Systerskap som politisk handling : Kvinnors organisering i Sverige 1968 till 1982
(2007)- Abstract
- The second-wave women's movement emerged in Sweden with Group 8 in 1968, at the height of the anti-war struggle against the US war in Vietnam. A new generation of women took to the streets to demand free abortion, and free childcare, and to campaign against women's low pay and sexual exploitation. This thesis focuses on a number of women's groups? collective action and organising during a political period of different movements. With this thesis I have tried to show what characterised the new women's movement in Sweden from 1968 to the beginning of the 1980's and what happens when women decide to go out and fight against injustices from a gender and class perspective. Secondly, I hope this thesis will provide a better understanding of the... (More)
- The second-wave women's movement emerged in Sweden with Group 8 in 1968, at the height of the anti-war struggle against the US war in Vietnam. A new generation of women took to the streets to demand free abortion, and free childcare, and to campaign against women's low pay and sexual exploitation. This thesis focuses on a number of women's groups? collective action and organising during a political period of different movements. With this thesis I have tried to show what characterised the new women's movement in Sweden from 1968 to the beginning of the 1980's and what happens when women decide to go out and fight against injustices from a gender and class perspective. Secondly, I hope this thesis will provide a better understanding of the social forces for a change in gender relations that existed in Sweden during the 1970's during a period of parallel gender equality work.
It was a movement that shook the foundations of women's role in society. Both the women's group activists and the women employed by ASAB and Algots contributed to this. I argue that the collective actions of the women collectives and their experiences of organising cannot be marginalised. I also hope that this study will provide a broader perspective on studies of social movements and collective actions. The social landscape during the 1960's and beginning of the 1970's facilitated the emergence of the new women's movement. For a radicalisation to deepen it also requires political opportunities and openings. For Group 8 it was the international context ? both the anti-war movement and the Women's liberation movement in the US. Another opening was the class politics of the social democrats, where Group 8 saw an opportunity to make visible the situation for especially low salaried women in capitalist society. Group 8 politics were directed against capitalism and the government, the patriarchal relations were exposed on all levels of society. The possibility to free themselves from the expected role of first and foremost being a wife and mother became the trigger for many women to join the movement.
The overall focus in my thesis is women's collective actions and social protests. By doing empirical research on some women's groups in different places in Sweden and some women's struggles at work, I focus on the collective strategies that the movement used to challenge women's situation in production as well as reproduction. The women's movement as an important political force was due to the women's creative and active commitment and their ability to mobilise. It was the possibility to create a collective identity in the small women's groups that led to a feeling of power that in turn inspired to political action. The principle was an anti-hierarchical and anti-authoritative organisation and that the small group should be independent. This organisational structure facilitated the creation of a women's solidarity but also deepened the women's consciousness. The Swedish women's movement was a political force active outside the parliamentary institutions and should be assessed in that context. Women activists pushed for a politics that lay in the interests and needs of the majority of women.
