Alfhild Agrell

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Alfhild Agrell (born Alfhild Martin in Härnösand; 13 January 1849 – 8 November 1923) was a Swedish writer and playwright. She was born to Erik Johan Martin and Karolina Margareta Adolphson, who worked as confectioners. From 1868 until 1895 she was married to the Stockholmer merchant A. Agrell.

She temporarily used the pseudonyms Thyra, Lovisa Petterqvist and Stig Stigson, but she soon begun to use her own name, which was unusual for a woman; the other famed female Swedish playwrigthers of the century, the sisters Louise and Jeanette Granberg, both used male pseudonyms. The subject that she concentrated on, sexual double standards, was very shocking for her time.

Alfhild Agrell was an important contributor to the cause of gender equality in regards of sexuality; in her work, she handles the questions and consequences of sexual injustice, the sexual double standards such as the fact that a woman is subjected to contempt when she does the same thing as a man i sexual matters, the questions of having "a bad reputation", the questions of the blame put on the woman and not the man when a child is born out of marriage, and the difficulties when a woman of the people and a man of the upper classes falls in love and the consequences of such a relationship.

But she was pessimistic of the hope that men and women would ever reach sexual equality, and she doubted that a woman could find such a thing in marriage, were she by law was much restricted and given to her husbands whims.

[edit] Works

Räddad, (Saved), 1883, play
Dömd, (Judged),1884, play
Ensam, (Alone), 1886, play
Vår, (Spring), 1889, play
Ingrid, 1900, play
Småstadsliv, ("Small town life"), 1884
Från land och stad, ("From the country to the city"), 1884, collection of novels.
På landsbygden, ("On the countryside"), 1887
Norrlandsgubbar och Norrlandsgummor, ("Old women and men in Norrland"), 1899-1900
Vad ingen ser,, ("What no one sees"), 1885
I Stockholm, ("In Stockholm"), 1893
Hemma i Jockmock, ("At home in Jokkmokk"), 1896
Nordanifrån, ("From the North"),1898
Guds drömmare, ("Dreamer of God"),1904
Norrlandshumör, ("Temperament in Norrland"),1910