Emma Irene Åström (27 April 1847 – 3 July 1934) was a Finnish teacher and Finland's first female university graduate.

Early life

Åström was born in 1847 in Taivassalo, in the

Turku and Pori Province Turku and Pori Province (, , ) was a Provinces of Finland, province of independent Finland from 1917 to 1997. The province was however founded as a county in 1634 when today's Finland was an integrated part of Sweden. It is named after the citie ...

of the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

. Her parents were Justiina Jakobsson, a servant, and Carl Åström, a surveyor. She was the oldest of five children. In 1853, the family moved to

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

, a Swedish-speaking region of Finland, where Emma Åström was raised to speak Swedish and attended a school in Finström.

Education

She was sent to the Jyväskylä Teachers' College in 1865 with the persuasion of local clergy members, and the college's director,

Uno Cygnaeus Uno Cygnaeus (12 October 1810 in Hämeenlinna – 2 January 1888 in Helsinki) was a Finnish people, Finnish clergyman, educator, and chief inspector of the country's school system. He is considered the father of the Finnish public school system. ...

, served as her unofficial guardian. Encouraged by Ernst Bonsdorff, the school's mathematics teacher, Åström decided to apply to a Finnish university. Although Cygnaeus initially refused to support the idea, he arranged, through his colleague Cassie von Kothen, for Åström to study at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

. Although a place had been secured for Åström at the University of Helsinki after her graduation from Jyväskylä Teachers' College in 1873, her father's death in 1874 forced her to postpone her university studies. She accepted a teaching position at Ekenäs Teachers' College to earn money to support her family. Two years later she returned to university and graduated with a master's degree in philosophy in 1882, making her the first woman in Finland to receive a university degree.

Career

In 1886, Åström returned to Ekenäs Teachers' College, where she worked as a teacher of Swedish, Finnish, and history until 1912. From 1913 to 1924, she taught at a co-educational school and at a mission school in Ekenäs. In 1927, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Helsinki, becoming the first Finnish woman to receive an honorary degree. Although she aspired to return to university for further studies, she "abandon dthe thought" since she was obliged to support her family financially.

Death

She died in 1934.

Legacy

After graduating from university, Åström became an icon, not only for the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

movement in Finland at the time, but also for Finland's Swedish-speaking population. She was the subject of poems written by Swedish-speaking author Zachris Topelius and the feminist writer Adelaïde Ehrnrooth. Topelius is also said to have modelled a character in his novel ''Planetarnes skyddslingar'' (''Protégés of the Planets'') after her. Despite this, Åström once said: "There is no point in calling me a pioneer, because I have never consciously been one."

Publications

References

External links

Emma Irene Åström
in 375 humanists, 13 January 2015. University of Helsinki. {{DEFAULTSORT:Astrom, Emma Irene 1847 births 1934 deaths 19th-century educators from the Russian Empire People from Taivassalo People from Turku and Pori Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Swedish-speaking Finns Finnish feminists University of Helsinki alumni Finnish schoolteachers