I believe the new women's movement will be remembered by its extensive collective actions in the form of demonstrations and meetings combined with the sale of newspapers and petitions to municipal councils. The collective actions were characterised by making women aware of oppression and discrimination. This was done with sensational slogans and catchwords at demonstrations. I believe it was these extrovert activities by women activists in different places around Sweden that led to the reception of the ideas and demands of the women's movement reaching far beyond the members themselves and sympathisers. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
Den andra vågens kvinnorörelse uppstod i Sverige med Grupp 8 1968 under en växande antikrigsrörelse mot USA:s krig i Vietnam. En ny generation kvinnor gick ut på gatorna och krävde fri abort, gratis daghem, organiserade kampanjer mot kvinnors låga löner och sexuell exploatering. Med denna avhandling försöker jag för det första visa vad som karakteriserar den nya kvinnorörelsen i Sverige från 1968 till början av 1980-talet och vad som händer när kvinnor bestämmer dig för att gå ut och kämpa mot orättvisor ur ett köns och klassperspektiv. För det andra hoppas jag att den ska ge en bättre förståelser för de sociala drivkrafter som kämpade för en förändring av existerande könsrelationer under... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
Den andra vågens kvinnorörelse uppstod i Sverige med Grupp 8 1968 under en växande antikrigsrörelse mot USA:s krig i Vietnam. En ny generation kvinnor gick ut på gatorna och krävde fri abort, gratis daghem, organiserade kampanjer mot kvinnors låga löner och sexuell exploatering. Med denna avhandling försöker jag för det första visa vad som karakteriserar den nya kvinnorörelsen i Sverige från 1968 till början av 1980-talet och vad som händer när kvinnor bestämmer dig för att gå ut och kämpa mot orättvisor ur ett köns och klassperspektiv. För det andra hoppas jag att den ska ge en bättre förståelser för de sociala drivkrafter som kämpade för en förändring av existerande könsrelationer under 1970-talet, parallellt ned det jämställdhetsarbete som bedrevs av olika aktörer i riksdagen.
Det var en rörelse som skakade om grundvalarna om kvinnors roll i samhället. En rörelse som jag argumenterar för att den omfattades av såväl ett antal självständiga kvinnogrupper runt om i Sverige som kvinnokollektiven ASAB-städerskor och Algotssömmerskor. Dessa gruppers erfarenheter av kollektiva aktioner och av organisering kan inte marginaliseras menar jag. Jag hoppas vidare att den här studien ska ge ett bredare perspektiv på studier av sociala rörelser och kollektiva handlingar. Det sociala landskapet under 1960 och början av 1970 underlättade uppkomsten av en ny kvinnorörelse. För att en radikalisering ska fördjupas krävs politiska möjligheter och öppningar. För Grupp 8 var det den internationella kontexten ? både antikrigsrörelsen och kvinnorörelsen i USA. Andra öppningar var socialdemokraternas klasspolitik där Grupp 8 såg möjligheter att synliggöra situationen särskilt för de lågavlönade kvinnorna i det kapitalistiska samhället. Grupp 8.s politik riktade sig såväl mot detta system som mot olika regeringar. De patriarkala relationerna avslöjades på alla nivåer i samhället. Möjligheten att frigöra sig själva från en förväntad roll som först och främst hustru och mor blev en utmaning för många kvinnor att gå med i rörelsen.
Det övergripande fokus i denna avhandling är kvinnors kollektiva handling och sociala protester. Genom att göra en empirisk undersökning av några kvinnogruppers politiska arbete på olika orter i Sverige och några kvinnors kollektiva aktioner på sina arbetsplatser, fokuserar jag på de kollektiva strategier som rörelsen använder sig av för att utmana kvinnors situation inom såväl produktionen som reproduktionen. Kvinnorörelsen som en viktig social kraft var ett resultat av deras kreativa och aktiva hängivenhet och deras förmåga att mobilisera. Den antihierarkiska och antiauktoritära organiseringsformen inte bara underlättade skapandet av en kvinnosolidaritet utan fördjupade även kvinnors medvetande.
