Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Åbo

Alongside its equivalent in Helsinki, Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Helsingfors (1844-1974), it was the first state school for females in Finland.

At that point, the only schools open to females were temporary schools managed by single women who educated upper class students in various accomplishments, such as French and music, with the purpose of becoming "ladies", wives and mothers, such as those of Christina Krook, Anna Salmberg and Sara Wacklin.

It was placed under the supervision of the Lutheran archbishop of Finland, and the education was focused on education the students in subjects considered suitable for women: a large proportion of the lessons were focused on handicrafts, and during lessons by a male teacher, the students were chaperoned in the class room by a female assistant.

In 1870, the supervision of the church was abolished, in 1872, the demand that all students must be members of the Swedish speaking upper classes was dropped.

When the dispensation for female university students was dropped and women were accepted at the same terms as men in 1915, girls and boys started to receive the same education in the school system, and the girls' schools in Finland started to be changed to coeducation, a development which was completed in the 1970s.