The objekt of the study is the title of rector. In Sweden this title was introduced during the Middle Ages together with the first catehedral schools. The same title is being caried into the 21st Century by all local heads of every Swedish primery and secondary school. A summery of he earliest uses of the tittle is presented but the real focus of the thesis commences in 1829 and streches out throught´ten chapters to 1993. Using concepts formulated by Bourdieu -- symbolic capital, cultural capital, habitus, etos, social field -- av chronological inteprentaion is given of how he conferrers, holders and prenders of the title have in different ways contrubuted to the redefinition of the title of rector from an exclusively male title with clear references to State Secondary Schools to a title common to all schoool forms, held primarily by women. The emerical base of the study consists of a comparative study of the profeessional journals that have represented the title hoöders and the pretenders ever since the close of the 19th Century. The closing four chapters of the thesis eal with the central themes og authoruty. masculinity, the nation-sate and the vision of future that through te ages have been a mark og the struggles around the title of rector.