Anna Maria Katarina "Kata" Dalström, née Carlberg (18 December 1858 – 11 December 1923), was a Swedish socialist and writer. She belonged to the leading socialist agitators and leftist writers in contemporary Sweden, and has been referred to as "the mother of the Swedish socialist working class movement". Early life Kata Dalström was born as Anna Maria in Emtöholm, Västervik Municipality, Kalmar County, into the wealthy family of professor Johan Oskar Carlberg and Maria Augusta Carlswärd. Her personality, considered unruly for a girl at the time, earned her the contemporary Swedish moniker , meaning 'intrepid'. She was educated at the girls' school of Emilie Risberg in Örebro from 1868 to 1872, and studied in preparation for a studentexamen. In 1878, she married civil engineer Gustav Mauritz Dalström (1837–1906). After her wedding she lived in Hultsfred from 1878 to 1884, Stockholm from 1884 to 1888, Visby from 1888 to 1890, Näsbyholm Castle from 1890 to 1894, and Stockholm from 1894 onward. Dalström engaged in social work in the 1880s, when she focused on children and culture history. She was a board member of the (Working Houses for Children) in 1886, and co-founder of the (Katarina Work House) in 1887. In 1887, she also became a member of the Kvinnoklubben (Women's Club) for professional middle-class women. From 1889 to 1894, she was a lecturer for the temperance association , where she was elected board member in 1894. Social Democrat Opposed to authoritarian discipline and conservative views already as a child, she came to be a sympathizer of liberalism and then Marxism and socialism by her intellectual contacts, particularly Ellen Key, Knut Wicksell and Fridtjuv Berg. She studied socialism and contacted leading socialists such as Hjalmar Branting and Fredrik Sterky. In 1893, Dalström joined the Swedish Social Democratic Party. The following year, she became a member of the Social Democratic Women's Club, Stockholms allmänna kvinnoklubb, and a travelling lecturer or "agitator" for the Swedish Social Democratic Party. As a lecturer, she participated frequently as a freelance writer in the Swedish socialist press, such as in Socialdemokraten, Stormklockan and Politiken. It is as a lecturer she became most famous, and she traveled as such all over the country, being the first of her sex in this position. She participated in the Social Democratic Party congress in Stockholm in 1897, Malmö in 1900, and Stockholm 1902. In 1898, she became a member of the Social