Ellen Key
Encyclopedia
Ellen Karolina Sofia Key (kej; December 11, 1849 – April 25, 1926) was a Swedish
difference feminist writer on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics
and education and was an important figure in the Modern Breakthrough
movement. She was an early advocate of a child-centered approach to education and parenting, and was also a suffragist.
She is best known for her book on education, Barnets århundrade (1900), which was translated in English in 1909 as The Century of the Child.
, Sweden, on December 11, 1849. Her father was Emil Key, the founder of the Swedish Agrarian Party and a frequent contributor to the Swedish newspaper Aftonposten. Her mother was Sophie Posse Key, who was born into an aristocratic family from the southernmost part of Skåne County
. Emil bought Sundsholm at the time of his wedding; twenty years later he sold it for financial reasons.
Ellen was mostly educated at home, where her mother taught her grammar and arithmetic and her foreign-born governess taught her foreign languages. She cited reading Amtmandens Døtre (The Official's Daughters, 1855) by Camilla Collett
and Henrik Ibsen
's plays Kjærlighedens komedie (Love's Comedy
, 1862), Brand
(1865), and Peer Gynt
(1867) as her childhood influences. When she was twenty years old, her father was elected to the Riksdag
and they moved to Stockholm, where she would capitalize on the access to libraries.
In the summer of 1874, Key traveled to Denmark and studied their folk colleges. Folk colleges were institutions of higher learning for young people from the countryside. One of her early ambitions was to found a Swedish folk high school, but instead she decided, in 1880, to become a teacher at Anna Whitlock's school for girls in Stockholm.
Shortly after she moved to Stockholm, she befriended Sophie Adlersparre
, who was the editor of Tidskrift för Hemmet (Journal for the Home), founded in 1859 by Adlersparre and Rosalie Olivecrona
. In 1874 Tidskrift för Hemmet published her first article. It was about Camilla Collett
, and other articles soon followed. She would also do some biographical studies on George Eliot
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
. Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet (the Fredrika Bremer Society), the liberal women's organization, was founded in 1884. Many of the writers for Tidskrift för Hemmet were members.
Even though Key did share a lot of similar beliefs with the members of Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet, two main issues made her oppose the group in the mid-1880s: the importance of sexuality and the social significance of the biological differences between women and men. 1886 saw Key publishing Om reaktionen mot kvinnofrågan (On the Reaction against the Woman Question) which was highly critical and argued against the egalitarian tendencies of the Swedish women's movement. The piece was published in Gustaf af Geijerstam
's journal Revy i litterära och sociala frågor (Review of Literary and Social Issues).
Also in 1886, she wrote a review of En sommarsaga (A Summer Story, 1886) by Anne Charlotte Leffler
in the short-lived journal Framåt (Forward). She was critical of the piece for having one woman's attempt to combine marriage, motherhood, and a career as an artist.
Key contributed to three journals all with different views on women's rights: Tidskrift för Hemmet, Dagny, and Framåt. The latter was edited by Göteborg
Alma Åkermark and tended to have taboo information, including publishing texts on syphilis
, sexual repression
and socialism
. Mathilda Malling
's Pyrrhus-segrar (Pyrrhic Victories), published in 1886 under the pseudonym Stella Kleve, was very controversial among Scandinavian intellectuals. The story dealt with a dying young woman, who laments that if she had done the things she wanted to do, she may not be dying.
Also in Naturenliga arbetsområden för kvinnan (Natural Lines of Work for Women) and Kvinnopsykologi och kvinnlig logik (Female Psychology and Logic, 1896) Key said a "monogamous heterosexual relationship aimed toward procreation formed the crux of a woman's happiness and fulfillment."
In 1889, she published Några tankar om huru reaktioner uppstå, jämte ett genmäle till d:r Carl v. Bergen, samt om yttrande och tryckfrihet (Some Thoughts about How Reactions Begin), which marked her a social radical, which she would never deny.
, and throughout the 1870s her political beliefs were radically liberal. She was republican-minded, with the idea of freedom holding vast importance for her. As the 1880s advanced, her thinking became even more radical, affecting first her religious beliefs and then her views on life in society in general. This was the outcome of extensive reading. During the latter part of the 1880s and particularly in the 1890s, she began to read socialist literature and turned increasingly towards socialism
.
Key was raised in a rigid Christian household, but while growing up she started questioning her views. From 1879 she studied Charles Darwin
, Herbert Spencer
and T. H. Huxley. In the autumn of that year she met both Huxley and Haeckel, the German biologist and philosopher, in London. The principle of evolution
, in which Ellen Key had come to believe, was also to have an influence on her educational views.
