Helga Larsen

Helga Larsen née Petersen (1884–1947) was a Danish trade unionist and a pioneering female politician.

[1][2] Born in Copenhagen on 21 April 1884, Helga Petersen was the daughter of Marie Sofie Petersen (1869–1920) who worked in a brewery and had attempted to organize her colleagues in a trade union branch for female brewery workers.

Brought up in a poor home, from the age of nine, Petersen had to work after school for six hours a day to make ends meet.

She went on to join the board of Dansk Bryggeri-, Brænderi- og Mineralvandsarbejderforbund, the national union for brewers, distillers and mineral water workers, a position she maintained until 1927 when she had to leave over a misunderstanding about a loan.

[1] In 1918, standing in Copenhagen for the Social Democrats, Larsen was one of the first four women to be elected to the Folketing.