Den svenska kvinnorörelsen var en politisk kraft utanför de parlamentariska institutionerna och ska förstås inom ramen för den kontexten. Kvinnoaktivisterna agerade för en politik som låg i den stora majoritetens kvinnors intresse och behov. Här kom de omfattande kollektiva aktionerna i form av demonstrationer, appellmöten kombinerad med tidningsförsäljning och uppvaktningar av kommunpolitiker spela en stor betydelse. Det kollektiva handlandet kan karakteriseras som att få kvinnor medvetna om förtryck och diskriminering. Det gjordes med sensationella paroller och slagord. Jag vill argumentera för att det var dessa utåtriktade aktiviteter av kvinnor på olika orter runt om i Sverige som ledde till ett feministiskt mottagande av kvinnorörelsens krav och idéer långt utanför deras egna medlemsled. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/548998
- author
- Schmitz, Eva LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Professor Dahelrup, Drude, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, Stockholms universitet
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Sociology, collective consciousness, organizing, Social movement, women´s political action, Sociologi
- pages
- 362 pages
- publisher
- Lund University Department of Sociology P.O. Box 114 SE-221 Lund
- defense location
- Edens hörsal
- defense date
- 2007-09-15 10:15:00
- ISBN
- 91-7267-244-7
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 209912e6-3cc5-49eb-b970-f4dbb072a39d (old id 548998)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:13:01
- date last changed
- 2021-12-20 10:27:08
@phdthesis{209912e6-3cc5-49eb-b970-f4dbb072a39d,
abstract = {{The second-wave women's movement emerged in Sweden with Group 8 in 1968, at the height of the anti-war struggle against the US war in Vietnam. A new generation of women took to the streets to demand free abortion, and free childcare, and to campaign against women's low pay and sexual exploitation. This thesis focuses on a number of women's groups? collective action and organising during a political period of different movements. With this thesis I have tried to show what characterised the new women's movement in Sweden from 1968 to the beginning of the 1980's and what happens when women decide to go out and fight against injustices from a gender and class perspective. Secondly, I hope this thesis will provide a better understanding of the social forces for a change in gender relations that existed in Sweden during the 1970's during a period of parallel gender equality work.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
It was a movement that shook the foundations of women's role in society. Both the women's group activists and the women employed by ASAB and Algots contributed to this. I argue that the collective actions of the women collectives and their experiences of organising cannot be marginalised. I also hope that this study will provide a broader perspective on studies of social movements and collective actions. The social landscape during the 1960's and beginning of the 1970's facilitated the emergence of the new women's movement. For a radicalisation to deepen it also requires political opportunities and openings. For Group 8 it was the international context ? both the anti-war movement and the Women's liberation movement in the US. Another opening was the class politics of the social democrats, where Group 8 saw an opportunity to make visible the situation for especially low salaried women in capitalist society. Group 8 politics were directed against capitalism and the government, the patriarchal relations were exposed on all levels of society. The possibility to free themselves from the expected role of first and foremost being a wife and mother became the trigger for many women to join the movement.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The overall focus in my thesis is women's collective actions and social protests. By doing empirical research on some women's groups in different places in Sweden and some women's struggles at work, I focus on the collective strategies that the movement used to challenge women's situation in production as well as reproduction. The women's movement as an important political force was due to the women's creative and active commitment and their ability to mobilise. It was the possibility to create a collective identity in the small women's groups that led to a feeling of power that in turn inspired to political action. The principle was an anti-hierarchical and anti-authoritative organisation and that the small group should be independent. This organisational structure facilitated the creation of a women's solidarity but also deepened the women's consciousness. The Swedish women's movement was a political force active outside the parliamentary institutions and should be assessed in that context. Women activists pushed for a politics that lay in the interests and needs of the majority of women.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
I believe the new women's movement will be remembered by its extensive collective actions in the form of demonstrations and meetings combined with the sale of newspapers and petitions to municipal councils. The collective actions were characterised by making women aware of oppression and discrimination. This was done with sensational slogans and catchwords at demonstrations. I believe it was these extrovert activities by women activists in different places around Sweden that led to the reception of the ideas and demands of the women's movement reaching far beyond the members themselves and sympathisers.}},
author = {{Schmitz, Eva}},
isbn = {{91-7267-244-7}},
keywords = {{Sociology; collective consciousness; organizing; Social movement; women´s political action; Sociologi}},
language = {{swe}},
publisher = {{Lund University Department of Sociology P.O. Box 114 SE-221 Lund}},
school = {{Lund University}},
title = {{Systerskap som politisk handling : Kvinnors organisering i Sverige 1968 till 1982}},
year = {{2007}},
}