What was happening in the world when Henrik Ibsen wrote the play A Doll's House?

I think that the rights of women during this time were few if any. In a speech given to the Norwegian Women's Rights League in 1898, Ibsen insisted that he "must disclaim the honor of having consciously worked for the women's rights movement," since he wrote "without any conscious thought of making propaganda," his task having been "the description of humanity."