The History of Historical Swedish Periodicals for Women

Background: Eighteenth-century publications for ladies

Publications for women emerged in increasing numbers in the eighteenth century in Europe. With enlightenment and appropriate upbringing, women were to be emancipated and the world improved. The publication of newspapers and magazines was closely associated with the struggle for democracy and the Enlightenment ideas of those times. Other causes of the emergence of these publications were increased literacy and an improved infrastructure. For example, it became cheaper to print newspapers and magazines. Also, the railways were extended in Europe. This meant that it was easier to distribute the newspapers and magazines to a wider circle of readers.

Among the oldest magazines for women in Europe was The Ladies' Mercury (1693), whose publisher was John Dunton. It is difficult to know to what degree women actually contributed to it, since at that time many wrote under a pseudonym. The first magazine by and for women was The Female Spectator, published anonymously by Eliza Haywood (1744—1746). Progress was slower in Germany, and the first woman publisher there was I Tyskland gick det långsammare och först ut var Marianne Ehrmann with Amaliens Erholungsstunden, Deutschlands Töchtern geweiht (1790—1792). There were magazines in France addressed to both women and men, just as in the other countries, and during the Revolution women’s publications began to appear, like for example L´Observateur Féminine. From 1793, when women were forbidden to organise themselves, this type of publication was markedly reduced in numbers.¹

Women’s publications made a brief appearance during the eighteenth century in Sweden as well. Of the approximately 340 newspapers and magazines started during the period 1730—1809,² about ten were directly addressed to women. These so-called ladies’ magazines (fruntimmerstidskrifterna) were a kind of educational literature, but as Margareta Berger has pointed out in her pioneering book Äntligen ord från qwinnohopen! (Finally a word from the crowd of women!) (1984) they were important publications since new voices made themselves heard there. Ladies’ magazines were produced for limited circulation, in which a normal issue consisted of 150 copies. These magazines only appeared for a year or so each.³ They were on sale in various shops, above all in Stockholm. The target group for such magazines was a middle-class group of readers, first and foremost women (dames or ladies). The word ”dame” was not as derogatory at that time as it is today, but meant rather a lady of gentle birth. Dames’ or ladies’ magazines were thus aimed first and foremost at the expanding group of middle-class women.

Ladies’ publications during the eighteenth century belonged to the middle-class environment in Stockholm. Women were permitted to have their own magazines and journals. There were in reality no formal legal impediments to stop them, but on the other hand it was expensive as well as difficult to print magazines and newspapers. Public space was not an arena to which women had access in the same way as men did. Since it was more the rule than the exception for women to write anonymously or under a pseudonym, it is difficult to hazard a guess today as to exactly how many of the ten or so magazines for ladies that are usually mentioned really were written by women or had women editors. However, one thing can be said about them: among the first ladies’ magazines was Samtal emellan Argi skugga och en obekant Fruentimbers Skugga. Nyligen ankommen til de dödas rjke (Conversation between Argus' Shade and an Unknown Lady's Shade, Recently Arrived in the Kingdom of the Dead) of which ten issues appeared during 1738-1739. This magazine was aimed at women readers and is usually attributed to Anna Margareta Momma, née von Bragner, a Dutchwoman.⁴ The four-page magazine in octavo (which is to say two sheets of paper each folded once) was set in German type, a common typeface, apart from the title page that used Antique as its typeface. The paper was made of linen or rags, a very durable but expensive material. Samtal emellan Argi Skugga was published by her husband Peter Momma’s printing works in Stockholm. The anonymous female voice in the magazine called herself "Fruntimbers Skugga" (”A Lady’s Shade”) and there appeared many fictitious conversations between this Lady’s Shade (Momma) and Arus' Shade (Dalin), which was an explicit reference to Olof von Dalin’s Then Swänska Argus (The Swedish Argus).⁵ The latter was the best known journal of ethical essays in Sweden at that time. As a weekly journal it appeared during 1732–1733 as well as with two issues in 1734. It was modelled on two English magazines: Richard Steele’s and Joseph Addison’s magazines The Tatler (1709—1711) and The Spectator (1711—1714). Dalin’s Then Swänska Argus was an important organ for opinion, debate and discussion which heckled the decay of manners and morals using satire. It contained a mixture of materials, with chatty articles on matters of the day, political contributions, imaginary and genuine letters, stories, and fables etc. Everything was written in fluent, easy-to-read Swedish, in which personification was a prominent stylistic figure. The magazine was published anonymously. It was outspoken and moralising at a time when censorship was strong.

Samtal emellan Argi Skugga may be characterised as a radical magazine on account of its political tendencies. It was explicitly an Enlightenment magazine that made claims for religious tolerance and freedom of the press, that discussed domestic and international occurrences and women’s education, culture and upbringing. The form for all this was intimate, without the sharp point of satire. In the words of Ann Öhrberg, it was a matter of reaching the ”park of the learned”, without however being given access to it, but rather only getting close to it.⁶ By using the form of conversation to advocate the significance of women’s informal education, women were able to approach the public arena and thereby create greater authority. The magazine had as its method the good conversation. It did not however contain satire or irony as Dalin’s or the later women’s magazines did, using instead the form of letters and the rhetorical technique of pro and con (i.e. arguments for and against) in order to create mutual understanding.

There was "a supposedly feminine voice" in the Swedish ladies’ magazines and journals published during 1770-1793 in Stockholm, manifested through their address specifically to women readers.⁷ An example of such magazines and journals was Frustugo Bibliothek, (The Wives’ Cottage Library) a single issue edited in 1770 by Mrs Snällborg, its contents being short stories and anecdotes of various kinds. Others were Fruentimmers-Tidningar (Ladies’ Newspapers) by Carl Christoffer Gjörwell in 1772-1773 with a total of 35 issues, Fruntimmers Nöjen (Ladies’ Pleasures) in 1772 with an unknown editor and 39 issues, Fruntimers Port-Feuillen (Ladies’ Portfolios) edited by Johan Fischerström in 1781 with four issues and Blad för Fruntimmer (A Paper for the Ladies) in 1793 with an unknown editor and six issues. These magazines were probably all edited by men.⁸

The only magazine that indubitably had a woman editor was Brefwäxling emellan twänne fruntimmer, den ena i Stockholm och den andra på landet i åskillige blandade ämnen (Correspondence Between Two Ladies, One in Stockholm and the Other in the Country, Concerning a Considerable Number of Assorted Subjects). The first issue of this magazine appeared on October 29, 1772 and altogether there were 24 issues. Between New Year and February 1773 the magazine changed its name to Brefwäxling emellan Adelaide och någre wittre snillen i omwäxlande ämnen (Correspondence between Adelaide and Some Literary Gentlemen of Genius on Miscellaneous Subjects). Twenty-three issues came out and the third volume was called Fortsättning af Adelaides brefwäxling, angående Fru Windhams historie (Continuation of Adelaide’s Correspondence, Concerning the History of Mrs Windham) which appeared in 1773 and ran to 20 issues.⁹ The text was set in German type. It was a four-page newspaper in quarto, which could also be produced in octavo. The person behind the project was Catharina Ahlgren. She wrote anonymously and called herself Adelaide. That this was the case became evident in a handwritten anonymous lexicon by Jonas Apelblad, in which Ahlgren is designated as "[f]emina potens, sed ingenio plena" ("A forceful woman, but replete with ingenuity").¹⁰ It is however difficult to classify this magazine, since on the one hand it featured themes belonging to the private feminine sphere and on the other addressed both women and men. Margareta Björkman states that "the designation ’journal of essays’ is more appropriate for Correspondence than the more indeterminate designation ’women’s magazine’."¹¹

Other ladies’ magazines were De Nymodiga Fruntimren, eller Sophias och Bélisindes Tankespel (Modern Women, or Sophia’s and Belisinde’s Mental Games), in all probability also edited by Catharina Ahlgren in 1773 with 16 issues; Det Enfaldiga Fruntimret (The Simple Lady), edited by the anonymous Clarissa in 1773 with four issues, and Den Swenska Aspasie. Weckoskrift för Fruentimmer (The Swedish Aspasia. Weekly Magazine for Ladies), which had four issues in 1782. The latter opened with a preface by the anonymous editor, starting with the following words:

"Wherein One may Get to Know Who the Author is
After long consideration I have finally taken the step of printing N:o 1 of this Work. I am a Lady who has been disobedient and suffered many fates; thus I have acquired some experience which might be profitable to my Sex, for whose pleasure I also publish this Paper. I would prefer that no Male Person should wish to read me, since even though they accuse our sex of a penchant for curiosity, I fear far more in that sphere of them than of all Eva’s daughters put together."¹²

During the eighteenth century, woman was an important subject of discussion in Ladies’ magazines. They focused on how women should be brought up, formed and educated. There were few articles on politics and social questions. The rest of the Swedish press was chiefly dominated by political newspapers and magazines as well as moralistic essay anthologies. In 1766, the first Freedom of the Press Regulation was introduced in Sweden, involving the right to express and spread one’s opinions without prior censorship. This paved the way for more newspapers and magazines in the country.

