Hanna Albertina Rydh (12 February 1891 – 29 June 1964) was a Swedish archaeologist and politician for theLiberal People's Party. She served as aMember of Parliament in theRiksdag from 1943 to 1944 and was the 3rd President of theInternational Alliance of Women from 1946 to 1952.[1][2]
Hanna Rydh was born in Stockholm to director Johan Albert Rydh and his wife Matilda Josefina Westlund. In 1919, she was married to fellow archaeologistBror Schnittger (1882-1924). After his death, she was married in 1929 toMortimer Munck af Rosenschöld (1887-1942) who served as Governor ofJämtland-Härjedalen (1931-1938).[3][4][5]
Rydh was a pupil at theWallinska skolan in Stockholm and proceeded studying archaeology atStockholm University. She graduated in literature history, archaeology and art history in 1915. She submitted her doctoral dissertation atUppsala University in May 1919. Between 1916 and 1930, she and her husband conducted archaeological excavations atAdelsö and between 1917 and 1921 atGästrikland. In 1922, she was granted a research grant from theInternational Federation of University Women. When asked if she should be given the scholarship, as she had just become a mother, she famously replied: "my son's birth makes no difference",[6] which was given attention worldwide.[7] She was attaché temporaire at theMusée des Antiquités Nationales inS:t Germain-en-Laye in 1924–1925.[8]
Aside from her work as an archaeologist, she published in many popular scientific journal. About the time of her graduation, marriage and beginning of her professional life in 1919, women in Sweden had only recently achieved equal rights with men, which had been the goal of the women's movement since its start fifty years prior. The new focus of the Swedish women's movement was to use these rights, defy traditional gender prejudices, and prove wrong those who doubted women could handle their new role in society.[6]
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 also engaged as a social reformer. Her first assignment was as a member of the central committee of the Swedish Student's Temperance Association (Sveriges studerande ungdoms helnykterhetsförbund) or SSUH in 1909–1914.
She was a member of the board of theSveriges Husmodersföreningars riksförbund in 1936–1941, chairperson ofFredrika-Bremer-förbundet in 1937–1949, second vice chairperson of the Finland Relief Society (Centrala Finlandshjälpen) in 1940, vice president of theInternational Alliance of Women in 1939–1946, member of the commission of home-and family issues in 1941, the 3rd President of theInternational Alliance of Women from 1946 to 1952.[2]She was a member ofThe Committee for Increased Women's Representation, founded in 1937 to increase women's political representation.[9]
Hanna Rydh served as an MP for theLiberal Party in the Second Chamber of the Parliament of Sweden for Stockholm in 1943–1944. As MP she focused on work related issues for women public servants.
She was awarded the Swedish Royal MedalIllis Quorum in 1936.
Magarita Díaz-Andreu, Marie Louise Stig Sorensen (2005)Excavating Women: A History of Women in European Archaeology (Routledge)ISBN 9781134727766
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