She is quoted as having said:
, Anne Charlotte Leffler
, and Sonia Kovalevsky. She would also write about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Carl Jonas Love Almqvist
.
After she retired from teaching, she met and helped a young poet by the name of Rainer Maria Rilke
. She was later painted by Hanna Pauli. In Die Antifeministen (The Antifeminists, 1902) by Hedwig Dohm
cited both Key and Lou Andreas-Salomé
as anti-feminists.
She died on April 26, 1926, at the age of seventy-six.
These works include:
On education, her earliest article may be Teachers for Infants at Home and in School in Tidskrift för hemmet (1876). Her first more widely read essay, Books versus Coursebooks, was published in the journal Verdandi (1884). Later, in the same journal, she published other articles A Statement on Co-Education (1888) and Murdering the Soul in Schools (1891). Later she published the works Education (1897) and Beauty for All (1899).
In 1906 came Popular Education with Special Consideration for the Development of Aesthetic Sense. In the last books Key views aesthetics
, as beauty and art, from the aspect of the elevation of humanity.
Several of Key's writings were translated into English by Mamah Borthwick
, during the period of her affair with Frank Lloyd Wright
. Among her best-known works published in English:
, Marika Stjernstedt, and Elin Wägner
. Maria Montessori
wrote that she predicted the 20th Century would be the century of the child.
Havelock Ellis
wrote positively on her studies of human sexuality.
Key maintained that motherhood is so crucial to society that the government, rather than their husbands, should support mothers and their children. These ideas regarding state child support influenced social legislation in several countries.
A substantial collection of Key's papers is at the Royal Library in Stockholm.
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
difference feminist writer on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
and education and was an important figure in the Modern Breakthrough
Modern Breakthrough
The Modern Breakthrough is the normal name of the strong movement of naturalism and debating literature of Scandinavia near the end of the 19th century which replaced romanticism....
movement. She was an early advocate of a child-centered approach to education and parenting, and was also a suffragist.
She is best known for her book on education, Barnets århundrade (1900), which was translated in English in 1909 as The Century of the Child.
Early life
Ellen Key was born at Sundsholm mansion in SmålandSmåland
' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...
, Sweden, on December 11, 1849. Her father was Emil Key, the founder of the Swedish Agrarian Party and a frequent contributor to the Swedish newspaper Aftonposten. Her mother was Sophie Posse Key, who was born into an aristocratic family from the southernmost part of Skåne County
Skåne County
Skåne County is the southernmost administrative county or län, of Sweden, basically corresponding to the historical province Scania. It borders the counties of Halland, Kronoberg and Blekinge. The seat of residence for the Skåne Governor is the town of Malmö...
. Emil bought Sundsholm at the time of his wedding; twenty years later he sold it for financial reasons.
Ellen was mostly educated at home, where her mother taught her grammar and arithmetic and her foreign-born governess taught her foreign languages. She cited reading Amtmandens Døtre (The Official's Daughters, 1855) by Camilla Collett
Camilla Collett
Jacobine Camilla Collett was a Norwegian writer, often referred to as the first Norwegian feminist. She was also the younger sister of Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland, and is recognized as being one of the first contributors to realism in Norwegian literature...
and Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's plays Kjærlighedens komedie (Love's Comedy
Love's Comedy
Love's Comedy is a comedy by Henrik Ibsen. It was first published on 31 December 1862. As a result of being branded an "immoral" work in the press, the Christiania Theatre would not dare to stage it at first...
, 1862), Brand
Brand (play)
Brand is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It is a verse tragedy, written in 1865 and first performed in Stockholm on 24 March 1867. Brand was an intellectual play that provoked much original thought....
(1865), and Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
(1867) as her childhood influences. When she was twenty years old, her father was elected to the Riksdag
Parliament of Sweden
The Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
and they moved to Stockholm, where she would capitalize on the access to libraries.
1870s
After a correspondence with Urban von Feilitzen, who wrote Protestantismens Maria-kult (The Protestant Cult of Mary, 1874), she had written a review of the book for a periodical, under the pseudonym Robinson. His book gave her thoughts structure, helping to define her beliefs concerning the role of women as mothers and nurturers. Key hoped Feilitzen would leave his wife, as they did not share similar interests, but he refused.In the summer of 1874, Key traveled to Denmark and studied their folk colleges. Folk colleges were institutions of higher learning for young people from the countryside. One of her early ambitions was to found a Swedish folk high school, but instead she decided, in 1880, to become a teacher at Anna Whitlock's school for girls in Stockholm.
