Karolina Widerström
Karolina Widerström was the first woman in Sweden to earn a medical degree. In addition she was an educator and a women's rights activist.
About the archive
The Karolina Widerström archive (A 131) includes 50 volumes and spans the years 1874 to 1949. In addition, there is a catalogue of Widerström's books, from 2011. The archive materials include, among other things, manuscripts, notes, grades, photos, accounts, news clippings and correspondence. The correspondence is inventoried.
Please cfr Kvinnliga akademikers förening B 37, Landsföreningen för kvinnans politiska rösträtt B 12 och Göteborgskretsen av Fredrika Bremerförbundet B 17.
Biography
Karolina Olivia Widerström (1856–1949) was born in Helsingborg but would move to Stockholm later in life. She was an only child, and originally her father wanted her to become a gymnastics teacher. Widerström trained to become a certified gymnastics instructor, and in 1880 she contined her studies, initially at Uppsala University and later at the Karolinska institutet. In 1888 she earned her licentiate degree in medicine, becoming Sweden's first female physician. Widerström specialised in women's medicine and gynaecology. For 35 years, she ran her own clinic in Stockholm. The clinic was exceptionally popular, and women lined up all the way into the stairwell to be allowed to see the female doctor.
Widerström was invested in most of the major political issues concerning women's rights and women's health. Her most widespread publication is Kvinnohygien, first issued in 1899. From 1909 she lived with Maria Aspman, head teacher of the female students of the Stockholm elementary schools. Widerström and Aspman carried out many projects together, including the introduction of the subjects of sexual hygiene and health sciences in the elementary school. They founded a school for child care, and co-authored several textbooks.
Widerström was also fervently engaged in various associations, such as the Fredrika Bremer Association, the Akademiskt bildade kvinnors förening (later KAF), the Kvinnliga Läkares Förening - an association for female physicians - and the Swedish national suffrage association, Landsföreningen för kvinnans politiska rösträtt. Several of these associations are represented in the KvinnSam archive collections.
The above text is based in part on the Alvin text by Beatrice Christensen Sköld, as well as the SKBL post for Karolina Olivia Widerström, by Ann-Sofie Ohlander.
Read more
The National Archives of Sweden have three volumes of archive materials concerning Karolina Widerström. A comprehensive inventory of this material is available through Alvin.
Karolina Widerström's published writing has been made digitally available through GUPEA and LIBRIS.
Karolina Widerström in the Biographical Dictionary of Swedish Women
Books by Karolina Widerström
Books on Karolina Widerström