Kvinnliga arbetarklubben or Malmö kvinnliga arbetareförbund (literary:'Women's Worker's Club' or 'Malmö Women's Worker's Association') was a pioneer worker's association for women in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

in Sweden, founded 17 October 1888 and dissolved in 1892. It was the first organisation for women in the

Swedish labour movement The labour movement in Sweden dates back to at least the 1850s, when Swedish workers initiated the organizing of previously spontaneous food riots into strikes, hence acting as an autonomous group. History Modern types of labour unions emerged ...

. It was also one of the first organisations of the Swedish labour movements, founded one year prior to the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( sv, Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ; S/SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( sv, link=no, Socialdemokraterna ), is a social-d ...

Foundation

The 1880s was a period of great activity and organisation of the new labour movement in Sweden, as well as the introduction of Socialism within it. While women came to be included in the labour movement, there where discrimination as well as a principal dislike within it to organise any sort of separate women's organisations, because according to the dominant belief within the movement, women's concerns were to be dealt with in parallel to men's, not separately, which could sometime result in women workers needs being neglected. The ''Kvinnliga arbetarklubben'' was founded by a group of politically engaged women within the labor movement. While women's organizations and even trade unions had existed before, this was the first socialist women's club and the first club exclusively for women within the labor movement, and thus played a pioneering role.

Function

The stated purpose of the club was not, officially, to work with "women's issues", but to work to recruit more women to become involved within the labour movement and interested in becoming politically involved. In reality however they did become active within women's issues because that was issues that concerned women they recruited and was included within the labour movement. Their main activity was to improve the rights and conditions for women within the workforce by helping them to organise within working unions. They also debated other issues which affected

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

and

gender role A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

s and held debates about current questions, such as one literary debate, in which a work by August Strindberg was judged to be influenced by

misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...

. The chairperson was

Elma Danielsson Elma Danielsson née Sundquist (1 March 1865, Falun - 8 February 1936, Lomma), was a Swedish journalist and politician (Social Democrat). She was a journalist and temporary editor of the social democratic paper ''Arbetet'' from 1887 onward, and h ...

in 1888–90, and Maria Osberg-Wessel in 1890–92.

Dissolution and aftermath

In 1892, the club was officially dissolved.''Kvinnorna i den socialdemokratiska rörelsen'', tidskriften Tiden 1939
/ref> The example of this pioneer club was followed all over the nation, and several similar local women worker's clubs was founded in Sweden, though they were all to be temporary until the foundation of the '' Stockholms allmänna kvinnoklubb'', which was founded in 1892 with Kvinnliga arbetarklubben as its role model, and became the first women's club to be formally included in the Swedish Social Democratic Party. In 1900, a new women workers club was founded in Malmö by the members of the former ''Kvinnliga arbetarklubben'', called '' Malmö Kvinnliga Diskussionsklubb'' (literary: 'Malmö Women's Discussion Club') which could be seen as the re-founding of the old ''Kvinnliga arbetarklubben'' under a new name.

References

{{reflist Swedish Social Democratic Party * Politics of Sweden 1888 establishments in Sweden Organizations established in 1888 19th century in Malmö