Elsa Eschelsson
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Elsa Olava Kristina Eschelsson (11 November 1861 – 10 March 1911) was the first woman to finish a
Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...
(''juris utriusque doctor'')
degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...
and the first to attain the academic position of
docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...
at a
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
university, but was denied the right to even serve as acting professor because of her sex. She died in 1911 from an overdose of sleeping-powder.


Life

Elsa Eschelsson was born in
Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...
. As most of the earliest generation of women to study at Swedish universities, she came from a well-to-do bourgeois background, daughter of Anders Olof Eschelsson, the owner of a soap factory who also served as
Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
consul in Norrköping. Elsa's mother Carolina Lovisa Ulrika Frestadius was her husband's cousin and daughter of a prominent
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
industrialist, A. W. Frestadius. After his wife's death, A. O. Eschelsson settled in Stockholm with his four daughters. At the age of fourteen Elsa lost her father as well and moved in with an older sister, the young dowager countess Anna Piper. Her oldest sister, Ida, was married to Johan Vilhelm Hagströmer, a law professor at
Uppsala university Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...
. Elsa finished her "studentexamen", the final examination from secondary school, in 1882 and came to Uppsala as a student. She began with a fil. kand. degree in history which she completed in 1885. After graduating, she went on a long journey through Europe and the Middle East, but returned to Uppsala and her studies in the fall. She had shown an early interest in studying Law and after her return she began her law studies, encouraged by her brother-in-law Hagströmer. She received her ''juris utriusque licentiat'' and ''juris utriusque doctor'' degrees in 1897 and was appointed a ''
docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...
'' of civil law at the university. Eschelsson lectured in process law at the university 1897-1899, taught the so-called
propaedeutic Propaedeutics or propedeutics (from Ancient Greek , ''propaídeusis'' 'preparatory education') is a historical term for an introductory course into an art or science. The etymology of propedeutics comprises the Latin prefix ''pro'', meaning earlier ...
course in civil law from 1904 and held appointment to examine students taking the civilexamen (a lower law degree qualifying for some civil servant positions). As a woman pioneer in her field, she had supporters in the Faculty of Law, including
Ernst Trygger Ernst Trygger (27 October 1857 – 23 September 1943) was a Swedish jurist professor and conservative politician. He served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1923 to 1924. He also served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1928 to 1930 in the ...
and her brother-in-law Hagströmer, but also encountered problems; because of her sex, she would not have been allowed to hold an ordinary professorship - this was changed only in 1925 - and, despite the recommendation of the faculty, she was denied even acting as professor in 1898. She had the support of most of the professors in the Law Faculty but was brutally persecuted by civil law professor Alfred Ossian Winroth (1852-1914), who had come from Lund in 1899, until he moved to a professorship at the University in Stockholm in 1907. She has been describedMarkusson Winkvist, p. 118 both as shy and ambitious, and as a sensitive person with many highs and lows who kept a formal and distanced relationship to the other women at the university and avoided participating in many of their social activities. She died March 10, 1911, in Uppsala from an overdose of sleeping-powder in what has often been assumed to be suicide. In accordance with her wishes, her papers were destroyed after her death. In her will, she left 60,000 crowns to a scholarship fund for female law students. A memorial volume dedicated to her was published in 1929. In 1997, at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her disputation for the Doctor of Laws degree, a volume of the yearbook ''De Lege'', was published under the title ''Elsa Eschelsson: Ad studium et ad laborem incitavit'', including a biographical study of Eschelsson by Gunilla Strömholm and other papers by female jurists at the Uppsala Faculty of Law. Since that year, the Faculty of Law has celebrated an "Elsa Eschelsson Day" with a symposium on gender issues every year on May 31.


Publications

* ''Om begreppet gåfva enligt svensk rätt'' (1897) * "Om civiläktenskapets framträdande i svensk och utländsk rätt" (in ''I vår tids lifsfrågor'', XXXI, 1903), * ''Bidrag till läran om besittning enligt svensk rätt. Besittningsbegreppet'' (1904), * ''Om fullbordandet af gåfva af lös egendom enligt svensk rättspraxis'' (1906) * ''Ännu några ord om fullbordandet af gåfva af lös egendom enligt svensk rättspraxis. En replik'' (1907). * ''Om skuldebref enligt svensk rätt'' (1912), edited by L. Rabenius


See also

*
First women lawyers around the world This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in each country. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are the first women in their country to achieve a certain distinction su ...


Notes


References

* Anon., "Eschelsson, släkt", ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon'', Vol. 14 pp. 511–513. * Hård af Segerstad, Kerstin,
Docenten Elsa Eschelson
, ''Dagny'', 1911. * Karlgren, Hj., "Eschelsson, Elsa Olava Kristina", ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon'', Vol. 14 pp. 514–518. * Markusson Winkvist, Hanna, ''Som isolerade öar. De lagerkransade kvinnorna och akademin under 1900-talets första hälft.'' Umeå: Umeå universitet (doctoral dissertation), 2003. * Rönnholm, Tord: ''Kunskapens kvinnor. Sekelskiftets studentskor i mötet med den manliga universitetsvärlden.'' Umeå: Umeå universitet (doctoral dissertation), 1999.


Further reading

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eschelsson, Elsa Academic staff of Uppsala University 1861 births 1911 suicides People from Norrköping 19th-century Swedish women Drug-related suicides in Sweden Swedish women academics Burials at Uppsala old cemetery 1911 deaths 19th-century women lawyers