Graduate professions

Graduate professions | The physician profession | The teaching profession | §28 of the Constitution | Law regulating formal competence

Graduate professions

In 1866, the Swedish parliament submitted a letter to the king, suggesting that women may work as physicians and teach at the medical faculties. The motion was recommended by, e.g., the medical faculties of Lund and Uppsala. As a result the king decided in 1870 that women should be allowed to study medicine. The physician profession became then the first graduate profession available for women. A few years later, in 1873, the universities became even more accessible by giving women the formal right to graduate in all subjects except in law and theology.
With this decision women then got the right to qualify academically; it was, however, still far from their being entitled to work in the profession when qualified. The content of §28 in the Constitution, indicating that “only Swedish men” were entitled to get national appointments, was a big obstacle, as it prevented women from entering the academic labour market.

The physician profession

In 1888, Karolina Widerström took her degree of licentiate of medicine at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. She thereby became Sweden’s first female doctor. After some time she specialized in women’s medicine and gynaecology, and she set up an appreciated private practice. In 1899, a publication with the title "Kvinnohygien" [‘Women’s hygiene’], came out in seven editions, the last in 1932. However, women did still not have the right to be state employees. This was changed in 1903. In 1901, physician Ada Nilsson initiated the creation of a petition that was delivered to the king. As a result of the petition, a number of physician posts were made available for unmarried, female doctors in 1903.

A selection of Karolina Widerström’s publications:
Några ord om qvinnodrägtens reformerande. - Stockholm, 1886. (A few words on the reform of women’s dress. - Stockholm, 1886.)
Om den kvinnliga klädedräkten betraktad ur hälsans synpunkt. - Stockholm, 1893. (On women’s dress considered from a health point of view. - Stockholm, 1893.)
Om Utsträckningen af ämnet hälsolära vid våra flickskolor. - Stockholm, 1902. (On the extent of the subject health science at our girls’ schools. - Stockholm, 1902.)
Om behandlingen av kvinnliga "arbetsovilliga och samhällsvådliga". - Särtryck ur Hertha, 1927. (On the treatment of ”Women who are unwilling to work and socially dangerous”. Separate publication from Hertha, 1927.)

From Ada Nilsson’s collection of publications:
1891 - Ada Nilsson blir inskriven som student vid Uppsala universitet (Ada Nilsson is accepted as a student at Uppsala University)
1896 - protokollsutdrag, A. N. blir förklarad Med. Kand. (Excerpt from Minutes, A. N. is declared B. Med)
1900 - protokollsutdrag, A. N. blir förklarad Med. Lic. (Excerpt from Minutes, A. N. is declared Med. Lic.)
1903 - intyg. (Certificate.)

The teaching profession

For many women graduates, a career in the teaching profession was a way to enter professional life. Teacher posts were available for women as they were the concern of cathedral chapters; they were not so-called licensed appointments (appointments with the king’s licence). However, graduate women were discriminated against by being constantly prevented from having other posts than those as specialist teachers at grammar schools. Posts as secondary school teachers were reserved for male teachers. In 1903, a petition, initiated by Anna Ahlström, was submitted to the government. The petition demanded that male and female teachers’ competence, payment and pension requirements should be treated equally. The petition met no response. 1903 lämnades så en petition, initierad av Anna Ahlström, in till regeringen. I petitionen krävdes det att manliga och kvinnliga lärare skulle likställas vad gällde kompetenskrav, lön och pension. Petitionen fick inget gehör. In 1904 Anna Ahlström founded Akademiskt Bildade Kvinnors Förening [Graduate Women’s Society], (ABKF) as an effort to unite the struggle for the graduate women’s rights. New grammar school regulations were introduced in 1905, implying that secondary school teachers or senior masters now were licensed appointments and that a married woman no longer was entitled to work as a specialist teacher.

§28 of the Constitution

After several years of struggle, conducted among others by ABKF an amendment of §28 of the Constitution was achieved in 1909. The paragraph of the Instrument of Government of 1809 said that “swenske män” [Swedish men] had access to state offices which had the king’s licence. The constitutional amendment removed the obstacle to women’s access to certain licensed appointments. But the boundary between women’s and men’s rights still remained.

Law regulating formal competence

The amendment of §28 was something of an achievement – the amendment was however too vaguely formulated which still made it possible to discriminate against women regarding the appointments to higher posts. A royal committee, Behörighetskommittén [the Licence Committee] was appointed in 1919 for the purpose of investigating women’s qualification for national appointments. The committee’s chairwoman, Emilia Broomée, was the first woman appointed as a chairperson of a royal committee. After three reports from the Licence Committee and letters from, among others, ABKF, a government bill was finally accepted that resulted in "Behörighetslag" [“Law regulating formal competence”] of 1923. In this law women and men were, with certain exceptions, equally valued, as the same formal competence for state employment was required for both sexes.

Excerpts from the Licence Committee’s report, 1920-1923:
Sammanfattning av Behörighetskommitténs första betänkande, 1920 (Summary of the Eligibility Committee’s first report, 1920)
Förslag till ändrad lydelse av vissa paragrafer i lagen och regeringsformen (1920) (Proposal for amended wording of certain paragraphs in the Code of Statutes and the Instrument of Government, 1920)
Anmärkningar till förestående grundlagsändringar (1920) (Remarks on the impending amendments to the constitution, 1920)
Bilaga - Statistiska data angående akademiskt bildade kvinnor i Sverige (1920) (Appendix – Statistical data concerning academically educated women in Sweden, 1920)

Sammanfattning av Behörighetskommitténs andra betänkande, 1921 (Summary of the Eligibility Committee’s second report, 1921)
Särskilt yttrande rörande pensioner, av Mathilda Staël von Holstein (1921) (statement of opinion concerning pensions, by Mathilda Stael von Holstein, 1921)

Inledning till Behörighetskommitténs tredje, och sista, betänkande, 1923 Inledning till Behörighetskommitténs tredje, och sista, betänkande, 1923 (Introduction to the Eligibility Committee’s third, and last, report, 1923)
Förslag till lag innefattande bestämmelser angående kvinnas tillträde till prästerlig och annan kyrklig tjänst (1923) (Proposal for a law including provisions concerning women’s access to clerical and other ecclesiastical offices, 1923)
Särskilt yttrande av Edv. Rodhe (1923) (Special pronouncement by Edv. Rodhe, 1923)

Further readings
Bergman, Malin, När lagen mötte verkligheten : kvinnors tillträde till akademiska studier och högre statliga tjänster 1870-1930. - Examensarbete i Rättshistoria, Lund, 2001. - 124 s.
Betänkande och förslag i fråga om kvinnors tillträde till statstjänster. - Stockholm, 1920-1923
Gärde Widemar, Ingrid, Hatt och huva : hur stat och kommun tillämpa behörighetslagens pinciper. - Stockholm, 1945. - 296 s.
Wieselgren, Greta, Den höga tröskeln : kampen för kvinnas rätt till ämbete. - Lund, 1969. - 283 s.
Öhrvall, Hjalmar, Kvinnors anställande i statstjänst. 1911.