Margit Althin was one of the first female lawyers in Sweden. She set up and held leading positions in a range of associations which were internationally and culturally significant.

Margit Althin was born in Östertälje parish in 1906. After graduating from high school in Stockholm in May 1927 she gained her Bachelor of Arts in September 1931. She then started legal studies in Uppsala. She married Lennart Althin in 1932 but their marriage only lasted four years as Lennart died in 1936. After being widowed Margit Althin completed her studies and she received her Bachelor of Laws degree in May 1938.

Following these studies she started her career as a practising lawyer. She began by serving on Södertörn judicial district court from 1938 to 1939. In 1939 she worked as a junior solicitor for the Legal Aid Authority in Stockholm area and as a solicitor for the lawyer G. Wennerholm. From 1940 to 1941 she worked for the National Board of Trade and during the war years 1941-1942 Margit Althin worked for the Swedish security agency. From 1943 onwards Margit Althin ran her own legal office and in 1945 she became a member of Sveriges advokatsamfund (the Swedish Bar Association).

Margit Althin was an active member of many different associations throughout her life. Several of these associations were internationally and culturally significant. She was the first vice president and secretary of the International Federation of Women Lawyers; she was an honorary member of Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi; she was chair of Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi. She was a founding member of the Svensk-Grekiska Sällskapet in 1941, and served as its secretary until 1975. Further, she was chair of the Sweden Pakistan Friendship Society, and a board member of the Svensk-Tunisiska vänskapsföreningen at the end of the 1970s. In addition, Margit Althin was a member of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, chair of the International Club in Stockholm, and also chair of Svenska Kvinnors Nationalförbund (the National Council of Swedish Women) from 1972 to 1981, when the association dissolved. Margit Althin was, moreover, a co-founder of the Jenny Lind society in 1943, a board member of the Lyceum club in Stockholm, and chair of Fritt Forum.

Margit Althin also authored two publications: her licentiate dissertation The Sites of Ch‘i Chia Ping and Lo Han Tang in Kansu, 1946, and Barnet i lagen, Rättsväsendet i Kina (art 84), publications by the United Nations on environmental issues.

Margit Althin died in Stockholm in 1988. In 1999 the Stiftelse Margit Althins Stipendiefond was registered, which provides Swedish geographers with scholarships and budgetary allowances to allow them to travel to countries beyond Sweden.