By Verne Moberg
© 2000 by Verne Moberg

1822

Christian Benedictsson born November 26.

1840 - 1844

Swedish girls' schools founded.

1845

Equal inheritance for Swedish men and women.

1846

Swedish women win the right to enter certain trades. 

1847

Danish women request the right to attend university lectures.

1848

Sophie Sager, in Stockholm, becomes first Swedish woman to press rape charges (her complaint considered scandalous).

1850

Victoria Bruzelius (Benedictsson) born March 6.

1851

Christian Benedictsson marries Matilda Andersson (five children born to this marriage).

1857

Two female students enroll in art and craft schools in Stockholm. Danish age of majority for women now 25; equal inheritance laws for Danish women and men; unmarried Danish women entitled to enter the labor market.

1859

Stockholm inspection program for prostitutes; also founding of women's magazine entitled Magazine for the Home.

1860s

Labor organizing begins in Sweden. 

1862

Sophie Adlersparre (painter) dies.

1863

Article published on S. Adlersparre.

1864

Swedish Art Academy opens for women; extended labor market rights for Swedish women.

1865

Matilda Benedictsson dies; first Danish woman speaks in public; Danish music conservatory opens for women.

1866

Swedish government committee on girls' school.

1869

Georg Brandes publishes his translation of J.S. Mill's On the Subjection of Women.

1870

Swedish medical schools open to women; Swedish women win the right to take student examination as private students.

1871

Victoria Bruzelius marries Christian Benedictsson in September.

1873

Hilma Benedictsson born; Swedish universities open for women. Association for Married Women's Property Rights founded in Sweden.

1874

Swedish wives win right to control their own earnings; regulation of prostitution in Denmark.

1875

Danish universities open for women; regulation in Sweden.

1876

Ellen Benedictsson born July 22 (died August 12).

1877 - 1880

Charles de Quillfeldt visits Hörby.

1878

Victoria Benedictsson visits the National Museum, Stockholm; the Federation (against regulation) comes to Stockholm.

1879

Ibsen's A Doll's House; August Bebel's Woman and Socialism.

1880

Knut Wicksell publicly advocates birth control (in Uppsala); Swedish women permitted to work as low-level civil servants. 

1881

Benedictsson suffers knee injury and confined to bed for two years.

1883

Bjørnson's A Glove; Anna Charlotte Leffler's play True Women; Ellen Fries becomes Sweden's first female Ph.D.

1884

Female age of majority drops to 21 in Sweden; Married Women's Property Act passed in Swedish parliament; Fredrika Bremer Society
(Swedish women's organization) founded; first woman suffrage bill introduced in Swedish parliament; publication of Strindberg's Married;
Adda Ravnkilde commits suicide.

1885

Benedictsson's novel Money published; Amalie Skram's Constance Ring; Gustaf af Geijerstam's Erik Grane.

1886

Dagny, new Swedish women's magazine, founded; Y.B.'s article on syphilis and Stella Kleve's "Pyrrhic Victories" in Forward; first Swedish women's trade unions. 

1887

Double Standard Debate (1887-88); publication of Benedictsson's Madame Marianne; Folklife and Little Tales, and Harriet Martineau biography; Swedish publishers split over Strindberg.

1888

Benedictsson publishes article on Brandes and loses feminist support; becomes first woman to receive support from Swedish Academy; commits suicide in Copenhagen July 21-22; Strindberg's Miss Julie appears; Matti Benedictsson gives V.B.'s papers to Axel Lundegård; Matti and Karl of Geijerstam marry in September; Lundegård completes and publishes Spellbound and The Mother.

1897

Compulsory gymnastics proposed for Swedish girls' schools.

1898

Swedish woman suffrage society founded.

1899

Karl af Geijerstam and Christian Benedictsson die.

1905

Amalie Skram commits suicide; regulation abolished in Denmark.

1906

Woman suffrage passed in Finland.

1909

Lundegård publishes Elsa Finne and Matti af Geijerstam, her correspondence with V.B. 1913 -- Woman suffrage in Norway.

1915

Woman suffrage in Denmark.

1919 - 1921

Universal suffrage in Sweden.

1921

Swedish wives win majority at 21 and other equal rights with husbands.

1928

Diary Leaves and Letters, edited by Axel Lundegård.

1930

Sten Linder publishes dissertation: "Ernst Ahlgren i hennes romaner."

1935

Tora Sandström publishes Freudian study of Benedictsson.

1949 - 1950

Fredrik Böök publishes Victoria Benedictsson and George Brandes in addition to biography of V.B.

1970 forward

Many publications on V.B. with revived interest from a new women's movement

For further information, call the Swedish Program at (212) 854-7859; fax (212) 854-5381; or e-mail vam1@columbia.edu.


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