The “World-Embracing” Hanna Rydh : An International Feminist (c.1945–1964)

How and why does one become an international feminist, and how does one convince others to join in one’s effort to try to improve the status of women all over the world? Through the life and work of the Swedish feminist Hanna Rydh (1891–1964), president of the International Alliance of Women (1946–52) and the Fredrika Bremer Association (1937–49), this article explores the transnational entanglements within the international women’s movement during the early Cold War. It shows how Rydh convinced both her Swedish and her Nordic sisters that international understanding and co-operation was key if lasting world peace was to be achieved. Described as citizens of the world’s most progressive societies, both in terms of modernity and women’s status in society, Nordic women were said to have a special responsibility towards women in so-called developing countries, to help and guide them over the threshold of modernity.