The Flickskolekommittén 1866 (Girls' School Committee of 1866), was a Swedish governmental
committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
established by the Swedish Parliament, the
Riksdag, in 1866 to examine organization of female education in Sweden and produce suggestions of reforms and recommendations on how the policy regarding education for women should be organized. This was the first governmental committee of its kind, and was to have a large impact upon the educational system as well as gender roles and policy regarding women's rights in general in Sweden.
Gunhild Kyle
Gunhild Kyle (28 August 1921 – 14 February 2016) was a Swedish historian.Sweden's population 1970, CD-ROM, Version 1.04, Swedish Family Research Association (2002). She was Sweden's first professor of women's history at the University of Gothenbu ...
(1972). Svensk flickskola under 1800-talet. he Swedish Girls' School in the 19th centuryGöteborg: Kvinnohistoriskt arkiv. ISBN
Background and context
Since the introduction of a public compulsory school system for children of both sexes in 1842, education for females had been a constant question of debate for politicians as well as in intellectual circles: while the new school system allowed every male the opportunity to go from compulsory education to secondary education and finally university, the public school system was closed to females after 5th grade. Except for private teachers, only two educational institutions were open to females after puberty: the free pauper schools, which taught poor girls professions, and the
girls' school
Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...
s for students from the middle and upper classes. These existing girls schools were normally more or less equivalent to
finishing schools, with the goal of making the student a "lady", and they were forcefully criticized for their shallow and "useless" education.
[ In 1842, only five girls' schools offered a more serious academic ]secondary education
Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...
: Wallinska skolan
Wallinska skolan (Wallin School) or Wallinska flickskolan (Wallin Girls' School), was a girls' school in Stockholm, Sweden. Active from 1831 to 1939, it was one of the first five schools in Sweden to offer serious academic education and seconda ...
in Stockholm, Askersunds flickskola
Askersunds flickskola (Askersund Girls' School), was a Swedish girls' school in Askersund, active from 1812 until 1906. It was the second school in Sweden to offer secondary education
Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phas ...
in Askersund
Askersund is a locality and the seat of Askersund Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with a population census of 3,887 inhabitants in 2010.
Geography
Askersund is a popular tourist destination with swimming and nature experiences. The city ...
, and Fruntimmersföreningens flickskola Fruntimmerföreningens flickskola ('Women's Society's Girls' School'), was a Girls' School in Gothenburg in Sweden active between 1815 and 1938. At the time of the introduction of compulsory elementary schools in Sweden in 1842, it was one of fi ...
, Kjellbergska flickskolan
Kjellbergska flickskolan ('Kjellberg Girls' School') was a Girls' School in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was active between 1835 and 1967.
History
The school was founded by a fund granted in the will of the wealthy merchant Jonas Kjellberg (1752– ...
and Societetsskolan Societetsskolan i Göteborg för döttrar ('Society School for Daughters in Gothenburg') or simply ''Societetsskolan'' ('Society School'), was a Swedish girls' school managed by the congregation of the Moravian Church in Gothenburg from 1 November ...
in Gothenburg.
Since the introduction of public compulsory schools in 1842, progressive politicians had argued for the organisation of governmental secondary education for females: this would ensure a far better quality than when the secondary education was only provided by private schools, who were subjected to the views of their students conservative parents. The conservative view was that females should be educated in the home for the home; that education and knowledge could destroy the feminine qualities that distinguished women from men and cause distaste in women for the role of wife and mother; and that the idea of equality could not interfere with the order established by God.[ In parallel, Population growth had created a large number of women who could not marry and were forced to support themselves with few means to do so.
The reformists, who were initially motivated by the idea of ]Difference feminism
Difference feminism holds that there are differences between men and women but that no value judgment can be placed upon them and both sexes have equal moral status as persons.
The term "difference feminism" developed during the "equality-versus ...
