 Olander, a teacher, was also active in the growing women's suffrage movement in Sweden.Selma Lagerlöf herself was active as a speaker for the National Association for Women's Suffrage, which was beneficial for the organisation because of the great respect which surrounded Lagerlöf, and she spoke at the International Suffrage Congress in Stockholm in June 1911, where she gave the opening address, as well as at the victory party of the Swedish suffrage movement after women suffrage had been granted in May 1919.Selma Lagerlöf was a friend of the German-Jewish writer Nelly Sachs.