Ellen Beata Elisabeth Sandelin (19 July 1862 – 7 August 1907) was a Swedish physician who practiced in Stockholm, and was also a teacher in physiology and health education. She received her medical license in 1897.
She was the daughter of physician Carl Henrik Sandelin (1824–1871) and Beda Collett.[1]
Sandelin graduated from the Wallinska girls school in Stockholm in 1881.[2] (Wallinska was one of the first five schools in Sweden where girls could get a formal academic education, and it was the first allowed to offer girls the entrance exam (called Studentexamen) for university admission.[3]) Sandelin went on to teach at a girls' school in Karlstad, Sweden, and[2] then attended the University of Kristiania, later renamed University of Oslo, Norway.
Sandelin came of age just as the study of medicine was being made available to Swedish women.[4] As she wrote in 1899,
"... a Royal Ordinance was issued, in 1870, by which women obtained a right to matriculate to pursue medical studies, graduate in medical degrees at the universities, and practise as physicians.... In 1873 Upsala University admitted its first female student of medicine..."[4]
In 1885, Sandelin began her medical studies in Uppsala, Sweden.[1] There, she earned a bachelor's degree in medicine in 1891 and in 1897 received her medical license at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.[2]
In that same year, Sandelin became a practicing physician in Stockholm and was also a teacher in physiology and health education in several educational institutes for women as well as doctors at city schools.[2] To disseminate knowledge in physiology and hygiene in wide circles, she held public lectures that proved popular.[2] According to Levin, "Ellen Sandelin called for teaching that taught the child to 'see and understand nature,' the traits of nature, and thus also learn to respect them..."[5]
Sandelin also participated actively in the women's movement, was a member of the first National Association for Women's Suffrage and gave lectures at the women's congresses in London 1899 and in Berlin 1904.[2]
She died 7 August 1907 in Stockholm at 45 years of age and is buried in Northern Cemetery there.[1][2][6]
^Levin, H. (2014) Sexualundervisning i Julita: Ett "tidens krav" omsatt i feministisk handling. In: Redaktionskommitté Anders Brändström, Sören Edvinsson, Tom Ericsson och Peter Sköld (ed.), Befolkningshistoriska perspektiv: Festskrift till Lars-Göran Tedebrand (pp. 85-106). Umeå (in Swedish)
