Anna Kirstine "Annestine" Margrethe Beyer (4 May 1795 – 9 August 1884), was a
Danish reform pedagogue and pioneer on women's education.
Early life
Her parents were the sugar factory owner Hans Petri Beyer (ca. 1747–1806) and Elisabeth Smith Aarøe (*ca. 1763). She was educated at
Døtreskolen af 1791 Døtreskolen af 1791 ("Daughter School of 1791") was a girls' school active in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1791 until 1899. It is considered one of the first schools in Denmark to give secondary education to females.
Adda Hilden (1987''Da kvinder lær ...
. As an adult, she was employed as a teacher at the same school. Convinced of the importance of education of females, and eager to put her ideas of reforms in to practice, she reportedly dominated the school and placed the actual principal in the background. At that time, however, the opportunities for females to educate themselves was very limited and the institutions of learning open to them was largely limited to the capital of Copenhagen. Most female teachers in Denmark in the early 19th-century were employed as
governess
A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...
es rather than at schools.
Career
In 1845, a new law was put in effect regarding the formal competence demanded from a professional teacher, and an educational authority was installed with the task to control this new regulation. At this time, most private teachers in Denmark were female, but they had not formal education as the schools open for girls were still few and no academic institutions were open for adult females. In 1846, she founded the women's seminary ''
Den højere Dannelsesanstalt for Damer Den højere Dannelsesanstalt for Damer (literary: 'Higher Educational Institute for Ladies'), from 1861 Femmerske Kursus til Uddannelse af Skolelærerinder (literary: 'Femmer's Educational Course for Women School Teacher's') and from 1885 ''Femmers ...
'' to educate professional adult female teachers to serve in the private schools in Copenhagen, and who could meet the demands put upon them by the new school education authority. This was the first academic educational institution for women in Denmark. One of her students were
Natalie Zahle
Ida Charlotte Natalie Zahle (11 June 1827 – 11 August 1913) was a Danish reform pedagogue and pioneer of women's education. She founded N. Zahle's School in 1851.
Life
Her parents were the Roskilde vicar Ernst Sophus Wilhelm Zahle (1797-1837) ...
(1827-1913) founder of the
N. Zahle's School and alongside herself one of the two most notable pioneers of women's education in Denmark, as well as women's rights activists and feminists
Louise Westergaard (1826–1880).
In 1859, a new law was put in effect which allowed female teachers a formal degree. However, there were no institutions in existence which could offer such a degree to women. In 1861, Annestine Beyer together with Nicolai Femmer and Gotfred Bohr, arranged for the opening of Beyers, Bohrs og Femmers Kursus (later Femmers Kvindeseminarium) so that it could meet the demands necessary to issue a degree to female teachers.
References
Other sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyer, Annestine
1795 births
1884 deaths
Danish women's rights activists
Danish feminists
19th-century Danish educators
19th-century Danish women educators