Hedda Andersson

Hedda Andersson (1861-1950), was a Swedish physician. She was the first female student of Lund University, and she was the second woman to have graduated in medicine at a Swedish university.

Hedda Andersson was a descendant from a long line of cunning woman, active in medicine without a license: her great grandmother Marna Nilsdotter, her grandmother Elna Hansson and her mother Johanna Andersson had all been active as cunning women in folk medicine. As cunning women, they had often been persecuted and accused by the authorities for quackery, and because of this, when they universities were opened to women in 1870, they decided that Hedda was to acquire a legal license to practice medicine. In 1880, she became the first of her sex to study at the Lund University. She was the only female until 1882, but was reportedly treated with respect by her male fellow students. She took her Bachelor's degree in 1887 and her medical license in 1892. She thereby became the second female physician to have graduated from a Swedish university after Karolina Widerström. She was active as a doctor in Stockholm.

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