The Wicksells, Population, and Gender Equality in Sweden

Abstract

This paper considers Anna Bugge Wicksell use of economic arguments in her fight for gender equality. Specific attention is paid to the intersection of gender issues with the ‘population question’—or the Swedish national preoccupation with fertility rates that dominated popular discussion from the 1880s through the 1930s. We first outline Knut Wicksell’s contributions to the economics of population. Next, we consider Bugge Wicksell’s writings as they relate to population, equal education, marital property rights, and women’s labor conditions. The persistence of the Wicksells’ ideas through to the next generation of social reformers is examined using the specific case of Alva and Gunnar Myrdal’s Kris i befolkningsfrågan (1934). The discussion illustrates several themes common to the historiographic literature on the contributions of women to economic thought. First, that women often worked on practical and gendered issues is one reason their work has gone unrecognized; this effect is compounded when women write solely for the popular press. Second, the ability of women to make recognized contributions to economic thought was often dependent on idiosyncratic features of their personal relationships as well as influenced by the broader socio-cultural context. Third, considering the production of extra-academic knowledge makes clear that women’s contributions to social debates were not peripheral but had a direct influence on policy.

Keywords

• Wicksell (Anna Bugge)
• Wicksell (Knut)
• population
• gender equality
• Sweden
• Myrdal (Alva)