Prelude

The fact that women started special women’s magazines in the middle of the nineteenth century had to do with the fact that The Woman Question was in step with the times. Women were excluded from political and parliamentary work and also from academic life, but by starting women’s magazines, women were able to make their voices heard. They were able to participate in the public discourse and discussion and they created their own space in which to write. Writing in periodicals meant per se speaking from a political standpoint. Consequently, women’s magazines also became a place where the borders between the private and the public could be transcendeded.¹³

From 1850, two main tracks can be discerned in their development up until the present day. The largest group among the magazines were the weeklies, among them the so-called family magazines in which home and household matters were the main focus. In them, entertainment and recreation were also of central importance. The other, somewhat smaller group, was closely connected to a growing bourgeois women’s movement, for which enlightenment and civil rights for women were the main project. In these magazines, women’s issues, social questions and cultural events were discussed. These magazines had a number of different political alignments and were sometimes linked to one or other association or organisation. It is these women’s magazines, the feminist magazines, with which this portal is mainly concerned. The upper limit in time is dependent upon how far the digitalisation of the magazines in question has reached in KvinnSam. In most cases, the entire publication has been digitalised (for example Tidskrift för hemmet, Dagny, Framåt, Rösträtt för kvinnor and Tidevarvet), while Idun, Morgonbris and Hertha have for reasons of copyright not been digitalised when it comes to their most recent years.

Tidskrift för hemmet (Home Journal) – a Pioneer in the Nordic Countries

When Tidskrift för hemmet first appeared in 1859, it was a historic event. This women’s magazine was the first to appear in the Nordic countries and it turned out to be the prelude to a long tradition of magazines. The Woman Question was currently in focus, also internationally. In England, the organised women’s movement had developed, of which The Langham Place Group constituted the hub during the 1850s and 1860s. A number of well-known women belonged to the group, such as Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, Bessie Parkes, Elizabeth Garrett, Emily Davies and many more. ¹⁴ One important venture was the women’s magazine The English Woman’s Journal, the first issue of which appeared in March 1858. It provided a forum for women’s issues, "The Woman Question", with discussions and information about current fiction and nonfiction. The magazine had a liberal base. The Woman Question was thus an important issue in the English press during the 1850s and 1860s and it was linked to ideas about progress and change. Society would become a better place with more women in public life. For this reason, social reforms were important. There was also an involvement in Sweden in the issue of strengthening women’s position in society, which was linked to the breakthrough of liberalism in the 1840s.¹⁵ When Fredrika Bremer’s novel Hertha, eller en själs historia (Hertha, or the Story of a Soul) appeared in 1856, there was a public discussion in which raised voices were heard for as well as against women’s coming of legal age. Rosalie Roos (later married Olivecrona) who had just arrived home after a longish stay in Amerika, where she had worked as a schoolmistress among other things, defended Bremer’s novel in Aftonbladet under the headline "En ropande röst i öknen" ("A Voice Calling in the Wilderness") in the spring of 1857. At the same time in 1857, a motion was presented in Parliament concerning unmarried women’s coming of legal age and improved educational opportunities. It was however turned down. It was only after a verdict in 1858 that unmarried women over 25 years of age were permitted to attain legal age. The discussion about women’s position in society was inflammatory.

The notion of starting a women’s magazine in Sweden is to be found in a series of articles published in the conservative newspaper Svenska Tidningen. Dagligt allehanda i Stockholm, over the New Year in 1857/58, and with the signature "Din redlige vän K" ("Your honest friend K"). The article advocated the importance of a magazine by and for and about women.

"Such a magazine, published by Swedish women for Swedish women, with that honourable aim always in their sights of enlightening and providing information, ennobling and being ennobled, giving and receiving pleasure, in one word, giving from a warm heart and receiving with happy recognition, would, according to my conviction, become just such a preparatory course as Swedish women need in order to make themselves qualified for thinking, before they become qualified for acting [...]."¹⁶

What Swedish women needed before they could become legally independent, according to the author, was in other words time, the means and a forum within which to be able to act.¹⁷ The pen behind the article belonged to Sophie Leijonhufvud (later married Adlersparre).

Sophie Adlersparre had ambitions. She wanted to produce a magazine for women but she needed support and she did not want her name to be publicly unveiled. Therefore she wrote the article under a pseudonym and therefore she contacted her friend Rosalie Olivecrona by letter and asked what she thought of the article’s suggestion in the newspaper. By means of fancy and finesse she convinced Olivecrona that this was an important project, that it was something that they could do together and that they could themselves become the editors. The two friends had known each other for some time and both were enterprising women of noble birth. They had mastered several languages, had a wide net of contacts and independent economic capacity. Rosalie had just published a collection of poems under a pseudonym and was newly married to Knut Olivecrona, a professor of law. She was step-mother to several children and had moved to Uppsala. Sophie earned her living among other things by translations from English, and lived with her mother in Stockholm. Without Leijonhufvud’s revelation of the fact that it was she who concealed herself behind the signature "Your honest friend K", the two friends started their cooperation and were able to print an Announcement in April 1859, which is to say a kind of advertisement in 500 copies about the coming magazine and the possibility of signing a subscription. This Announcement was spread among friends and acquaintances, and also to a course of tuition for ladies that existed at the time in Stockholm and also to the Court. The Announcement began with the words: "Give me a great thought, that I may warm myself and then die".¹⁸ The emphasis on intellectual activity already existed in the Announcement, just as it had done in the article previously, and the aim of the magazine was to act for the education and culture of women. The object was "to develop powers of thought, to educate judgement, direct learning and promote independent study."¹⁹ The magazine was to become "a university for the soul", long before women were permitted to study at universities and colleges.

The first part of Tidskrift för hemmet, ”dedicated to Swedish Women” appeared in 1859. The magazine was published anonymously the first three years. It came out twice in 1859 and thereafter four times a year. It cost one riksdaler in the old currency and had a circulation of between 1,000 and 3,000 copies. Tidskrift för hemmet contained no illustrations, was bound in octavo and the cover was variously coloured: green, blue, red and yellow. The magazine was aimed at an upper middle-class and aristocratic group of readers. The subscribers are listed on the cover of the first issue, and at the top of the list are the royals: "H. M. THE QUEEN, H. R. H. THE CROWN PRINCE REGENT, H. R. H. THE CROWN PRINCESS, H. R. H. PRINCE AUGUST, H. R. H. CROWN PRINCESS EUGENIE". Most of the subscribers were women with titles such as "Baroness", "Countess", "Wife of the Dean", "Governoress", "Wife of Professor", "Mrs", "Miss" etc. These designations are explicit class- and gender-markers. They state royal house, nobility, husband’s profession and a woman’s civil status. A small number of subscribers were men.

Tidskrift för hemmet became the unorganised women’s movement’s most important organ. Right from the first magazine there are articles on women’s education, culture and work, like for example the programme article "Om behofvet af intellektuell uppfostran för Qvinnan" (”On the Need for Intellectual Education for Women”). In it, Olivecrona makes a plea for women’s right to education and intellectual development. The main idea is that women and men as human beings should be given opportunities to attain an individual perfection, as instituted by God.²⁰ Woman is thus not created to be subordinate to man. There is an explicit concept of progress, that society will move forward if women too are given the opportunity of spiritual development.

There are many examples in Tidskrift för hemmet of articles on matters of education and jobs for women. The magazine was part of the liberal enlightenment project. Women’s special abilities are highlighted but there is also emphasis on the fact that women are human beings with individual rights. This individualistic perspective has its roots in English liberalism with John Stuart Mill at the forefront, and it was above all Adlersparre who propagated for this line of thought.²¹ From 1868 onwards Adlersparre was the sole editor of the magazine. One example of the way Tidskrift för hemmet worked as an opinion-maker was in the middle of the 1870s, when the American doctor Edward Clarke’s book Sex in Education; or, a Fair Chance för the Girls (1873) was at the centre of a heated debate. In his book, Clarke proposed the theory that women who overstrained themselves intellectually could become "masculine in nature, or hermaphodite in mind." Clarke argued with great frenzy against the education of women and the Woman Question, basing his convictions on mainly biological arguments. Tidskrift för hemmet inserted a long article opposing him: "Om könens betydelse i afseende på den intellektuella uppfostran" (”On the Significance of the Sex for the Intellectual Upbringing”) (1875), published under the pseudonym Sanningssökaren", (”Truth-seeker”), most probably Adlersparre herself.

