“It’s about leaning away from this ‘girl boss’ ideal that we’ve seen for a lot of years, where there are very, very high demands for success in every aspect of life,” explains Johanna Göransson, a researcher for Ungdomsbarometern.
There is no official data on the number of young “soft girls” quitting work altogether and living off their partners like Ms Larsson, and Ms Göransson says it is likely to be a small proportion.
But it’s nevertheless become a major talking point in Sweden, from opinion pieces in broadsheet newspapers, to panel discussions at Almedalen – a huge annual cross-party political event – and on Swedish public service television.
Gudrun Schyman – the co-founder and former leader of Sweden’s feminist party Feministiskt initiativ – says she’s taken part in recent debates on the issue. She believes women living off their partners wealth is “very dangerous”, and “a step backwards” for gender equality.
Ms Schyman argues that young Swedes have been influenced by the country’s right-wing coalition government, which collaborates with the nationalist Sweden Democrats party, as well as the “broader development” of populism in Europe and the United States.
She also thinks there’s a lack of awareness about life in Sweden before it embraced policies designed to promote gender equality, such as heavily subsidised childcare and shared parental leave. “Young women today don’t carry the history of how women had to fight for their rights – the right to work, the right to have a salary, and the right to economic independence.”
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