Born in Uppsala, she first came to public notice in the 1930's, coauthoring a book entitled "The population problem in crisis" and was more generally a force in the creation of the Swedish welfare state. A long-time prominent member of the Social Democrat party of Sweden, in the late 1940's she became involved in international issues with the United Nations, appointed to head its section on welfare policy in 1949 and from 1950 to 1955 she was chairman of UNESCO's social science section - the first woman to hold such prominent positions in the UN.
In 1962 she entered the Swedish parliament and became a Cabinet minister in 1967.