Karin Kock

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Karin Kock-Lindberg (born July 2, 1891 in Stockholm as Karin Kock ; † July 28, 1976 ) was a Swedish economist , professor and politician of the Socialdemokraterna . She was the first Swedish woman to hold a ministerial office.

Life

Origin and education

Kock grew up as the fifth of six children of the chief customs director Ernst Kock and his wife in Stockholm. Her parents were both interested in politics and belonged to the liberal currents of the time. After finishing school, she began studying statistics at Stockholm University . Stockholm University had opened to women as early as 1873, but female students were still very rare in mathematics. Due to financial hardship, however, she dropped out of her studies and started to work for the Stockholm Statistics Office. In 1915 she could take up her studies again and in addition, Kock started the professional economics to study. In 1918 she began higher academic studies and in 1929 received a doctorate in economics. After that, however, she was unable to continue working at the university and became an independent researcher. It was not until 1933 that Kock got a job as a lecturer.

marriage

Kock was married to the lawyer Hugo Lindberg and took the name Kock-Lindberg. As a minister, however, she did not sign the double name, although from a legal perspective that was her real name. Both were politically active and positioned themselves against National Socialism during the Second World War .

Scientific publications

In 1945 she became a professor in the field of economics. This made her the first woman in Sweden to receive a professorship in economics. The treatise A study of interest rates from 1929 and Kvinnoarbetet i Sverige ( German : Women's work in Sweden ) from 1938 are counted among her most important scientific works . In A study of interest rates she examined the interest rate policy in the USA , England and Sweden and compared them.

Kock's report on women's employment is considered one of the milestones in Swedish gender studies as it is the first statistical study of the Swedish labor market from the perspective of women. It was commissioned by the state women's labor committee and led, among other things, to Sweden banning employers from exhibiting women because of a wedding or pregnancy. One of the findings of the study was that women rarely compete with men for employment. Thus the assumption that working married women are stealing jobs from men has been refuted. In academia, the report was initially not received with great interest and only later, in the 1960s, was it rediscovered by women's rights activists .

politics

In 1947 Karin Kock interrupted her scientific career and she was no longer active as a professor. Instead, she began to devote herself to politics. In contrast to her parents and her youth, she was no longer involved in the liberal political environment, but with the Social Democrats. Kock was initially an office manager in the Ministry of Commerce in 1947 and on April 11, 1947 she was appointed minister in the Erlander I government, initially without a portfolio. During this time, she was responsible for advising on economic issues. From October 1948 she took over the ministerial position. She is the first Swedish woman to hold a ministerial office. Kock held the office until the end of December 1949.

From 1950 to 1957 she headed the central statistical office Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB). Here, too, she is considered to be the first woman in Sweden to head a larger authority. During her time at the agency, she had many new statistics drawn up examining the position of women. For example, there was the first record of how large the share of the income of women was in the total income of families at that time.

Kock was involved in the women's movement and over the years headed various women's rights groups. From 1926 to 1933 she was the spokeswoman for the Akademiskt bildade kvinnors förening (ABKF), an association of women academics. Between 1936 and 1947 she held the post as Vice President of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW).

Publications (selection)

  • 1929: A study of interest rates
  • 1930: Svenskt bankväsen i våra dagar (German: Swedish banking in our days )
  • 1931: Skånska private banks
  • 1934: Sveriges handelsekonomiska läge (German: Sweden's commercial position)
  • 1940: Vi och statens finanser (German: We and the finances of the state)
  • 1969: International trade policy and the Gatt 1947-1967

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karin Kock, professor i national economics, folkhushållningsminister and chief för SCB - Statistiska Institutions. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Kirsti Niskanen: Karin Kock. Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon, accessed January 6, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Göteborgs universitetsbibliotek: Karin Kock. Retrieved January 6, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Karin Kock . In: Store norske leksikon . September 28, 2014 ( snl.no [accessed January 6, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Kock, Karin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kock-Lindberg, Karin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish economist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1976