"However, as long as the same sufferings trouble women who cannot be blamed for having caused themselves these problems through studying; as long as other possible contributing causes to these cases of illness are left unexamined; as long as thousands of women leave colleges without detriment caused by the brainwork practised there; so long ought we to regard the question of the female organism’s unsuitability for such activities as not established, and the conclusions to which Dr Clarke has come as tolerably unfounded and dubious."²²

The fact that Tidskrift för hemmet launched astute criticism against Clarke’s ideas demonstrates that opposition existed to the biologistic standpoint at a time when this point of view had a strong following among scientists. Thus Tidskrift för hemmet participated in the intellectual and political discourses and acted as an important counterweight.

Women’s education was a focal point in Tidskrift för hemmet, where the word ”hem” (Home) should be seen metaphorically as meaning the centre of society. The subtitle was, however, "dedicated to Swedish Women". The title was a compromise, since Olivecrona wanted to emphasise the female group of readers who were supposed to be ”dames” or ”ladies” although in homes were of course also to be found ”the lords of creation”, as one letter expressed it, and people might thus assume that ”we might be seen as wishing to educate and improve them as well”.²³ However Adlersparre wanted change and change also included men, which is important, even in later women’s magazines. Tidskrift för hemmet was completely new. It was not a family magazine and nor was it an academic journal. It was a women’s magazine, where the home mentioned in the title denoted society as a whole. The magazine became central through its focus on issues concerning women’s status in society and on supplying information on culture and literature. The magazine became a forum for the discussion, presentation and marketing of these ideas. It represented bourgeois, Christian, liberal values. It was positive to reform and advocated successive social change. It dealt with intellectual education and culture and moral development, and it demanded freedom for women, justice and equality.

Tidskrift för hemmet contains diverse discussions on law reforms (for example on married women’s rights to ownership in 1874 and on married spouses’ ownership rights in 1883) and reports from meetings and events abroad. One example is reports from the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, where an important contribution from Sweden was a bibliography entitled "En förteckning öfver svenska qvinnors skrifter. [Bibliografiskt försök af tvänne damer]" (”A List of Publications by Swedish Women. [Attempt at a Bibliography by Two Ladies]”) listing Swedish women authors. It had first been published in Tidskrift för hemmet 1873:6. It is a goldmine for future researchers. Tidskrift för hemmet also contains articles on women’s issues such as for example "Några ord om kvinnan och arbetet" (”A Few Words about Women and Work”), "Om kvinnans självförsörjning", (”On the Self-Sufficiency of Women”), "Några ord om flickors uppfostran" ("A Few Words on the Upbringing of Girls”) not to mention extensive coverage on culture, such as several portraits of authors, biographical sketches, literary criticism, poetry, small chatty stories and patterns for handwork etc.

Tidskrift för hemmet was modelled on two English papers, the family magazine Household Words that was well-known to the editors and the women’s magazine The English Woman’s Journal that was passed on to them by Knut Olivecrona at the beginning of the 1860s. The latter also contains a "Notices of Books" which in Tidskrift för hemmet is called "Nytt från vår bokhylla" (”News from our Bookcase”) ("in which first and foremost all nonfiction is reported, and also the section "Vår lektyr" (”Our Reading Matter”). During the magazine’s first period up until 1867, nonfiction received most attention, while fiction received more and more attention thereafter. This task was mostly Sophie Adlersparre’s, but later on other writers also contributed, such as Eva Fryxell. Neither of them used her own name as a signature. Adlersparre (who was unmarried during the first years and whose name was Leijonhufvud) used a variety of pseudonyms and signatures such as Esselde (from S. L-d), Reader, and Keiner for articles on literature but even others such as "En gammal pianist" (”An Old Pianist”), S., L-d, etc. Rosalie Olivecrona used L.S., -ra, S-a, St etc. and Eva Fryxell wrote under the pseudonym Emund Gammal.

Tidskrift för hemmet contained an extensive monitoring of literature and questions concerning women’s education and social morals. As far as the morality question was concerned, Adlersparre took a stance for a sexual morality that defended fidelity within marriage and sexual abstinence before marriage. (See the discussion below concerning Framåt). The magazine was fundamentally Christian.

A variety of writers contributed during the years. Adlersparre, Olivecrona, Fryxell, Lawrence Heap Åberg, Olof Eneroth, Tekla Knös, Jenny Rossander, the Norwegian author Magdalene Thoresen, the Danish politician Fredrik Bajer, Oscar Stackelberg [pseudonym Olof Stig], Gerda, Victoria Benedictsson [pseudonym Ernst Ahlgren], Alfhild Agrell etc.

Just as was the case with many later magazines, economy was a perpetual bother. To print the paper cost money, as did fees to the writers and postage for parcels and letters between Stockholm and Uppsala. The editorial office was in the editors’ homes. The magazine was well-received and the circulation increased from 930 copies of the first issue to 1,220 copies in 1860, which was a very substantial figure for that time. However, the economy wilted and Adlersparre, who was the sole editor from 1868, turned to the rest of the Nordic countries. Firstly, the subtitle was changed to "Dedicated to Nordic Women", and secondly, more writers were recruited from the Nordic countries. When the magazine landed in economic difficulties in the 1870s, it was linked to Handarbetets vänner (Friends of Handicrafts), an organisation that Adlersparre founded in 1874, and the paper carried the association’s annual reports. Round about 1878, the list of subscribers diminished still further and the question arose of whether it was necessary to form an association that would also be able to support the magazine. In the last issues of Tidskrift för hemmet there was a message from Fredrika-Bremer–Förbundet, (The Fredrika-Bremer-Association), an association founded by Sophie Adlersparre in 1884.

Editors Adlersparre and Olivecrona created an important arena for women through Tidskrift för hemmet, at a time when women were neither permitted to come of legal age nor to be active in public bodies. In this way, magazines became a space in which the borders between the private and the public spheres were transcended. The English study Gender and the Victorian Periodical Press (2003) formulates the problem thus: "The periodical press, offering a liminal space between public and private domains, was a critical mediating agent between these two worlds."²⁴

Dagny

"Cooperation is the medium for all progress in our time and the printing press is its mouthpiece".²⁵

The magazine Dagny was to follow the aims of The Fredrika-Bremer-Association when it came to working for "a sound, calm development of the efforts to raise the status of women morally and intellectually, in a social as well as an economic respect."²⁶ The Association was formed in December 1884 and with that the Swedish women’s movement had been organised. As Ulla Manns writes, this organisation implied "a politicisation, and by that means a radicalisation of The Woman Question. Women joined together with like-minded men to transform the conditions women lived under, to demand civil recognition and social change."²⁷

The Association was to act to achieve "true liberation", genuine emancipation. Tidskrift för hemmet was used by the Association in 1885, but it was officially transferred to the jurisdiction of the Association in 1886 and was then given the name Dagny.

Dagny became the heir of Tidskrift för hemmet. Its subtitle was "monthly paper for social and literary subjects". Sophie Adlersparre, who continued as the editor while waiting for the appearance of "younger and fresher talents", emphasises in her introductory words in the first issue in 1886 how significant cooperation between women and men was as well as that:

"Dagny wishes to protect all the best of the inheritance from previous ages, for woman and her sphere; that she shall be of assistance to her to realise those reforms in which previous decades have resulted as well as preparing her for the great and beneficial tasks with which the most recent age can come to charge her."²⁸

Most central were women’s issues and literature. Through the upbringing, education and cultivation of Swedish women, the slow developmental process would be accelerated. With contributors like for example Victoria Benedictsson, Selma Lagerlöf, Klara Johanson, Ellen Key and Urban von Feilitzen [pseudonym Robinson], discussions were carried out concerning the morality question, the upbringing of children, different working conditions for women and other social issues, as well as fiction and literary criticism. Just as was the case with its precursor, an important aim of the magazine was women’s emancipation and the focus was on the conditions of women’s lives and how The Woman Question was described in literature.

Dagny came out once a month from 1886 to 1907, had a circulation of about 1,000 copies and the annual subscription was two and a half crowns for members of The Fredrika-Bremer-Association (which had about 1,200 members at that time). For non-members, the subscription cost four crowns per year.

The magazine contained a great deal of literary criticism and the publication of literature in the original. For example, Selma Lagerlöf published four sonnets in 1886 and Victoria Benedictsson published a Christmas story called "Mr Tobiasson". Apart from these, there were many short stories and poems by a long list of more or less well-known authors. Literary criticism was accorded a lot of space, in which reviews of women authors dominated.

Furthermore, The Woman Question was an important theme in fiction during the 1880s in the Nordic countries, and characteristic for literary criticism during that period was that fiction was judged according to whether it could be a help or a hindrance to The Woman Question. Children’s and young people’s literature also began to be reviewed to a greater extent during Dagny’s lifetime, and before Christmas every year long lists of fairly brief reviews of children’s and young people’s books were published.²⁹

The morality issue took up a lot of space in the general cultural discussion in the Nordic countries in the middle of the 1880s, and this was the case in Dagny too. Dagny opposed among others the literary left such as Gustaf af Geijerstam’s books and Stella Kleve (see below, the section on Framåt).

