page_title: Women in journalism
section_title: Sweden
hierarchical_section_title: Women in journalism / By country / Sweden
caption_attribution_description: English: Wendela Hebbe, drawing by Maria Röhl in 1842.
context_page_description: Women in journalism are individuals who participate in journalism. As journalism became a profession, women were restricted by custom from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. Nevertheless, women operated as editors, reporters, sports analysts and journalists even before the 1890s.
context_section_description: In Sweden, Maria Matras, known as "N. Wankijfs Enka", published the paper Ordinarie Stockholmiske Posttijdender in 1690–1695, but it is unknown if she wrote in the paper as well.
  Margareta Momma became the first identified female journalist and chief editor as the editor of the political essaypaper Samtal emellan Argi Skugga och en obekant Fruentimbers Skugga in 1738. During the 18th-century, many periodicals for, about, and likely also by women were published, but as women normally published under pseudonym, the can seldom be identified: one of the few identified ones being Catharina Ahlgren, who edited the typical women's periodical De nymodiga fruntimren (Modern Women) in 1773. Women chief editors became fairly common during the 18th-century when the press in Sweden developed, especially since the widow of a male printer or editor normally took over the business of her late spouse: a successful and well known female newspaper editor was Anna Hammar-Rosén, who managed the popular newspaper Hwad Nytt?? Hwad Nytt?? between 1773 and 1795.
  It was not until the 19th-century that the papers of the Swedish press started to introduce a permanent staff of co-workers and journalists, a development which attached the first women as permanent employees to the newspaper offices, which are noted to be Wendela Hebbe at Aftonbladet in 1841–51 and Marie Sophie Schwartz at Svenska Tidningen Dagligt Allehanda in 1851–57. In 1858, Louise Flodin came to be regarded as an important pioneer when she founded her own newspaper, became the first woman to be given a newspaper license, and composed a staff entirely of women employees, and Eva Brag became an important pioneer during her career at Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning in 1865–1889.
  From the 1880s, women became more common in the offices of the press, and when women was admitted to the Swedish Publicists' Association in 1885, 14 women were inducted as members.
  The pioneer generation of women journalists were generally from the upper/middle class who wished to earn their own income.  At this point, the focus of a conventional education for a woman was language, which was not the case with a conventional male education, especially since the male reporters were generally not from the upper classes.  Women were employed as translators and given the responsibility for the coverage of culture and foreign news and interviews of foreigners.  During this period, women journalists were reportedly respected – partially due to their social background – and due to their language skills given assignments with equal status to their male co-workers.  In 1918, Maria Cederschiöld, first woman editor of a foreign news section, recalled that women reporters were not as controversial or discriminated in the 1880s as they would later become, "...when the results of Strindberg's hatred of women made itself known. Nor was the struggle of life and competition so sharp, as it has later become. The women pioneers were generally treated with sympathy and interest, even by the men, perhaps because they normally did not regard them as dangerous competitors."
  Of the seven biggest newspapers in Stockholm, six had female co-workers prior to 1900, and when Swedish Union of Journalists was founded in 1901, women were included from the start. An important event occurred in 1910, when the popular novel Pennskaftet by Elin Wägner made the journalist profession a popular career choice for women, and women career journalists were often referred to as "pennskaft". By this time, women reporters, though a minority, had become common and no longer regarded as a novelty and the competition had become harder: in 1913, Stockholms Dagblad made a record by having seven female co-workers, and the same year, the Swedish Publicists' Association founded the De kvinnliga journalisternas stipendiefond to finance foreign trips for women reporters.  Women covered World War I and the Russian revolution and several women journalists became famed role models such as Ester Blenda Nordström, Anna Lisa Andersson and Elin Brandell.
  During the I
caption: Wendela Hebbe, drawing by Maria Röhl 1842.
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