Wishes, Realization and Significance of Further Education Over the Compulsory School of Southern Ostrobothnian Young Women from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Authors

• Sofia Huhtala Turun kaupunki
• Juhani Tähtinen Turun yliopisto

Abstract

The educational and occupational wishes, experiences and possibilities of rural women from the 1920s to the 1940s were affected by several national transformations and ideologies, i.e. the man and woman citizenship, the norm of a girl and a boy, the professionalisation of women, domesticity and housekeeping, the ideal of agrarian lifestyle, the Finnish identity, the Second World War and the economy of the individual and the state. The article focuses on twelve Southern Ostrobothnian Finnish speaking rural women, who were born during 1912-1931, finding out their wishes, possibilities and experiences of further education after the elementary school (later the compulsory school). The article also examines the significance of schooling for these women in their youth and later years.The study relies on the tradition of memory material in history studies which has not been broadly used in the study of the history of schooling of the rural people in Finland. Twelve Southern Ostrobothnian women, born between 1912–1931, were interviewed in the spring of 2010 and in the beginning of 2012. Schooling had a surprisingly significant role in the lives of these women, even though their further education usually consisted of few short term courses in folk high school or other vocational schools after the elementary school. Through completing these courses women gained self-confidence and a feeling of independence. For some women school was a way to get a leave from the daily chores, a chance to break away. Women appreciated the practical education available to them. Only some women went through more extensive theoretical training. For a few of the women further education cleared a way out of the rural community and brought financial independence. In general the possibilities for further education of Southern Ostrobothnian women in the 1920s to the 1940s were determined by the needs of rural life and the norm of a woman and a man. The women`s educational choices were clearly affected by the models of their mothers; we speak here about the so-called continuum that is connected with generation and the gender. This was the case in other parts of Finland and Europe as well; women were trained for professions defined by societal maternity. The study shows that the importance of education for women was not lessened by this fact.