‘Problems of the women’s movement’: Lind-af-Hageby’s assessment of the state of the British women’s movement in 1914 and the scale of the issues facing feminists

Abstract

ABSTRACT At the turn of the twentieth century, Lizzy Lind-af-Hageby (1878–1963), of Jönköping, left Stockholm to pursue a career as a writer, public speaker, and organiser together with her partner and colleague Leisa Schartau. In the UK, and the USA, Lizzy Lind-af-Hageby became renowned as an outspoken opponent of vivisection, supporter of pacifism, vegetarianism, and humanitarian social politics, and for having written the first biography of August Strindberg in English. In February 1914 after a highly publicised legal case in the UK – in which Lind-af-Hageby acted in her own defence – she spoke at the Queen’s Hall in London on four occasions on the overarching theme of problems of the women’s movement. The speech series placed Lizzy Lind-af-Hageby at the centre of the women’s rights and suffrage debate, highlighting the impact of her public-speaking persona, and showing her to be a modern critic of the prevailing gender-biased society.