Alva Myrdal (1902-1986)

Rings in Water

Open to the Contributions of Others

Early Life

CHildhood

• "I knew from the beginning I had to be for myself" (Herman, 1992, p. 85).
• Myrdal's mother, was stifling and overprotective.
• B.A. from Stockholm University in 1924.

Alva and Gunnar Myrdal

The Myrdals were
"Radical nurture advocates"
(Ekerwald, 2000, p. 349)

Early Adulthood

• "We thought about the children most of all. Poverty hits children the hardest" (Herman, 1992, p. 83).
• Myrdal studied pedagogy with Jean Piaget (Ekerwald, 2000),
• and articulated her unique feminism.

"The woman as she is does not exist"
(Bok, 1987, p. 166)

Learning Leadership: Openness

• Myrdal worked with conservatives and radical feminists to champion women's causes.
• Elin Wagner: A matriarchy advocate.
• Viola Klein: An English sociologist.

Adulthood

Crisis in the Population Question (1932)

The Dilemma in Politics

• Conservatives thought it was "hedonism and convenience" (Ekerwald, 2001, p. 549)
• Liberals' thinking was Neo-Malthusian: low birth rate was natural

Myrdals Advocated:

• For increased rate of marriage and child-birth
• For the right of women workers to get married and procreate
• And, for sterilization (although this was not controversial till 1990s).

Leadership Virtue of Openness:
"Seemingly conflicting desiderata have to be reconciled if we do not want to take the easy way of stopping on either side..."
(Myrdal, 1941, p. 104).

Later Adulthood

Untitled Slide

The Game of Disarmament (1976)

Some Six Insurmountables

• Militarism (Military-Industrial Complex in United States)
• Propaganda
• Failure of mass media
• Diffuse resistance within academia
• Obsequiousness from nonaligned nations
• Apathy from the public

Accomplishments

• Seismic monitoring stations
• Nonnuclear zones in Latin America and Africa
• German Peace Prize (1970), Albert Einstein Peace Prize (1981), and Nobel Peace Prize (1981)
• (Herman, 1998; Pace, 1986)

Legacy of education for
"public enlightenment"
Myrdal, 1976, p. 333

"A message gathers significance as it spreads like rings on water"
(Pace, 1986).