Berit Andnor

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Berit Andnor

Berit Andnor (born November 20, 1954) is a Swedish Social Democratic politician. She was Minister for Social Affairs of Sweden 2004-2006. Since October 2006 she is the chairman of the Riksdags committee on the constitution.

Berit Andnor grew up in a working-class family in Gothenburg, and she and her sister was the first her family to be given the opportunity to obtain a higher education. She has a University Diploma in Social Work from the University College of Östersund (now Mid Sweden University) in Jämtland, and since then she has been living in the region.

In the 1980s she worked as director of social welfare services in Berg Municipality. In 1982 she was elected to the county council, and from 1986 to 1991 she sat on its Executive Board, the beginning of her career as a full-time politician. In 1991 she was elected to the Riksdag as a Member of Parliament. She chose to focus her work as a parliamentarian on gender equality issues and labour market policy.

Since then, Andnor has held a number of high ranking posts, such as vice-president of the Council of Europe parliamentarian assembly, 1996-1998, and chair of the Swedish National Labour Market Board, 1997-2000. She has also been a member of theexecutive committee of National Federation of Social Democratic Women in Sweden from 1995 to 2003.

Still, her name was not very known to the public when Prime Minister Göran Persson made her Minister for Children and Families in 2002. On November 1, 2004, she became Minister for Social Affairs.