Vera Hjelt (1857—1947) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

social reform A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary move ...

er, politician and a pioneer of

occupational safety and health Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at wor ...

who strove to improve workplace conditions and treatment of workers.

Early life and education

Vera Hjelt was born to a middle-class family, as the second child of school principal Carl Wilhelm Hjelt and Augusta Charlotta von Pfaler. She had a relatively lenient upbringing: her father did not consider girls' education to be of much importance, and her mother, who had become disabled when Vera was young, could not contribute much towards her education. She is known to have been an avid reader, and aspired to become a

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. At age 17, she set up a music store in Turku, the first in the city, which she ran for two years. In 1881, Hjelt graduated from the Ekenäs

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

, qualifying as a teacher, as well as in the same year completing her art studies at the Turku drawing school (''Taideyhdistyksen piirustuskoulu''). She went on to continue her training at the Nääs School of Crafts in Sweden, qualifying as an

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

teacher in 1885.

Career

Teaching and crafts

In the early 1880s, Hjelt taught at primary school in

Hammarland Hammarland is a municipality of Åland, an autonomous territory of Finland. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Swedish. of its populat ...

and Turku. After that, she moved to Nääs, where she at the same time both studied and taught crafts, before returning to Finland and taking up the post of principal of a craft school in Helsinki, which role she held 1885–1897, as well as continuing as a primary school teacher. Alongside her teaching duties, she set up a steam saw and carpentry factory in

Oulunkylä Oulunkylä ( sv, Åggelby, also known as ''Ogeli'') is a suburb and a neighbourhood of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is located north from the center of the city. It has been inhabited since the 13th century. Earlier an independent munic ...

(now part of Helsinki), serving as its director for many years. In 1886, Hjelt was granted a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

for her invention, a portable

workbench A workbench is a sturdy table at which manual work is done. They range from simple flat surfaces to very complex designs that may be considered tools in themselves. Workbenches vary in size from tiny jewellers benches to the huge benches used by ...

, which was sold and even exported, including to the USA. After her retirement from politics (see below), Hjelt returned to teaching, at the Swedish-language technical college in Helsinki, where she worked until 1936.

Occupational safety

From 1903 until 1918, Hjelt served as an inspector of occupational safety and health (''Ammattientarkastaja''), and also as a labour statistics researcher from 1906 until 1912. In the former role, she was the first female post-holder, and had to be granted special dispensation for her appointment, as such positions were at that time reserved exclusively for men. She spent much of her time travelling around Finland, visiting factories and workshops, to witness and monitor working conditions first-hand. She is known to have got on well with workers, especially women, and also enjoyed cordial relations with management who were usually happy to implement her pragmatic and carefully-considered recommendations to improve working conditions. Hjelt was influential in similar inspector positions being established in Norway and Sweden. In 1909, Hjelt established an exhibition of occupational safety and health, which she managed and curated until 1931; the exhibition later became a permanent public museum (''Sosiaalimuseo''). In recognition of her labour reform work, Hjelt was in 1930 granted the honorary title of '. She was the first person in the country to receive the title.

Writing

Hjelt wrote for a seasonal (Christmas) publication in 1888–1902, and for a children's magazine in 1905–1906, in both cases for their Finnish and Swedish language versions.

Politics and public service

In 1908, Vera Hjelt was elected as a Member of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

from the Uusimaa constituency, representing the

Swedish People's Party The Swedish People's Party of Finland ( sv, Svenska folkpartiet i Finland (SFP); fi, Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (RKP)) is a list of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland aiming to represent the interests of the minority ...

. During her parliamentary career, Hjelt focused mainly on social, labour and women's issues including maternity and unemployment provisions, young workers' and illegitimate children's rights, as well as laws governing women's status in the workplace. She resigned from her party, and subsequently relinquished her seat in October 1917, on account of having voted, in defiance of her party's policy, for the working time bill providing for a standard eight-hour-working-day. Outside parliament, she also served in numerous board and supervisory council roles at various public sector and charitable organisations.

Personal life

Vera Hjelt never married; she is known to have confided in her friends that she had many suitors, both "possible and impossible ones", but the only one she was interested in belonged to the latter category. She had an active social life, and often entertained, including playing the piano and the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

to her friends, and is known to have composed some of her own music. In her later life, Hjelt acquired a summer house in

Bromarv Bromarv (; fi, Bromarv) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, village and List of former municipalities of Finland, former municipality of Finland comprising the former municipalities Tenala together with the town of Ekenäs. It was merged wit ...

, on the southwestern coast of Finland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hjelt, Vera 20th-century Finnish women politicians Swedish People's Party of Finland politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (1908–09) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1909–10) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1910–11) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1911–13) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1913–16) Members of the Parliament of Finland (1916–17) Finnish educators Politicians from Turku People from Turku and Pori Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) 1857 births 1947 deaths Occupational health practitioners