Editing Alva Myrdal (section)

=== Politics of the family and population issue ===
Myrdal first came to public attention in the 1930s, and was one of the main driving forces in the creation of the Swedish [[welfare state]]. She coauthored the book ''[[Crisis in the Population Question]]'' ({{langx|sv|Kris i befolkningsfrågan}} with Gunnar Myrdal in 1934). The basic premise of ''Crisis in the Population Question'' is to find what social reforms are needed to allow for individual liberty (especially for women) while also promoting child-bearing, and encouraging Swedes to have children. The book also detailed the importance of shared responsibility for children's education both between the parents as well as the community by trained child educators.

Myrdal was highly critical of developments in the operation of preschools for children in Sweden. Consequently, she published the book ''Urban Children'' (1935), where she presented her ideas for a newly reformed Swedish preschool system. She argued that contemporary child care was flawed. The system was [[Political polarization|polarized]] between two extremes – measures of 'poor relief' for the less well-off contrasted with those measures which prepared children from wealthier families for private schools. She stressed that there were material obstacles in the way of being able to access a good education. Therefore, social and economic reforms were needed. Myrdal wanted to combine and integrate the two extremes.

A year later, she was able to put her theory into practice, as she became director of the National Educational Seminar, which she cofounded in 1936. She personally worked there as a teacher and [[Pedagogy|pedagogue]] by training preschool teachers. Myrdal emphasized the lack of recent educational research in regards to preschool teacher training. Her teaching tried to integrate the new discoveries in child psychology in education. Social studies were also emphasized, as was women's personal development.

With architect [[Sven Markelius]], Myrdal designed Stockholm's cooperative ''Collective House'' in 1937, with an eye towards developing more domestic liberty for women. She was a member of the [[Kommittén för ökad kvinnorepresentation|Committee for Increased Women's Representation]], founded in 1937 to increase women's political representation.<ref name="jr">Rönnbäck, Josefin, '"Utan kvinnor inget folkstyre": en historisk exposé över kampen för ökad kvinnorepresentation i Sverige', Tidskrift för genusvetenskap., 2010:3, s. 61-89, 2010</ref>

In 1938, Alva and Gunnar Myrdal moved to the United States. While in the US, Myrdal published the book ''Nation and Family'' (1941) concerning the Swedish family unit and population policy. During World War II, she also periodically lived in Sweden.