Alfhild Agrell

Alfhild Teresia Agrell (January 14, 1849 in Härnösand, Ångermanland – November 8, 1923 in Flen) was a Swedish writer and playwright. She is known for her works about sexual equality in oppose to the contemporary sexual double standard, and as such a participator of the famous Sedlighetsdebatten.

She was born to Erik Johan Martin and Karolina Margareta Adolphson, who worked as confectioners. From 1868 until 1895 she was married to the Stockholmer merchant A. Agrell.

She temporarily used the pseudonyms Thyra, Lovisa Petterqvist and Stig Stigson, but she soon begun to use her own name, which was unusual for a woman; other famed female Swedish playwrights of the century, such as the sisters Louise and Jeanette Granberg, both used male pseudonyms. The subject that she concentrated on, sexual double standards, was very shocking for her time.

Alfhild Agrell was an important contributor to the cause of gender equality in regards of sexuality; in her work, she handles the questions and consequences of sexual injustice, the sexual double standards such as the fact that a woman is subjected to contempt when she does the same thing as a man in sexual matters, the questions of having "a bad reputation", the questions of the blame put on the woman and not the man when a child is born out of marriage, and the difficulties when a woman of the people and a man of the upper classes falls in love and the consequences of such a relationship.

But she was pessimistic of the hope that men and women would ever reach sexual equality, and she doubted that a woman could find such a thing in marriage, where she by law was much restricted and given to her husbands whims.

• Räddad, (Saved), 1883, play
• Dömd, (Judged),1884, play
• Ensam, (Alone), 1886, play
• Vår, (Spring), 1889, play
• Ingrid, 1900, play
• Småstadsliv, ("Small town life"), 1884
• Från land och stad, ("From the country to the city"), 1884, collection of novels.
• På landsbygden, ("On the countryside"), 1887
• Norrlandsgubbar och Norrlandsgummor, ("Old women and men in Norrland"), 1899–1900
• Vad ingen ser,, ("What no one sees"), 1885
• I Stockholm, ("In Stockholm"), 1893
• Hemma i Jockmock, ("At home in Jokkmokk"), 1896
• Nordanifrån, ("From the North"),1898
• Guds drömmare, ("Dreamer of God"),1904
• Norrlandshumör, ("Temperament in Norrland"),1910