Suffrage vocalized: The Role of Music in the Women's Suffrage Movement 1902-1921

The overall purpose of the project is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the role(s) of music – the use of voice, song lyrics, compositions and performances – in the struggle for women’s suffrage in Sweden. The research task consists of collecting and analyzing sheet music, song lyrics and descriptions of musical activities from the suffrage movement’s archives, digitized journals, conference programs and reports.

The central questions concern how singing was used for the formation of a collective identity, and to what extent songs were used in polemics against prevailing values and structures in society. Theoretically, the study emphasizes the multi-faced functions of the voice – as expression of individual and collective emotions, formation of identity, embodied experience and as means of public stance (i.e. “raising one’s voice”).

The output of the project will be two articles for scientific journals and one anthology, and is communicated through conference papers, popular and educational presentations and music videos.

In social and political movements around the world, music plays an important role in strengthening the fighting spirit and rallying to collective action. By studying the music in the women's suffrage movement, as well as linking research on the voice to research on the right to vote, we can significantly expand the knowledge about both an important female cultural heritage and the role of music in relation to a crucial issue of democracy.