Den här uppsatsen ämnar undersöka hur kvinnor kring sekelskiftet 1800-1900 arbetade för att skapa en kvinnoseparatistisk arena samt höja sig själva som politiska aktörer i en manligt dominerad sfär. Uppsatsen ställer frågor om historikerns identitet och ifrågasätter bilden av den neutrala personen som en man. Undersökningen diskuterar framför allt hur tre kvinnliga historiker verkade för att skapa ett rum där de och andra kan agera utanför den manliga blicken och dess norm. Men den svarar även på frågor om hur kvinnorna bemöttes av sin manliga omgivning. Genom att utföra denna undersökning vill författaren bidra till en vidare förståelse av strategier kvinnor använde för att navigera sig genom en samtid som verkat begränsade för dem och hur de aktivt arbetade för att bidra till kvinnohistorien.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the conceptualisation of the social relations of class and gender within the Social Democratic Women’s Association during the period 1972 – 1993, on the basis of their programmes for action. The analysis of the concepts is based on an ideology critical study focusing on the manifest ideology. The study is based upon the theoretical concepts of class and gender,  The class analysis is based upon the broadened concepts of class by Erik Olin Wright and Ira Katznelson. The gender analysis is mainly based upon a Marxist understanding and a critical point of view of Marxism and feminism in the context of patriarchy and capitalism. The period of the study is where the social democracy is challenged, both by radical socialism and feminist ideology and the economic crisis during the 1980’s, as well as the possible threat of an organised women’s party in Sweden. It is also a period with major changes in the Swedish class structure, especially in the change when married women become a part of the female labour force rather than being housewives. The results indicate that the use of the concepts of class and gender is mainly sparsely used. The concepts are often paraphrased in varied terms of social equality. Class is clearly more used, and more often implied, than gender. Gender policies are formed from a latent ideology to a more practically oriented policy, without any real progress concerning power and equality, when Sweden at the same time forms policies for gender equality, from which the women’s association could benefit, even though they may not have been the actors of this change. The analysis also indicates that some of the ideological changes within the women’s association are a result of both outside influences from more radical groups as well as ideological crises within the social democracy. In this struggle between class and gender the Social Democratic Women's Association positions itself in between.