Greta Anna Maria Woxén was Sweden's first female

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

graduating from the

Kungliga Tekniska högskolan The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a Public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in Instit ...

(KTH) (the Royal Institute of Technology) in 1928.

Early life

Greta Anna Maria Westberg was born on 12 July 1902 in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. Her father Nils Westberg was an engineer and a collaborator of Swedish industrialist Gustaf Dalén.Kongl. Elektrosektionen 1910 - 1985: Greta Woxén
, läst 18 juli 2009

Education

Greta Westberg completed her secondary school education in 1920 and passed the

Studentexamen Studentexamen (Swedish for "students' examination" or "students' degree"), earlier also ''mogenhetsexamen'' ("maturity examination") was the name of the university entrance examination in Sweden from the 17th century to 1968. From 1862 to 1968 ...

, the school-leavers' university entrance examination in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. She then began working at the

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and ...

sstyrelsen, a Swedish multinational power company owned by the

Government of Sweden The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden ( sv, Konungariket Sveriges regering) is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Ministerappointed and dismissed by the Speaker of the ...

. After taking a short basic course in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at work, she became interested in studying engineering. Her three brothers had studied at

(Royal Institute of Technology) had opened its doors to women students in 1921, and

Brita Snellman Brita Snellman, also Brita Ribbing, (21 May 1901 - 9 June 1978) was a Swedish architect. In 1924, she became the first woman to graduate in architecture as a regular student at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Biography Snellman ob ...

was the first woman to take advantage of this opportunity in the same year, studying architecture. Greta Westberg was the first woman in Sweden to begin a master's degree in engineering when she entered KTH's department of electrical engineering in 1924. She was nicknamed "Electric Girl". (

Vera Sandberg Vera Helfrid Victoria Sandberg (born 23 May 1895 at ''Hångers gård'' (English language, Eng:Hångers farm) in Ljungby; died 24 December 1979 in Stockholm) was a Swedish engineer. In 1917, she became Sweden's first female engineer. Biography V ...

), who graduated from

Chalmers University of Technology Chalmers University of Technology ( sv, Chalmers tekniska högskola, often shortened to Chalmers) is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international level ...

in 1917 with a bachelor's degree, is considered Sweden's first female engineer. Chalmers' courses at the time were shorter than that at KTH, and it took until 1937 before Chalmers became a technical college and was allowed to issue master's degrees). Brita Snellman graduated in 1924, the same year that Westberg began her studies, which meant Westberg was the only female technologist at the entire KTH for part of her time there. During her degree, she formed the Kvinnliga Teknologföreningen, the Women Technologists' Association, with two other women technologists, who started their courses later, one studying Architecture and the other Chemistry. She graduated from the

(KTH) the Royal Institute of Technology in 1928.

Career

After graduating, Greta Woxén quickly got a job at Elektricitetverksföreningen, the Swedish energy company, where she worked with operating statistics for just over a year. She married in 1929 and had to resign to raise her children. Once her children were grown, she returned to work in 1954 as a teacher of mathematics, physics and chemistry.

Personal life

Greta Westberg married mechanical engineer Ragnar Woxén in 1929. He had also graduated in engineering in 1928, and later (1943–1964) became KTH's Rector. As early as 1927, the couple had edited and published ''Föreläsningar i läran om hiss- och transportanordningar,'' a collection of Lectures in the Doctrine of Elevators and Transport Devices. They had five children, Iva, Harald, Anna, Gerda and Gustav. Greta Woxén died 9 May 1993 in

Lidingö Lidingö, also known in its definite form ''Lidingön'' and as ''Lidingölandet'', is an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago, northeast of Stockholm, Sweden. In 2010, the population of the Lidingö urban area on the island was 31,561. It is ...

Commemoration

A room is named after Greta Woxén at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woxen, Greta 1993 deaths 1902 births KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni 20th-century Swedish engineers Swedish women engineers Swedish civil engineers 20th-century Swedish women engineers