Estrid Hein

Overview

Estrid Hein (née Hansen) born Øregaard, Denmark July 27, 1873 (d. 1956). First Danish woman ophthalmologist; suffragist and women’s rights activist. Active in League of Nations abolition of White Slave traffic, and protection of children.

Quotations

“In my capacity as a woman, I must say that I have always had a distrust of a society as organized by men. This distrust has grown with the war, and I feel that if the women of Europe had only more say in the governing of their countries this terrible slaughter of soldiers and civilians would have been avoided. We women may have our faults, yet it is our instinctive impulse to preserve our children from the cruelties and horrors of the battlefield. As a doctor, as a mother and a woman I am beginning to put the value of individual life before that of this terrible campaign.” (Jan. 1915, in Edward van Zile, The Game of Empires, p. 262; photo piethein.com)