Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 2. Woman Question. By Lydia Wahlström
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74 (i
v. social movements.
■of personally administering her own property, or a certain part of it; she has
this right, likewise, with regard to anything that, under the same conditions,
•comes to her by way of inheritance or gift. The same condition applies to what
she acquires through her own work. By the law of 1898, the husband’s
right to dispose of real property belonging to his wife was, moreover, in certain
respects curtailed; and the wife’s liability for her husband’s debts contracted
after marriage, has been limited; besides which the wife has been provided
with greater facilities than previously for obtaining a settlement of property
(boskillnad), and by that means the right to manage her own property. A new
marriage law is now being worked out, by the Law-Drafting Board, which has
also called in women experts for certain of these questions.
During the last few decades an important revolution has taken place in
woman’s sphere of work. Woman’s work, which formerly found ample
field in the manifold occupations of the household, became superfluous
in many places, owing to the development of industries which enabled
such work to be executed far cheaper at factories. The problem which
then became more and more pressing, was how to utilize otherwise the
working-power thus set free. With regard to women of the lower classes,
this was easy enough, on account of the situations offered them at the
factories. Again, with regard to the upper classes, a special training was
obviously required for new fields of labour, and opportunities in this
direction have also been afforded on a large scale during the last fifty years.
A great number of Secondary Schools for girls have been established privately
and with the aid of considerable State grants, and the State itself supports (since
1861) a Training College for lady-teachers at these schools and several Training
■Colleges for female teachers at elementary schools. In 1856, women obtained
admission to the conservatoire of the Academy of Music, and in 1866 to the one
at the Academy of Arts. In 1870, the Universities were thrown open to females,
and during the period 1870—1913, 2 653 women in all have matriculated. In
1870, women obtained the right to pass through the Faculty of Medicine; in
1873, they were privileged to pass all university examinations (except in theology
and the doctorate in jurisprudence), and at present Sweden possesses 16 lady
Doctors of Philosophy, and 40 lady Doctors of Medicine in practice, as well as
3 Bachelors of Divinity and 4 of Law. A lady Doctor of Law (by special
dispensation), Elsa Eschelsson, was docent on civil law at the University of Uppsala
from 1897 till her death in 1911, and during that time she wrote comprehensive
and scholarly works. At present there is at Uppsala a lady docent in Physics,
and another at Lund in the History of Literature, and a Swedish lady lectures
on Early English at Cambridge. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the
Stockholm University was the first in Europe to appoint a woman professor (Mrs
Kovalevski). Unmarried women obtained admission in 1903 to the staff of Town
Medical Officers, to appointments as assistant doctors in infirmaries, hospitals and
health resorts, and to the lower offices connected with the Faculty of Medicine.
In 1909 an amending law was passed altering § 28 of the Constitution and
allowing women to occupy medical posts and take teaching appointments at State
educational establishments, but not as teachers in theology at universities; and
finally women were admitted to other posts in institutions providing
instruction in science, sloyd-work and fine art. Special legislation for every special
case has however not yet been effected. — Since 1864 women have been
admitted to the Central Gymnastic Institute. In the Postal and Telegraph
services women have received appointments since 1863, and in the Railway service
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