Adlersparre adopted her own stance and allowed the distribution of an interjection written by herself in an appendix to the paper, which created a stir among the board of The Fredrika-Bremer-Association. The appendix was entitled "Om sedlighetsfrågans ståndpunkt i de skandinaviska länderna under 1888" (On the Standpoint of the Morality Issue in the Scandinavian Countries in 1888). The Association had agreed not to take sides in the morality discussion which was what Adlersparre hereby clearly did. The schism between the editor and the Association was a fact.

At the end of 1888, Adlersparre handed over the editorship, but she kept her place on the editorial committee. The author Amanda Kerfstedt took over at first and from 1891 Lotten Dahlgren was made editor.

Dagny came out with one issue per month. From 1907 it became however a weekly magazine, published by the association Dagny and it received 1,000 crowns as a state subsidy. Then it was no longer solely the organ of The Fredrika-Bremer-Association. The magazine now cost four and a half crowns per year. Dagny was given the subtitle "Tidning för svenska kvinnorörelsen" (Magazine for the Swedish Women’s Movement). The editor was Ellen Kleman who remained right up until 1933 (after the magazine had become Hertha in 1914).

Dagny also published poems, and just as in other women’s magazines, there were many poems about the women’s struggle as well as translations of articles from other countries. After 1907, however, pure literature was allotted very little space. Among literary critics, apart from Lotten Dahlgren, were Klara Johanson, Amanda Kerfstedt, Fanny Ekenstierna, Sigrid Elmblad and many others, as well a male writers like for example Nils Erdmann, Fredrik Vetterlund and Ola Hansson.

If the orientation of Tidskrift för hemmet was upbringing, Dagny’s orientation was more towards suffrage. This question was important from the 1890s and onwards, until women were allowed to vote for the first time in 1921.³⁰ Landsföreningen för kvinnans politiska rösträtt [LKPR] (The National Association)for Women’s Suffrage*) had been formed in 1904 and in practically every issue of the magazine there were presentations of recently signed-on suffrage associations and articles on this subject. In 1911, the International Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA) held its sixth World Congress in Stockholm and Dagny reported from it in a special issue.

However, even Dagny was dogged by economic troubles. The LKPR started to publish its own magazine, Rösträtt för kvinnor (Suffrage for Women) in 1912 (see below) and Dagny faced competition. The number of subscribers went down and the economic association Dagny decided to discontinue the magazine but immediately afterwards to start a new one attached to The Fredrika-Bremer-Association. It became known as Hertha.

Framåt (Onward)

Framåt was a radical but short-lived women’s magazine appearing between 1886 and 1889 in Gothenburg. It was published by Göteborgs Kvinnoförening, (the Gothenburg Women’s Association), which was founded in 1884, the same year as Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet (The Fredrika-Bremer-Association) in Stockholm. Mathilda Hedlund was the chairwoman. The aim of the Association was, according to Paragraph 1: "to work to raise women’s intellectual and moral status and by these means to strive for an improvement in her status socially and economically."³¹ Framåt was run by three young women: Alma Åkermark, who was the editor and a contributor using the signature Mark, the author Hilma Angered-Strandberg who was a contributor and the editorial secretary in 1886—1888 and Mathilda Hedlund, the chairwoman of the Gothenburg Women’s Association.

Framåt produced two issues per month from its first issue on 1 January, 1886. In the message to subscribers, the freedom of expression was highlighted and also that the magazine would "keep its columns open for the expression of opinions that differ from ours, just as long as they are not written in an inferior style[!], degenerate into personal attacks or are conveyed in low and vulgar language."³² Under the headline "To the General Public" the central position of The Woman Question is explained with the emphasis on women’s liberation "in economic, social, intellectual and moral regards" but that views on this should be in line with those of the Gothenburg Women’s Association and the editorial board of Framåt.³³ The ambition was to become a "spirited and lively" magazine. Framåt had three mottos that were printed on the front cover of all the issues: "Do not judge anyone unheard", "Convictions are formed through reasons and arguments against them" and "Free speech". The title Framåt was associated with progress and the future.³⁴ Some important issues for progress were the women’s questions of the first period: women’s right to higher education, women’s low pay levels, morality, suffrage and also socialism, peace matters, animals’ rights not to be tormented etc. There were permanent features like reports from "Far and Wide", reports on and tributes to the pioneers of the Nordic women’s movement like the authors Fredrika Bremer, Camilla Collett and Minna Canth, as well as a comprehensive amount of fiction and cultural discussion. Current literature by eminent collaborators was introduced and reviewed, like that by Urban von Feilitzen, Nils Erdmann, Ola Hansson, Georg Nordensvan, Ellen Key, and Karl and Gustav af Geijerstam. There was also a great amount of literature in the form of poetry, short stories and serials, always published in the original. Important authors like Anne Charlotte Leffler, Ola Hansson, Stella Kleve, Ellen Key, Gerda von Mickwitz, Amalie Skram and others were published here.

Framåt was an important forum for debate and discussion, in which literature played a decisive role. It was a case of debates and discussions in which two generations of women from within the women’s movement – Sophie Adlersparre and Alma Åkermark – participated with their differing ideological points of view. Adlersparre stood on bourgeois liberal ground while the younger Åkermark advocated socialism through reforms. An infected discussion arose concerning Adlersparre’s proposal concerning military service for unmarried women, published in the article "Gifves det en värnpligt för kvinnan?" (”Is Military Service for Women a Possibility?”) in Stockholms Dagblad 5.12. 1885 as well as in the December issue of Tidskrift för hemmet 1885. The idea was in brief that unmarried women over the age of twenty-five should pay a military service tax to help pay for training women in medical care. These women would thereby be able to make a contribution on the battlefield, just as men did. This was a step towards the emancipation of women and a response to the radical men who used male military service as an argument against women.³⁵ Alma Åkermark was critical to the proposal and questioned the argument that only unmarried women should pay the tax. She also raised the question of whether the peace issue were not more important.

During the 1880s, one highly topical subject was that of sexual morals and decency. Alma Åkermark took sides by publishing Stella Kleve’s article "Om efterklang- och indignationslitteraturen" (On the Literature of Reverberation and Indignation) (Framåt 1886:17) and her short story "Pyrrhussegrar" (”Pyrrhic Victories”) in Framåt 1886:20. Stella Kleve was Mathilda Kruse’s pseudonym. The author Stella Kleve, the chairwoman of the Gothenburg Women’s Association Mathilda Hedlund and Framåt’s editor Alma Åkermark were all strongly called into question. The scandalous short story was about a young woman, Märta Ulfklo, who had arrived in Montreux to partake of the alpine air and "in order to die." Early on in the short story, it emerges that the young woman has felt sexual desire for a young man but suppressed her erotic (heterosexual) fantasies. Adlersparre reacted strongly to the short story that gave expression to "a feminine Strindbergianism of the most degrading kind" and wrote a sharp contribution to Dagny.³⁶ The content of her criticism was that women who lived out their sexuality before entering marriage should be regarded as fallen women and they might besides (just like men) be affected by sexual diseases like syphilis, which was very common at that time. The Swedish woman question and sexual morality had been dragged in the mud, asserted Adlersparre, and reactions came straightaway. The membership of the Gothenburg Women’s Association dwindled and heated voices were heard, but the issue with Kleve’s short story sold well.³⁷ Åkermark defended herself by writing that Framåt had the same aims as Dagny which was to say that they wanted to work for the liberation of women, although this could however be taken to mean different things. The discussion led to Framåt’s being compelled to break away from the Göteborgs Kvinnoförening (the Gothenburg Women’s Association) and the editorial board and some of the members from the former association formed Göteborgs Kvinnliga Diskussions-förening (the Gothenburg Women’s Discussion Association) to which the magazine Framåt could be linked. The price and the title were the same, but the vignette was changed.

The debate about sexual morality continued. In 1887, Åkermark published polemical articles by the Danish critic Georg Brandes. In these he turned against lectures by Elisabeth Grundtvig, a prominent member of the Danish women’s movement. In her lectures she criticised men’s uncontrolled sexual desire (prostitution and sexual diseases were a very great social problem) and she held the same opinion as the Norwegian authors Bjørnstierne Bjørnson and Henrik Ibsen, which is to say that she advocated fidelity within marriage and sexual continence for men as well as women before marriage. So-called glove morality, or the idea of the true liberation which involved "moral equality between the sexes",³⁸ was also advocated by Adlersparre, but not by Brandes and August Strindberg. The fact that Framåt took sides for Brandes and "Young Sweden" constituted a problem, and the economic situation was exacerbated.

