THE WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN
No volume dealing with Scandinavian life would be complete without
some tribute to the women of Norway and Sweden. They are magnificent
specimens wherever you may find them--in the kitchen, the factory, the
harvest field, the hospital, the schoolhouse, the drawing-room, or the
palace. They are good mothers, good daughters, and good wives, and
while their devotion to their sons, husbands, and fathers is not
surpassed by their sisters in any land, they are at the same time
independent, self-reliant, and progressive to a degree that offers a
striking contrast to the statue of the representatives of their sex in
other countries of Europe. They give their best talents, affections,
and strength; they ask the same in return. There is no country, not
even the United States, where women exercise a wider influence, both
direct and indirect in the home, the school, the church, upon the
platform, and in the press. There is no other country in which the
professions, trades, and other occupations are so free to them, or in
which their opportunities are utilized with greater zeal, ability,
and success. They work side by side with men upon the farms, in the
factories, in mercantile establishments, counting-houses, government
offices, and in art, science, and literature, and are equally capable,
although, as in other lands, their pay for the same labor and equal
results is less.
From the time that Margit Larsson saved Gustavus Vasa from capture by
the Danish soldiers by hiding him in her cellar, the women of Sweden
have exercised a powerful influence in politics, although it has been
indirect, and the ablest and most progressive to-day prefer that their
present political condition shall remain unchanged. They do not think
it wise to extend the franchise any farther for fear that universal
suffrage will result in the corruption of national politics, which is
now comparatively pure. They prefer the present restrictions, which
give the ballot only to women who pay taxes, because it deprives
ignorant and incompetent women of a voice in the government, and
avoids the dangers that often attend the participation of the masses
in elections. They prefer to direct their efforts to securing
an increase in women's wages, so that they may receive the same
compensation as men for the same work, and hope to accomplish
practical results by educating public sentiment and bringing moral
pressure upon the employing class.
Speaking on this subject, an eminent Swedish writer says: "In the
energetic campaign for the betterment of the condition of women, the
Swedes have taken the first place among European nations. If one seeks
the cause of it, it is found in part in the fact that in Sweden, since
the remotest time, women have enjoyed a respect greater than in most
of the other countries, but without doubt it is also due to the
superiority of the intellect, judgment, and wisdom of Swedish women,
and in later years to the numerical excess of women in our population.
This has made the means of existence to single women a practical
problem. During the present generation a great change has worked
itself out in this sense, that the field of activity for women has
been greatly enlarged. The activity of women, who at other times found
ample domain in the multitude of occupations in the domestic life, has
become less important in that respect and has grown in importance in
the labor and occupations that in other countries are left exclusively
to men."
The advancement of women in Sweden was greatly encouraged and assisted
by the quiet influence of the late Queen Sophia and her sister-in-law,
the late Princess Eugenie, the sister of Oscar II. The queen,
always an intelligent, progressive Christian woman, with a profound
consciousness of the responsibility attached to her official rank
and influence, was a women's woman, and was habitually engaged in
promoting movements for the benefit of her sex, and with due respect
to the proprieties of her position. She never lost an opportunity to
assist and encourage all who were engaged in advancing the physical,
moral, and social well-being of the women of Sweden and Norway.
The association of Swedish Women, which is a branch of the
International Council of Women, was organized in 1896, and has over
twelve thousand members, its object being to promote the welfare of
the sex, to educate them on all questions concerning their legal and
social rights, to enlarge their sphere of activity, and to assist
those who are thrown upon their own resources to earn their living.
The active, practical work is done by subordinate societies devoted to
particular interests, as, for example, the Fredrika Bremer Association
manages a sick relief fund for wage earners, assists students in the
universities and technical schools, finds employment for those who
need it, conducts schools for trained nurses, keeps a register of
women who are capable of performing various duties, and is continually
engaged in works of benevolence.
Another organization, known as the Swedish Woman's Association for the
Defense of Their Country, is purely patriotic, and was organized in
1884 in connection with the movement for the increase of the army, for
the purpose of educating public opinion. It has forty affiliated local
committees carrying on a propaganda of patriotism. There is a women's
club at Stockholm whose special purpose is to protect working women
from persecution by their employers and others, to educate them
concerning legal rights of women wage-earners, and to furnish legal
advice and counsel to those who are in trouble. The seamstresses have
an alliance, and the shop girls are organized into a union.
The advancement of women commenced under the leadership and
inspiration of the late Fredrika Bremer, the famous authoress, who is
well known in the United States because of her frequent visits here
and her literary works. She was the pioneer of the movement to improve
the condition of women morally, socially, and intellectually.
Sweden was the first country to recognize the property rights of
women. This was due to an event that occurred a thousand years ago.
While the king and his army were engaged in foreign wars, the Danes
invaded the province of Smoland, when the women armed themselves to
defend their homes. They were led to battle by the beautiful Blenda,
who defeated the invaders and drove them from the country. In
recognition of their heroism the king proclaimed a decree granting the
women of the country property rights, and it has been since recognized
as the law of the land.
