Editing Fredrika Bremer (section)

==Legacy==
Fredrika Bremer is the namesake of [[Frederika, Iowa|Frederika]], a town in the American [[state (US)|state]] of [[Iowa]], and its surrounding [[Bremer County, Iowa|Bremer County]]. She is also the namesake of [[Fredrika Bremer Intermediate School]] in [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]].

The [[American Swedish Historical Museum]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], includes a Fredrika Bremer Room dedicated to her accomplishments.

===Literary===
[[File:Fredrika Bremers staty - Humlan (gabbe).jpg|thumb|right|Statue depicting Fredrika Bremer in Stockholm, unveiled 2 June 1927]]
[[File:FBremerSign.jpg|thumb|right|Historical marker near [[Stillwater, Minnesota]] notes Bremer describing the [[St. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota)|St. Croix river valley]] in the state of [[Minnesota]] as "just the country for a new Scandinavia"]]
Fredrika Bremer's novels were usually romantic stories of the time, typically concerning an independent woman narrating her observations of others negotiating the marriage market. She argued for a new family life less focused on its male members and providing a larger place for women's talents and personalities.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnston|first1=Judith|title=Victorian Women and the Economies of Travel, Translation and Culture, 1830–1870|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=9781409448235|page=154}}</ref> Reflecting her own childhood, many of her works include a sharp urban/rural dichotomy; without exception, these present nature as a place of renewal, revelation, and self-discovery.{{sfnp|Forsås-Scott|1997|p=36}}

By the time Bremer revealed her name to the public, her works were an acknowledged part of the cultural life in Sweden.{{sfnp|''SBL''|1926}} Translations made her still more popular abroad, where she was regarded as the "Swedish [[Jane Austen|Miss Austen]]".{{sfnp|Baynes|1878|p=257}} Upon her arrival in New York, the ''[[New York Herald]]'' claimed she "probably... has more readers than any other female writer on the globe" and proclaimed her the author "of a new style of literature".<ref>18 October 1849.</ref>{{sfnp|Rooth|1955|p=25}} A literary celebrity, Bremer was never without a place to stay during her two years in America despite having known no one before her arrival.<ref name=afbs>{{citation |last=Pleijel |first=Agneta |author-link=Agneta Pleijel |contribution=About Fredrika Bremer |contribution-url=http://www.fredrikabremer.net/aboutbremer.html |url=http://www.fredrikabremer.net/ |title=Årstasällskapet för Fredrika Bremer-studier |access-date=22 January 2016 }}</ref> She was praised by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and [[Walt Whitman]]{{sfnp|Stendahl|2002|p=49}} and [[Louisa May Alcott]]'s ''[[Little Women]]'' includes a scene of Mrs March reading from Bremer's works to her four daughters.

Her popularity abroad crested, however, in the 1840s and 1850s and faded by the turn of the century, although the late nineteenth century English novelist [[George Gissing]] read [[Hertha (novel)|''Hertha'']] in 1889.<ref>Coustillas, Pierre ed. London and the Life of Literature in Late Victorian England: the Diary of George Gissing, Novelist. Brighton: Harvester Press, 1978, p.159.</ref> Within Sweden, she continued to be highly respected, though little read.{{sfnp|Stendahl|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3Xv6R5qiDEQC&pg=PA48 48]}} The publication of her letters in the 1910s revived scholarly interest, but only in her personal life and travels. By 1948, the Swedish critic Algot Werin was writing that Bremer "really only lives as a name and a symbol... It does not matter if her novels are forgotten."{{sfnp|Forsås-Scott|1997|p=34}} Bremer's novels were rediscovered by [[Feminism in Sweden|Swedish feminists]] in the latter half of the 20th century{{sfnp|Stendahl|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3Xv6R5qiDEQC&pg=PA48 48]}} and are undergoing critical reëvaluation.{{sfnp|Forsås-Scott|1997|p=35}}

===Social causes===
Fredrika Bremer was interested in contemporary political life and social reform regarding gender equality and social work, and she was active both as an influential participator in the debate of women's rights as well as a philanthropist. Politically, she was a liberal, who felt sympathy for social issues and for the working class movement.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}

In 1853, she co-founded the Stockholms fruntimmersförening för barnavård (Stockholm women's fund for child care) with [[Fredrika Limnell]].<ref>C Fredrika Limnell, urn:sbl:10390, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av Sven Erik Täckmark), hämtad 2015-03-15.</ref>

In 1854, she co-founded the Women's Society for the Improvement of Prisoners (''[[Fruntimmersällskapet för fångars förbättring]]'') together with [[Mathilda Foy]], [[Maria Cederschiöld (deaconess)|Maria Cederschiöld]], [[Betty Ehrenborg]] and Emilia Elmblad. The purpose was to visit female prisoners to provide moral support and improve their character by studies of religion.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://mathilda.new-renaissance.com/ |title=''Fredrika Bremer bland lösdriverskorna'' (En berättelse om kretsen kring Fredrika Bremer) |access-date=8 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190813125527/http://mathilda.new-renaissance.com/ |archive-date=13 August 2019 }}</ref> Her novel ''[[Hertha (novel)|Hertha]]'' (1856) remains her most influential work. It is a dark novel about the lack of freedom for women, and it raised a debate in the parliament called "The Hertha debate", which contributed to the new law of [[legal majority]] for adult unmarried women in Sweden in 1858, and was somewhat of a starting point for the real feminist movement in Sweden. ''Hertha'' also raised the debate of higher formal education for women, and in 1861, the University for Women Teachers, ''[[Högre lärarinneseminariet]]'', was founded by the state after the suggested women's university in ''Hertha''. In 1859, [[Sophie Adlersparre]], founded the paper ''[[Tidskrift för hemmet]]'' inspired by the novel. This was the starting point for Adlersparre's work as the organizer of the Swedish feminist movement. The women's magazine ''[[Hertha (magazine)|Hertha]]'', named after the novel, was founded in 1914.

In 1860, she helped [[Johanna Berglind]] to fund ''[[Tysta skolan|Tysta Skolan]]'', a school for the deaf and mute in Stockholm. At the electoral reforms regarding the right to vote of 1862, she supported the idea to give women the right to vote, which was talked about as the "horrific sight" of seeing "[[crinoline]]s at the election boxes", but Bremer gave the idea her support, and the same year, women of legal majority [[women suffrage|were granted suffrage]] in municipal elections in Sweden. The first real Women's rights movement in Sweden, the Fredrika Bremer Association (''[[Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet|Fredrika Bremer Förbundet]]''), founded by [[Sophie Adlersparre]] in 1884, was named after her. Bremer was happy to mention and to recommend the work of other female professionals. She mentioned both the doctor [[Lovisa Årberg]] and the engraver [[Sofia Ahlbom]] in her work.