Ruth Valborg Maria Gustafson

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

''Pettersson'' (8 July 1881 – 5 April 1960), was a Swedish politician (

Social Democrat Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...

), union worker, women's rights activist and editor. She was a member of the Stockholm city council from 1919 to 1938, a member of the second chamber of parliament from 1933 to 1960, and editor of the social democratic paper ''

Morgonbris ''Morgonbris'', full title ''Morgonbris: arbeterskornas tidning'' (meaning "Morning Breeze: Journal for working women"), is the magazine of the Social Democratic Women in Sweden The Social Democratic Women in Sweden ( sv, Sveriges socialdemokratis ...

'' from 1908 to 1910 and 1919 to 1921. She was a member of the National Association for Women's Suffrage from 1902 to 1921, and a speaker of the left wing within the movement.

Life and career

Ruth Gustafson was born to caretaker Fredrik Teodor Pettersson and Anna Lovisa Johansson in Stockholm. She married editor and parliamentarian Hjalmar Albin Gustafson (1883–1961) in 1912 and divorced him in 1934. She was a board member of the Women's Union in 1903–1906, Working Committee of the Social Democratic Women in 1907–1910 and 1917–1920, Chairperson of the Working Committee of the Social Democratic Women in 1908–1910, board member of the Social Democratic Women in 1920–1932 and 1936–1948. Gustafson was raised in an intellectual working-class home with parents interested in socialism and worker's rights and a father engaged in union work, and she became active in the social democratic movement through its youth clubs in Stockholm in the 1890s. She became a formal member of the Social Democratic party in 1902, and was thereafter active as a speaker for the party, citing

Kata Dalström Anna Maria Katarina "Kata" Dalström, née Carlberg (18 December 1858 – 11 December 1923), was a Swedish socialist and writer. She belonged to the leading socialist agitators and leftist writers in contemporary Sweden, and has been referred to as ...

and

Anna Sterky Ane Cathrine "Anna" Sterky née Nielsen (1856–1939) was a Danish-Swedish politician (Social Democrat), trade union organiser, feminist and editor, chiefly active in Sweden. Sterky worked as a seamstress in Denmark, where she was active in th ...

as her role models. She was known for her radical views in favor of abolishing the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

, in favor of

civil marriage A civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Such a marriage may be performed by a religion, religious body and recognized by the state, or it may be entirely secular. History Every country maintai ...

, to give legal rights to couples living together without being married (as she herself did with her spouse for six years before she married him), and to protect children from being used for

child labor Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...

. Ruth Gustafson was a leading figure of the women's rights movement within the social democratic party and the Swedish working-class movement, where the women normally did not wish to become a part of the women's rights organisations as they were considered to consist mainly of upper-class ladies. Working-class women at this point spoke for their rights through the trade unions for women, and Gustafsson was an important speaker for them within the social democratic party, where the rights of workers were given priority over women's rights, and women's participation in politics, though frequent, was not yet uncontroversial. Gustafson died in Stockholm in 1960.

Sources

* Tidens kalender 1941, Stockholm: Victor Pettersons bokindustri A.B., 1940, sid. 122. * Barbro Hedvall (2011). Susanna Eriksson Lundqvist. red.. Vår rättmätiga plats. Om kvinnornas kamp för rösträtt.. Förlag Bonnier.
Ruth V M Gustafson, urn:sbl:13309, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av Göran Wendel), hämtad 2015-09-05.
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