The Lattice Group - And, We're Back! In Sweden, That Is.

And, We're Back! In Sweden, That Is.

We have left Russia behind and are now back in Sweden to complete our interviews with students and young professionals up North! It’s really not fair that we do Sweden after Russia. The contrast is so drastic. I am exhausted after two and a half weeks of men telling me my natural place is in the home. Returning to the land of paternity leave is more than exciting. It is liberating.

So, here we are. Already on the plane from Moscow, bloggable material was thrown my way in the form of Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter . The first thing I read was an article about why Sweden is heading towards the top of the European birth-rate list. Swedish women are birthing at a whopping 1.87 children per woman! That doesn’t make us able to self-renew our population size. For that, the Swedish women would need to be popping out 2.1 children apiece. Nontheless, Dagens Nyheter is calling it a verifiable babyboom. The generous welfare system that is in place to support families is cited as a major reason. Women are simply more able to combine work and family when there is so much help to be had to make the balance possible.

And, this balance is not only healthy for the nation’s population growth, it is also sexy. Or so another article in Dagens Nyheter tells me. The article is entitled “Super Woman is Back,” and outlines how the new female ideal is not all body and no brain; she is a competent and equal, even enviable, partner. According to Catia Hultquist, the average male celebrity no longer wants a trophy wife. Now, he wants a hot lady who has a hot career to match his own. It’s all about power-coupling. Just look at Bragelina.

Pop culture demonized Super Woman in the form of the threatening “career woman” in the 80’s and 90’s, in films like “Fatal Attraction,” and “Disclosure.” But now, as Hultquist says: “She’s back: Super Woman 2.0. And in 2008 it’s OK to be turned on by her. The question is how many decades it’ll take before it’ll also be OK to vote for her. When will she be prime minister? Or president?”

Ah, it feels good to be back in Sweden. Expect a lot more from this Venice of the North.

Puss och kram,

Astri