Professional Women at Aarhus University 1938–1968. Following Archival Trails of Women who pursued Higher Learning within Nursing and Home Economics

The thesis explores Danish women’s educational experiences in two university programmes established at Aarhus University (AU) in 1938 and 1945. These programmes offered advanced academic training to women in the fields of nursing and home economics – areas that were considered distinctly feminine at the time. Through these courses, trained nurses could further qualify as health visitors, senior nurses, and educators, while women trained in home economics could specialise in areas such as nutrition, household technology, and domestic economy. The courses marked a process of academicisation for these two welfare professions, providing women with alternative pathways to university despite the courses’ ambiguous position within the academic landscape.<br/>The thesis draws on feminist theory and poststructuralist, posthumanist, and new materialist approaches, with inspiration from scholars such as Sara Ahmed, Karen Barad, and Maria Tamboukou. Through analyses of archival materials – including memoirs, scrapbooks, applications, course reports, and educational documents – it examines the following questions: 1) Which female figures emerged at the intersection of profession and university? 2) How can developments in conceptions of womanhood be understood in relation to education 1938–1968? 3) How can tracing narrative trails in the archive contribute to research in the history of education?<br/>The thesis comprises four articles that investigate the significance of the academicisation of the two professions. The articles address the establishment of the nursing and home economics programmes, the women’s rights advocate, Hulda Pedersen (1875–1961), and women’s intellectual spaces, focusing on the Women’s Hall of Residence in the University Park in Aarhus. Rather than concentrating on pioneering figures, the thesis examines how professional women navigated their encounters with the university and the impact of academic education on their professional development.<br/>The thesis argues that the advanced courses at AU produced a distinctive female figure: a professionally engaged academic who operated at the interface between profession and university. This boundary figure represented not only a transition between two educational and knowledge regimes but also challenged and negotiated existing gender norms. In doing so, the thesis contributes to a broader understanding of women’s educational history and the complex dynamics that shaped their opportunities and choices in the mid-20th century.