a brief...

. Her husband Viggo Hansteen

Viggo Hansteen

Harald Viggo Hansteen was a Norwegian lawyer who was executed by the Nazis during the five-year Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. -Biography:...

 was executed by the German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 occupation forces in 1941. She edited the underground resistance paper Kvinnefronten (Women's front) during the German occupation

Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany

The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...

. After the war

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 she founded the journal Kvinnen og tiden together with Henriette Bie Lorentzen

Henriette Bie Lorentzen

Henriette Bie Lorentzen , born Anna Henriette Wegner Haagaas, was a Norwegian humanist, peace activist, feminist, editor, one of the founders of the Nansen Academy, resistance member during World War II and survivor from the Ravensbrück concentration camp.She earned the degree Magister in history...

.