In _Hertha_, the book containing the tenets of the Swedish woman movement, the demand is made for woman’s “freedom and future, and a home for her spiritual life”; the desire is expressed that women should “preserve the character of their own nature, and not be uniformly moulded, not be led by a string as if they had not a soul of their own to show them the way.” There must be “vital air for woman’s soul and a share in life’s riches.” It is to be lamented that “woman’s spiritual talent must be a field that lies fallow,” that the law “denies her free agency in seeking happiness.” The prerogative is demanded that “woman in noble self-conscious joy shall succeed in feeling what she is able to do now and what she is capable of attaining”; that she shall be free to “aspire to the heights her youthful strength and consciousness point out to her”; that she may “be fully herself and be able to exercise an uplifting, ennobling influence upon the man” to whom she says: “All that is mine shall be thine and thereby the portion of each shall be doubled.” Even if all fields are made accessible to them, “God’s law in their nature will always lead the majority of women to the home, to the intimacy of the family life, to motherhood and the duties of rearing children—but with a higher consciousness.” That women shall be citizens signifies that they shall become “human beings in whom the life of the heart predominates.” This picture of the future, which has already become a reality in many respects, was sketched at a time when innumerable women were still compelled to experience that “there is no heavier burden than life’s emptiness,” and when it was true of every woman, “dark is her way, gloomy her future, narrow her lot.” But because that _which is_, is always considered by the masses as that which _ought to be_, “whatever is, is right,” so the writer who painted the picture was called “dangerous,” “a disintegrator of society,” “mad,” “ridiculous”! “Mademoiselle Bremer’s” name possessed then quite a different intonation from that of Fredrika Bremer now; it caused strife between the sexes; it was hated by some and derided by others. I should like to advise young women of the present time to read _Hertha_; they will thus obtain a criterion for the progress which has taken place during the last half century and also a clear view of the character of the opposition which the present desire for progress encounters. ELLEN KEY. October 1, 1909. INTRODUCTION There can be little doubt that at the present moment what is called the “Woman’s Movement” is entering a critical period of its development. A discussion of its present problems and its present difficulties by one of the most advanced leaders in that movement thus appears at the right time and deserves our most serious attention.