Mursmäcka

In July 1888, the Mursmäcka of Stockholm performed a great strike action which attracted considerable attention in contemporary Sweden.

The name Mursmäcka is first recorded in the 1830s, when they were apparently already long established as a regular part of a construction site work force.

This attracted a great deal of attention because of their gender, and the newspapers called it The Women's Strike.

This meant that the mursmäckas had to start to compete with male rivals performing the same tasks as in the work team.

During World War I, no buildings were erected, and when the war was over and there was a great deal of people unemployed, male workers were favored over females and the task previously belonging to women in construction work teams were given to men, thereby ending the profession of mursmäcka.