Så skriver vi historia. Den svenska kvinnorörelsen ur ett historiografiskt perspektiv

Abstract

This is a historiographical study of the making of history within the women's movement in Sweden at the turn of the 19th century. It focuses on three authors, Alexandra Gripenberg, Lydia Wahlström and Gurli Linder, all of whom were activists while only Wahlström was a professional historian. Pamphlets written just before the intense period of suffrage campaigns in the 1910's and 20's are analysed. The material demonstrates a clear trend towards the writing of a homogenous history of the women's movement. Conflicts are toned down. The focus of the pamphlets is on concrete reforms and demands. The women's movement in Sweden is said to be reformist, civilized and it is very much described as a work of women alone. Even though there have been many important men active in Swedish feminism, their role in the emancipation process is given little attention in practically all the narratives. Fredrika Bremer and a couple of other female pioneers are said to be the founders of the movement and the exclusion of certain groups and directions from consideration is obvious. Every kind of more radical movement is put aside by the master narrative: this includes the work of advocates of sexual reform as well as the efforts of the earlier advocates of sexual purity, left wing liberals, peace workers, not to mention socialists. But differences between the authors are nonetheless visible, particularly in their attitudes towards liberalism and towards the role of men in the movement. Lydia Wahlström, herself right wing politically, shows an open mistrust of both men in the movement and of liberalism. Despite this, she is, even today, usually seen as the historian of the women's movement. In her book, The Swedish Women's Movement from 1933, the exclusion from her account of all kinds of radicalism is even more obvious. The fashioning of this particular history or master narrative within Swedish feminism is interpreted in the article as a type of policy making, as an expression of the aims of a certain kind of feminism and as an important means of creating traditions within a social movement.