The status and rights of Women in Sweden has changed several times throughout the history of Sweden. These changes have been affected by the culture, religion and laws of Sweden, as well as social discourses like the strong feminist movement.
History of women in Sweden
Viking age During the Viking Age, women had a relatively free status in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, illustrated in the Icelandic Grágás and the Norwegian Frostating laws and Gulating laws.Borgström Eva : Makalösa kvinnor: könsöverskridare i myt och verklighet (Marvelous women : gender benders in myth and reality) Alfabeta/Anamma, Stockholm 2002. (inb.). Libris 8707902. The paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal granddaughter, referred to as odalkvinna, all had the right to inherit property from a deceased man. In the absence of male relatives, an unmarried woman with no son could furthermore inherit the position as head of the family from a deceased father or brother: a woman with such status was referred to as ringkvinna, and she exercised all the rights afforded to the head of a family clan, such as the right to demand and receive fines for the slaughter of a family member, until she married, by which her rights were transferred to her husband. After the age of 20, an unmarried woman, referred to as maer and mey, reached legal majority and had the right to decide of her place of residence and was regarded as her own person before the law. An exception to her independence was the right to choose a marriage partner, as marriages was normally arranged by the clan. Widows enjoyed the same independent status as unmarried women.
Women had religious authority and were active as priestesses (gydja) and oracles (sejdkvinna); they were active within art as poets (skalder) and rune masters, and as merchants and medicine women.Ingelman-Sundberg, Catharina, Forntida kvinnor: jägare, vikingahustru, prästinna [Ancient women: hunters, viking wife, priestess], Prisma, Stockholm, 2004 They may also have been active within military office: the stories about shieldmaidens is unconfirmed, but some archaeological finds such as the Birka female Viking warrior may indicate that at least some women in military authority existed. A married woman could divorce and remarry. It was also socially acceptable for a free woman to cohabit with a man and have children with him without marrying him, even if that man was married: a woman in such a position was called frilla.Ohlander, Ann-Sofie & Strömberg, Ulla-Britt, Tusen svenska kvinnoår: svensk kvinnohistoria från vikingatid till nutid, 3. (A Thousand Swedish Women's Years: Swedish Women's History from the Viking Age until now), [omarb. och utök.] uppl., Norstedts akademiska förlag, Stockholm, 2008 There was no distinction made between children born inside or outside of marriage: both had the right to inherit property after their parents, and there was no "legitimate" or "illegitimate" children. These rights gradually disappeared from the local county laws after Christianization in the 11th century.
Middle Ages and early modern age During the Middle Ages, the status and rights of women varied between different parts of the country, as the local county laws applied different laws in different counties. The first attempt of a national law was Magnus Erikssons landslag from 1350, which established one law for the country side, and one Stadslagen (City Law) for the city, a system which was kept by the Kristofers landslag from 1442.Nationalencyklopedin (NE) From 1350 onward, the civil status of women were generally the same in both the county law and the city law: an unmarried woman was under the coverture of her closest male relative, and a wife under the coverture of her husband, while a widow was of legal majority.
In 1608, the law texts of the Old Testament from the bible were introduced in the law by amendments,Granström, Görel, Kvinnorna och rätten: från stormaktstid till rösträttsstrid, Hallgren & Fallgren, Uppsala, 1996 which at least formally significantly worsened women's status. There was, however, a gap between law and practice: despite the fact that unmarried women were legal minors and only widows had the right to represent themselves in court, unmarried women were still in practice allowed to give testimony, sue and represent themselves in court matters, to such a degree that a law reform granted them this right in 1686 to legalize what was already common procedure.
County Law From the Magnus Erikssons landslag of 1350 onward, daughters in the country side inherited half as much as sons. From 1686, the Swedish Church Law 1686 obliged every parish in the country side to provide elementary education to all children regardless of gender, usually provided by the vicar or a teacher employed by the vicarage.Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013
In the countryside, professions were regulated by custom rather than laws. When unmarried, a woman from the peasantry would be expected by social custom to serve in the household of another peasant family as a piga (maid), which was regarded as a way to learn household experience and earn money for a dowry before marriage and was not socially seen as a servant position: when married, the wives of farmers, fishermen and miners all traditionally participated alongside their husbands in their professions, handled them alone in their absence and, if their husbands died without an adult son, in their own name as widows. At least since the 17th century and until the 19th century, women were known to labor as miners and blacksmiths, referred to as gruvpiga (Maid of the Mine).
