Agda Montelius
Agda Georgina Dorothea Alexandra Montelius was a Swedish philanthropist and feminist. She was a leading figure of the Swedish philanthropy, active for the struggle of women's suffrage, and chairwoman of the Fredrika Bremer Association in 1903–1920.
Biography
Montelius was born in Köping, Sweden in 1850, the daughter of the government defence minister and noble lieutenant general Alexander Reuterskiöld and Anna Schenström. She was educated at the fashionable girls' school Hammarstedtska flickskolan in Stockholm.On 20 September 1871, she married the Swedish archaeologist and professor Oscar Montelius.
She was described as diminutive, calm, kind and thoughtful, dutiful and always busy with her many projects. She had bad eyesight and eventually became blind in one eye. Her own personal ideals was simple and strict.
Montelius was regarded as a central figure and an ideal among the women of the higher middle class in Stockholm. Lydia Wahlström often engaged her as an exam witness for the students of the girls' school Åhlinska skolan.
Philanthropic work
Montelius was the leading figure of the Swedish philanthropy in the early 20th century. Her principle was to help people help themselves.She was member of the committee of the women's society Nya Idun and its chairperson ; the Maria skyddsförening 1879–1892, co-founder and chairperson of Föreningen för välgörenhetens ordnande or FVO in 1889–1911 as well as managing director of the FVO central committee in 1911–1920. She was a member of the central committee in the Sällskapet för uppmuntran av öm och sedlig modersvård in 1901–1920, co-founder and committee member of the Centralförbundet för socialt arbete or CSA in 1903–1909 and Svenska fattigvårdsförbundet in 1909–1920.
Women's rights activism
Through her philanthropic work, she also became involved with the work for women's rights. She was a supporter of Difference feminism and believed it to be important for women to participate in politics and the organization and formation of society on order to protect the rights of the sick, the weak and needing and to make society a home.In 1886, Montelius officially became a member of the women's rights organisation of Sophie Adlersparre: the Fredrika Bremer Association or FBF. Two years prior, she had been one of its co-founders. Formally, the FBF was headed by Hans Hildebrand because Adlersparre thought it necessary for the society to be headed by a male for it to be taken seriously. In reality, however, Adlersparre functioned as its chairperson, and upon the death of Adlersparre in 1895, she was succeeded by Montelius. Montelius was initially called vice chairman, but in 1903, she formally became chairman, officially the first female chairperson of the FBF.
The goal of the FBF was to work for women's rights, but previously, it had not worked for women's suffrage. In 1899, a delegation from the FBF presented a suggestion of women's suffrage to Prime Minister Erik Gustaf Boström. The delegation was headed by Montelius, accompanied by Gertrud Adelborg, who had written the demand. This was the first time the Swedish women's movement themselves had officially presented a demand for suffrage.
In 1902, the Swedish National Association for Women's Suffrage was founded. Montelius never became a formal member, probably because of her chairmanship of the FBF, but she was informally active for the LKPR. She performed many tasks for the LKPR, she made the resources and the members of the FBF available for service in the LKPR, and she made the paper of the FBF, Dagny, the spokes organ of the LKPR until 1911. In 1911, when the LKPR abandoned its political neutrality by a resolution of boycott against political parties opposing woman suffrage, she stopped the use of the FBF's paper Dagny as the paper of LKPR.
She was a consultant in the governmental committee for the reformation of the marriage rights law in 1912, which eventually led to husband and wife being given equal rights within marriage.