The Museum of Women’s History opened its doors in November 2014, and is the first museum of its kind in Sweden. We offer exhibitions, public events and a platform for cultural life in Umeå.

A museum focusing on gender and power neither presents nor represents the obvious. We shift focus and choose to tell stories from a different angle, by placing women at the center of our narrative. Women meaning a person who identifies as female. This does not exclude working with male gender norms, transgender issues or non-binary perspectives.

Compared to men, women as a group - half the historical and present population of Sweden - are poorly represented in written history (history books, periodicals and textbooks). Yes, you can find women in history books, but their contributions are seen as less valuable, and their stories therefore, not as important to tell. Research on women’s history and gender has been around for decades, but its findings have not reached the wider public. Since we opened, interest in women’s history has experienced a boom, with new literature, walking tours, the magazine Historiskan and Stockholm Museum of Women’s History.

Our job is to challenge the version of history that women have been left out of, and explore the past in a way that lets us hear other voices than those who have so far been the loudest.

OUR PERSPECTIVES

At the core of the Museum of Women’s History are historical, norm-critical and intersectional perspectives, and we aim to…

• be available to everyone, regardless of ethnicity, ability, gender, gender identity and expression, religion, sexuality or age
• work with the past, present and future
• work in a norm-critical way, and focus on exploring and challenging ideas about gender
• highlight and challenge norms surrounding museums, and show who has had the power to write history, and the consequences of this
• put a variety of women at the center of our narrative
• offer people tools to help identify and understand the norms, relationships of power and structures that limit people’s conditions, opportunities and choices in all areas of life – regardless of gender
• show that change is possible and encourage people to act