Just as was the case for many (women’s) magazines, economy was a perpetual stumbling block. The number of subscribers was 1,200, which was high. The price for a subscription was three and a half crowns which was consciously low since the magazine was aimed at the women and men of the working classes who had to be able to afford buying it. Covering the costs of printing, distribution and fees to the contributors was therefore difficult. From January 1888, Mathilda Hedlund and the Association were no longer able to support Framåt economically, and Alma Åkermark and her new Danish husband, Albert Breinholm, took over on their own.

One year later, in January 1889, their economy was still at rock bottom. One final attempt was made and Framåt became a weekly magazine with a Nordic orientation. The subtitle was ”Nordic Weekly Magazine. The Organ for Freedom of Speech", and the magazine was linked to Göteborgs Reformförening (the Gothenburg Reform Association). The price was the same, three and a half crowns for a subscription and 10 öre per single issue. In the appeal "To the General Public!" it was clearly stated that Framåt wanted to reach out to the whole of the Nordic region and that freedom of speech was their watchword:

"Never shall "Framåt" fail its assignment to defend freedom of speech, so long as it does not degenerate into personal attack. The necessity of learning to tolerate hearing other opinions than one’s own, and – not by means of physical violence, imprisonment, persecution in the social sense and the like — to seek to combat what one dislikes or disdains, is clear to every thinking person who believes in the victory of the just and good and who does not run despotism’s errands, whether for egoistic or other reasons."³⁹

However, the Åkermark couple were unable to run the magazine project any longer, despite the ambitions mentioned above. Framåt was compelled to shut down in February 1889. Alma Åkermark had then sacrificed her all for freedom of speech.

Hertha – Magazine for the Swedish Women’s Movement

In the first issue of Hertha in January 1914, the magazine was announced in the following way:

"The decease of the weekly magazine Dagny in 1913 has put The Fredrika-Bremer-Association in the position of having to ask the question how the empty space that has on this account opened up in the Swedish Press may be filled. The Board of The Fredrika-Bremer-Association, having subjected this question to careful consideration, has come to the conclusion that for the women’s movement to own its own special press mouthpiece, representing all its various strivings, is a matter of inalienable necessity, as well as having further come to the conviction that the previous magazine form is the most suitable for this purpose."⁴⁰

As is apparent, Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet (The Fredrika-Bremer-Association) decided to publish a new magazine to replace Dagny. This was Hertha. Tidskrift för den svenska kvinnorörelsen (Hertha. Magazine for the Swedish Women’s Movement). The name Hertha referred to Fredrika Bremer’s radical novel Hertha, en själs historia (Hertha, the Story of a Soul) (1856) which aroused great attention when it appeared, since it advocated women’s legal coming of age. Just like Bremer, The Fredrika-Bremer-Association and the magazine Hertha strove to improve women’s positions and roles as citizens and social well-doers, and their desire was for equality for the individual. The magazine was, just like the Association, reformist, advocating equal rights for women in social life as in family life (through for example the revision of marriage legislation, about which Agda Montelius wrote in the first issue of Hertha).

Hertha cost four and a half crowns per year for the members of The Fredrika-Bremer-Association, and to begin with, it came out twice monthly, all in all with twenty issues per year. The magazine was bound in octavo and sometimes had illustrations in the form of black and white photographs or advertisement pictures.

Ellen Kleman continued as editor for Hertha too. It became more and more orientated towards political and social questions, without however being bound to one or other political party. Important articles at this time were about women and the war. The first world war broke out in the summer of 1914 and it was accepted that the magazine would cover and discuss the development in articles such as "Fred i krig" (Peace in War), "Drömmen om fred på jorden" (The Dream about Peace on Earth), "Kvinnorna och kriget" (Women and the War), "Kvinnornas uppbåd" (The Women’s Levy). Both Elin Wägner and Emilia Fogelklou contributed regularly and in the November issue in 1914 one can read the following words in Hertha:

"The doctrine of the right of the strongest – the savage’s primitive standpoint – is still alive, right in the middle of sociological and humanitarian striving and a high ”culture”. It is that which has drawn the line for any development. First within the nations themselves, and then in their external relations with each other. If people had kept up with the times on that point, then the splitting into two within the nations, into men who have power and the right of decision, and women who have to accept what they decide, would no longer exist. Nor would one nation dictate conditions to the other. And we would not have been confronted with the terrible thing we are now experiencing."⁴¹

Hertha dealt with the defence question and during 1919 a series was published called "Krigets facit" (The Final Results of the War) with contributions by Hilma Borelius, Emilia Fogelklou, Ellen Kleman and Elin Wägner. During the period from 1919, in other words after the suffrage victory, the magazine had an assignment to act as "a kind of qualified monitoring service"⁴², in Monica Boëthius’ words. Importants matters to monitor were reforms for women concerning working life such as for example behörighetslagen (the law on qualifications) which gave women the right to enter state employment. The law was passed in 1923 and came into force in 1925. Furthermore, changed laws were important questions and during the 1930s the abortion question, population and housing were discussed in Hertha.

The question of women clergy, about which Lydia Wahlström wrote in Hertha as early on as 1918:19, was also discussed in its columns although it was not until 1958 that women were first allowed to be ordained in Sweden. Increased women’s representation in Parliament and in management was (and still is for The Fredrika-Bremer-Association) also a vital question of equality.

During the 1920s, women forerunners were highlighted in a number of articles. Some were about authors like Sophie Elisabeth Brenner, Alfhild Agrell and Maria Sandel. Other articles were about pioneer women in other fields, such as the critic Eva Fryxell, Esselde (Sophie Adlersparre) or Ellen Key.

The proportion of literary contributions dwindled to just a few in Hertha, after having constituted a very large element in the later issues of Tidskrift för hemmet and Dagny. On the other hand, right from the first issue in 1914 there was a section for literary criticism called "Notiser från bokvärlden" (Announcements from the World of Books) that was relatively comprehensive although the individual reviews were fairly brief. This activity continued for several years to come but diminished as time passed. In the 1930s it more or less ceased completely. Essays and sketches about literature also appeared now and then, always highlighting women authors. It was thus first and foremost literature, by or about women, that was awarded attention. Among critics and writers were Klara Johanson (K.J.), Ellen Kleman (E.K-n.), Lotten Dahlgren, Hilma Borelius, Lydia Wahlström, Anna Maria Roos, Gurli Linder and others.

With the passing of time, as more and more purely literary and cultural periodicals appeared on the market, the literary and cultural monitoring diminished in scope. This is above all clear from the 1930s, and in 1933 Ellen Kleman resigned as editor and Margareta von Konow took over (1933—1947). The economy was an anxiety but in 1926 the subscription was included in the membership fee, which meant that income was guaranteed and that the enterprise could be continued for a long time into the future.

Summary

Tidskrift för hemmet, Dagny and Hertha are numbered among the Swedish bourgeois women’s movement’s most important periodicals. In Tidskrift för hemmet the material consists largely of literature and information about literature. Political and socially orientated articles are more frequent in Dagny and constitute an even greater proportion in Hertha. In this last magazine, there are considerably fewer literary elements. Dagny and Hertha have clearly expressed aims for their magazines, which depends on the fact that they are closely interlinked with The Fredrika-Bremer-Association. Common to all three periodicals, which together constitute an unbroken line unique in the history of the Swedish women’s press, is the defence of education and culture for women and thereby their collaboration in public life. Literature plays an important part as do other cultural utterances. Common to these periodicals is that they take up political subjects such as education, suffrage and peace. Even though these periodicals were never tied to any one political party, they manifest a typically bourgeois basic outlook.

In Denmark and Norway, women’s periodicals first appeared in the 1880s, with Kvinden og Samfundet Women and Society) (1885–) whose first editor was Elisabeth Grundtvig. This magazine belonged to the Danish Women’s Association (Dansk Kvindesamfund). In Norway, the magazine Nylænde (1887—1927) was linked to Norsk kvinnesaksforening (the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights). Gina Krog was its first editor up until 1916, succeeded thereafter by Fredrikke Mörck.

