Fredrika Bremer

Fredrika Bremer was a Swedish 19th century writer and one of the earliest and perhaps most influential women rights activist in the country.Born into a wealthy family in the Swedish speaking parts of Finland Bremer recieved a thorough education including a Tour d'Europe. In 1828 she she started to publish her series Teckningar utur hvardagslifvet (Drawings from the everyday life), in which her story Familjen H... (The Family H...) was included. The work drew influences from the English 'novel of letters', as well as the utilitism of Jeremy Bentham and the works of Freidrich Schiller. The work was widely acclaimed and she continued her writings by publishing Grannerna (The Neighbours) and Hemmet (The Home). Inspired by Alexis de Tocquevilles she travelled to the United States by herself and stayed for over a year. Bremer was dissapointed by the experience since she could not condone with policies such as slavery. She was however somewhat influencal in the US at the time, having many of her works translated by Mary Howitt, and she was mentioned in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Her most important work would be Hertha. The book caused such a major discussion about the role of women in society that the Swedish parliment decided to grant unmarried women over 25 years of age legal majority. It also lead to the foundation of all women higher education schools.