, therefore started with the more efficient argument that although the first natural choice for a woman was always that of a wife and mother, not all women would be married, and those who could find no one to marry should be given the opportunity to support themselves without having to resort to the charity of relatives, criminality or prostitution.[ This argument was successful and caused several reforms in women's rights: equal inheritance rights in 1845; equal rights within trade and commerce in 1846, 1861 and 1864; the profession of teacher in the public school system in 1853; legal majority for unmarried women in 1858-63; access to the professions of ]Feldsher
According to the World Health Organization, a feldsher (german: Feldscher, pl, Felczer, cs, Felčar, russian: фельдшер, sv, Fältskär, Finnish: ''Välskäri'') is a health care professional who provides various medical services limi ...
, organist and dentist in 1861 and the professions of telegraph- and postal offices in 1863. These reforms were in themselves arguments for the reformists, who stated that as females now had been given more rights from the state, it was also the task of the state to give them education to handle these rights. In 1856, the novel '' Hertha'' by Fredrika Bremer
Fredrika Bremer (17 August 1801 – 31 December 1865) was a Finland, Finnish-born Sweden and Norway, Swedish Swedish literature, writer and feminism in Sweden, feminist reformer. Her ''Sketches of Everyday Life'' were wildly popular in Bri ...
caused a debate of women's educational rights which led to the foundation of the female seminary
A female seminary is a private educational institution for women, popular especially in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when opportunities in educational institutions for women were scarce. The movement was a sign ...
Högre lärarinneseminariet
The Royal Seminary, fully the Royal Advanced Female Teachers' Seminary ( sv, Kungliga Högre Lärarinneseminariet, abbreviated KHLS), was a normal school (teachers' college) in Stockholm, Sweden. It was active from 1861 until 1943. It was the fi ...
in 1861. This raised the issue of governmental secondary education for girls, and after a heated debate in 1865–66, the committee was established to solve the policy of female education.
Recommendations and results
According to the committee, the girls' schools task was a double one: to give a woman an education suitable for her to be a wife and mother and the complement of a man, which was a woman's first task; but also to give women an education which would make it possible for females to support themselves professionally as independent women within the educated professions which were newly opened to women, in the case they should not succeed in marrying.[
The organisation of girls' schools recommended was in fact quite progressive, and was for the larger part equivalent to the organisation of the secondary education of males, the gymnasium: this would place the female students on the same level as the male ones who were qualified to enter university. Gymnastics, an innovative subject, was also a recommendation for health reasons. The committee recommended that girls' schools should offer a six years compulsory education, followed by voluntary two years; and that those students having completed eight years should be given some sort of exam equivalent to those given male students.][ The exceptions were mathematics and natural science, which were given a larger and more abstract part for males than those recommended for females: another difference was that while the German language was at the time the most important foreign language for male students, French retained that position for females.][ The committee also recommended that women be allowed to attend university: this would once and for all answer the questions about the scientific ability of females.][ The professions recommended for an educated woman were those of a medical doctor, apothecary, positions within the telegraph, postal-, custom and tax offices as well as the lower levels of the teaching professions: some of these professions had recently been opened to women.
In 1870, women were allowed to study medicine and the profession of doctor was opened to them; in 1873, women were allowed to attend university; and though no secondary schools for girls were provided by the government, those private girl's schools which met the qualifications received governmental support from 1874.][
]
Committee members
# Chairperson: Adolf Leonard Nordwall, head of the ecclesiastical department's bureau for higher education
# Carl Johan Bergman, founder of the Visby
Visby () is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably th ...
girls' school
# Pehr Sjöbring, bishop
# Gustaf Reinhold Rabe, teacher at the Högre lärarinneseminariet
The Royal Seminary, fully the Royal Advanced Female Teachers' Seminary ( sv, Kungliga Högre Lärarinneseminariet, abbreviated KHLS), was a normal school (teachers' college) in Stockholm, Sweden. It was active from 1861 until 1943. It was the fi ...
# Henrik Samuel Cederschiöld, founder of the girls' school in Växjö
Växjö ( ) is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 70,489 inhabitants (2019) out of a municipal population of 95,995 (2021). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of Kronoberg County ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Girls' School Committee of 1866
Girls' schools in Sweden
1866 in Sweden
Women's rights in Sweden
Feminism and history
1866 in women's history
1866 in education