Rösträtt för kvinnor (Women and the Right to Vote)

Rösträttsfrågan, The suffrage question, was central in Dagny, but in 1912 it received competition from the newly started periodical Rösträtt för kvinnor (Votes for Women), which was published by Landsföreningen för Kvinnans Politiska Rösträtt, LKPR, (the National Association for Women’s Suffrage). This nationally widespread association had been formed in 1904 and it consisted of both bourgeois and social democratic women members. The very first year came the proposal to start a magazine, but the proposal was not passed since Dagny and Social Tidskrift were both already on the market and both took up suffrage matters. A few more years passed and the magazine question was discussed back and forth. In 1912, the Central Board of the LKPR decided that it was time to start publishing a magazine, which was called Rösträtt för kvinnor (Votes for Women). It was a magazine the aim of which was to form opinion in order to promote the introduction of votes for women in Sweden. In the first issue, which appeared in March 1912, the editorial "To Our Readers!" explained that the aim was to "make our voices heard":

"VOTES FOR WOMEN has already stated its programme in its name, the magazine wishes in its way to work towards the same goals as those expressed by the National Association in its regulations § 1, namely that Swedish women shall receive the right to vote and be eligible for political candidature on the same conditions as Swedish men. The magazine will therefore only occupy itself with questions concerning women’s civil rights directly or indirectly. For this is the goal of the magazine: the solution of the matter of women’s right to vote."⁴³

The motto of the magazine, printed at the top of every issue, was: "We can never do as much for a great cause as a great cause can do for us". The magazine came out every other week (with 24 issues per year) between 1912 and 1919. Its first editor was Elisabeth Krey (-Lange) 1912, succeeded by Ester Brisman (1913—1915), Gurli Hertzman-Ericson (1916—1918:12) and Vera von Kraemer (1918:13—1919). Since the magazine was a means of political agitation, it was to be cheaply produced and the price was low. A single copy cost 5 öre and a subscription 75 öre per year, but the latter was raised later to two and a half crowns (1918). The first issue had a circulation of 27,000 and was well received by the press.⁴⁴ From the summer issue 1916:12, the magazine changed its typeface and included the Jus Suffragii-symbol on the front cover.

The magazine contained various kinds of articles on the right to vote. One permanent vignette was "Our Work out in the Provinces" that contained detailed reports from the various local associations’ work all over Sweden. There were a number of longer articles in the political and legislative section, reports from important events and congresses abroad, and also causeries and literary contributions, reviews and advertisements. From 1914, Europe was at war, to which Rösträtt för kvinnor straightaway paid attention with a mobilisation issue that began with a parody on Esaias Tegnér’s well-known poem "Det eviga" (”The Eternal”) the first line of which runs as follows: "Well indeed forms the strong man his world with the sword", which instead here became "Well indeed forms the strong man his woe with the sword". The magazine strongly repudiated "the bloody war" and appealed for peace. Women’s contributions to peace work were an important element in future articles. There was for example a report directly from the international Women’s Congress in The Hague on the 28–30 April 1915 (Rösträtt för kvinnor 1915:10).

Rösträtt för kvinnor filled an important function as a source of information. It provides good insight into the intensive suffrage work in Sweden and its connections with the rest of the Nordic countries and international movements. There were for instance series of articles such as "The Parliamentary History of Women’s Suffrage " in 12 parts by Gulli Petrini (1912). There were also articles about the pension insurance proposal by Karolina Widerström (Rösträtt för kvinnor 1913:3), about the legislative body’s proposal concerning a law about children born out of wedlock by Eva Andén (1916), about marriage legislation by Anna Wicksell as well as an account of the contents of the Royal proposition on political suffrage and eligibility for Swedish women in 1918.

There were reports from work abroad and about the International Woman Suffrage Alliance's (IWSA) Board meeting in London on the 8–11 June 1914, by Anna Wicksell (Rösträtt för kvinnor 1914:15), about a "Giant Parade in New York", in which 45,000 women had marched in the suffrage procession (Rösträtt för kvinnor 1915:24) and also about the work in Sweden like the Nordic Votes for Women Conference in Stockholm on the 10–11 November 1916 and from "The Swedish women’s suffrage day" that coincided with the nameday of St Birgitta on the 7 October 1916. In the magazine’s final issue there was also a causerie by Frigga Carlberg with the title: "Hur man blir feminist" ("How to become a feminist") (Rösträtt för kvinnor 1919:9).

A permanent item from the first issue were the familiar quotations on the first page, in which mainly famous authors and politicians were cited, such as for example Ellen Key, Selma Lagerlöf, Verner von Heidenstam, Jane Gernandt-Claine, Fredrika Bremer, Thomas Thorild, John Stuart Mill, Theodor Roosevelt and Karl Staaff. Rösträtt för kvinnor gave hints on suffrage literature and there were also reviews of literary books such as for example Elin Wägner’s "Helga Wisbeck" (1913) and "Fredrika Bremer’s Letters: Collected and edited by Klara Johanson and Ellen Kleman" (1916), as well as literary contributions and causeries, such as Marika Stiernstedt’s short story ”Mor Matts” ("Mother Matts") in 1913, and texts by Frigga Carlberg, Fanny Alving, Anna Lenah Elgström and Elin Wägner. The translated material was mostly from the English language regions and by authors sympathetic to women’s suffrage. A number of critics contributed, among them Hilma Borelius, Gurli Hertzman-Ericsson, Annie Furuhjelm, Else Kleen and Elisabeth Krey.

There is one unusual element in Rösträtt för kvinnor 1912:2 It was a song text, "Kvinnornas sång" (The Song of the Women), provided with music. The song was a translation of the English "Women's Battle Song" and had according to the magazine been performed by the Gothenburg Choir at the Suffrage Congress in Stockholm. The magazine writes that this text could suitably be sung "on the women’s day-to-be".

When the right to vote had been won in 1919 in Sweden, as the last of all the Nordic countries (after Finland in 1906, Norway in 1907, Denmark and Iceland in 1915), the magazine Rösträtt för kvinnor was consequently discontinued. It had then tried to become a non-political informative magazine for women (Rösträtt för kvinnor 1919:1), but not really found its true form for this assignment. In the final issue in December 1919, the final words were written by suffrage fighter, journalist and author Elin Wägner. She challenged young people to assume their responsibility for the future.

Idun

The weekly magazine Idun was founded by Frithiof Hellberg who was the editor and publisher. The magazine produced two test issues in the autumn of 1887 and the first regular issue was dated 6 January 1888. After that, Idun came out every week on Fridays. It cost four crowns per year and five crowns from 1897. It was not sold in single copies. The aim of the new weekly was that: "Idun wishes to become women’s own magazine, wishes to become a magazine for the large class of women who may be called by the shared name of women of the home."⁴⁵ The first two years the magazine had the subtitle: "Practical Weekly for Women and the Home". The weekly was thus explicitly aimed at women at home. As Eric Johannesson has demonstrated, a new genre of magazine had grown up in Sweden during the 1850s up to and including the 1880s, the so-called family magazine that belonged to the sphere of the developing bourgeois family. There prevailed a cult of the family, in which the position of women was central. ⁴⁶ The family and the home, which belonged to the private sphere, were women’s assignment, while men were the providers and worked in the public sphere. Idun addressed women in their homes. The first test issues began with the poem "Idun" by the author Octavio Beer, in which Idun, the old Norse goddess of love and knowledge, is spoken of as the woman of the future, who is both beautiful and spiritually cultured. The poem ends with the following verse:

Thus shall in a lovely light
future wife before us stand,
an Iduna, not only fair,
but with a cultured soul and hand.
Home and hearth she’ll surely grace
and so more honest joy embrace.⁴⁷

The paper was explicitly intended for women in the home during its first years of life. In the appeal to the readers of Idun the following declaration was made: "Idun is warmly interested in women’s progress with regard to enlightenment and independent enterprise, just as long as they do not come about at the cost of her womanliness."⁴⁸ Idun was not an unambiguous women’s periodical, but rather a kind of weekly with a vested interest in making a profit.⁴⁹ Idun has been included in this portal since it changed its aims from being a practical weekly for housewives to containing cultural news and material on women’s questions and suffrage matters around the turn of the century in 1900. From the earlier emphasis on women’s role in the home, women’s role in public and cultural life became more and more important.⁵⁰ The paper carried more and more numerous reports on current matters of interest and explicitly sided with women’s emancipation from the turn of the century in 1900 and during the following decades. 

From 1899, the weekly changed its subtitle to "Illustrated Magazine for Women and the Home". This version was published up until 1963, when it was amalgamated with Vecko-Journalen (The Weekly Journal), and up until 1968 its name was Idun-Veckojournalen. After that it became Månadsjournalen (The Monthly Journal). In 2002, it was discontinued.

Idun was primarily intended to be read by bourgeois women. It contained articles about women and homes, biographical essays and portraits, poetry, short stories and literary serials as well as a large number of household instructions on home remedies, cookery, healthcare, fashion, handicrafts and so on. It also contained many advertisements. Its subject matter was thus very mixed, with many traditional elements showing how a women in her home should be and act. However, there were also articles advocating women’s emancipation and the importance of schooling for women so that women might participate in public life, and comparisons were also made with women’s conditions of employment in other countries (see for example "Qvinnors anställning i franska statens tjenst" Idun 1888:5 ["Women’s Employment in the Service of the French State"]), The issues of the era were addressed and, as has been pointed out, Idun highlighted both the traditional bourgeois woman’s assignments and the home at this time, but there were also elements that highlighted modern women and their new opportunities.

