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74 (i
v. social movements.
The Association of Women Educated at Universities has worked, since 1904
to the end that women shall enjoy the same privileges as are guaranteed to
men of the same ability, so long as they have passed the qualifying tests
enforced by laws and statutes. The Association for Women in Government
Service was in 1912 successful in obtaining substantially better salaries for
female clerks in Government service.
Women belonging to the social-democratic party have organized
themselves by means of clubs, since 1898, as a political body. In 1914 there are
50 such clubs in Sweden, which send representatives eve^r third year to a
women’s congress, the proceedings of which are reported in a special
publication. The congress appoints for three years an "Executive Committee
of the Social Democratic Congress of Women", which publishes through
a sub-committee a monthly magazine "The Morning Breeze"
(Morgonbris), the organ of the women’s social democratic movement. In
Stockholm there is to be found a separate union between the two social democratic
clubs for women, the Women’s Trade Union, and women in the
Young People’s clubs, called "The Joint Organization of Women Social
Democrats". Women have organized themselves in their different callings
partly by entering men’s trades unions, partly by their own organizations,
which, in that case, also unite with the respective social-democratic
associations. Women of the social-democratic party have to a large extent
joined the temperance organizations, and take a large share in various
kinds of work within women’s cooperative guilds.
Statistics show that the position of Swedish women is, on the whole, rather
favourable. One testimony, foremost of all, is the longevity of Swedish women,
which is the greatest observed in any country except Norway, and, especially
during the most active years of their lives, the death-rate is low. It has also
been previously pointed out, not only that frequency of crime has generally
decreased amongst the female population of Sweden (excepting for a slight
increase since 1900), but also that the decrease has been more marked than amongst
men. — With regard to the wages paid for women’s work, these, as in all
countries, keep lower than men’s, but still some approach to levelling them has
been made. Thus, from 1870 to 1910 male agricultural labourers’ wages have
risen 284’46 %, but those of female servants in the country 409’52 %.
On the other hand, evils have appeared of låte years, especially amongst the
younger females. To these belong the very great increase of illegitimate births
(from 11*66 % in 1900 to 14’36 % in 1910) and of suicides amongst younger
women, as also the increase of mortality among younger women — this being
all the more remarkable, since among women of somewhat more advanced age
the change generally tends in the opposite direction. It is obvious that we
here meet with the consequences of girls leaving home earlier than formerly to
take situations at factories. The need of taking energetic measures for the rights
and protection of this new female class of society that is arising in our own
days becomes more and more obvious.
Peculiar to Scandinavia, England, and Finland is the law that entitles
women, under certain conditions, to vote at communal elections. Even
in the eighteenth century, Swedish women possessed of landed property
had this privilege, which was then, however, of small importance, and
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