The thesis "Tapetmakerskorna - Självförsörjande och skickliga i 1700-talets Stockholm" contributes with new and in-depth knowledge about women's independent professional activities in Swedish early modern times. One of the most important results is that gender influenced the activities of the wallpaper makers to a much lesser extent than would be expected from previous research.

In the middle of the 18th century, women painted and printed wallpapers in Stockholm, in their own name and with the permission of the Hall- and Manufakturrätten. This authority's rich source material includes records of the form and sometimes conditions of the permits, the organization and workforce of the wallpaper makers, and how many wallpapers were produced. With additional material from the Manufakturkontoret and Kommerskollegium, as well as biographical sources, I can draw individual portraits of the wallpaper makers and conduct a deep comparative gender analysis.

Using this thorough source review, I answer questions about both law and practice: - what was the legal context of the wallpaper makers and how was it gender-coded? - who were the wallpaper makers and what were their activities like? - how can the possibilities and limitations of the wallpaper makers be explained (using gender and intersectionalist theory)? - from a broader theoretical perspective, why did the wallpaper makers exist at all in an apparently male-dominated professional world?