Anna Maria (Maj) Hirdman

1888 - 1976

Sweden

Anna Maria Hirdman was born and grew up in Norberg in Bergslagen, where her father was a miner; her mother soon became a young widow with six children. She qualified as a teacher, became active in the Labour Movement, and married one of the leaders of Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund (the Workers’ Educational Association).

In her autobiographical novels Anna Holberg, 1921, I törn och i blomma, 1944, and Alla mina gårdar, 1958, Maj Hirdman depicts the conflict between women in the country brought up to lead a traditional female life in the home and the modern, politically and intellectually aware woman living in the city.