Alma Söderhjelm

author

Alma Söderhjelm

1870–1949

A pioneering historian, critic, and novelist, she became Finland’s first woman professor and built a career by writing with unusual range and independence. Her work moved between scholarship, journalism, and fiction, with a lasting interest in French history and public life.

3 Audiobooks

Ranskan vallankumouksen sivistyselämästä

Ranskan vallankumouksen sivistyselämästä

by Alma Söderhjelm

Revolutionärer och emigranter

Revolutionärer och emigranter

by Alma Söderhjelm

Napoleons syskon

Napoleons syskon

by Alma Söderhjelm

About the author

Born in 1870, Alma Söderhjelm was a Finnish historian and writer who broke new ground in academic life. She is widely remembered as Finland’s first woman professor, and her career stood out at a time when university life was still overwhelmingly closed to women.

Her research was especially connected with French history, but she was never limited to one role. Alongside her scholarly work, she wrote novels, criticism, and journalism, becoming known as a productive and wide-ranging public intellectual.

Söderhjelm died in 1949. She remains notable not only for her historical writing, but also for the way she opened space for women in higher education and cultural life.