The custom of a wife acting as the proxy of her husband afforded considerable independence to women especially during the 17th century, when the men were called to serve in numerous wars and their wives were left behind to manage the family affairs in their absence, which was the case both with the wives of common farmer-soldiers as well as with the wives of noblemen, who were left with the responsibility of vast estates and parishes and the task to act as channels to the crown for the estate dependents. In the local community, the wives of the parish vicars had a strong position as a sort of caretaker of the parish social welfare, a position maintained by the system of Widow Conservation until the 19th century.
City law From the Magnus Erikssons landslag of 1350, the city law granted daughters and sons equal inheritance rights. In the Swedish Church Ordinance 1571, the city law encouraged parents to provide primary education to their children regardless of sex, and from the late 16th century onward, the city schools are confirmed to have accepted girls, though normally only in the first classes.Eva Österberg, red (1997). Jämmerdal & Fröjdesal. Kvinnor i stormaktstidens Sverige. Stockholm: Atlantis AB. Ursula Agricola from Strasbourg and Maria Jonae Palmgren from Grenna, however, were both accepted at Visingsö Gymnasium (school) in the 1640s.
From the 14th century until the Fabriks och Handtwerksordning and Handelsordningen of 1846, many professions in the cities were monopolized by the guilds. Women were, however, not excluded from guild membership. Widows became members with the license to practice the profession of their late spouse until remarriage: they could also be given a permit to practice some other trade. Formally, many guilds excluded married and unmarried women, however in practice there are numerous examples of married and unmarried female guild members. There were also exclusively female guilds, such as that of the midwives and that of the Rower woman. In 1460, 180 female guild members were listed for the city of Stockholm: the profession is not stated for the majority of them, but when it is, the most common professions for city women were brewer, baker, seamstress and washer woman, professions which continued to be common for city women in the following centuries.
There were also professions outside of the guilds, such as the profession of Mursmäcka. A woman regardless of personal status could purchase a permit, to be active within trade of export and import without guild membership and be a Kontingentborgare. The city also issued the permit of månglare. This was a permit to manufacture and, or, sell goods which was not included in the guild monopolies from stands in the square or in the street, often old clothes, ornaments, jam and cakes, and from 1623, such permits was issued only to those who could prove that they had no other way to support themselves. Such persons were normally women: either widows, or married women whose husbands was unable to support them.
Age of Enlightenment
The first law to apply the same rights to all women in the entire country by national law (including Finland, then a Swedish province), was the Civil Code of 1734, which, in the question of women's status, was in place more or less unaltered until the second half of the 19th century. In the Civil Code of 1734, all unmarried women were defined as legal minors regardless of age, and placed under the guardianship of their closest male relative (or mother, if the mother was widowed).Sweriges Rikes Lag. Gillad och Antagen på Riksdagen Åhr 1734 She was given the right to contest her guardian in court and have another appointed by the court, and when adult, she had the right to make a will. Finally, an unmarried woman could be liberated from guardianship by a petition to the monarch. Upon the day of her marriage, she was placed under the coverture of her husband. However, men were banned from selling the property of their wives without their consent, wives were given the right to sell property and handle affairs in the absence of her husband, and both spouses regardless of gender were secured the right to divorce upon adultery, upon which the innocent party was secured custody of the children. When widowed (or divorced), a woman regardless of age reached legal majority.
The Guild Regulation of 1720 explicitly granted women permission to be active within the Guilds, and there were several amendments added to it which favored women's professional rights, most of them issued by local city authorities to make it possible for destitute women to support themselves, notably the reform of 1741 dropping guild membership requirement for innkeepers,Mot halva makten – elva historiska essäer om kvinnors strategier och mäns motstånd Redaktör: Ingrid Hagman. Rapport till Utredningen om fördelningen av ekonomisk makt och ekonomiska resurser mellan kvinnor och män Stockholm 1997 and the reform of 1749, in which the permit to engage in street and market trade in Stockholm were to be issued in favor of poor women, reforms which made two very common professions more accessible to poor women.
In 1741, a reform abolished the public humiliation punishment of Uppenbar kyrkoplikt for unmarried mothers to prevent infanticide,Ohlander, Ann-Sofie, Kärlek, död och frihet: historiska uppsatser om människovärde och livsvillkor i Sverige, Norstedt, Stockholm, 1985 and in 1778, the Infanticide Act (Sweden) was introduced: in order to spare unmarried mothers from the social stigma which was the common motive for them to kill their infants, mothers were allowed to travel to a place where they were unknown by the community and give birth anonymously, midwives were forbidden to expose their identity, and should they decide to keep their child, their unmarried status was to be hidden by the authorities to spare them social embarrassment.Lindstedt Cronberg, Marie, 'Barnamordsplakatet: en straffrättsreform med oanade konsekvenser', Brottsförebyggande rådets tidskrift Apropå., 1994:1, s. 24-29, 1994