From 1892 every issue began with a biographical portrait of an eminent woman or man, and the writers vary. There are articles about Sophie Adlersparre, Alfhild Agrell, Adolf Hedin, Hugo Alvén and a number of people who were significant for their time. Among the literary material, the serial was an important genre that was immediately introduced and then continued nonstop. Some examples are Jag eller du? (You or I?) A story by Marie von Olfers (Idun 1889:30-36), "Bildning. En berättelse från Skåne" (Cultivation. A Story from Skåne) by Jane Gernandt (Idun 1890:30-36) and "Aja. A story" by Georg Nordensvan (Idun 1894:6-13).

Selma Lagerlöf made her prose debut in Idun in 1891. In issue number 44 a test chapter from "Gösta Berlings saga" was published, for which she won first prize and thereby was able to complete her debut novel which was published in 1891. Lagerlöf’s gothically romantic horror short story "Spökhanden" (The Ghostly Hand) was published in the Christmas issue: Idun 1898:51. August Strindberg was also published in Idun with his short story "Syndabocken. Berättelse" ("The Scapegoat. A Story") (Idun 1907:1) . During the first decades, there was no out-and-out literary criticism. It was introduced in 1907 with a section on recently published children’s and young people’s literature. As the new subtitle from 1889, "Illustrated Magazine for Women and the Home", emphasised, Idun concentrated a greater degree than at the beginning on pictorial material. A wealth of images in the form of photographs and black-and-white illustrations was used as well as colour prints. The Christmas issue was particularly lavish with pretty coloured illustrations by famous artists such as Carl Larsson, Jenny Nyström and Victor Andrén.

The industrious writers who collaborated during the first years were both men and women. Among their names we find Mathilda Langlet, Eva Wigström [the pseudonym Ave], Hanna Kamke, Ellen Bergström, Cecilia Bååth-Holmberg, Elena Tenow, Johan Nordling, Elin Ameen, Birger Schöldström, Amanda Kerfstedt, Elisabeth Kuylenstierna-Wenster, Anna Wahlenberg and Georg Nordensvan and others. Idun became an important arena to write in and in 1909 the magazine had a circulation of about 50,000 copies.⁵¹

At the turn of the century, articles began to be published about current social questions such as women’s education opportunities and women’s right to vote. On the latter question, items by supporters of the vote for women as well as by critics were published. The Jubilee year 1912 was special. The vote was the most important question, and Selma Lagerlöf published an important contribution in favour of votes for women. The voices of the opposition were also published, such as the author Annie Åkerhjelm and Professor Vitalis Nordström who both contributed sharp counter-arguments. Elin Wägner belonged to those who acted in favour of votes for women but in another form, namely the quick-witted causerie. Between the years 1911 and 1912, Wägner’s causeries "Fru Hillevis dagbok" (Mrs Hillevi’s Diary) were a permanent feature in which the societal and women’s questions of the day were ventilated with humour as their strategy. Wägner’s role was of great significance for the magazine. During the years 1907 until 1916 she was the editorial secretary, while also writing articles and reportage, buying material, editing and publishing newspaper texts. Renowned for her sharp pen and for her humour, Wägner took on questions that were under debate at the time. She was knowledgeable and alert. During the summer of 1911 she reported for example from the two large suffrage congresses that took place in Stockholm. They were the International Woman Suffrage Alliance's (IWSA) 6th World Congress with over 1,100 participants from all over the world, and the somewhat smaller congress held by the International Council of Women with 200 delegates.⁵² Idun became an organ for the forming of opinion. The paper had thereby progressed from being a weekly about and for women in the home to being a magazine for and about modern women of the time.

Morgonbris (Morning Breeze)

The periodical Morgonbris gave the socialist women’s movement a voice with which to make themselves heard. At the turn of the century in 1900, there were not that many women’s periodicals apart from Dagny and Idun. In other words, there was space for a party political (left-wing, social democratic) paper. Morgonbris, which was given its name by the working-class author Maria Sandel, came out with its first issue in November 1904 and was received positively. The subtitle was "Arbeterskornas tidning - Utgifven av Kvinnornas Fackförbund" (A Paper for Working-Class Women — Published by the Women’s Union). The Union had been formed in 1902 and Anna Sterky was its first chairwoman (1902—1907) as well as being the person who took the initiative to starting Morgonbris. She was its first editor. The first issue started off with an article by Ellen Key and a short introduction by Anna Sterky, in which the latter explains that: "There is a connection between Ellen Key’s idealistic strivings and the movements that have arisen within the ranks of working-class women: in their work for raising the status of women."⁵³

Morgonbris was political paper for the women’s organisation.⁵⁴ It stood on a socialist foundation and constituted a voice for working-class women. "It is precisely in serving the work of enlightenment that 'Morgonbris' should have its given place and its greatest assignment, so much greater because it is working-class women themselves who have taken the initiative to starting the paper", wrote the person behind the signature A. Ö. [probably Agda Östlund] in an appeal for Morgonbris in June 1911, when it was in an economic crisis. With support from the Social Democratic Party, it survived, and ever since 1908 it was the voice of the social democratic women’s movement. During the years 1904–1908, Anna Sterky was its editor and its vignette was working women, with the red flag raised against the background of a sunrise. From 1908, Morgonbris was published by the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Women’s Congress and in 1909 a new vignette was introduced. This time, a woman in profile looked out over the sea and the rising morning sun. In 1912, the logotype was changed to a powerful oak whose roots penetrated far down into the earth. In 1920, the Social Democratic Women’s Association was formed and Morgonbris has since then been owned by the Association and functioned as a forum for discussion and debate and as the Association’s face to the world.

Morgonbris had women editors. The post of editor after Anna Sterky passed in turn to Ruth Gustafsson (1909–1910), Anna Lindhagen (1911–1916), Julia Ström-Olsson (1916–1919), Ruth Gustafsson (1919–1921), Signe Vessman (1921—1932), Kaj Andersson (1932—1936) and several others. The Editorial Office was in Stockholm, while the greater part of the readership was outside the capital. The circulation was about 4,000–6,000 copies in 1908–1911 and it varied up to at most 12,000 in 1917–1919. The climax was reached in 1937 with the sale of 25,000 copies.⁵⁵

The regular contributors were politically active within the Social Democratic Party and/or the Women’s Association. The first issue gives an insight into the orientation of Morgonbris. Right from the beginning, the paper contained contributions like "Samhällsbyggare" ("Community Builder") by Ellen Key, "Kvinnorna och socialismen" ("Women and Socialism") by Fredrik Ström, "Om kvinnans rösträtt" ("On Women’s Right to Vote") by Ann Margret Holmberg, "Kvinnosång" ("Women’s Song") by A.C. Meyer, "Våra kvinnoklubbar" ("Our Women’s Clubs") by Kata Dalström [signature Kata D-m], the short story "Brudklädningen" ("Bridal Dress") by Maria Sandel, etc. Between 1904 and 1925, the material was intended to provide information and enlightenment, to publish articles on how the work for social democracy was getting on, on the suffrage struggle in other countries, on socialism and The Woman Question, on important foreground figures such as the German socialists August Bebel and Clara Zetkin. The latter’s articles were published in several issues (1905). Contact with Russia was intense as were contacts with the socialist women’s and suffrage organisations in other European countries like England, Denmark, Germany, Holland and others. Current proposals for legislation and important societal matters were discussed. Some of these were for example legalised prostitutionen (Morgonbris 1907:4), workers’ protection legislation (Morgonbris 1912:7), the new marriage legislation (Morgonbris 1915:3) and motherhood insurance (Morgonbris 1923:9-10). Other subjects under discussion concerned the workers execrable working conditions, devastating alcoholism, birth control methods, and the right to vote. One important function was to report from the work going on in the women’s clubs around the country and in the central Committee.

In the first issue of Morgonbris, there was no real literary criticism. On the other hand, it did publish literature and articles on literature. Thus for example Fredrik Ström wrote about "Woman and Literature I–II" (Morgonbris 1907:1—2) and the literary contributions were written by among others Maria Sandel, Hjalmar Söderberg and Frida Stéenhoff. Apart from that, the paper contained a large number of poems about the workers’ struggle. Among the frequent contributors were both women and men: Anna Lindhagen, Maja Björkman Broberg, Ebba Westerberg, Ann Margret Holmberg, Anna Bugge-Wicksell, Hulda Flood, Frigga Carlberg, Linda Öberg, Ragnar Jändel, Ivan Oljelund and also one or other contribution by Fredrik Ström and Hjalmar Branting.

In the 1930s, Morgonbris became a more modern magazine under the editorship of Kaj Andersson. It was given a new layout, photographs were given a prominent place, and the paper contained black-and-white photo reportage and montage. It stood for modernity. There were first and foremost three political subjects under discussion: anti-fascism, the class struggle and women’s questions. Morgonbris provided international perspectives and became, in the words of Eva Ekstrand, "a modern arena for political agitation and action."⁵⁶ It also contained consumer information and campaigns were undertaken like for example "Dental care for everyone!". During the coming years, the magazine followed current debates and discussions, such as atomic weapons in the 1950s, sex roles in the 1960s and 1970s, and feminism in the 1990s.

