Sweden is not a land of large manufactories; hence there is no problem arising from the presence of large masses of industrial laborers. Since 1865 the wages of the agricultural laborers have risen 85 per cent for women and 65 per cent for men. There are 242,914 women engaged in agriculture, 57,053 in industry,—3400 of the latter being organized. There are 15,376 women employed in commerce; they are throughout paid lower wages than the men (400 to 1200 crowns, i.e. $107 to $321).

The organization of the workingwomen is not connected with the woman’s rights movement; it is affiliated with the workingmen’s movement. In this field Ellen Key has been quite active as a national educator. She is a supporter of the laws for the protection of women laborers, and on this point she has frequently met opposition among the woman’s rights advocates of Sweden (an opposition similar to that offered by the English Federation for Freedom of Labor Defense). In 1907 an exposition of home-work was held in Stockholm, similar to the German expositions.

The right to vote in national elections[59] in Sweden is exercised by landowners and taxpayers; however, only by men. Therefore there is a Swedish National Woman’s Suffrage Society, which in recent years has grown very considerably, having over 10,000 members. In the autumn of 1906 a delegation from the society was received by the Prime Minister and the King, who, however, could hold out no promise of a government measure favoring woman’s suffrage. The society then tried to influence the Parliament with an enormous petition having 142,188 signatures. This petition was presented February 6, 1907.

In 1906 and 1907 the Labor party and the Liberal party inserted woman’s suffrage into their platforms and presented bills favoring the measure. Twice (in 1907 and 1908) Parliament rejected the clause providing for woman’s suffrage. On February 13, 1909, the Swedish males were granted universal suffrage (active and passive) in national elections; at the same time Parliament tried to appease the women by granting them the passive suffrage in municipal elections. In the spring of 1909 the bill concerning woman’s right to vote in national elections (Staaf Bill) was accepted by the Constitutional Commission by a vote of 11 to 9; the Lower House also accepted it, but it was rejected by the Upper House.

The political successes of the Norwegian women have a stimulating effect on Sweden.

Prohibition has influential advocates in Sweden, and supporters in Parliament. At the request of the Swedish women’s clubs, police matrons were appointed to coöperate with the police regulating prostitution in Stockholm, Helsingborg, Trelleborg, and Malmö. At the present time a commission is considering future plans for police regulation of prostitution in Sweden.

In Sweden, where there are about half a million organized adherents to the cause of temperance, there are 77 daily papers that consistently print matter pertaining to temperance. Not only these 77 papers, most of whose editors are Good Templars, but at least 13 other dailies refuse all advertisements of alcoholic liquors.[60] In Norway, where similar conditions prevail, there are a quarter of a million temperance advocates, and about 40 daily papers that favor the cause.

FINLAND

Total population:2,712,562.
Women:1,370,480.
Men:1,342,082.
No league of Finnish women’s clubs.
No woman’s suffrage league.