Anna Pettersson

Anna Maria Pettersson (5 January 1861 in Uppsala – 6 September 1929 in Uppsala), was a Swedish lawyer. She was the first woman in Sweden to set up a legal agency, run by a woman, which was aimed primarily at female clients.[1] Anna Pettersson was also active in the National Association for Women's Suffrage (Sweden) (FKPR).[2]

Life

Anna Pettersson was born to the gardener Johan Fredrik Pettersson and Charlotta Amalia Günlsdorff. She never married. She trained to be a language teacher, but was always interested in the law and educated herself in law as an autodidact. Between 1890 and 1901, she worked as a clerk at the local law court of Uppsala, and from 1901 to 1904, at the law firm of Victor Wennerholm in Stockholm.

In 1904, she founded her own legal agency, the Kvinnliga Juridiska Byrån ('Women's Legal Bureau') in Stockholm. She thereby became the first woman in Sweden to start a legal agency, run by a woman, and with primarily female clients. She specialised in legal advice to women in matters of family issues, particularly divorce and women's property rights, which was a complicated issue in the early 20th-century, when a woman's rights differed greatly depending on her marital status.[3] She was known to give legal advice free of charge to women who could not pay.[4]

Anna Pettersson was a member of the Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet women's rights organisation as well as a member of the board of the National Association for Women's Suffrage (Sweden), and wrote articles about women's legal and marriage rights, nationally and internationally.

She was supported by Elsa Eschelsson, Sofia Gumaelius and Agda Montelius. Elsa Eschelsson occasionally assisted her with legal advice, and encourage her to continue as long as she had clients. However, while it was not illegal for a person without formal training to offer legal advice, her practice was all the same questioned by lawyers. Her bureau was highly successful among women. In 1915, she retired and left her bureau to Eva Andén, Sweden's first formally trained female lawyer.

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References
  1. "Anna Maria Pettersson".
  2. Nathhorst, Mary. 'Banbryterskor: fröken Anna Pettersson och Kvinnliga Juridiska Byrån i Stockholm'. Dagny, 1911.
  3. Anna Maria Pettersson, www.skbl.se/sv/artikel/AnnaPettersson, Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (artikel av Elsa Trolle Önnerfors), hämtad 2019-03-31.
  4. Anna Maria Pettersson, www.skbl.se/sv/artikel/AnnaPettersson, Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (artikel av Elsa Trolle Önnerfors), hämtad 2019-03-31.
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