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    Zachris Topelius and women's rights

    Topelius - author, university rector, social critic, opinion- former

    Päivi Setälä

    As a journalist and writer, Zachris Topelius (1818-1898) argued passionately about social issues and influenced public opinion enormously. His ethical and patriotic views prevailed for a long time, carried by his internationally known collections of fairy-tales and his historical novels.

    From 1841 Topelius was the editor of a newspaper, Helsingfors Tidningar. He dealt with contemporary social problems, such as the economic situation of students and the housing of the poor. The serial stories on historical topics - modelled on Alexandre Dumas and others - were especially popular among the paper's women readers. In particular, Topelius wanted to stress the historial unity of the Finnish nation, despite social and language differences.

    Zachris Topelius was the first children's writer who allowed girls among his principal characters. His view that boys and girls should be given the same kind of spirited and healthy education was quite uncommon in his time. In his works girls and (young) women often play central roles; on the whole, his characterization of girls and women is much more interesting and diversified than that of boys. In many cases women and girls are not only described as good and charming but also as intelligent, sensible and desirous of knowledge, often in contrast to power-seeking men.

    Topelius's attitude towards women's rights was exceptional in many ways: for instance, he understood and encouraged contemporary women writers such as Fredrika Runeberg, Marie Linder and Hanna Ongelin.

    The dissertation that Topelius completed in 1847, entitled De modo matrimonia jungendi apud Fennos quandam vigenti (On the marital customs of ancient Finns), was remarkable from the viewpoint of women's history. Topelius wrote: "a woman is the finest embodiment of her nation". In other words, women were more important than men as norms for the definition of national character.

    Topelius was appointed extraordinary professor of Finnish history in 1854, by invitation. He was the first president of the Artists' Association of Finland and the Finnish Antiquities Society. He was a patron of arts and artists, a promotor of national history and a protector of historical monuments. During his term as the University Rector in 1875-78 he sympathized with the Fennomanian student movement.


    Advocate of women's issues

    As the secretary of the Ladies' Society in Helsinki (1854-66), Topelius could contribute strongly - albeit indirectly - to women's emancipation. The Ladies' Society offered women an opportunity to become engaged in public social activity through organized philanthropy. In a story entitled Aunt Mirabeau Topelius allows Mr. Damm to predict that in a hundred years there would be more women than men doctors. Topelius developed a special interest in women's education and gave his support to girls' schools. Later those girls' schools gave a start to a real Topelius cult.

    In his newspaper, Helsingfors Tidningar, Topelius focused on social issues. Women's activity in society was important, although different from men's. Prejudices were to be dispelled. His view of the women's world coincided with that of the early women's movement, that "the world was just a large home" and that women were also entitled to social motherhood. But the women's world and their work also had economic and political significance. In the 1970's, the women's movement expressed the same notion in the slogan "personal is political". Topelius emphasized the value of women's care, intuition and empathy in humanitarian work.


    The University and women's rights

    During discussions about women's academic studies, Topelius suggested in 1870 that women students should be given special certificates which would not qualify them for civil service posts. He also suggested an amendment to the laws and regulations concerning the University: the word yngling ('young man') should be replaced with the expression studerande ungdom ('young student'). The other members of the University Senate did not even bother to comment on Topelius's proposal. He pointed out that many other countries, partly even Russia, were already ahead of Finland in this respect.

    The newspaper Helsingfors Dagblad reported exhaustively on John Stuart Mill's book The Subjection of Women, which came out in 1869 and attracted a great deal of attention. A Swedish edition was published in the same year. Student clubs also debated Mill's book. However, Eastern influences were probably more significant. Ever since the reign of Catherine the Great, women's education had been held in exceptionally high esteem in Russia, and the great liberation of the academic world in the late 1850's opened the doors to women students. Russian women students played a well-known role as radicals in their national history of ideas.

    Rosina Heikel completed her studies for the degree of Licentiate in Medicine in 1878 and applied for a travel grant for further studies in Switzerland. She became the first female physician in all Scandinavia. Topelius wanted to do something about women's education before his term as Rector expired, and introduced his proposal on April 10, 1878. Topelius argued that women should be granted the right to study on the same conditions as men. According to Topelius, Rosina Heikel and Emma Irene Åström had convincingly shown that women could carry on studies diligently, without embarrassing the University in any way. In September Topelius added some more arguments. His starting point was that modern culture and education should be based on the idea that everyone had an equal right to learning. Topelius referred to the development towards women's equal rights in other areas, such as the new legislation on inheritance providing equal rights, which had been passed the previous year. He also called attention to the positive experience gained from women's professional work, for instance in the postal service and school, and to the fact that the University already had scholarship funds for women.

    Topelius was convinced that academic studies would not affect a woman's status in the family, and that in any case such studies would always be much too difficult for the majority of the female sex. Furthermore, he believed Finnish women to be so virtuous that they would not be at all affected by the nihilist movement and emancipation spreading in Russia. The presence of girls had refined the general atmosphere in schools, so why would they not do the same at universities? Topelius's final argument was that the University should be a pioneer in cultural questions, a position that would be lost unless something was soon done about the issue under discussion.

    The general attitude towards women's rights was more favourable in Finland than in Sweden. August Strindberg wrote in his letter to a friend: "Beware of Finns! The idea of 'abandoning one's sex' is spreading widely under the leadership of Topelius himself."

