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- Israelsson, Jezzica, 1982-
(författare)
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Making themselves heard : Women’s and men’s voice through the regional petitioning process in Sweden, 1758–1880
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, thousands of women and men contacted the Governor’s Administration of Västmanland (Länsstyrelsen i Västmanlands län), handing in petitions concerning a wide range of matters. This thesis studies these cases to deepen our understanding of women's and men's ability and need to make themselves heard through the regional petitioning process. It also elucidates how this practice was intertwined with people's endeavours to make a living by focusing on the participation’s connection to resources. By studying petition registers and a corpus of nearly 3,000 surviving petition files, it contributes to existing scholarship in three important ways.First, the thesis introduces an extended theoretical conceptualisation of the regional petitioning process, where the relationship between petitioner and respondent is integral to the petitioning itself. This inclusion shows that the commonest reason why people needed to make themselves heard, thus establishing a relationship with the governor and his administration in the first place, was because of interactions and conflicts with other people over some resource, primarily credit, land or working roles. Everyday interactions led people to use the regional administration in legally regulated disputes, which ultimately had political implications. Second, by comparing the participation of women and men as well as that of labouring people to other groups, the thesis sheds light on how the ability and need to make yourself heard varied with gender, marital status and socioeconomic status. To participate in this manner was expensive, which undoubtedly affected poor people’s ability to do so. Nevertheless, we find people from the lowest rungs of society who vehemently protected their rights, sometimes as petitioners but more often as respondents. Women's participation at the administration, as in almost all official contexts at this time, was lower than men’s, sometimes only a fraction. Despite their low levels of participation, it nevertheless took many forms, a variety that continued into the nineteenth century.Third, the investigation studies how the ways people made themselves heard through the regional petitioning process evolved over time, making it one of few Swedish studies of petitioners and respondents beyond the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its temporal setting has yielded previously unknown insights into how the development of voice through the petitioning process was connected to administrative bureaucratisation, aspects of the judicial revolution, the gradual but non-linear disappearance of household culture and the emergence of a civil citizen.
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| 2. |
- Englund, Josefin, 1975-
(författare)
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Som folk är mest : Könsideal i svenska kontaktannonser 1890–1980
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates 5,000 descriptions of men and women in search for a life partner of the opposite sex through classifieds 1890-1980. The advertisers’ descriptions of who they are and what they want sketches a picture of the expectations everyday people have had on how men and women should be over almost a hundred years. Previous accounts of 20th century gender relations are based on governmental and political materials.The bipartite structure of the personals advertisements is used methodologically to differentiate between the so-called “ego-descriptions” and the “alter-descriptions” - what the advertiser had to offer and what the advertiser wanted. Men's descriptions of themselves – ego descriptions – is compared to women's descriptions of the man – alter description –, and women’s descriptions of themselves – ego-description – is compared to men’s descriptions of women – alter description. Six categories were created to capture the content of the personal advertisements: 1) Breadwinner qualifications 2) Parenting qualifications 3) Homemaker qualifications 4) Bodily aspects 5) Leisure 6) Personal interests and qualifications.This study shows that men and women increasingly are described on the grounds of similar qualifications, and that both men and women are increasingly depicted with characteristics that earlier was coded as female. It also shows that children and the family became more important. Stability and security were highly appreciated in the beginning of the period, but gave way to values as mobility and opportunity in the late 1900’s. Both women and men shift from favouring material conditions to an increased focus on feelings and thoughts, and in the end of the period the life partner relationship was more about emotional closeness and the company of a like-minded individual.However, despite these more general results, it is clear that neither the images of the man nor the images woman was unambiguous, and that men and women for most of the time didn't share the same ideals. When thousands of men and women describe their dreams and needs based on the lives they live, unlike government surveys, for example, a multitude of images of the nineteenth century man and woman appear.
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| 3. |
- Hinnemo, Elin, 1982-
(författare)
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Inför högsta instans : Samspelet mellan kvinnors handlingsutrymme och rättslig reglering i Justitierevisionen 1760–1860
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to illuminate the interplay between female agency and legal regulation in Sweden during the period 1760-1860. The material chosen for the study relates to matters concerning women that were brought before the Judiciary Inspection, the highest legal authority in Sweden. From its central position in the state hierarchy, this court was an arena in which the central power could identify and find solutions to problems important for the stability and development of society.The study identifies issues that encouraged women to bring proceedings before the court, or prompted other parties to bring women to court. The dissertation has analysed the actions taken and arguments made in these cases by women, their counterparts, and court representatives, in relation to the regulations or the absence of regulations in each particular situation. This has shown the room for manoeuvre that could be achieved, and how the women could achieve it – in terms of right to manage property, economic agency and debt responsibility, finding ways to support themselves and their families, or affirming their positions as mothers and mistresses of households. In this way, the dissertation illuminates the freedom of agency in practice that has often been seen as contradictory in a strictly patriarchal society like early modern Sweden.The dissertation also traces some important changes over time, including the increasingly diverse class background of litigants over the period in question, shifts in understandings of property, work, family, and the meaning of legal majority. The central diachronic claims are firstly that the legal system shifted over time from one primarily based upon status, circumstance, and local opinion to one based on formalized understanding of the law founded upon contract and clear legal definitions, and that this had important implications for women’s room for manoeuvre in the courts and in society. Secondly, that the negotiation process contributed to historical change by forcing solutions to contradictions and specifying terms of property ownership and legal majority.
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