Vetenskapskvinnor
The exhibition WOMEN OF LEARNING was open in Helsinki University Library 9.5.-7.10.2000.
Women in Finland have been working as scientists and scholars since the 1800's. Lydia Sesemann was the first woman from Finland who defended a doctor's degree and she did it 1874 at the University of Zürich. In 1918 Agnes Sjöberg became the first woman in Europe to defend a doctor's degree in veterinary medicine. Many of todays learned women are internationally notable scholars in their own field; just think of Mirja Salkinoja-Salonen, the specialist in environmental toxins or Liisi Oterma, the famous comet observer, or Anna-Liisa Siikala, folklorist and shamanist.
The exhibition WOMEN OF LEARNING presents these persons and many others through their work and achievements. Besides these women with an impressive career, the exhibition also shows the work that women have carried behind the scene as research assistants to their husbands, in laboratories and as fieldworkers. The exhibition throws fascinating new light on the history of learning in Finland and on science of today.
Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the opening of the Women of Learning exhibition in Helsinki on 8.5.2000
Photos from the opening of the Women of Learning exhibition in Helsinki on 8.5.2000
The exhibition was arranged by Helsinki University Library and the University's Christina Institute for Women's Studies. The materials (in Finnish and in Swedish, with a separate English translation) are kept at the Christina Institute and can be borrowed for exhibitions.
You can contact the organizers at tiedenaiset-palaute@helsinki.fi
The exhibition has received support from the Academy of Finland
and the University of Helsinki.
Helsinki was a European City of Culture in the year 2000.
The exhibition Women of Learning was part of the Year of Culture programme.