All the professions and occupations common to men are open to the
women of Sweden, and in 1862 suffrage was granted women in municipal
affairs. They are permitted to vote at the election of delegates to
conventions which choose members of the first chamber of parliament.
These rights can now be exercised by all women who pay taxes. In
Stockholm, however, a woman voter must be out of debt and the lawful
owner of the property upon which the taxes are paid.
The members of the first chamber of the parliament, which corresponds
to the United States Senate, are elected by conventions of delegates
chosen at popular elections in the country and in cities by the
members of the municipal councils. Therefore, as women have the right
to vote for members of the municipal council and for delegates to
these conventions, they participate indirectly in the election of the
Swedish Senate; but comparatively few exercise the privilege.
Women of advanced views, aided by the members of the socialist party,
are now seeking universal suffrage and a law making them eligible to
parliament and to membership in the provincial and municipal councils.
This proposition has not met with much favor, and the only time it has
ever been brought to vote it was unanimously defeated in the first
chamber of parliament and in the second by fifty-three nays to
forty-four yeas, less than one-half the members present voting.
The first woman to practice medicine in Sweden was Caroline
Widerstrom, who is still living and occupies a prominent position in
Stockholm. Her practice is as large and as profitable as that enjoyed
by most of the men physicians.
The foremost woman in Sweden to-day in intellect and influence, in
popular esteem and in public movements, and the recognized successor
of Fredrika Bremer, is Ellen Key, an authoress and editorial writer
upon _Svenska Dagbladet_.
In the system of local government in Norway, women now participate
upon an equal basis with men. The movements which culminated May,
1901, had been going on since 1884 under the leadership of Miss Gina
Krog, who may be called the Susan B. Anthony of Norway. In the latter
year she organized a woman's suffrage association, delivered a series
of lectures on the subject, and established a newspaper called the
_Nyloende_--meaning "the new ground." Miss Krog is something over
fifty years of age, of fine education and excellent family, and has
been noted for her activity in literary and charitable affairs. She
has been a teacher, a writer for the press, a director of charitable
institutions, and has lived a life of great activity and usefulness,
devoting her own means with generosity to the cause which she has
undertaken.
The suffrage movement at first attracted little attention, but public
sentiment grew slowly, and in 1890 Miss Krog succeeded in having a
bill brought into the storthing giving women the right to vote in
school matters. It received forty-four out of a total of one hundred
and fourteen votes. The liberal party then made it an issue, and two
years after the same bill received a majority in the storthing, but
required two-thirds of the votes to pass. At that time a property
qualification was required of men. The income tax returns were used
as registration lists at the polls, and none but those who paid on
incomes of $84 in the country and $92 in the city were allowed to
vote.
The leaders of the movement for universal suffrage for men united
forces with the women suffragists, and in 1898 accomplished their
purpose. The women might have succeeded the same year but for an
unfortunate division in their ranks. One faction wanted to limit
suffrage to unmarried women who own property and deprive married
women and dependent daughters and wage-earners of the ballot. But
a compromise was finally arranged, the two factions were brought
together, and in May, 1901, succeeded in accomplishing the purpose for
which they have been engaged. They received the support of a large
portion of the conservative members of the storthing as well as the
unanimous support of the liberal and radical parties, only twenty
votes being cast in the negative.
The women of Norway do not propose to rest on their present success.
Miss Krog is continuing the fight to secure the right of participation
in national as well as municipal affairs, and believes that the women
will have all the political rights of men in Norway within the next
few years. She insists that public sentiment favors the cause and that
parliament will take a step further soon and amend the law by making
it broader and more general. Universities are open to women on an
equal basis with men, and many women are taking advantage of the
opportunity to secure the higher education, and if ever, like the
women of Finland, they are allowed to sit in parliament, they will be
amply fitted to do so.
Under the present law only women who pay a certain amount of taxes
can vote. An unmarried woman living at home is deprived of the ballot
unless she has an income of her own; a married woman can not vote
unless either she or her husband has a stated income. Thus many of
the most intelligent and progressive women of the country are still
outside the suffrage line. Everybody in Norway who earns a dollar pays
an income tax. It may be very small, but a certain percentage of each
day's wages of every peasant goes into the government treasury. Every
person in Norway declares that it is the least objectionable means of
raising money for national and municipal expenses that has ever been
tried there, and that it stimulates the patriotism of the people, who
realize that they are contributors to the support of their government,
and should take an active interest in its management.
Many of the wisest men in Norway consider the universal suffrage
amendment to the constitution, which was passed in 1898, a mistake
for this reason--because it removes a powerful incentive for men
to accumulate money. The Norwegian has a large and natural fund of
patriotism. He loves his country like the Swiss. Nowhere else do men
and women have to work so hard for a living, but life is the more
precious the harder one has to labor to sustain it. We value things
according to their cost. In the tropics, where no man need work, human
life is held cheaply. Men die and kill without compunction; they
excite revolutions and overthrow governments, sparing neither
themselves nor others. But in Norway, as in Switzerland, where it is
a ceaseless struggle from the cradle to the grave, there is more
national pride and patriotism than in any land, and the privilege of
living and working and suffering is esteemed as the most precious
inheritance of man.
