Maud Adlercreutz (1907–2000)

Maud Adlercreutz was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to an aristocratic family. She grew up in Berlin, Germany, where her father Nils Adlercreutz was serving as a military attaché during the World War I. The family returned to Stockholm, and in 1929, at age 21, Maud started working as a volunteer at the newspaper Stockholms Dagblad. When she wanted to become a permanent employee, she was told that the newspaper already had three female journalists! However, thanks to her fluency in German, she was hired as a secretary.

In 1932, she started working on the women's page of the Aftonbladet newspaper. This launched her career as one of the first great female reporters in Sweden. As a pioneering writer, her articles focused on the conditions for working women; child and adolescent psychology; modern marriage; and more. During World War II, she traveled around Sweden and reported on the conditions of civilians living under the Nazi occupation in Norway, Finnish child war refugees, and prisoner of war exchanges. In 1967, she left Aftonbladet, having spent several years as a mentor and sounding board for younger female colleagues. However, she continued to write columns for the radical weekly magazine Femina. She also wrote several handbooks on living together and social etiquette. She was also a prolific translator, with around 30 titles to her credit.