Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

I dag ses den svenska linggymnastiken vid sekelskiftet 1900 i bästa fall som en rolig kuriositet, för de flesta är den något helt okänt. Ändå hade gymnastikpedagogen Pehr Henrik Lings skola under 1800-talet om fysisk aktivitet stort inflytande på tidens internationella kroppskultur. År 1813 inrättades det statliga Gymnastiska centralinstitutet (GCI) på Hamngatan i Stockholm. Vid denna tid saknade kvinnor fulla medborgerliga rättigheter och ägde små möjligheter till högre bildning. Vid Gymnastiska centralinstitutet utbildades dock såväl kvinnor som män, som blev välrenommerade och efterfrågade experter långt bortom Sveriges gränser.

En av dessa var gymnastikdirektören Hedvig Malmström (1863 1950). Hon visar med sitt exempel på ett spännande livsöde och en framgångsrik yrkeskarriär. Vid sekelskiftet 1900 återvände hon till Sverige efter att ha arbetat utomlands som gymnastiklärare och sjukgymnast i Finland, Tyskland och USA. I USA hade hon även avlagt läkarexamen vid Cooper Medical College i San Francisco, Kalifornien, nuvarande Stanford University School of Medicine.

Historikerna Lars Bolling och Leif Ytterberg, verksamma vid GIH i Stockholm, analyserar i Kroppens apostlar. Kvinnliga gymnastikdirektörer 1864 2020 karriärmöjligheter och livsöden hos ett flertal kvinnor som utbildades vid GCI/GIH. Författarna betonar kopplingen mellan sekelskiftets kvinnorörelse och de kvinnliga gymnastikdirektörerna, och visar att GCI gick i fronten för kvinnors högre utbildning i Sverige. [Text från förlaget]

This article examines STIHL Timbersports® and its amalgamation of craftmanship, competition, eventification and branding, through the lens of decontextualization of sport. It thus revisits and revitalizes the concept of sportification, as well as discusses the characteristics of sport such as authenticity and “uncertainty of outcome”. The aim of the article is to grasp the different processes that challenge our common positions regarding sport, which may in turn progress sport beyond the prevalent conceptualization of modern sport.

In the early summer of 1972, 69 young women graduated from the SwedishSchool of Sports Science and were thus given the prestigious title of Gymnastic Director. The aim of this article is to analyse the professional careers of thegraduates. This is done by means of a collective biographical study of the 43 whoanswered a questionnaire. To widen the scope the answers have been comparedwith results from studies of women who graduated from the school in 1893 and1932. In terms of age and geographical origin the women who graduated in 1972did not differ in any significant way from their predecessors. However, they differed from them in several other regards, including social background. Until themiddle of the 20th century this education had been for the daughters of the elite,in the early 1970s it was an education for young and ambitious daughters of theSwedish welfare state with career ambitions. They were also able to sustain theircareers when they started a family. In light of what we know about them, it isright to categorize them as successful social climbers, which thanks to the socialbroadening of higher education were given previously unseen opportunities toutilize their talent.

For a sports historian with a strong personal as well as scholarly partiality for skiing, it was to be expected that our reviewer Leif Yttergren would find much to like in Philipp Strobl & Aneta Podkalicka’s edited volume Leisure Cultures and the Making of Modern Ski Resorts (Palgrave Macmillan). Described by Yttergren as human geography with a (technology-) historical focus, the book is exciting and commendable as well as inspiring for future studies in the Swedish context.

Housewife or Physical Education Teacher? Or Both? Female Physical Education Teachers and the Welfare State, 1932–1952 • The purpose of the article is to analyse the occupational careers and lifestyles of 32 female physical education teachers during the period 1932–1973. The results show that women could work both as physiotherapists and as physical education teachers. Many chose the former, which in Central Institute of Gymnastics' (Gymnastiska centralinstitutet, GCI) own historical writing has been reduced in favor of the physical education teachers. The women came from the middle or upper middle class of society. They were around 20 years old when they started the two-year education at GCI, which attracted students from all over the country. They could combine marriage and children with work, even though it meant duplication and difficulty in bringing together the so-called "life puzzle." Unlike many other women at this time, the physical education teachers chose the occupational career instead of becoming full time housewives. Their attitude can be explained by the occupational and caring character of the profession, but also with the strong loyalty that existed in the group and the GCI-spirit.