Emilie Rathou

Emilie Rathou, née Gustafsson (8 May 1862 – 12 October 1948) was a Swedish journalist, newspaper editor and elected official.

On International Workers' Day in Stockholm 1891, she was the first woman in Sweden to demand the right for women suffrage in a public speech.

[2] She founded the Östermalm branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Vita Bandet (The White Ribbon) in 1900, and served as its chairperson in 1900–1935, as well as vice chairperson of the Swedish national Temperance Union in 1902–03, and its secretary in 1903–1947.

In 1893, it was as a representative for the Swedish Social Democratic Party that she became the only female elected to the Folkriksdagen (People's Riksdag), an assembly in Stockholm held 1893–96 to work for the introduction of universal suffrage.

In 1892, she founded the Social Democrat women's club Stockholms allmänna kvinnoklubb, which quickly organized several social democratic women such as Alina Jägerstedt, Kata Dalström, Anna Sterky, Anna Lindhagen and Amanda Horney.