1. Rut Birgitta Dahl was a Swedish politician of the Social Democratic Party.
19 Facts About Birgitta Dahl
1. 2.
Birgitta Dahl served as Minister for Energy from 1982 to 1990, as Minister for the Environment from 1986 to 1991, and as Speaker of the Parliament from 1994 to 2002.
3.
Birgitta Dahl was the chairman of the Swedish section of the United Nations Children's Fund between 2005 and 2011.
4.
Birgitta Dahl was born in Rada, Harryda Municipality, Vastra Gotaland County on 20 September 1937.
5.
Birgitta Dahl worked as a senior administrative officer at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency from 1965 to 1982, as a course assistant at the Swedish North Africa Institute from 1964 to 1965, at the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation from 1965 to 1967.
6.
The 1969 elections resulted in the election of many young MPs which was then uncommon, and Birgitta Dahl belonged to the first representatives of the Protests of 1968 and second-wave feminism to be elected to the Parliament.
7.
In 1969, women were still in the minority and the majority of MPs were still mainly old men, and Birgitta Dahl attracted some controversy with her miniskirt and the fact that she was an unwed mother.
8.
In 1975, Birgitta Dahl motioned for the establishment of public day care and to enlarge the existing day care system to make it possible to all citizens to access it, which would make it more possible for women to combine family and work.
9.
Birgitta Dahl was a leading figure behind the reform of child corporal punishment laws, in which parents were outlawed from beating their children in 1979.
10.
From 1971 to 1977, Birgitta Dahl was chairman of the Swedish Committee for Vietnam.
11.
Birgitta Dahl created controversy when she refused to believe the reports of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime.
12.
Birgitta Dahl reiterated these views in an article in the journal Vietnam Nu in 1977.
13.
From 1980 to 1981, Birgitta Dahl served as a Swedish delegate to the United Nations.
14.
Birgitta Dahl first served in the Cabinet of Olof Palme.
15.
Birgitta Dahl kept the post of Minister for the Environment until the election in 1991, which was won by the opposition.
16.
Birgitta Dahl was the second woman in Sweden to serve as such.
17.
When Birgitta Dahl was appointed Speaker of the Parliament in 1994, Per Ahlmark questioned her appropriateness to the office due to her past statements about the Khmer Rouge regime, in his book The Open Sore.
18.
Birgitta Dahl was first married to Bengt Kettner, divorced, and was secondly married to Enn Kokk from 1986 until his death in 2019.
19.
Birgitta Dahl died from heart failure on 26 November 2024, at the age of 87.