Shortly after she moved to Stockholm, she befriended Sophie Adlersparre
Sophie Adlersparre
Carin Sophie Adlersparre née Leijonhufvud , was a Swedish feminist, publisher, editor, writer and friherinna...
, who was the editor of Tidskrift för Hemmet (Journal for the Home), founded in 1859 by Adlersparre and Rosalie Olivecrona
Rosalie Roos
Rosalie Roos, married name Olivecrona , was a Swedish feminist activist and writer. She is one of the three great pioneers of the organized women's rights movement in Sweden, alongside Fredrika Bremer and Sophie Adlersparre.- Biography :Rosalie Ulrika Roos was born into a wealthy family...
. In 1874 Tidskrift för Hemmet published her first article. It was about Camilla Collett
Camilla Collett
Jacobine Camilla Collett was a Norwegian writer, often referred to as the first Norwegian feminist. She was also the younger sister of Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland, and is recognized as being one of the first contributors to realism in Norwegian literature...
, and other articles soon followed. She would also do some biographical studies on George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
. Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet (the Fredrika Bremer Society), the liberal women's organization, was founded in 1884. Many of the writers for Tidskrift för Hemmet were members.
1880s
In 1883, Key began teaching at Anton Nyström new school, the People's Institute, which was founded in 1880. She also helped organize "The Twelves", a group of twelve upper class ladies who sponsored and organized social functions to help improve working class ladies' manners.Even though Key did share a lot of similar beliefs with the members of Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet, two main issues made her oppose the group in the mid-1880s: the importance of sexuality and the social significance of the biological differences between women and men. 1886 saw Key publishing Om reaktionen mot kvinnofrågan (On the Reaction against the Woman Question) which was highly critical and argued against the egalitarian tendencies of the Swedish women's movement. The piece was published in Gustaf af Geijerstam
Gustaf af Geijerstam
Gustaf af Geijerstam was a Swedish novelist. He was a friend of August Strindberg's. Many of his works were translated into German during his lifetime, and one, Äktenskapets komedi , was reviewed favorable by Rainer Maria Rilke, who remarked that Geijerstam was an author "one must follow...
's journal Revy i litterära och sociala frågor (Review of Literary and Social Issues).
Also in 1886, she wrote a review of En sommarsaga (A Summer Story, 1886) by Anne Charlotte Leffler
Anne Charlotte Leffler
Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, duchess of Cajanello , was a Swedish author, the daughter of the school principal John Olof Leffler and Gustava Wilhelmina Mittag...
in the short-lived journal Framåt (Forward). She was critical of the piece for having one woman's attempt to combine marriage, motherhood, and a career as an artist.
Key contributed to three journals all with different views on women's rights: Tidskrift för Hemmet, Dagny, and Framåt. The latter was edited by Göteborg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
Alma Åkermark and tended to have taboo information, including publishing texts on syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
, sexual repression
Sexual repression
Sexual repression, also known as sexual ethics, is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their sexuality. Sexual repression is often associated with feelings of guilt or shame being associated with sexual impulses...
and socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. Mathilda Malling
Mathilda Malling
Ingrid Mathilda Malling , was a Swedish novelist born January 20, 1864 on Oskar Farm in southern Sweden and died in 1942...
's Pyrrhus-segrar (Pyrrhic Victories), published in 1886 under the pseudonym Stella Kleve, was very controversial among Scandinavian intellectuals. The story dealt with a dying young woman, who laments that if she had done the things she wanted to do, she may not be dying.
Also in Naturenliga arbetsområden för kvinnan (Natural Lines of Work for Women) and Kvinnopsykologi och kvinnlig logik (Female Psychology and Logic, 1896) Key said a "monogamous heterosexual relationship aimed toward procreation formed the crux of a woman's happiness and fulfillment."
In 1889, she published Några tankar om huru reaktioner uppstå, jämte ett genmäle till d:r Carl v. Bergen, samt om yttrande och tryckfrihet (Some Thoughts about How Reactions Begin), which marked her a social radical, which she would never deny.
Changing views
Key grew up in an atmosphere of liberalismLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, and throughout the 1870s her political beliefs were radically liberal. She was republican-minded, with the idea of freedom holding vast importance for her. As the 1880s advanced, her thinking became even more radical, affecting first her religious beliefs and then her views on life in society in general. This was the outcome of extensive reading. During the latter part of the 1880s and particularly in the 1890s, she began to read socialist literature and turned increasingly towards socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
.
