Kvindemuseet - et museum i Århus med samlinger og viden om kvinders liv og virke i den danske kulturhistorie

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Earlier research projects

Earlier research projects

Earlier, non-published studies and research

The birth, maternity and gynaecological wards at Skejby Hospital
1995-96 the Women’s Museum carried out a major study of the Birth Institution in Jutland, while the institution was still functioning and until the move to Skejby.

When the largest birthplace in the county of Århus moved to Skejby in 1996 the Women’s Museum was given the opportunity of following the institution further. What does the change in management and the modern surroundings mean to the employees and to the situation of childbirth?

The employees in the birth and maternity wards are mainly the same people whom the museum interviewed at the Birth Institution. Just as with the original study of the Birth Institution the documenting of Skejby Hospital’s Y ward has its foundation in everyday life where the professional and the personal point of view meet.

The Women’s Museum is still interested in contact with mothers who have given birth both at the Birth Institution and at Skejby Hospital to talk about differences and similarities. The interviewers and photographer from the Women’s Museum are the same people who documented the Birth Institution; i.e. Bodil Olesen, Merete Ipsen and photographer Connie Sørensen.

Earlier published research projects

Tupperware®
Food preparation, food storage and women’s communities
A culture historical study of the spread and distribution of the plastic household product Tupperware in the period 1962-2002. the study is an important contribution to the understanding of the development in the use of plastic household products in the industrial society from the 1960s to today as well as a way to render particular women’s communities visible.

Born in Europe
Photo documentation and interviews with five immigrant families about having a baby in a new country.
The families involved come from Bosnia, Turkey, the USA, Palestine and Morocco. Wiesia Struzik-Westergård is the interviewer and Connie Sørensen the photographer. This project is part of a joint project with five other museums. The results are gathered in a travelling exhibition that visited the Women's Museum in October 2003. See www.born-in-europe.de

Girls’ Community Schools
A national survey and study of institutions and places for girls, young women and young mothers founded around 1900. The demarcation line is drawn at homes/institutions trying to educate and ‘improve’ girls and young women. Special importance has been attached to finding out which ideals of women’s behaviour and capabilities the institutions used as their measurement of successful re-education.

Illegitimate Children and Their Mothers
The fear of pregnancy and the shame of having a child out of wedlock were conditions that shaped the morals, life and behaviour of young and adult women in earlier generations. The unwanted pregnancy was the woman’s problem but providing for the child was a practical problem not driven away by the shame; a problem that often also involved the parents of the woman who had given birth to an illegitimate child. The Danish humanities research council has granted funding for a two-year research project to be carried out by historian Agnete Birger Madsen in 2002-2004.

The Aarhus Cathedral School
Education was only really open when girls gained access to public high schools (upper secondary education) in 1903. That year the first girls started their education at Aarhus Cathedral School. With this high school as the starting point we have carried out a culture historical study and a research-related collection documenting the lives and conditions of female high school students during the last 100 years, in an attempt to uncover patterns of change and development. The material was used for an exhibition August 2003 – July 2004. (see Exhibitions)