Thora Wigardh Explained

Thora Wigardh
Birth Date:7 June 1860
Birth Place:Gothenburg, Sweden
Death Date:13 October 1933
Death Place:Gothenburg, Sweden
Nationality:Swede
Alma Mater:Karolinska Institute
Occupation:Physician
Known For:First woman in the Gothenburg Doctors Association

Thora Wigardh (1860–1933) was a Swedish physician and gynecologist.[1]

Life and work

She was the daughter of customs administrator Jan Otto Granström and Maria Elisabeth Wiliamson and spent her early years in Gothenburg as well as in Marstrand and Sölvesborg.

She was a student at the Kjellbergska flickskolan (Kjellbergska girls' school) in Gothenburg, and she was a teacher for five years before taking her matriculation exam as a private practitioner in Lund in 1886, becoming a medical candidate at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1892 and a medical licentiate there in 1897.[2]

Wigardh immediately began working as a physician, specifically, she was a gynecologist and became well known as a lecturer. She was the first woman in the Göteborgs Läkaresällskap (Gothenburg Doctors Association).

She was a practicing physician in Gothenburg from the same year and the first female member of the Gothenburg Medical Society. She was a suffragist and a member of the Gothenburg branch of the National Association for Women's Suffrage (Sweden).

The street Doktor Wigardhs Gata (Doctor Wigardh Street) at södra Guldheden in Gotheborg is named after her.

Personal life

On 19 December 1897, she married fellow medicine licentiate Pontus Erland Wigardh (1866–1907) but he died only a decade later after an illness.

In 1933, Thora Wigardh died and was buried in the family gravesite in the Eastern cemetery, Gothenburg.

Notes and References

  1. Thora Alfhilda Evelina Wigardh, www.skbl.se/sv/artikel/ThoraAlfhildaEvelinaWigardh, Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (artikel av Thomas Gütebier), hämtad 2023-11-15.
  2. Web site: Hildebrand . Albin . 473 (Svenskt porträttgalleri / XIII. Läkarekåren (biografier af A. Levertin)) . 2023-11-19 . runeberg.org . sv.