Elma Danielsson née Sundquist (1 March 1865, Falun - 8 February 1936,

Lomma Lomma () is a locality and the seat of Lomma Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden. In 2020 it had 13,772 inhabitants. History Lomma was mentioned in a deed of Cnut the great under the name ''Lumaby'' in the year 1085. Skåne's cultural centre ...

), was a Swedish journalist and politician (Social Democrat). She was a journalist and temporary editor of the social democratic paper ''

Arbetet ''Arbetet'' (Swedish: ''The Labour'') was a Swedish-language social democrat newspaper published in Malmö, Sweden, between 1887 and 2000. History and profile ''Arbetet'' was first published in Malmö on 6 August 1887. Axel Danielsson was the f ...

'' from 1887 onward, and has been referred to as the first woman in the social democratic press.

Life

Elma Danielsson was born in Falun. She worked as a teacher in the public school system and moved to

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

with her fiancée

Axel Danielsson Axel Danielsson (15 December 1863, Värmland – 30 December 1899, Elsterberg, Germany) was a Swedish socialist agitator, journalist and writer. He was a prominent leader of the early Swedish Social Democratic Party. Danielsson retranslated Karl M ...

, with whom she had an on and off relationship from their engagement in 1881 onward - they married sixteen years later, in 1897. The couple had a son together, Atterdag (1891-1895). Axel Danielsson published the radical social democratic paper ''

'' in Malmö, and Elma participated in the paper as a journalist from 1887 onward. When Axel was imprisoned for blasphemy in 1889, she managed the paper until his release in 1890. In 1891, she moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, but returned to Sweden in 1895. August Strindberg reportedly once remarked to Axel Danielsson that he was lucky to have "a fiancee with a spark".Danielsson, Axel; Lidforss, Bengt (1908). Urval av Axel Danielssons skrifter: med levnadsteckning och karaktäristik. Malmö: Fram. Sid. xxxii. Libris 675734 Danielsson was a driving spokesperson of women's rights within the Swedish working-class movement: she was the founder of the Kvinnliga arbetarklubben (Women's Worker's Association) in 1888, the first socialist organisation for women workers in Sweden, and served as its chairperson in 1888–90. She was also a co-founder of the Malmö kvinnliga diskussionsklubb (Malmö Women's Discussion Club) in 1900. After women became eligible to municipal elections in 1909, Danielsson became the first woman elected to the Malmö City Council.

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Bibliography

* Berger, Margareta, Pennskaft: kvinnliga journalister i svensk dagspress 1690-1975 enholders: Female journalists in Swedish press 1690-1975 Norstedt, Stockholm, 1977 * Levin, Hjördis, 'Proletärkvinnor, Ohoj!: Stockholms Allmänna kvinnoklubb 1892-1930', Arbetarhistoria., 1987-1988:44-45 (Årg. 11-12), s. 4-32, 1988 * Lindgren, Anne-Marie & Lindgren Åsbrink, Marika, Systrar, kamrater!: arbetarrörelsens kvinnliga pionjärer, Idé och tendens, Stockholm, 2007

Life

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