Alma Söderhjelm (10 May 1870 in Vyborg – 16 March 1949 in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden [1] ) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish historian and the first female professor in Finland. She was the daughter of the procurator Werner Woldemar Söderhjelm and Amanda Olivia Clouberg. [1]
After gaining an M.A. in history from the University of Helsinki in 1894 [1] , Söderhjelm spent three years in Paris, preparing her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Alphonse Aulard. This was a study of journalism during the French Revolution and it was published as Le Régime de la presse pendant la Révolution française. [2] She was awarded a doctorate in 1900.
On the basis of this thesis, the university unanimously proposed to award her a lectureship. This appointment was delayed until 1906, because of political concern over her father, the procurator Werner Woldemar Söderhjelm [1] , and her brother. The Emperor was also concerned that if a woman became a lecturer in Finland, the same demand would be made in Russia.[ citation needed ]
In 1906, she finally became the first female lecturer (Docent of General History) in Finland, a position she held until 1926. In 1927, she became chair and Extraordinary Professor of General History at Åbo Akademi University, and thus the first female professor in Finland, a role she held until 1938. [3] [1]
Her major academic works on the revolutionary period include Sverige och den franska revolutionen (Sweden and the French Revolution, 1920–24) [1] . Her academic work also involved editing the correspondence of the French Queen Marie Antoinette with the Swedish nobleman von Fersen, published as Fersen et Marie-Antoinette (1930), and with some French revolutionaries, such as the correspondence with Antoine Barnave published in Marie-Antoinette et Barnave. Correspondance secrete (1934). She also edited and published the diary of Axel von Fersen in three volumes (1925–28). [4] [1] Later in her career, she co-authored a biography of Oscar I with Carl-Fredrik Palmstierna (1944) and wrote biographies of Georg Carl von Döbeln (1937) and Carl Johan (1939). [1]
Söderhjelm worked as a journalist, contributing to several newspapers [1] and writing a column for the newspaper Åbo Underrättelser . She also wrote novels such as Unga träd (Young Trees, 1925), poetry, including the collection Tjugu små dikter (Twenty Small Poems, 1920), and a five-volume memoir which included the titles Min värld (My World, 1929–31) and Minä sju magra är (My Seven Lean Years, 1932). [1] [5] She co-wrote the screenplay for The Blizzard (1923), directed by Mauritz Stiller. She was awarded the Granberg Prize in 1919, 1928, 1932, 1935, and 1942. [1]
Söderhjelm was politically active. She smuggled journals into Finland from Sweden, and helped military volunteers to move from Sweden into Germany. [6]
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