Stockholm Housemaid Union

Its members were generally housemaids, but the union also included other waged women workers in the domestic sphere, such as nurse maids and nannies.

[1] Originally founded under the name Stockholms tjänarinneförening (Stockholm Union of Female Servants),[2] the name was changed in 1917 to reflect a professionalisation of the work; from the old-fashioned tjänarinna ("female servant") to the more modern appearing hembiträde ("house maid", literally "home assistant").

In its first edition, it described its foundation thus: The most important five goals of the association was given as: During the first twenty five years of its existence, the Stockholm Housemaid Union experienced major difficulties, and was not able to achieve much.

The employers had no organization which the Stockholm Housemaid Union could negotiate with; the individual employers – often a married housewife – was not willing to negotiate about an issue they considered their private family matter, and the regulation of a profession practiced in a private residence was met with numerous difficulties.

One reason was that working hours were so long and the free time so limited that few housemaids had the time to engage in union work; another was that the majority of housemaids regarded their profession to be a temporary job that they would leave as soon as they was given an alternative, and they therefore lacked an interest in the profession.

Grönvall was herself a housemaid, but also an elected member of the Stockholm City Council for the Social Democratic Party from 1919, and was thus in a position to both integrate the Housemaid Union in the Social Democratic worker's movement, the trade unions as well as forward its demand in the City Council via her contacts.

[9] The victory of the Social Democratic Party in the 1932 election was beneficial to worker's rights and trade unions.

In the mid 1930s, a state investigation of the National Board of Health and Welfare, in which Hanna Grönvall was a member, reported that the housemaid profession had "such a low status that it was barely given any human value".

In 1944, the ongoing demands of the Housemaid Union was finally met in the Hembiträdeslagen ('Housemaid Law'), which ensured a number of rights for housemaids which had long been requested by their union, such as their own room in accordance with health regulations, set working hours and paid vacation.