Morgonbris is today the Social Democratic women’s members’ magazine, with 5 issues per year and a circulation of about 10,000.

Tidevarvet (The Era)

Tidevarvet was a radical women’s magazine that was independent of party politics. It was published between 1923 and 1936. It was the mouthpiece of Frisinnade Kvinnors Riksförbund, FKR, (the National Association of Liberal Women) and an independent newspaper. The magazine had an international orientation right from the beginning, reporting in its first issue on other countries in Europe and the world. An advertisement for Tidevarvet provides a good idea of the magazine’s contents ideologically:

"Against dictatorship
Against violence
Against class and race arrogance
For democracy
For pacifism
For the rule of law
Support our efforts!
SUBSCRIBE
to postgiro number 1544."⁵⁷

The aim of the paper was to "be a meeting-place, an arena, where men and women equally may fight for a liberal outlook and seek to attain its application in public life and legislation."⁵⁸ The programme declaration in the first issue in 1923 emphasises that "Tidevarvet considers that everything to do with women and what they think concerns everyone, which shall be proved now that they have at last gained their civil rights."⁵⁹ The background was that women had been awarded the right to vote, which marked a new era. ”Tidevarvet” means epoch, that is to say a new era, which was a fact now that women had gained their civil rights. The important thing at that point was for women to administer and discharge their rights in the best possible way. However, participation in the election in 1921 was low and it was difficult for women to make themselves heard within the established parties. For example only five women were elected to Parliament and the magazine Rösträtt för kvinnor (Votes for Women) had been discontinued.⁶⁰ Furthermore, the liberal party had been split by the temperance question and no unified line existed among the women in the party. There was space for a new magazine to work for women’s questions and to form opinion. The Fredrika-Bremer-Association’s Hertha and the Social Democrats’ Women’s Association’s Morgonbris were already on the market, but for the liberal women a magazine of that kind was lacking.

The idea of starting a magazine was the author Elin Wägner’s. Wägner did not however want to undertake the editorship since she was in the middle of her work on a new novel. The older feminist Ellen Hagen became the first editor of the magazine in 1923–1924, later to be replaced by Elin Wägner 1924—1927 and finally by Carin Hermelin in 1928-1936. Behind the project stood a group of radical, liberal, well-educated women who were collectively called "The Tidevarv Circle" or "The Fogelstad Group". This group consisted of Ada Nilsson, a well-known doctor and the publisher of Tidevarvet, Elisabeth Tamm, an estate owner and member of Parliament, Kerstin Hesselgren, professional inspector and member of the First House of Parliament for twelve years, Elin Wägner, author and journalist, Honorine Hermelin, a teacher at Anna Sandström’s teacher’s seminary in Stockholm, later principal of the Women’s College for Civic Training at Fogelstad. Tidevarvet is closely linked to this legendary group, which started the Women’s College in Sörmland in 1925. The inner circle consisted of these five women liberals (Tamm, Hesselgren, Nilsson, Wägner and Hermelin). Between 1925 and 1954, the politically independent Women’s College ran courses in theoretical subjects such as history, psychology and citizenship as well as oral presentation, art and music, in which over 2,000 women participated. The three largest groups were industrial workers, domestic workers and teachers, and women from all social classes and all parts of the country met each other on these courses.⁶¹ One of the participants was the author Moa Martinson. She published poems among other things in Tidevarvet and made her debut with the novel "Kvinnor och äppelträd" (Women and Appletrees) (1933).

The Women’s College and the magazine constituted a unique cultural project, the aim of which was to educate and strengthen women so that they could make the most of their civil rights. They were, in the words of Ulrika Knutson, "a think tank, an idea bank and a creator of atmosphere", that can be compared with the women’s movement of the 1970s when it comes to passion and significance for women’s questions.⁶²

Elisabeth Tamm’s introductory article "Vår politiska väg. Ansvaret" ("Our Political Path. The Responsibility") in Tidevarvet (1923:1) speaks explicitly about this assignment. Women had a responsibility as citizens now that they also had the right to vote. This idea was linked to liberal feminism of the type advocated by The Fredrika-Bremer-Association up until the turn of the century in 1900. After that, the Association changed its orientation, as Ulla Manns has shown, and it was given more of a complementary view of gender with the emphasis being on women’s motherly influence on society, in the spirit of Ellen Key. When Tamm highlighted women’s right to vote, and the fact that this implied a political responsibility as a member of society, it was a clear indication that both women and men were basically individuals in their own right: "Men and women must cooperate, but the precondition for this is the independent contribution of both. "The precondition for enabling women to make themselves heard in this cooperation is thus independence" Tamm clarified. ⁶³ Tidevarvet was to be a forum for all questions since "everything concerns women and what they think concerns everyone." This meant that the magazine had a broad spectrum of articles of political and cultural nature. It also contained literary contributions like poems, short stories, serials lasting several issues as well as advertisements. The publisher Ada Nilsson’s home in Stockholm was called "the house of the five fronts" and the fronts that were to be defended were:⁶⁴

• The Woman Question
• The Peace Question
• The Land Question
• The Population Question
• Liberalism

Wägner wrote about the peace question and The Woman Question, Tamm about the land question, Hermelin about matters concerning upbringing and education, Nilsson was responsible for health matters and sexual politics and Kerstin Hesselgren wrote about labour law and social issues.⁶⁵ In addition, Tidevarvet had a number of regular contributors such as Eva Andén, Andrea Andreen, Elsa Björkman-Goldschmidt, Emilia Fogelklou, Klara Johanson, Frida Stéenhoff, Mia Leche, Anna Lenah Elgström, Gunhild Bergh, Ruth Hamrin-Thorell, Hagar Olsson and Ingeborg Björklund. The majority were women, but a number of male writers contributed also, such as Erik Hedén, Adolf Noreen, Ernst Norlind, Carl Lindhagen and others.

Central to Tidevarvet and the Fogelstad Group were questions concerning "humanity". What did it mean to be a human being and what responsibility did human beings have towards each other and for the earth; these were the essential thoughts that were discussed. Wägner wrote a number of articles that aroused a good deal of attention on for example the theme "Vad tänker du mänsklighet?" (What Are You Thinking Of, Humanity?) (Tidevarvet 1935:33), in which she addressed sharp criticism at "the cowardly acceptance of the war". Wägner was a frequent writer in Tidevarvet, especially during the 1920s, when she contributed over 500 articles in 350 issues. Sometimes she signed the articles with her own name and sometimes she used different pseudonyms, and she also wrote without any signature at all. The pseudonym Devinez was used to sign Wägner’s quick-witted and often ironic causeries in Tidevarvet. Several articles were reports on international congresses, conferences and organisations abroad, and a number of portraits of important women were included.⁶⁶ Wägner introduced new ideas and the agenda included feminism, peace and the environment. She wrote early on about "Gandhi and His Teachings" and about how important the pacifist struggle was against the colonial power of England (1924). In the article "En negerstat i staten" ("A negro state in the state") Tidevarvet 1923:3) Wägner compared women’s situation with black people’s in the United States. The power perspective was always of the same importance as was the struggle for the oppressed. Several of these articles have been published anew in the book "Vad tänker du mänsklighet?" ("What Are You Thinking Of, Humanity?") (1999) with a commentary by Helena Forsås-Scott.

Tidevarvet came out every second week and cost 15 öre for a single copy or five and a half crowns for one year’s subscription. At most the circulation reached 10,000 copies. The number of subscribers was about 3,000. The paper was four-sided in the same format as a daily newspaper, and it contained black-and-white illustrations. It had a forerunner in Time and Tide, an English political (left-wing) magazine that came out every week from 1920 until 1958, that included literary contributions and that also had woman editors.

Conclusion

The significance of the various women’s periodicals cannot be overestimated. They contributed to creating meeting-places where women could discuss The Woman Question, education, the right to vote and questions concerning peace as well as cultural and literary matters and so on. The magazine helped to form opinion and to reinforce identity. In the women’s periodicals, opportunities were created for women to write, influence others and be citizens in their society. They created new public spaces. Even male writers were able to contribute to them.

It is striking to note the amount of energy that powered the women editors and the will for change that drove them on. They wanted to work for a better society, where women could make their voices heard. One strategy was to write anonymously, under a pseudonym or using a signature. But they also wrote using their own names. Another strategy was to use humour as a weapon. A third was to work hard. Many of the women’s periodicals had economic problems but coped thanks to unpaid and industrious workers, loyal subscribers and support from an association or an organisation. The older women’s periodicals which are presented in this portal contain many articles about women’s questions, social matters, literature, literary criticism, discussions, reports and advertisements that provide good insight into a society and a world in the process of constant change.

Gothenburg, May 2011