Eva Johanna Andén (23 April 1886 – 26 March 1970) was a Swedish lawyer. She became the first woman member of the
Swedish Bar Association
The Swedish Bar Association () is an organisation for Swedish lawyers, including members of the Bar practicing law, under the title of '' advokat'', a title which is protected by Swedish law and reserved for the exclusive use by the members of t ...
on 14 March 1918.
Life
Eva Andén was born to the merchant Heribert Andén and Elin Forssman.
In 1907, she became a law student at the
University of Uppsala
Uppsala University (UU) () is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
Initially founded in the 15th century, the university rose to s ...
, where she was the only female member of her class, and graduated in 1912. In 1912–1913, she toured Sweden and gave legal lectures on behalf of the
National Association for Women's Suffrage (Sweden)
The National Association for Women's Suffrage (, LKPR) was a part of the general suffrage movement and the national society for women's suffrage in Sweden. It functioned as a parallel to the :sv: Sveriges allmänna rösträttsförbund, Sveriges ...
; in 1913–1914 she was employed as a notary at the legal court of Falun, and in 1914–1915, she practiced law in the firm of Johan Tjerneld, secretary of the Swedish Bar Association. In 1915, she took over the law firm of
Anna Pettersson in Stockholm. The second woman lawyer in Sweden,
Mathilda Staël von Holstein
Matilda or Mathilda may refer to:
Animals
* Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder
* ''Mathilda'' (gastropod), a genus of gastropods in the family Mathildidae
* Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thorou ...
, practiced in her firm in 1919–1923.
Eva Andén had a successful career until her death, and was particularly engaged in cases of divorce, allowance and other cases involving women and children.
Barbro Alving,
Selma Lagerlöf
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish writer. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was ...
and
Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren (; ; 14 November 1907 – 28 January 2002) was a Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. She is best known for several children's book series, featuring Pippi Longstocking, Emil i Lönneberga, Emil of Lönneberga, ...
were among her clients.
She was a member of the government's state legal committee which advised the government in the law reforms regarding women and children, which underwent major reforms during the year in which
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
was introduced, and she contributed to the reforms in which the rights of children out of wedlock were strengthened (1917) and the reformed marriage law in which married women were freed from the legal guardianship of their husbands in 1920–1921.
She often contributed articles in the press, regarding the law and women's rights in issues of marriage, inheritance, abortion and prostitution. During the 1920s and 1930s she was a regular contributor to the
liberal feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
weekly magazine ''
Tidevarvet''.
She never married, but lived with the legal secretary
Lisa Ekedahl for many years. She had many friends, among them
Aleksandra Kollontai,
Karolina Widerström
Karolina Olivia Widerström (10 December 1856 – 4 March 1949) was a Swedish medical doctor and gynecologist. She was the first female physician with a university education in her country. She was also a feminist and a politician, and engaged i ...
and
Ellen Fries
Ellen Fries (23 September 1855 – 31 March 1900) was a Swedish feminist and writer. She became the first female Ph.D. in Sweden in 1883. She also founded several women's organizations.
Biography
She born in 1855 at Rödslegård in Törnsfal ...
.
See also
*
First women lawyers around the world
This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in each country. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are the first women in their country to achieve a certain distinction su ...
References
Further reading
*
1886 births
1970 deaths
Swedish suffragists
Burials at Uppsala old cemetery
20th-century Swedish lawyers
20th-century Swedish women lawyers
20th-century Swedish journalists
{{Sweden-law-bio-stub