In Brundtland's family, politics was seen as important: her father, who was a doctor, twice served as a government Minister. At the age of seven, she was enrolled as a member of the Norwegian Labour Movement (children's section).

As a young woman she was deeply involved in feminism - fighting for the rights of women and particularly concerned with the abortion debate - an issue she pursued on a global scale later in her career. She trained as a doctor, won a scholarship to Harvard to study public health and then returned to work in both Norway's Ministry of Health and Oslo's school health service, where she applied her medical experience to push for political change.

In 1974, she attracted public attention by campaigning for a reform of the abortion laws. As a result she was suddenly asked - at the age of 35 - to join the Norwegian government. The call came as a surprise to her and she had little time to make her decision.

" I think a decisive moment has been when I was asked as a 35 year old to become a member of the Norwegian government. At that time it came as a surprise to me and I had to decide within a few hours whether to say yes."

She became Cabinet Minister with responsibility for the Environment and was to help drive an abortion law through parliament.