Women’s Right to Vote in Sweden, KvinnSam, Göteborgs universitetsbibliotek
Reproduktion: KvinnSam, Göteborgs universitetsbibliotek.

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Culture Women's Day Sweden

Women's Right to Vote / May 24, (1919)

One of 193 national Women’s Days for Culture of Peace — a day for every UN member state. See the full calendar.

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When did women get the right to vote in Sweden?

On May 24, 1919, the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, voted to grant women universal and equal suffrage. The reform followed proposals from a coalition government of Liberals and Social Democrats. The Swedish Gender Equality Agency, the Swedish Parliament, and The Local Sweden all mark this date as Sweden’s suffrage milestone.

The law came into effect after a constitutional two-step process. King Gustaf V signed the changes on December 20, 1919. Women voted in a parliamentary election for the first time in September 1921. Five women won seats in the Riksdag that year.

Sweden was the last of the Nordic countries to grant women’s suffrage, but still among the earlier European nations to do so. Finland had led the way in 1906. Norway followed in 1913. Denmark and Iceland in 1915.

Between 1919 and the 1921 election, the Justice Department formed a state committee to update women’s legal status, including a new marriage law and legal majority for married women. The committee was chaired by Emilia Broomé — the first time in history a Swedish state committee was headed by a woman.

How did Swedish women win the vote?

The Swedish suffrage movement built momentum over four decades through a mix of grassroots organizing, cross-class alliances, and strategic political lobbying.

  • 1862. Gender-neutral language in the local elections law technically allowed property-owning women to vote in municipal elections, though this was rarely acknowledged.
  • 1884. The first motion on women’s suffrage was presented to the Riksdag by liberal MP Fredrik Borg. It was rejected. The debate had started.
  • 1902. The National Association for Women’s Suffrage (LKPR) was founded, becoming the main vehicle for the national campaign over the next two decades.
  • 1909. Swedish men won the right to vote in Second Chamber elections. Women’s exclusion became more visible and harder to justify.
  • 1912. The first government bill on women’s suffrage was submitted but defeated in the conservative First Chamber.
  • 1918. Revolutionary unrest across Europe and fears of social upheaval pushed the political majority toward reform. An extraordinary session of parliament passed the first resolution in December.
  • May 24, 1919. The Riksdag formally voted for universal and equal suffrage. The LKPR celebrated on May 29, with music by Elfrida Andrée and a speech by Selma Lagerlöf.
  • September 1921. Five women entered the Riksdag: Kerstin Hesselgren, Elisabeth Tamm, Agda Östlund, Nelly Thüring, and Bertha Wellin.

Key Women in the Swedish Women’s Movement

Fredrika Bremer (1801–1865)
Sweden’s first feminist writer, Bremer laid the cultural groundwork for women’s rights decades before the formal suffrage campaign. Her 1856 novel Hertha sparked the first parliamentary debate on women’s rights in Sweden and led directly to legal reforms in women’s status.

Ann Margret Holmgren (1850–1940)
A founding member of the LKPR and its traveling ambassador, Holmgren established local suffrage associations across Sweden and built the nationwide movement from the ground up. Her ability to connect across social classes proved essential.

Ellen Key (1849–1926)
A prominent intellectual and writer, Key brought women’s issues into broad public discourse through her books and lectures. Her ideas were sometimes controversial, but her voice gave the women’s movement cultural legitimacy at a time when it badly needed it.

Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940)
The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1909), Lagerlöf used her international standing to advocate publicly for women’s suffrage. She gave the victory speech at the LKPR’s celebration on May 29, 1919, the day after the Riksdag vote.

Signe Bergman (1869–1960)
As LKPR chairwoman during its most critical years (1914–1917), Bergman coordinated the final push for suffrage with strategic precision. Her organizational skill and political judgment were central to the movement’s success at the crucial moment.

Kata Dalström (1858–1923)
A socialist activist who argued that women’s liberation and workers’ rights were inseparable, Dalström helped ensure suffrage remained a cross-party priority. She built the bridges between the women’s movement and the labor movement that made the 1919 reform politically possible.

Margot Wallström (1954– )
A Social Democratic politician and Sweden’s first Minister for Foreign Affairs with an explicitly feminist foreign policy, Wallström championed women’s rights at the EU level and globally. Her feminist foreign policy framework became a reference point for other nations.

Amineh Kakabaveh (1974– )
A former Kurdish-Iranian refugee who became a Swedish Member of Parliament, Kakabaveh advocates for women fleeing honour-based violence and oppression. Her work connects the historic fight for Swedish women’s rights to the present-day struggles of women arriving in Sweden from conflict zones.

Why this day matters today

Sweden consistently ranks among the world’s top nations for gender equality. Yet recent reports show real gaps remain.

The Global Media Monitoring Project 2025 found that only 37% of those who appear and are heard in Swedish news reporting are women. Men’s violence against women remains a serious challenge: in April 2026, the Swedish government launched a new 10-year national strategy with a “vision zero” approach toward violence against women, domestic abuse, and honour-based violence.

Sweden’s migration policy has drawn criticism from a different direction. Human Rights Watch reported in July 2026 that Sweden is deporting young women to countries where they face severe gender-based rights violations, women who grew up in Sweden but were left without permanent residency by policy delays.

On the international stage, Sweden remains a strong actor. In June 2025, the government adopted a new SEK 800 million strategy for gender equality and women’s and girls’ freedom and empowerment for 2025–2028, implemented through Sida. Sweden is historically the largest contributor in total resources to UN Women.

