History of feminism
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott met in 1840 while en route to London where they were shunned as women by the male leadership of the first World's Anti-Slavery Convention. In 1848, Mott and Stanton held a woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, where a declaration of independence for women was drafted. Lucy Stone helped to organize the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850, a much larger event at which Sojourner Truth, Abby Kelley Foster, and others spoke sparked Susan B. Anthony to take up the cause of women's rights. In December 1851, Sojourner Truth contributed to the feminist movement when she spoke at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. She delivered her powerful “Ain’t I a Woman” speech in an effort to promote women’s rights by demonstrating their ability to accomplish tasks that have been traditionally associated with men. Barbara Leigh Smith met with Mott in 1858, strengthening the link between the transatlantic feminist movements.
Anna Sandström
Anna Sandström belonged to the circle centering around the founders of the women's rights movement "Fredrika Bremer-förbundet" including Sophie Adlersparre in whose paper she published her first article as a reformer in 1884. During the 1890s, she was a known participator in the gender debate through her articles in the paper of "Fredrika Bremer-förbundet". She represented the then radical line of the feminist movement which saw men and women as unique individuals and defended their right to develop their personalities in opposition of traditional gender roles: she opposed the Difference feminism represented by Ellen Key which demanded equal rights for men and women because their differences would complement and benefit society, and instead demanded equal rights from the viewpoint that men and women were born equal and naturally different only as individuals rather than as men and women, and that it was a waste of human resources to create psychological differences through artificial gender roles instead of helping individuals develop their personal talents and ambitions. As such, she became one of the leading figures within Swedish feminism. Her articles were also printed and sold separately. In her 1898 article "Under hvilka förutsättningar kan kvinnorörelsen blifva af verklig betydelse för kultur och framåtskridande?" (In which circumstances could the women's movement be of true importance for culture and progress?), in which she stated that equality between the sexes was not only necessary for the personal progress of every individual; it was also necessary to make happy marriages possible and develop a rich society. During her later years, she focused more upon the questions regarding female education in particular rather than gender issues in general.