Background
Hanna Rydh was born in Stockholm to director Johan Albert Rydh and Matilda Josefina Westlund.
anthropologist archaeologist politician
Hanna Rydh was born in Stockholm to director Johan Albert Rydh and Matilda Josefina Westlund.
She graduated in literature history, archaeology and art history in 1915.
Rydh was a pupil at the Wallinska skolan in Stockholm and proceeded studying archaeology at university. Between 1916 and 1930, she made archaeological excavations on Adelsö, and between 1917 and 1921, in Gästrikland. In 1922, she became the first woman to be granted the scholarship of The international federation of university women.
When asked if she should be given the scholarship, as she had just became a mother, she famously replied: "my son"s birth makes no difference", which was given attention worldwide.
She was attaché temporaire at the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in South:t Germain-en-Laye in 1924-1925. Aside from her work as an archaeologist, she was engaged as a social reformer.
Hanna Rydh provided an example and role model of the "new woman" who could use her rights as a professional public person and still be a married woman with a family, which she demonstrated particularly during the tenure of her second spouse as governor in 1931-1938, when she performed all the social representational duties of a governor"s wife of the time while in parallel being an internationally respected career professional.
She was a Member of Parliament from 1943 to 1944 and the 3rd President of the International Alliance of Women from 1946 to 1952. Her first assignment was as a member of the central comity of the Sveriges studerande ungdoms helnykterhetsförbund or SSUH (The Swedish Student"s Temperance Association) in 1909-1914. She was a member of the board of the Sveriges Husmodersföreningars riksförbund in 1936-1941, chairperson of Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet in 1937-1949, second vice chairperson of the Centrala Finlandshjälpen (Finland Relief Society) in 1940, vice president of the International Alliance of Women in 1939-1946, member of the commission of homeand family issues in 1941, the 3rd President of the International Alliance of Women from 1946 to 1952.