Women in America who are working for the ballot have only to go to
Norway to find that having a voice in the making of the laws of the
country does not remove every obstacle to the progress of the sex;
that there are still many injustices, and that the women work as hard
as the men. The Norwegian woman usually carries a little more than her
share of the load, and can support a husband without difficulty if
he insists upon it. There is nothing so admirable in this world as
a useful woman, particularly if she is married to a man inclined to
leisure and loafing. In Norway and other countries of northern Europe
the ballad, "I Love to See My Dear Old Mother Work," is something more
than an affectionate sentiment. It has a practical significance, and
is frequently found in husbands as well as sons.
Of all the labor that the women of Norway engage in, especially women
in the rural districts, is the occupation of caring for the _saeter_.
A _saeter_ is a summer ranch or dairy farm peculiar, to Norway--a
cabin among the pastures way up in the mountains, where the cattle are
driven during the summer months and butter and cheese are made. Almost
every large farmer has a _saeter_. When the spring field work at home
has been finished, the cattle are taken thither by the young women and
girls,--often twenty and sometimes forty miles away,--where they
stay during the summer and make butter and cheese, gather hay, knit
stockings, and embroider linen. The dwelling is usually a rude hut
with a single room, mud floor, an open fireplace without chimney, and
a few pieces of rough furniture. Sheds and pens surround the hut, and
there are patches of enclosed ground where hay is made and where the
younger members of the flock are protected. The cattle are called at
night by a horn made of birch bark. When blown lustily, it gives a
clear note not unlike the cornet, and the cattle invariably respond to
its sound.
There is a good deal of romance about _saeter_ life in books, but I
should say that there is very little in actual experience. Many of the
charming fairy stories in Norwegian literature have their scenes in
those mountain dairies. The _saeter_ girls (_saeterjenter_ they are
called), have a peculiar and melodious cattle call, known as
the _Huldrelok_, which is said to have been inherited from the
_Huldre-folk_, a species of fairy that are very pretty, but
unfortunately have tails. Usually a young farmer falls in love with
one of the girls, and when he discovers that she has a tail, is so
shocked and disappointed that he throws himself over a precipice; or
perhaps the _Huldre-folk_ gobble him up and carry him off into the
mountains of the _Josteldalsbrae_ and keep him there, while the girl
he left behind him grieves herself to death because of his desertion.
The dairy maids are supposed to have a peculiar costume, and
photographs are often seen of them arrayed in picturesque dress, but I
never saw them worn. In all the _saeters_ I visited the clothes worn
were very plain and ordinary, and seemed to have been selected for
wear and not for looks.
We visited a _saeter_ one day and found two young people in charge, a
boy and a girl, neither of them over seventeen, we should judge from
appearances. Their herd consisted of fifteen cows, and they expected
to remain in that desolate country two or three months, making cheese
and butter. Our little _saeterjenta_ had the heart of a poet, although
her brother seemed stupid, and even liberal presents of money did not
wake him up or make him interesting. I do not suppose that this child
had ever been twenty miles from the humble cabin in which she was
born, but the wide, wide world had been opened to her through the
books she had studied at school. She could talk a little English,
and knew a good deal about the United States. She had a brother in
Minnesota, and many of the boys and girls in the neighborhood had gone
across the Atlantic and found homes on the saeterless prairies of our
Northwest. She would like to go herself, she said, but her mother
was old and feeble and the work of the farm fell upon her little
shoulders. Yet she was brave and contented. Her mind was clear, her
imagination active, and among her homely surroundings she had found
food for thought and an opportunity to give expression to the poetic
sentiments that inspired her. Each of her fifteen cows had a name. One
she called Moon Lady, because she often wanders away at night; another
the Crown Wearer, because of a peculiar tuft upon her head. She
addressed them all in terms of affection and talked to them, seeking
their sympathy, for, poor child, they and that stupid, tow-headed
_broder_ were her only companions.
In the little _saeterjenta_ we have a type of the laboring peasant
women of Norway and Sweden; all willingly industrious and all
philosophically extracting some sweets out of the burdensome life they
must live, and that is why I say they deserve a tribute, whether in
the field or factory, the _saeter_, the common home, or the palace.[s]
AUTHORSHIP OF CHAPTERS
_a_ and _b_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York).
_c_, Nillson's _Sweden_ (P.F. Collier, New York).
_d_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York).
_e_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York).
_f_, O.G. Von Herdenstam's _Swedish Life in Town and Country_.
_g, h_, and _i_, William E. Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, _and Sweden_
(Saafield Pub. Co., Akron, Ohio).
_j_, Mary Bronson Hartt, in _Outlook_.
_k_, Swedish American in _Review of Reviews_.
_l_, Wm. E. Curtis' _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_, and W.S. Monroe's
_In Viking Land_ (L.C. Page & Co., Boston).
_m_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_.
_n_, Monroe and Curtis in above-mentioned books.
_o_, O.G. Van Herdenstam in _Swedish Life in Town and Country_.
_p_ and _q_, Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_.
_r_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_.
_s_, Wm. Eleroy Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_.