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Alva Myrdal ( , ; née Reimer; 31 January 1902 – 1 February 1986) was a Swedish sociologist, diplomat and politician. She was a prominent leader of the disarmament movement. She, along with Alfonso García Robles, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. She married Gunnar Myrdal in 1924; he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974, making them the fourth ever married couple to have won Nobel Prizes, and the first to win independent of each other (versus a shared Nobel Prize by scientist spouses).
In 1929, Myrdal and her husband Gunnar Myrdal had the opportunity to travel to the US as Rockefeller Fellows. Myrdal further deepened her studies in the fields of psychology, education and sociology whilst in the US. She had the special chance to broaden her knowledge of children's education. Myrdal's observation of the great social and economic disparities in the United States also led to an increased political commitment – "radical" was the term that she and her husband came to use to describe their shared political outlook They then moved to Geneva for further studies, where they started to so study the population decline that worried many Europeans during the interwar period.
Myrdal was highly critical of developments in the operation of preschools for children in Sweden. Consequently, she published the book Urban Children (1935), where she presented her ideas for a newly reformed Swedish preschool system. She argued that contemporary child care was flawed. The system was polarized between two extremes – measures of 'poor relief' for the less well-off contrasted with those measures which prepared children from wealthier families for private schools. She stressed that there were material obstacles in the way of being able to access a good education. Therefore, social and economic reforms were needed. Myrdal wanted to combine and integrate the two extremes.
A year later, she was able to put her theory into practice, as she became director of the National Educational Seminar, which she cofounded in 1936. She personally worked there as a teacher and Pedagogy by training preschool teachers. Myrdal emphasized the lack of recent educational research in regards to preschool teacher training. Her teaching tried to integrate the new discoveries in child psychology in education. Social studies were also emphasized, as was women's personal development.
With architect Sven Markelius, Myrdal designed Stockholm's cooperative Collective House in 1937, with an eye towards developing more domestic liberty for women. She was a member of the Committee for Increased Women's Representation, founded in 1937 to increase women's political representation.Rönnbäck, Josefin, '"Utan kvinnor inget folkstyre": en historisk exposé över kampen för ökad kvinnorepresentation i Sverige', Tidskrift för genusvetenskap., 2010:3, s. 61-89, 2010
In 1938, Alva and Gunnar Myrdal moved to the United States. While in the US, Myrdal published the book Nation and Family (1941) concerning the Swedish family unit and population policy. During World War II, she also periodically lived in Sweden.
From 1951 she had collaborated with British-based sociologist Viola Klein and in 1958 they co-wrote the book Women's Two Roles: Home and Work, supported by the International Federation of University Women "to make an international survey of the needs for social reforms if women are to be put into a position to reconcile family and professional life".p. IX.
In 1962, Myrdal was elected to the Riksdag, and in 1962 she was sent as the Swedish delegate to the UN disarmament conference in Geneva, a role she kept until 1973. During the negotiations in Geneva, she played an extremely active role, emerging as the leader of the group of nonaligned nations which endeavored to bring pressure to bear on the two superpowers (US and USSR, respectively) to show greater concern for concrete disarmament measures. Her experiences from the years spent in Geneva found an outlet in her book "The game of disarmament", in which she expresses her disappointment at the reluctance of the US and the Soviet Union to disarm.
Myrdal participated in the creation of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, becoming the first chairman of the governing board in 1966. In 1967 she was also named consultative Cabinet minister for disarmament, an office she held until 1973. Myrdal also wrote the acclaimed book The Game of Disarmament, originally published in 1976. A vocal supporter of disarmament, Myrdal received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 together with Alfonso García Robles. In 1983 Myrdal effectively ended the heated controversy over the future of Adolf Fredrik's Music School, "The AF-fight" (Swedish: AF-striden).
Myrdal promoted reforms in child care and later became a government commission on women's work and chair of the Federation of Business and Professional Women.Myrdal, Alva. (2016). In Helicon (Ed.), The Hutchinson unabridged encyclopedia with atlas and weather guide
Her grandchildren include Hilary Bok and Stefan Fölster.
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Personal life
In 1924, she married Professor Gunnar Myrdal. Together they had children Jan Myrdal (born 1927), Sissela Bok (born 1934) and Kaj Fölster (born 1936).
Death
She died the day after her 84th birthday.
Awards and honours
Honorary degrees
Memberships
See also
Further reading
(1981). 915221608X, Sveriges radio. 915221608X
(1986). 9789152216538, Sveriges radio. ISBN 9789152216538
Brigitte Mral (1994). 9789188300331, Univ. Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen. Avd. för retorik. ISBN 9789188300331
(1997). 9789170851865, Cordia. ISBN 9789170851865
External links
Categories: 1902 Births, 1986 Deaths, Ambassadors Of Sweden To India, Ambassadors Of Sweden To Myanmar, Ambassadors Of Sweden To Nepal, Ambassadors Of Sweden To Sri Lanka, People From Uppsala, Swedish Social Democratic Party Politicians, Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Uppsala University Alumni, Swedish Nobel Laureates, Swedish Pacifists, Women Members Of The Riksdag, Women Nobel Laureates, Swedish Women Sociologists, Swedish Sociologists, Members Of The Första Kammaren, 20th-century Swedish Women Scientists, 20th-century Swedish Women Politicians, 20th-century Swedish Politicians, Women Ambassadors Of Sweden, Swedish Anti–nuclear Weapons Activists, Members Of The American Philosophical Society, Women's International League For Peace And Freedom People
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