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History
The Viking Age: c. 800- 1000 A.D.
.....During the Viking Age, women were
responsible for the day-to-day management of the household, which
meant food preparation, childcare, cleaning, washing, spinning, weaving,
making all of the family’s clothing, tending to the small animals,
milking, making butter and cheese, and lighter farm tasks (Nordstrom
28). When the Viking men would go on raids, women, among children
and older people, stayed home and tended the agricultural settlements,
as well (DuTemple 25).
.....During this time, women were considered
very significant. Primarily, this value was most shown by the fact
that they possessed the household keys, which were symbolic of control
(29). In addition, women’s significance is shown through the
fact that married “women owned their own property and equally
owned any property the couple acquired during their marriage”
(29). Furthermore, if a woman was mistreated by her husband, she could
divorce him, and if this was the case, the woman could then take her
property and return to her parents; men and women were free to divorce
for any reason, and both parties were free to remarry after a divorce
(29).
The Medieval and Early Modern Eras: c.
1000- 1800 A.D.
.....Following the Viking Age, the next
significant time period for women was during the medieval and early
modern eras. During this time, women in Sweden were highly important
and valued in the domestic economies of rural and urban people, and
were considered a vital commodity in the marriage practices of the
time. In spite of this, they were considered inferior, were used and
abused, and seem rarely to have had very much direct influence in
the affairs of the leaders of the time (Nordstrom 32).
.....Despite the negative aspects of
a woman’s life during this time period, some women were powerful
leaders of Sweden. One of the most powerful women of the time, Margaret
I (1353- 1412) united Denmark, Norway and Sweden under one crown.
The youngest daughter of Waldemar IV of Denmark, she married at the
age of 10 to Haakon VI of Norway. In 1376, Margaret’s son Olaf
was elected king of Denmark, and later inherited Norway after his
father’s death in 1380. After Olaf’s death in 1387, Margaret
ruled over both regions. In 1388, she was elected queen of Sweden.
For the rest of her life, Margaret dominated Scandinavian affairs,
and was a leading force in the creation of the Kalmar Union that linked
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden together in 1397 (Grolier 123).
.....Many years after Margaret’s
reign, another powerful woman who ruled over Sweden was Kristina (1626-
1689), who was Queen of Sweden from 1632-1654. After her father Gustav
II Adolf was killed in battle during the Thirty Years’ War,
she became queen (Zickgraf 73). After many years of ruling over the
nation, she converted to Roman Catholicism, abdicated her throne in
1654, and left Sweden to live in Rome for the remainder of her life
(Nordstrom 162).
The Nineteenth Century:
.....Following the medieval and early
modern periods, during the beginning of the nineteenth century, women
had few legal rights or options in life. Accordingly, they were considered
physically, intellectually, and morally inferior, and they were always
under the legal domination of their male counterparts; their lives,
property, and income were not their own, and they did not have equal
inheritance rights. Sadly enough, the only truly independent women
were widows, yet they were expected not to remain widows for long
(81).
.....During this century, women of the
middle class and also, women of the working class, worked hard for
the betterment of women’s rights. Focusing on legal questions,
the middle class worked through organizations of women with the time
to write, publish, and campaign, and the working class focused on
work issues, which was the domain of women who worked through unions
and political parties. More successful during this period, the middle
class stimulated important changes, including equality in inheritance
in 1845, legal independence in 1858, access to the universities through
the right to take the admissions tests in 1870, right to their won
incomes in 1874, and independence for married women around 1890 (82).
.....Although during this period woman
gained many rights, they still did not gain total equality with men.
Not surprisingly, working women had two careers, one on the job and
the other at home. Also, women’s work was not equally valued
with that of men’s; women were paid a lot less then men for
the exact same work (82).
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