Key was raised in a rigid Christian household, but while growing up she started questioning her views. From 1879 she studied Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
and T. H. Huxley. In the autumn of that year she met both Huxley and Haeckel, the German biologist and philosopher, in London. The principle of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, in which Ellen Key had come to believe, was also to have an influence on her educational views.
She is quoted as having said:
- "Side by side with the class war, the culture war must ceaselessly be waged by the young and among the young upon whom rests the responsibility of making the new society better for all than the old could be."
Later life
In the late 1880s/early 1890s, Key decided to write biographies of women who had prominent roles in Swedish intellectual life; they were: Victoria BenedictssonVictoria Benedictsson
Victoria Benedictsson was a Swedish author. She was born as Victoria Maria Bruzelius in Domme, a village in the province of Skåne. She wrote under the pen name Ernst Ahlgren....
, Anne Charlotte Leffler
Anne Charlotte Leffler
Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, duchess of Cajanello , was a Swedish author, the daughter of the school principal John Olof Leffler and Gustava Wilhelmina Mittag...
, and Sonia Kovalevsky. She would also write about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
and Carl Jonas Love Almqvist
Carl Jonas Love Almqvist
thumb|right|Painted by Almqvist, 1823Carl Jonas Love Almqvist , was a romantic poet, early feminist, realist, composer, social critic and traveller....
.
After she retired from teaching, she met and helped a young poet by the name of Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
. She was later painted by Hanna Pauli. In Die Antifeministen (The Antifeminists, 1902) by Hedwig Dohm
Hedwig Dohm
Marianne Adelaide Hedwig Dohm born Schlesinger, later Schleh was a German feminist, and author. She was one of the first feminist thinkers to see gender roles as a result of socialization and not biological determinism.-Family:She was born in Berlin to Jewish parents, as a daughter of Wilhelmine...
cited both Key and Lou Andreas-Salomé
Lou Andreas-Salomé
Lou Andreas-Salomé was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and author. Her diverse intellectual interests led to friendships with a broad array of distinguished western luminaries, including Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Rilke.- Early years :Lou Salomé was born in St...
as anti-feminists.
She died on April 26, 1926, at the age of seventy-six.
Selected Works
Ellen Key started her career as a writer in the mid-1870s with literary essays. She became known to a large public through the pamphlet On Freedom of Speech and Publishing (1889). Her name and her books then became the topic of lively discussions. The following work focuses on her views on education, personal freedom, and the independent development of the individual.These works include:
- Individualism and Socialism (1896)
- Images of Thought (1898)
- Human-beings (1899)
- Lifelines, volumes I-III (1903–06)
- Neutrality of the Souls (1916).
On education, her earliest article may be Teachers for Infants at Home and in School in Tidskrift för hemmet (1876). Her first more widely read essay, Books versus Coursebooks, was published in the journal Verdandi (1884). Later, in the same journal, she published other articles A Statement on Co-Education (1888) and Murdering the Soul in Schools (1891). Later she published the works Education (1897) and Beauty for All (1899).
In 1906 came Popular Education with Special Consideration for the Development of Aesthetic Sense. In the last books Key views aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, as beauty and art, from the aspect of the elevation of humanity.
Several of Key's writings were translated into English by Mamah Borthwick
Mamah Borthwick
Martha "Mamah" Borthwick is primarily noted for her relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, which ended when she was murdered....
, during the period of her affair with Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
. Among her best-known works published in English:
- The Morality of Woman (1911)
- Love and Marriage (1911, repr. with critical and biographical notes by Havelock EllisHavelock EllisHenry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...
, 1931) - The Century of the Child (1909)
- The Woman Movement (1912)
- The Younger Generation (1914)
- War, Peace, and the Future (1916).
Legacy
She has inspired writers such as Selma LagerlöfSelma Lagerlöf
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ....
, Marika Stjernstedt, and Elin Wägner
Elin Wägner
Elin Matilda Elisabet Wägner was a Swedish writer, journalist, feminist, teacher, ecologist and pacifist. She was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1944.- Biography :...
. Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name...
wrote that she predicted the 20th Century would be the century of the child.
Havelock Ellis
Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...
wrote positively on her studies of human sexuality.
Key maintained that motherhood is so crucial to society that the government, rather than their husbands, should support mothers and their children. These ideas regarding state child support influenced social legislation in several countries.
A substantial collection of Key's papers is at the Royal Library in Stockholm.