Maria Andersson (1837–1922)

[1] She was the daughter of the rich farmer and parliamentarian Johannes Jansson i Ellenö.

In 1859, the poverty among the peasantry inspired her to found a textile enterprise in the form of a putting-out system, which could give poor women of the peasantry a way of earning money.

The Swedish famine of 1867–1869 and the great need for work caused her enterprise to expand from philanthropy to a major business: she also managed her own weaving school in connection to this: one of her employees and students being the later famous Johanna Brunsson.

In 1891, she founded a private mental hospital, where the principle was to allow the patients to be active in light work for a meaningful life rather than just to have them locked up, which was at that time common, and she expanded it to include a series of hospitals.

While her spouse was conservative, she was a liberal and engaged in the National Association for Women's Suffrage (Sweden) and the Temperance movement.