Mid Sweden University

This essay aims to apply a gender perspective to a wide-range study of local newspapers and the female electorate’s behaviour during elections conducted in Härnösand between 1919 and 1924, in order to examine the political culture in the wake of the Swedish universal suffrage reforms of 1918 and 1919. Taking the theories of political culture and gender as the starting point, the focus is on the gendering of politics and attitudes towards women as political subjects emerged in the local newspapers during election campaigns, once women’s suffrage had been introduced. Two hypotheses form the basis of the examination; whether positive attitudes towards women as new political subjects encouraged a high rate of female election turnout, or whether anti-sentiments against women as political subjects rather emerged, should the rate of female voters be continuously low. The results are based on analysis of press reports by three local newspapers – a conservative, a liberal and a socialist – and the female electorate’s behaviour, using electoral polls.

All the newspapers from 1919 to 1924 carried exhortations to voters of both sexes and encouraged them to exercise their votes. In other words, the newspapers carried the formal institutionalism of political equality forward as long as the franchise was concerned. However, the female election turnout was generally very low, with exceptions for the elections of 1919. During the course of the early 1920s, leftist newspapers’ tended to render the female electorate as irresponsible, bearing in mind those potential leftist voters, females of the working class, who preferred not to vote. The fact was not denied by the rightist press, but surprisingly, female voters were generally received more favourably by the conservatives, mainly due to the strong tradition of conservative rule in Härnösand, and with influential conservative female representatives. The newspapers generally rendered the female electorate as unreliable, but yet with equal respect to those women who took responsibility. I would therefore argue that the actions of the female electorate and the attitudes emerged in the newspapers are consistent with my second hypothesis. There must have been a deeper informal institutionalism based on female subordination which prevented women to vote. I also note that all political parties, and female politicians, considered that women had rightful places only in selected occupations such as house working, health care and education.