Rudbeckii flickskola ('Rudbeck's Girls' School') also called ''Pigeskolan'' ('Maidens' School') and ''Parthenagogium'', was the first school for girls in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It was founded in the city of

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

by the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of Västerås,

Johannes Rudbeckius Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius or ''Johannes Rudbeck'' (3 April 1581 – 8 August 1646) was bishop at Västerås, Sweden from 1619 until his death and personal chaplain to King Gustavus II Adolphus. Biography Being a member of the Rudbeck, Rudbeck ...

in 1632.Johannes Rudbeckius: en kämpagestalt från Sveriges storhetstid. Henrika Scheffer. 1914

History

Foundation

Johannes Rudbeckius had founded the first

Gymnasium (school) ''Gymnasium'' (and Gymnasium (school)#By country, variations of the word) is a term in various European languages for a secondary school that prepares students for higher education at a university. It is comparable to the US English term ''U ...

for males in 1623. He had the opinion that females should also be given education, and therefore founded a girls' school in 1632. The law had already in the

Swedish Church Ordinance 1571 The Swedish Church Ordinance of 1571 was the first complete Swedish church order following the Swedish Reformation in the 1520s. The main originator of the ordinance was archbishop Laurentius Petri. Petri, archbishop since 1531, had published man ...

stated that girls should receive schooling, but it had left the responsibility to provide schools for them to the responsibility of the local authorities. In reality no schools had been founded, so this school was the first to implement the law.

Activity

The school was publicly financed and mainly received students from the poor classes and orphans. It was inaugurated with references to the education of the biblical Susanna. It provided elementary education and the subjects were reading, writing, Christianity, mathematics and handicrafts. The staff consisted of the male principal and a female teacher, who was also his wife. It was under supervision of the bishop, who apparently always had a special interest in its welfare. It is not known how long the school lasted, but it is not mentioned after the death of the bishop in 1646, so it may have ended after his death.

Legacy

Though there are examples of individual girls who were allowed to study in schools for boys in Sweden during the 17th-century, no other schools for girls were founded in Sweden until a century later, and no school for girls offered any serious academic education to females until the ''

Societetsskolan Societetsskolan i Göteborg för döttrar ('Society School for Daughters in Gothenburg') or simply ''Societetsskolan'' ('Society School'), was a Swedish Single-sex education, girls' school managed by the congregation of the Moravian Church in Gothen ...

'' in 1787. In the city of Västerås specifically, no new school for girls was founded until a student of

Cecilia Fryxell Ulrica Cecilia Fryxell (14 August 1806 – 6 May 1883) was a Swedish educator and principal, regarded as a pioneer within the education of girls in Sweden. The girls' school in Sweden from the mid-19th century onward was influenced by her method ...

, Natalia Andersson, founded her school in 1858.

References

{{reflist

Other sources

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Johannes Rudbeckius, urn:sbl:6999, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av Erland Sellberg), hämtad 2014-02-26.
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' * Sveriges historia i sammanhang med Danmarks och Norges: 1611-1718. 3:e uppl. Carl Gustaf Grimberg. * Studier i den svenska kyrkans syn pa kvinnans stallning i samha...Eva Åsbrink. 1962 * Årsskrift, Volym 57–60. Västmanlands fornminnesförening. 1979 *
Teologisk tidskrift, Volym 10
' * Den svenska kvinnorörelsen: Historisk översikt. Lydia Wahlström. P. A. Norstedt & söners förlag, 1933 - 339 sidor * Nordisk familjebok: konversations-lexikon och realencyklopedi ny, Volym 33. Bernhard Meijer. Nordisk familjeboks förlags aktiebolag, 1922 * Sveriges städer nu och fordom: skildringar i ord och bilder, under med verkan av ett stort antal författare, Volym 14–19. P. A. Norstedt & söner, 1915 * Johannes Rudbeckius: en kämpagestalt från Sveriges storhetstid. Henrika Scheffer. 1914 *
Nordisk tidskrift för politik, ekonomi och litteratur, Volym 4
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' Educational institutions established in the 1630s Girls' schools in Sweden Schools in Sweden 1630s establishments in Sweden Defunct schools in Sweden Education in Västerås