Born into a family of landowners in Sipoo, HilmaGranqvist graduated from secondary school as a primary school teacher in 1911. Soon she supplemented her studies at the Ekenäsfolkskoleseminarium school, after which she enrolled in the University in 1918.

As her main subject Granqvist studied social and moral philosophy under the guidance of Edvard Westermarck. Granqvist’s master’s thesis dealt with the tension between religion and the modern world. She graduated with a BA from the University of Helsinki in 1921. The problematic nature of fitting religion together with the modern world drove Granqvist to pursue her academic studies further.

Under the guidance of Gunnar Landtman, Granqvist started to work on her licentiate’s thesis. She began to study the role of women in the Old Testament. Granqvist collected data for her study in Germany, where she also studied ethnology and the history of eastern religions. In her research she especially emphasised the role of work in the lives of the women in the Old Testament. For example, Granqvist calculated how many professions the women had practised. She suggested that the roles of ‘the mother’ and ‘the giver of birth’ were not emphasised as much as it was often claimed in the discussions concerning the status of women in the early 1900s.

Her licentiate’s thesis was left unfinished when Granqvist travelled to Palestine to attend a German course on archaeology. She began to study the life of a Palestinian village. Granqvist spent the years 1925–1931 in Palestine collecting a significant amount of data and writing her doctoral thesis Marriage conditions in a Palestinian village I (1932). The researcher of the Old Testament became a social anthropologist studying the customs of Arab Muslims. The thesis was the first volume in her ‘course of life’ series, which dealt with the marriage customs, childhood and death in a Palestinian village. This series brought her international fame. Granqvist received her PhD from Åbo Akademi University in 1932 with top grades.

Granqvist’s Palestinian research went undervalued in Finland. In Europe, however, her research was recognised and received attention quickly. In Finland her merits were only acknowledged much later, mostly after her death. In her field, Granqvist was a woman before her time.

Sources:

• Solveig Widén, “HilmaGranqvist. en forskande kvinna I en manlig värld”, Naistutkimus-Kvinnoforskning 3/1989, 26–35. Accessed April 1, 2015.
• Tiedenaisia, Hilma Granqvist. Palestiinantutkija, etnologi, Tiedenaisia-verkkojulkaisu. Accessed April 1, 2015.
• Ulla Vuorela, Granqvist, Hilma (1890–1972), The National Biography of Finland Online. Accessed April 1, 2015.