Working professions

Tobacco workers | Domestic servants |

The Swedish Tobacco Monopoly

In 1914, the Swedish Parliament decided that tobacco production was in the future to be a state monopoly. The reason for this was the need of financing the old age pension system that was introduced in 1913. Aktiebolaget Svenska Tobaksmonopolet was formed and commenced its activity on 1 June, 1915. Formerly, there were many independent tobacco factories. 49 of these became in 1912 a joint venture, AB Förenade Svenska Tobaksfabriker. Its principal firm was Wm. Hellgrens Tobaksfabrik at Götgatan 48 in Stockholm. When the monopoly was formed, a large part of the production of cigars and pipe tobacco took place at this firm.

It was in the interest of the tobacco monopoly’s board that the workers’ conditions were satisfactory, during working hours as well as in their leisure time. In 1916, Herta Svensson, a former teacher, was employed as a factory nurse in Stockholm, a title that was later changed to personnel advisor. There were tobacco factories in several places, e.g. in Malmö, Gothenburg, Södertälje, Gävle and Härnösand. Most of them came to have personnel advisors. The monopoly arranged courses for the employees, rest home care was offered, and the children got places in day nurseries and holiday camps. The basic idea behind the social budget was that it was meant, “not for charity, but for the mutual benefit to employers as well as workers”.

Trade union
Arbetets kvinnor [Women at Work]. Journal published by Kvinnornas fackliga samorganisation [Women’s joint trade-union organisation] in Stockholm. 1929:5.

About the company, its production and products
Av utsökt tobak [Of choice tobacco]. Description of the tobacco plantation in Sumatra and the production plant in Stockholm. 1933.
Tobaksbladet [The tobacco leaf]. Staff magazine at Svenska Tobaksmopoloet. 1947:4.
Tobaksmonopolet : en vägledning för den anställde [The Swedish Tobacco Monopoly: a guide for the employee. 1944.

Social activities
Om anslag till bidrag till verksamheten vid s.k. hemgårdar [About the allocation for activities at so-called neighbourhood centres].. Motion No. 125, Lower chamber, 1941, by Miss Hesselgren and others.
Svensson, Herta, Redogörelse för mitt arbete som fabrikssyster vid Cigarrettfabriken i Stockholm fr.o.m. den 27 april 1916 [An account of my work as a factory nurse at the cigarette plant in Stockholm, from 27 April, 1916. .
Södergården, Tobaksmonopolets studiehem [The Tobacco Monopoly’s after-school centre]. 1946.
Timmermansgården, crèche, day-home for school children, and kindergarten. 1946.
Tamm, Gunilla, När Monopolet var ett socialt mönsterföretag : jubileumsintervju med vår första personalkonsulent Herta Svensson [The Monopoly as a social achievement, a model plant: jubilee interview with our first personnel advisor, Herta Svensson]. . - Ingår i: Tobaksbladet, 1965:1, s. 16-17.
Till Styrelsen för A.-B. Svenska Tobaksmonopolet [To the board of A.-B. Svenska Tobaksmonopolet] ang. en Sthlms stads yrkesskola förlagd till T.M. 1917 [concerning the establishment of a vocational school at the Monopoly].

Domestic servants

For women, paid work in other people’s households is an established way of earning one’s bread and butter. Provincial laws include the “hired woman” and “hired servant”. Later came terms like “menial servant”, “servant girl”, and “handmaiden”. To begin with, they were working primarily with agriculture and in farmers’ households. With industrialization, an increasing number of servant girls moved to the cities, where they were employed to do domestic work. In the 1920s they were commonly called domestic servants, which were considered as a less loaded term compared with the older ones. Similar to servant girls and other categories, domestic servants were subject to the “rules and regulations for menial servants” of 1833. These were altered at several occasions – for instance in 1858, when the master’s right to beat his subordinate adults was abolished. As a whole, these rules and regulations were abolished in 1926 without being replaced by a new law, and, as a result of this, domestic servants’ working conditions remained unregulated up to 1944. It was in this year that the so-called law for domestic servants came into force, preceded by a Swedish Government Official Report (SOU 1937:16) and an animated debate. The number of domestic servants reached a peak of 145,000 in 1930 but decreased into half of this number by the year 1950. As time went on, working as a domestic servant became a transitional occupation. Many domestic servants continued to work in various service occupations, or stopped working when they got married. Household practice remained for a long time a requirement to enter certain types of education; this can explain why there were 20,000 domestic servants in Sweden as late as in 1980.

Diskussionsafton 13 nov. 1939 [Discussion evening, 13 Nov. 1939], , program, Göteborgs Kvinnliga Diskussionsklubb [programme, Women’s discussion club in Göteborg].
Hembiträdesdebatt 7 oktober 1943 [Domestic servants’ debate, 7 October 1943], inbjudan [invitation], Göteborgs Kvinnliga Diskussionsklubb.
Om jag vore husmor/hembiträde [If I were a housewife/domestic servant]. Statens Arbetsmarknadskommission, u.å. [The national labour market commission, undated].

Further readings

Andrée, Salomon August, Industrin och kvinnofrågan : uppfinningarnas och industrins betydelse för kvinnans likställighet med mannen. - Stockholm, 1892.
Hesselgren, Kerstin, Preliminär beräkning av antalet år 1927 levande födda barn i äktenskap, a) industriarbeterskor samt b) ej yrkesverksamma hustrur av arbetarklassen. Stockholm 10 mars 1929.
Karlsson, Lynn, Inledningen till en "maskulin renässans" : debatten kring 1909 års förbud mot nattarbete för kvinnor. - Ingår i: Det evigt kvinnliga : en historia om förändring, 2001, s. 161-193.
Lindgren, Anne-Marie & Lindgren Åsbrink, Marika, Systrar, kamrater! : arbetarrörelsens kvinnliga pionjärer. - Stockholm, 2007. - 319 s.
Moberg, Kerstin, Från tjänstehjon till hembiträde : en kvinnlig låglönegrupp i den fackliga kampen 1903-1946. - Uppsala, 1978. - Diss.
Marcus, Moritz, Den svenska tobaksindustrien år 1908. - Stockholm, 1911. - Diss. - Innehåller tabeller och statistik om tobaksarbetarnas ålder, löner m.m. från tiden före monopolet.
Moberg, Kerstin, Från tjänstehjon till hembiträde: en kvinnlig låglönegrupp i den fackliga kampen 1903-1946. - Uppsala : Univ., 1978. - Diss.
Movitz Petroselli, Inga, Kvinnodebatten och tobaksarbeterskornas situation under tidigt 1900-tal. - Göteborg : Univ., Forum för tvärvetenskapliga kvinnostudier, 1992. - Uppsats i Feministisk teori II.
Nordström, Ester Blenda, En piga bland pigor. - Stockholm, 1914.
Tjenestepigernes stilling in Denmark. A website from KVINFO, including further readings.
Tobaksarbeterskorna : förteckning över Herta Svenssons papper från verksamheten vid Tobaksmonopolets fabrik i Stockholm. Kvinnohistoriska samlingarnas arkiv.