Explore current data at Gender Gap Sweden.

Culture Women’s Day within Women, Culture and Peace

Culture Women’s Day Sweden is part of a larger framework: Women, Culture and Peace (WCP). WCP builds on UNESCO’s Culture of Peace programme and the UN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda.

WCP works through culture, art, and community rather than formal institutions alone. It follows a women-centered organizing model, developed by scholars Stall and Stoecker. This model builds relationships and shared leadership, instead of competing for power.

Women’s Days for Culture of Peace is one expression of WCP. The initiative marks a day for every UN member state — 193 in total. Each day recognizes a nation’s path toward women’s political voice. Each day also opens space to reflect on peacebuilding, gender equality, and sustainable development still ahead, central to SDG 5.

Sweden’s tradition of feminist foreign policy and long-term investment in gender equality makes it a natural and active participant in this global network.

What could Culture Women’s Day Sweden become?

This day is still young within the Women’s Days for Culture of Peace calendar. Its meaning is not fixed. It can grow as more people discover it and decide what it should hold.

A national Women’s Day could become a moment to honor the suffrage pioneers of 1919 and the five women who entered the Riksdag in 1921. It could become an occasion to ask what Sweden’s global gender equality leadership means at home as well as abroad. It could become a bridge between the historic movement and the women now arriving in Sweden from countries where the same rights are still denied.

None of this is prescribed from above. Like WCP itself, the day grows through shared leadership, not instruction.

Ideas for celebration and reflection

These are starting points, not a program. Pick what resonates. Leave the rest. Add your own.

  • Online. Share a post or story using #CultureWomensDay or #WCP, and name a woman from Sweden who inspired you.
  • In schools. Start a classroom dialogue about women’s suffrage in Sweden, paired with a question: what does political voice mean today?
  • In culture. Organize a library display, a small exhibition, or a reading group built around women’s history in Sweden.
  • In organizations. Pause during a team meeting to mark Culture Women’s Day Sweden and connect it to ongoing equality work.
  • At home or with friends. Share one story about a woman who shaped your own family or community history.
  • In communities. Host a local PeaceTable-style gathering, open to anyone with a story, a question, or an idea to bring.

Some of these need an afternoon. Others need only a sentence shared with a colleague. Both matter.

Sweden in a Nordic and European context

Sweden was the last of the five Nordic countries to grant women’s suffrage, yet still among the earlier European nations to do so.

Nordic neighbors — earlier than Sweden:

European countries that came later:

These links connect to other Women’s Days for Culture of Peace pages within the calendar. Together they show how the global suffrage story unfolded — one country, one date at a time.

A growing network, one country at a time

Sweden is one node in a global pattern of 193 national days. As a country that has invested deeply in gender equality at home and abroad, Sweden carries a particular voice in this network.

RYB does not direct this growth. It offers the framework, the calendar, and the connection back to WCP. What happens next depends on the people who discover it.

Why didn’t everyone in Sweden enjoy the right to vote?

From the 1860s a lively debate emerged on the question of voting rights, and demands for universal suffrage became increasingly vociferous. The first private member’s motion on equal political rights for women and men was put before the Riksdag in 1884, but it was rejected. In later years, the issue was raised persistently in various motions, but in vain.

In 1909, a reform was passed in the Riksdag giving Swedish men the right to vote in elections to the Second Chamber. The first Government bill on suffrage and eligibility for election to the Riksdag for women was submitted in 1912 by the Staaff Government. It was, however, outvoted in the predominantly conservative First Chamber. Outside the Riksdag a powerful movement for women’s suffrage was taking shape, often through special suffrage societies. In a historical perspective, suffrage has been one of the women’s movement’s major issues.

Under the pressure of the revolutionary wave that shook Europe at the end of the First World War, the Riksdag approved universal and equal suffrage for women and men on 24 May 1919. The reform was implemented on the basis of proposals prepared by a coalition government of Liberals and Social Democrats. After the election of 1921, five women entered the Riksdag; this is when the Riksdag finally achieved a system of democratic representation for the whole of the Swedish people.

However, it was still possible for certain groups to be excluded from the eligibility to vote after 1921. A requirement that continued to apply was that men had to have completed national military service in order to be able to vote. This requirement was abolished in 1922 following a decision by the Riksdag. Interns in prisons and institutions were not granted suffrage until 1937. Individuals who had gone into bankruptcy or were dependent on economic support in the form of relief for the poor did not acquire voting rights until 1945. The final limitation of the franchise disappeared in 1989 when the Riksdag abolished what is known as ‘declaration of legal incompetency’.

Alongside the universal franchise reform, a parliamentary system of government developed and gained acceptance. This means that the Government requires the Riksdag’s confidence and support in order to govern the country.
› riksdagen.se/en/how-the-riksdag-works/the-history-of-the-riksdag/

Looking Forward

Culture Women’s Day Sweden marks May 24, 1919, when the Riksdag voted to grant women universal and equal suffrage. The LKPR celebrated five days later, with music and Selma Lagerlöf’s words. That moment of collective joy is worth returning to once a year.

Sweden has built a global reputation for gender equality in the century since. The work continues. A new national strategy against violence, ongoing debates about media representation, and the situation of women arriving from conflict zones all show that May 24 still carries live questions, not just history.

The invitation stands open. Explore the Women, Culture and Peace framework, browse the calendar of 193 national days, and consider what Culture Women’s Day Sweden could mean to you on May 24.

Sources and Links

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