“Countless are the women parasites who, to satisfy their craving for pleasure and luxury, impoverish father or husband. These lame limbs in the social organism, which themselves accomplish nothing, but for whom all other limbs work, are the most flagrant example of womanly immorality in the present.”

Swedish writer and social thinker

Ellen Key was a Swedish writer and social thinker associated with the Modern Breakthrough movement. She lived from 1849 to 1926 and wrote on family life, ethics, education, and women's rights. She is especially remembered as an early advocate of child-centered education and parenting. Her work also placed her among the women’s suffrage advocates of her time, and her writing often returned to questions of home, moral life, and how society should shape the next generation.