    Thus, as the University Rector, Topelius advocated women's right to pursue academic studies. In the poem he wrote on the occasion of Emma Irene Åström's conferment in 1882 he raised his voice openly against stupidity and prejudice. The poem strongly suggested that women's access to intellectual and social life should count as one of the great achievements of the half-century, alongside the primary school, the development of the Finnish language, Finnish art, and the patriotism elevated by Runeberg.

    The Master's degree completed by Emma Irene Åström, the first woman to achieve this status, was regarded as an important landmark in view of the University's future. The last lines of Topelius's poem, "The First Woman with Laurels", read as follows:

      "Du blef den första, andra skola följa.
      Nu, nu gick Cesar över Rubicon.
      Ditt blyga spår kan ingen mer bortskölja
      från branta stigen upp Helicon.
      Mod, kätterskor mot gammal häft i staten.
      Högt lefve, lefve första kandidaten."

      (You were the first, others will follow.
      Caesar has now crossed the Rubicon.
      None can remove your humble footprint
      from the steep path up Mount Helicon.
      Courage, women rebels against tradition!
      Long live the first Lady Master!)

    The efforts that Topelius made to promote women's education brought results, and from 1885 there were regularly women students at the University.


    Queen Christina portrayed by Topelius

    The three principal characters of Topelius's novel Planeternas skyddslingar (Wards of the planets) are Christina, Queen of Sweden-Finland (1626-89), a young man named Benjamin and his twin sister Hagar. Some of Hagar's characteristics are legitimately said to be reminiscent of Emma Irene Åström: a girl coming from a poor background has an intense desire to study, above all Latin. In the book Topelius resumes the theme of the celebrations around Emma Irene Åström, noting that the nouns 'scholaris' and 'studens' are both masculine and feminine. Hagar is appointed the Queen's librarian.

    Topelius well understood the fate of Queen Christina. The desire for learning shared by the two girls is a central theme in Planeternas skyddslingar. Christina and Hagar were born in the same night; both hunger for knowledge, and both guard their independence with equal care. Queen Christina is described as an erudite lady, a master of Latin and a friend of philosophers. She also possessed great political skills. Topelius understands this and shows it by describing Christina as victor of the Peace of Westphalia and arbitrator of Europe. "Everyone knelt down, everyone revered her", and "the resurrection of Minerva was proclaimed from every rostrum".

    In the book Christina places a high value on women's learnedness and predicts that with it "we shall be a highly erudite nation in a hundred years". Talking to Councillor Skytte she continues: "Is it not to our shame that there are so many learned men and so many unlettered women in such a mighty realm as Sweden [including Finland]? When I come to the throne you must help me to establish schools for girls in this country." In her library Christina has scholarly discussions with Hagar about classical literature, love, and female characters in literature. Christina promises to raise Hagar to the nobility, to give her a family name, von Doxa, and to let her bear Minerva's owl on her coat of arms. The girls had been knowledgeably discussing the meaning of the word 'doxa' in the Bible. Topelius obviously thought it important to indicate that not even the Bible was against women.

    In scholarly tones the two girls also discuss Descartes's "Cogito, ergo sum". Christina says: "Cortesius [Descartes] has doubts about everything except himself. It is superb, it is the greatest thought that the human mind ever produced." Christina also ponders on the existence of God and points out that the Bible depends on interpretations. Topelius, himself a promotor of the Finnish language, had Christina learn Finnish as her tenth language. Thus she could read the Bible in Finnish and address Finnish members of Parliament - but "only" in the novel.

    Another theme of Planeternas skyddslingar is the importance of peace. Christina says: "The prosperity of nations, which depends on peace, is a higher objective than a momentary victory." Topelius mentions Alexander the Great and Caesar as Christina's heroes.

    Queen Christina converted to Catholicism, abdicated in 1655 and moved to Rome. Topelius explains how good deeds could be bought in the Roman church and condemns the sale of indulgences. Christina emphasizes that, above all else, a Christian must love everything great, noble and virtuous. A Roman pater assures her that "the Holy Virgin will lead Your Majesty to the fullest comprehension of the truths of our Church". After the religious discussion Christina falls asleep upon Ovid's Metamorphoses.


    The importance of women's education

    In her poetry collection of 1865, Maria Charlotta Alcenius praises Topelius, who "loves Finnish girls and teaches them patriotism". To Fredrika Runeberg, the national poet's wife, Topelius suggested that she should continue writing stories about women, stressing the importance of women's rights. However, Fredrika Runeberg refused because she did not wish to be labelled as a suffragette. Another woman writer to whom Topelius gave encouragement was Marie Linder. The most distinguished Finnish lady involved in the women's emancipation movement, Alexandra Gripenberg, was Topelius's personal secretary in the early 1880's.

    Topelius's own writings about women have served as examples for women writers. - His daughter Toini Topelius was also a writer and journalist; the second daughter became a painter. Toini Topelius's book Kehitysaikana (Time of development) that came out in 1889 was not only the first Finnish girls' book but also a radical defence of a woman's personality and rights. Hanna, the central character in the book, says: "We must prove that the public opinion [about girls] is wrong, that we can think and work independently". A radical gymnastics teacher encourages her pupils to wear the reformist dress and to address her in the second person singular. Topelius's own daughters were educated both in Finland and in Sweden. In the late 1870's the whole family went on a long tour around Europe in order to broaden their education.

    According to Topelius, women's emancipation as a whole should not weaken or reduce what was best about women, their capability of love and devotion, care and empathy. A monument to Topelius was erected in the Hietaniemi cemetery in Helsinki by "Finnish women".