Mid Sweden University

Research has shown that the Swedish female suffrage movement used language as a means to affect the public opinion, and used the means developed by the popular movements to educate women. The aim of this article is to examine howthefemalesuffrage movement among its members spread communicativeoralskillsto participate in meetings. We depart from four research questions: 1) How was learning organized through the courses on citizenship that the movement arranged? 2) What part did written instructions play? 3) How was learning organized in the local branches of the movement? 4) How did the anti-suffrage movement and the misogyny of the time influence the strategies deployed? The theoretical framework used was ethnography of communication and the material consisted of meeting minutes, course programs, news articles and handbooks from the archives of the Swedish female suffrage movement. The results show 1) that the courses were successful and contained both practical meeting exercises and lectures by skilled lecturers, 2) that the movement both used existing handbooks and produced their own, 3) that the work in the local branches gave the participating women substantial meeting experience. And finally, 4) that the anti-suffrage movement paradoxically may have functioned as one of the driving forces behind the educational initiatives that enhanced the skills of women and strengthened the suffrage movement.