Feminism in Sweden is a significant social and political influence within Swedish society."The Swedish General Election 2014 and the Representation of Women", Northern Ireland Assembly, Research and Information Service Research Paper, 1 October 2014, p. 1.Viola Gad, "Feminism Comes to the Forefront of Swedish Politics", Time, 12 September 2014. Swedish political parties across the political spectrum commit to gender-based policies in their public political manifestos. "The Swedish General Election 2014 and the Representation of Women", Northern Ireland Assembly, Research and Information Service Research Paper, 1 October 2014, p. 21. The Swedish government assesses all policy according to the tenets of gender mainstreaming."The Swedish General Election 2014 and the Representation of Women", Northern Ireland Assembly, Research and Information Service Research Paper, 1 October 2014, p. 9.Sadaf Ahsan, "How Sweden is trying to turn every 16-year-old into a feminist", National Post, 7 December 2015. Women in Sweden are 45% of the political representatives in the Swedish Parliament. Women make up 43% of representatives in local legislatures as of 2014. In addition, in 2014, newly sworn in Foreign Minister Margot Wallström announced a feminist foreign policy.
Swedish feminism dates back to the 17th century and was discussed in intellectual circles throughout the 18th century. Since the publication Samtal emellan Argi Skugga och en obekant Fruentimbers Skugga by Margareta Momma in 1738, followed by Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht's famous poem Fruntimrens försvar (To the Defense of Women, 1761) debate on gender roles and gender equality has become a mainstream topic.
Women had conditional suffrage during the Age of Liberty in 1718–1772. With a relatively high level of education, in 1862, unmarried Swedish women were the first worldwide to be granted conditional right to vote in municipal elections. Universal women suffrage followed in 1921. Since then, Sweden has remained a forerunner of gender equality driven by a both intellectual and practical feminist movement. In the 21st century, Sweden has seen the rise of anti-gender campaigns targeting transgender people, gender studies, and intersectional feminist and queer movements, reflecting a broader transnational backlash against gender justice and inclusion. Among these are so-called "gender-critical" actors who present themselves as radical feminists while advancing trans-exclusionary positions.
In 2014, Sweden's Feminist Initiative became the first feminist political party to win a mandate in the European parliament, rediscussing feminism from a decisively antiracist perspective that includes the perspectives of people of color.
History
Protofeminism During the 17th century, questions around gender roles, gender equality and women's rights were raised by individuals such as Sophia Elisabet Brenner and Beata Rosenhane, but these were rare exceptions.
During the 18th century, gender roles, gender equality and reform in women's social and legal status were discussed in public debate and literature. Many anonymous female journalists and writers participated under pseudonyms in temporary periodicals, often in the form of a fictions correspondence, questioning the status of women, only a minority of whom, however, has been identified.Jakob Christensson (in Swedish): Signums svenska kulturhistoria. Gustavianska tiden (English: Swedish culture history by signum. The Gustavian age) (2007). Among them were Margareta Momma, Catharina Ahlgren and Anna Maria Rückerschöld. In 1761, Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht wrote her famous poem Fruntimrens försvar (To the Defense of Women).
First wave feminism The first civil-society organisation founded by women in Sweden was the charitable society Välgörande fruntimmerssällskapet, which was founded in Stockholm in 1819 by a group of upper-class women under the leadership of Princess Sophie Albertine of Sweden. Its purpose was to support poor women. This was the first time in Sweden women organized to achieve and reform something in society by a public voice. Though the subject may seem non controversial, the act of women organizing to change society was in itself radical. This was to be followed by numerous other charitable women's societies during the 19th century.
In 1839, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist started a long literary debate regarding gender roles through his famous novel Det går an, in which he argued for free love and the right of Cohabitation without the restrictions of marriage and the right for women to experience love without losing their independence.
In 1848, Sophie Sager aroused considerable controversy after reporting a rape attempt and going on to win her case. She became the perhaps first woman in Sweden to make public speeches in favor of feminism, which made her famous but also ridiculed as a feminist figure.Kyle, Gunhild; Krusenstjerna, Eva von (1993). Kvinnoprofiler. Panorama (Natur & Kultur), 99-0913791-7 . Stockholm: Natur & Kultur. Hers was, however, an isolated attempt, and did not start any organized movement.
In 1855, Josefina Deland founded the Svenska lärarinnors pensionsförening (The Society for Retired Female Teachers) to provide for retired female teachers and governesses. Being an educator was at the time one of the few professions available for an educated woman to support herself, which was at the time an important question for women.Chief editor: Nils Bohman, Svenska män och kvinnor. 2, C-F (Swedish Men and Women. 2, C-F) dictionary (1944) (in Swedish) This was arguably the first time women organized themselves to deal with a wider women's issue in Sweden.
In 1856, Fredrika Bremer published the novel Hertha, which aroused great controversy and created the "Hertha Debate". The two foremost questions were the abolition of legal guardianship for unmarried women, and for the state to provide women an equivalent to a university. Social change arrived: in 1858, a reform granted unmarried women the right to apply for legal majority by a simple procedure, and in 1861, Högre lärarinneseminariet was founded as a "Women's University". In 1859, the first women's magazine in Sweden and the Nordic countries, the Tidskrift för hemmet, was founded by Sophie Adlersparre and Rosalie Olivecrona. This has been referred to as the starting point of a women's movement in Sweden.
