Lighthouse Women

From Ryvingen in the south to Fruholmen in the north, from Utvær in the west to Bøkfjord in the east, women and children participated in the operation of the lighthouses. The country’s most isolated and weather-beaten places were home and childhood for the entire lighthouse family.

Women’s presence and efforts in operating and maintaining lighthouses have been little known. Both women and children contributed to the lighthouses shining in the dark and guiding all seafarers.

Eli Ellingsve has written about life at the lighthouses based on diligent source research, and she has also interviewed women who have worked or grown up at lighthouses.
Over two hundred women from 123 lighthouse stations are featured in the book. Ellingsve shows that women took part in all aspects of lighthouse work, in addition to active roles in the local communities they were part of.

Without the women, the lighthouses could not have been operated.