Andrea Andreen

Andrea Andreen

Ellenor Andrea Andreen (1888–1972) was a Swedish physician, pacifist and feminist. As a physician, she specialized in the treatment of diabetes, combining dietary restrictions with insulin. A prominent figure in the Swedish women's movement, she became a council member of the Women's International Democratic Federation in 1945, later becoming a Vice-President. She chaired the Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund (Swedish Women's Left-wing Association) from 1946 to 1964. A strong proponent of nuclear disarmament, in 1953 she was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize.

Early life, family and education

Born on 11 July 1888 in Örby, Västra Götaland County, Andrea Andreen was the daughter of the textile factory director Johan Walfrid Andreen and Eleonore Andreen. She attended Göteborg's girls gymnasium, matriculating from Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet in 1905. In 1909, she married the chemist and Nobel laureate The Svedberg with whom she had two children before the couple divorced in 1914. From 1937 to 1942 she was married to the politician Nils Wohlin.

Medical career

She embarked on preliminary medical studies at Uppsala University in 1909 but then interrupted her studies until 1917, graduating in medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1919. She received her medical doctorate in 1933. After working as a hospital physician, she established a clinical laboratory for diabetes testing in 1923. She also had a private practice, dealing mainly with patients suffering from diabetes.

Following the introduction of insulin in 1921, Andreen spent six years at Harvard Medical School in Boston where she worked with Otto Folin in his laboratory. Together with Elliott P. Joslin she learnt how to combine insulin treatment with a well-balanced diet. On returning to Sweden, she practised this approach with her diabetes patients.

Peace and women's rights

In the 1930s, Andreen was a member of Frisinnade Kvinnor (Liberated Women) where she contributed to the association's magazine Tidevärvet and promoted sexual hygiene. The organization later became known as Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund (Swedish Women's Left-wing Association). It fought for equal representation of women and men in local and national elections. Andreen chaired the organization from 1946 to 1964. She was one the Swedish pioneers who promoted the introduction of sports for women, demonstrating that physical exercise was no more harmful to women than to men.

In 1945, she became a council member of the Women's International Democratic Federation on its establishment in Paris. She was a radical pacifist, opposing nuclear armaments for Sweden. In the 1950s, she participated in an international committee investigating the American use of biological warfare in China and Korea. In 1953, she was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.

From 1967 to 1971, she edited the magazine Vi Kvinnor (We Women). An active member of the Swedish-Korean Association, she was elected Honorary Chair in 1970.

Andrea Andreen died of cancer on 20 April 1972.

Further reading

• Larberg, Elisabet (2015). Andrea Andreen: för livets skull (in Swedish). Elisabet Larberg och Magna Andreen Sachs. ISBN 978-91-7609-954-4.