The second half of the 19th century saw the creation of several women's rights organisations and a considerable activity within both active organisations as well as intellectual debate. The organized women's movement begun in 1873, when the Married Woman's Property Rights Association was co-founded by Anna Hierta-Retzius and Ellen Anckarsvärd. The prime task of the organization was to fully abolish coverture. In 1884, the Fredrika Bremer Association was founded by Sophie Adlersparre to work for the improvement in women's rights. The Swedish Dress reform Association worked to liberate women from the contemporary Victorian dress fashion and thus improve their health and give them more freedom of movement.
The 1880s saw the so-called Sedlighetsdebatten ('Virtue Debate'), where gender roles were discussed in literary debates in regards to sexual double standards, as opposed to sexual equality. One of the organs for this was the Svenska Federationen, who worked to put a stop to the regulation system of prostitutes and questioned the contemporaneous sexual double standards by which this system was justified. Women organized prominently in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, whose Swedish section Vita bandet ("White ribbon") was founded in 1897.
Women also started to organize politically via the Swedish work- and union movement, where they were early inducted in to the movement and came to play an important role. In 1888 the first 'Women's Worker's Club' was founded in Malmö, which was followed by its Stockholm eqvivalent and a number of local women's workers club, which eventually united to form the Social Democratic Women in Sweden, and via the women's worker's club, women were in parallel included in the trade unions, uniting in the Women's Trade Union; and Alina Jägerstedt ensured that women were included as party members at the very foundation of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Anne-Marie Lindgren & Marika Lindgren Åsbrink: Systrar kamrater! Arbetarrörelsens kvinnliga pionjärer. Stockholm 2007 The well organized Swedish working women came to play a vital part in the integration of women in the public political ad professional sphere, and there were more women active within the Social Democratic movement than any other policial party.
In 1902 the Swedish Society for Woman Suffrage was founded, supported by the Social Democratic women's Clubs.Barbro Hedwall (2011). Susanna Eriksson Lundqvist. red.. Vår rättmätiga plats. Om kvinnornas kamp för rösträtt.. (Our Rightful Place. About women's struggle for suffrage) Förlag Bonnier. (Swedish) Women's suffrage was introduced in 1919-1921, followed by the Behörighetslagen in 1923, with women being formally awarded equal rights as male citizens. Between 1921 and 1971, the successor of the suffrage movement, the Svenska Kvinnors Medborgarförbund, worked to ensure that the formal laws of gender equality was enforced in practice and not remain on paper only. From 1921 to 1954, Kvinnliga medborgarskolan vid Fogelstad ('Fogelstad Citizen School for Women') held courses to educate women about their new rights as full and equal citizens and encouraged them to use their new rights.
During the interwar period, various women's magazines and organizations existed for women of all political views and classes. Women organized in the women's wings of the political parties, such as the Social Democratic Women in Sweden, Centerkvinnorna, Liberala kvinnor and the Moderate Women, through which they channeled their demands in to politics, entering the political life and voicing their interests in Parliament, and during the Interwar period both the Föreningen Kvinnolistan (Literary: 'The Women's List Association') of 1927 and the Kommittén för ökad kvinnorepresentation (Literary: 'The committee for increased women's representation') of 1937 lobbied the political parties to appoint more women to political office.Rönnbäck, Josefin, '"Utan kvinnor inget folkstyre": en historisk exposé över kampen för ökad kvinnorepresentation i Sverige', Tidskrift för genusvetenskap., 2010:3, s. 61-89, 2010
Second wave feminism and beyond
During the 1960s- and 1970s, Sweden experienced a new wave of feminism: in 1968, the Group 8 was founded and raised a number of issues within gender equality. In 1973, Women of Labour was split from Group 8. Popular culture included feminism values, such as Röda bönor.
The campaign for increased political representation of women by Kommittén för ökad kvinnorepresentation in 1937-1948 was followed by the Samarbetskommittén för ökad kvinnorepresentation (Literary: 'The Cooperation Committee for increased women's representation') in 1968Rönnbäck, Josefin, '"Utan kvinnor inget folkstyre": en historisk exposé över kampen för ökad kvinnorepresentation i Sverige', Tidskrift för genusvetenskap., 2010:3, s. 61-89, 2010 and in 1991 by the campaign of the Stödstrumporna (Literary: 'The Support stockings'), resulting in the introduction of the Varannan damernas (Literary: 'Every Other Ladies [Elective seat]') principle and almost half of the elected officials to the Parliament being women in the 1994 Swedish general election.Törnqvist, Maria (2019). "Varannan damernas eller hela makten? Kommentar till Maria-Pia Boëthius, "Krav på kvinnoparti"". i Klara Arnberg, Fia Sundevall, David Tjeder. Könspolitiska nyckeltexter. Från Det går an till #metoo. p. 422–426
The late 1990s saw a renewal of feminism activity in Sweden, which was given great encouragement by the government. Left Party was particularly active to raise the question under Gudrun Schyman.