''Husmodern'' ( sv, The Housewife) was a women's magazine which was published in Stockholm, Sweden, between 1917 and 1988.

History and profile

''Husmodern'' was started in Stockholm in 1917 and was published by a company with the same name. The founding organization was Martta. The subtitle of the magazine was ''de svenska husmödrarnas tidning'' ( sv, the Swedish housewives' newspaper). Its founders were Thora Holm and the journalist Elsa Nyblom. The latter was also the first editor of ''Husmodern''. The magazine was acquired by the Åhlén & Åkerlund company in 1920. Following this its subtitle was redesigned as ''tidskrift för hemmet och kvinnan'' ( sv, magazine for the home and the woman). A pattern department was also formed belonging to the magazine after its acquisition by Åhlén & Åkerlund which became part of Bonnier Group in 1929. The magazine delivered a supplement entitled ''Stil-mönster'' ( sv, Style-Patterns) which contained samples of the Swedish patterns between 1941 and 1982. ''Husmodern'' came out weekly throughout its run. The magazine was among the popular periodicals in the country and reached its highest circulation in 1970 selling 290,000 copies. Its title was ''Nya Husmodern'' ( sv, Modern Housewife) from 1982 to its closure in 1988. ''Husmodern'' had a Finnish edition entitled ''Emäntälehti''. Some issues of ''Husmodern'' were archived by Carolina Rediviva library in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, Sweden.

Audience, content and editors

In the initial years ''Husmodern'' targeted rural women. The target audience of the magazine was middle-class housewives living in cities from 1938. The coverage of ''Husmodern'' was expanded from 1920, and it contained many appealing advertisements. It frequently featured life of

Carl Emil Pettersson Carl Emil Pettersson (23 October 1875 – 12 May 1937) was a Swedish sailor who became king of Tabar Island in Papua New Guinea after he was shipwrecked in 1904. Early life and early career Pettersson was one of the six children of Carl Wilhelm ...

, a Swedish adevnturer, in the 1930s. In the period between 1930 and 1950 the first ten of its total 60–80 pages included the advertisements of household appliances, make up products, food, language courses and bikes. One of the frequent topics was dressmaking patterns during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

period. In addition, ''Husmodern'' was one of the Swedish publications which featured news materials provided by the Swedish Intelligence Agency during the same era. The magazine also included the following sections: recipes, home decoration, news, and short stories. One of the editors-in-chief of ''Husmodern'' was Fanny Hult. Another editor-in-chief was

Amelia Adamo Amelia Adamo (born 24 February 1947) is a Swedish journalist. She established several women's magazines and worked as an editor-in-chief. Biography She was born in Rome, Italy, and went to Sweden soon after her birth. She received a degree in so ...

who had worked as a reporter for the magazine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Husmodern 1917 establishments in Sweden 1988 disestablishments in Sweden Defunct women's magazines published in Sweden Defunct lifestyle magazines Magazines established in 1917 Magazines disestablished in 1988 Magazines published in Stockholm Defunct Swedish-language magazines Weekly magazines published in Sweden Bonnier Group