BBC "soft girl" trend article

27 replies

LucieChardon · 05/12/2024 13:07

This came up on my BBC feed under Women's Rights... the irony.

BBC News - Sweden’s ‘soft girl’ trend that celebrates women quitting work
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j1wwypygxo

Because it's too much to balance work and family - I know that we've been sold that myth for a few generations now, that women can "have it all" and therefore should do it all.

Am I reading this correctly? If life is too hard and stressful, then women should just go "soft"?

When do the men step up? Always women who have to give things up. Fuck the patriarchy.

Vilma Larsson looks at the camera while wearing a black dress

Sweden’s ‘soft girl’ trend that celebrates women quitting work

Sweden has a reputation for strong gender equality, but some young women are giving up their jobs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j1wwypygxo

OP posts:

JaninaDuszejko · 10/12/2024 16:17

It's not based on household income, it's based on the taxable income of the highest earner. So easy for dual income families to still receive CB at a high household income by both partners working PT or pouring money into their pension to reduce taxable income.

Lunde · 10/12/2024 17:05

TempestTost · 05/12/2024 23:30

I wonder to what degree differences in Swedish culture play a role.

I have heard from a few people that it's very difficult for women or men to decide to give up work and care for kids, compared to North America or even the UK. Although there is good inexpensive childcare, it means the CoL is high, and there seems to be a lot of social pressure for women to work. I get the sense stepping out of the box isn't really encouraged in Sweden.

That is to say, those women aren't experiencing working at a paid job as a freedom but as a social obligation and economic pressure.

Sweden has also at various times been very open about the state using policy to try and create the social outcomes they think are best for people, and insisting all women work is an example of that.

So it's not surprising to me that some women would want to subvert that kind of paternalistic social engineering.

I mean it is a culture that everyone works - although you can be a SAHP if you want - I was for 4 years but it can be pretty dull because everyone works. I remember being a bit miffed that I was the only person paying to attend the aquarobics at the local pool because everyone else was getting it free as their "wellness hour" from their employer. It was also lonely as many daytime kids' things petered out between the ages of 1 and 2 when people went back to work. I was often the only person at home on my street in the daytime and I gave it up to attend (free) college/Uni.

The Conservative government in Sweden introduced a SAHP payment around 15 years ago where you got 3,000 sek per month (about £300 a month in todays money) if you wanted to stay at home with kids and not use nursery. It was abolished in 2016 as very few claimed it and it turned out to be a bit of a trap for women, especially immigrant women, who lost out on many income related benefits and children whose needs were not identified until they started school aged 7.

Parents have a lot of advantages in Sweden

16 months paid parental leave
highly subsidised nursery where the max you pay by law for full time nursery is £120 per MONTH
right to work part time as a parent of small children either 6 hours per day or 4 days per week

I think the whole Jantelagen thing is often overstated about Sweden - it was a thing in the 1980s but much less to now.

Personally I think this is more of an influencer thing (remember all the talk of quiet quitting a couple of years' ago) than a big new social trend.

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