Ester Boserup - Personal Life

Personal Life

She was the only daughter of a Danish engineer, who died when she was two years old and the family was almost destitute for several years. Then, "Encouraged by her mother and aware of her limited prospects without a good degree, Ester studied diligently and entered the University when she was nineteen. No wonder that Ester championed education for women throughout her life." In 1935, she graduated with a degree in theoretical economics. "During university, she married Mogens Boserup when both were twenty-one; the young couple lived on his allowance from his well-off family during their remaining university years."

Her daughter, Birte, was born in 1937; her sons Anders, in 1940, and Ivan, in 1944. Boserup worked for the Danish government from 1935-1947, right through the Nazi occupation in WWII, as head of its planning office, on studies including trade and the effects of subsidies. She made almost no reference to conflicts between family and work during her lifetime. The family moved to Geneva in 1947 to work with the UN Economic Commission of Europe (ECE). In 1957, she and Mogens worked in India in a research project run by Gunnar Myrdal. For the rest of her life she worked as a consultant and writer, based in Copenhagen and then near Geneva when her husband died in 1980.