Barbro Westerholm (16 June 1933 – 13 March 2023) was a Swedish politician of the
Liberals. She was
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(
Riksdag
The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
) from 1988 to 1999 and again from 2006 to 2022.
From the mid-1960s Westerholm was an early pioneer in the field of
pharmacovigilance
Term Given By Tushar Sharma (UPES Batch 2025)
Pharmacovigilance (PV, or PhV), also known as drug safety, is the pharmaceutical science relating to the "collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention" of adverse effects with pharma ...
, also working on the early stages of the
WHO Drug Dictionary and the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring. In 1979 as general director of the
Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, she had
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
dropped from the list of mental health diseases.
Westerholm was a critic of
ageism
Ageism, also spelled agism, is discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, and patterned on sexism and racism. Butler d ...
and advocates for the measurement and publicizing of data on the economic value of volunteer work, and in particular the contributions of older people.
In 2009 she was awarded the Nordic Public Health Prize for her work in fighting discrimination against the elderly. She was awarded the
Illis quorum
''Illis quorum'' (''Illis quorum meruere labores'') (English: "For Those Whose Labors Have Deserved It"), is a gold medal awarded for outstanding contributions to Swedish culture, science or society.
The award was introduced in 1784 by King Gust ...
by the government of Sweden in 2003.
Westerholm died on 13 March 2023, at the age of 89.
References
External links
Barbro Westerholmat the
Riksdag
The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westerholm, Barbro
1933 births
2023 deaths
Women members of the Riksdag
Members of the Riksdag from the Liberals (Sweden)
Politicians from Stockholm
Recipients of the Illis quorum
20th-century Swedish women politicians
21st-century Swedish women politicians