Pauline Frederikke Worm (1825–1883) was a Danish writer, poet, schoolteacher and feminist. She is remembered as being the first Danish woman to speak in public (from 1864). She expressed her ideas on women's emancipation in her writings and speeches and fought for better opportunities for women's education.

Biography

Worm was born on 29 November 1825 in Hyllested near

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).Lauritz la Cour, to have the law changed so that women could vote. In 1838, Worm was sent to the girls school in Randers where she stayed on to be a teacher. From 1847, she worked as a private tutor in

Præstø Præstø () is a town with a population of 3,857 (1 January 2022) in Vordingborg Municipality in Region Sjælland on the east coast of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland''). The islands of '' Maderne'', ''Storeholm'', and ''Lilleholm'' are part ...

. When Frederick VII came to the throne in 1848, she wrote a patriotic poem of praise for him which was published in the newspaper ''Fædrelandet'', providing evidence of her poetic talents. While in Præstø, she also wrote ''En Krands af ni Blade'' (1850), a poetry anthology, and ''De Fornuftige'', a novel which was not published until 1857. In 1852, after spending a year in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, she qualified as a headmistress and set up a school for 12 girls in Randers the following year. In 1857, she opened a larger school in Aarhus but as neither succeeded, she returned to her family home in Randers where she took in private pupils. After her mother died in 1881, she moved to Copenhagen where she was successful in having a proposal for a teaching diploma accepted. She also strove to have Danish school education concentrate more on the Danish language than on German. From 1864, she turned her attention to public speaking, making addresses on a variety of subjects on education and topics of current interest, including women's affairs and future developments for women. Her speeches also demonstrated her increasing concern for Danish patriotism and the teachings of

N. F. S. Grundtvig Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (; 8 September 1783 – 2 September 1872), most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential pe ...

. Pauline Worm died on 13 December 1883 in Copenhagen.

Selected publications

* ''En Krands af 9 Blade'', poetry (1850) * ''Fire Breve om Clara Raphael'', letters (1851) * ''De Fornuftige. En dansk Roman'', novel (1857) * ''Vår og Høst'' (poetry, 1864) * ''Vår og Høst'' (expanded, 1874)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worm, Pauline 1825 births 1883 deaths 19th-century Danish poets Danish feminists People from Randers Municipality Danish women's rights activists 19th-century Danish women writers