Founded 1815 | ||
Fruntimmerföreningens flickskola (The Girl School of the Women's Society), was a Girls' School in Gothenburg in Sweden active between 1815 and 1938. At the time of the introduction of the compulsory elementary school in Sweden in 1842, it was one of five schools in Sweden to provide academic secondary education to females: the others being Societetsskolan (1786) and Kjellbergska flickskolan (1833) in Gothenburg, Askersunds flickskola (1812) in Askersund and Wallinska skolan (1831) in Stockholm.
History
The school was founded by the Association af Fruntimmer (Women's Society), a women's charitable society headed by Betty Scott, Marie Lamberg and Lovisa Lamberg, which continued to function as managing directors of the school. The society was founded out of concern for poor women, as the Swedish economy was by that time seriously damaged by the Napoleonic wars.
The stated purpose of the school was to provide education to make it possible for females from the poor but educated class to support themselves professionally. This separated the school from most other contemporary girl schools, which had the purpose to educate their students to ideal wives and mothers, and it was thereby a part of the wave of a new type of girl schools, which was established in Sweden in the mid 19th-century in response to a contemporary Swedish debate about women's education. Further more, Fruntimmersföreningens flickskola accepted students free of charge, which made it possible to accepts just the kind of student which answered to the description: a female who would likely need to support herself, normally from the middle classes. The school lived mainly on donations and the fees of the members of the women's society. Queen Désirée Clary, were the official protector of the school from 1824 to 1860. From 1876, it was also provided with government support in accordance with the Girl School Committee of 1866.
The subjects were Swedish, history, geography, Christianity and gymnastics: from 1869 expanded to include German, English, mathematics, nature science, writing, drawing, singing, handicrafts, bookkeeping, dressmaking and house economics.
On 3 February 1938, by a decision of the city council, four of the girl schools in Gothenburg: Fruntimmersföreningens flickskola from 1815, Mathilda Halls skola (Mathilda Hall School) from 1857, Vasa flickskola (Vasa Girl School) from 1914, and Göteborgs Lyceum för flickor (Gothenburg Lyceum for Girls) from 1917, were united to a communal girl school named "Vasa kommunala flickskola" (Vasa Communal Girl School).