Karin Söder | |
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Karin Söder, 2012
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Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 8 October 1976 – 18 October 1978 |
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Prime Minister | Thorbjörn Fälldin |
Preceded by | Sven Andersson |
Succeeded by | Hans Blix |
Minister for Health and Social Affairs | |
In office 12 October 1979 – 8 October 1982 |
|
Prime Minister | Thorbjörn Fälldin |
Preceded by | Gabriel Romanus |
Succeeded by | Sten Andersson |
Personal details | |
Born |
Karin Ann-Marie Söder 30 November 1928 Kil, Värmland |
Died | 19 December 2015 Täby, , Sweden |
(aged 87)
Political party | Centre Party |
Occupation | Teacher |
Karin Ann-Marie Söder (née Bergenfur; 30 November 1928 – 19 December 2015) was a Swedish Centre politician. She was the first woman in Sweden to be elected the leader of a major political party. She headed the Swedish Centre Party from 1985 to 1987. She was also one of the first female foreign ministers in the world.
Söder was born in Frykerud in Kil Municipality, Värmland. Having graduated from secondary school in Gothenburg, she studied in Falun, and worked as a teacher, first in Värmland and later in Täby, north of , where she was a member of the local council from 1963 to 1971. She also sat on the from 1969 to 1973. She died in Täby in 2015.
In 1971 Söder was elected a Member of the Swedish Parliament, a position she held until 1991. The same year she became a Member of Parliament, she also became the second vice leader of the Centre Party. When Sweden got a centre-right government under Centre Party Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin in 1976, she was named Minister for Foreign Affairs, the first woman ever to hold the post in Sweden. Söder's party left the government in 1978 over a conflict on nuclear power, and she was succeeded by liberal Hans Blix. In 1979 the Centre Party rejoined the coalition, and Söder returned to the Cabinet as Minister of Health and Social Affairs in 1979. The same year she was promoted to the post as the party's first vice leader. She held her ministerial post until the centre-right coalition lost the 1982 elections to the Social Democrats.