From 1959 to 1961, she worked as an hourly paid sports cover teacher at Videbæk Municipal School Office and she also taught swimming in West Jutland.[2][3] Andersen worked as an assistant agricultural wife at a farm near the North Jutland Agricultural School in Nibe with her husband between 1962 and 1976.[1][4][5] She was a member of the national management of the Danish Agricultural Youth,[5] and took part in the production of the first non-academic agricultural examination called The Green Certificate between 1968 and 1976.[1][2] Andersen was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1973,[3] and took some time off work to undergo surgery to remove the tumours the following year.[4] Locally, she took part in child and youth work as chair of the upper secondary school board and as a school commission member from 1972 to 1980.[1]
In 1974, Andersen was employed as a course leader and teacher at Landbrugets Oplysnings og Konsulenttjeneste.[2] She trained to become a social worker at Aalborg University between 1976 and 1983 with a dispensation and she went on to gain employment at Randers Municipality as a social consultant, where she worked part-time from 1983 to 1990.[2][4] Andersen began advising farmers at Randers Agricultural Center from 1985.[2] That same year, she stood for election to represent the Randerskredsen [da] constituency in the Folketing as a member of the Venstre political party after she was encouraged to do so by people in the party but was unsuccessful. Andersen also unsuccessfully failed to get elected as a representative of the Grenaakredsen [da] constituency at the 1988 Danish general election three years later.[3][4] From 29 November 1988 to 30 November 1990, she served as a deputy member of the Folketing variously for Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Jørgen Winther [da] and Knud Enggaard in the Aarhus County [da] constituency.[2]
She became a member of Randers City Council for a one-year period in 1990.[1] At the 1990 Danish general election on 12 December of that year, Andersen successfully stood for election to the Folketing in the Aarhus County constituency.[2][4] Five days later, she was contacted by Venstre party secretary Claus Hjort Frederiksen and was asked to become the new Minister of Social Affairs under the government of Poul Schlüter.[3][4][5] Andersen accepted and began working in the job on 18 December 1990 and resigned on 25 January 1993 when Prime Minister Schlüter's government resigned as a consequence of the Tamil Case.[1][2] She had worked to help young people enrol on the development assistance system and helped to decentralise social policy.[1]
Andersen returned to local government when she was re-elected to Randers City Council in 1993.[1] In 1994, she joined the board of the OK Foundation which constructs and operates nursing homes for senior citizens in Denmark and became its chair in 2002.[1][3][4] Andersen resigned from Randers City Council on 31 December 2001 and she stood down from the Folketing at the 2005 Danish general election on 8 February of that year.[2][3] From 1999, she served as a member of the Parkinson's Association's primary board, a member of each of Jysk Børneforsorg, Café Lytten, the Health Insurance Fund and a member of the board of representatives of Randen Cooperative Fund.[2]