@article{311b351f-c03a-465d-9b28-069e8ef90ccc,
  abstract     = {{In Swedish feminist debates of the 1960s and 1970s, the productive woman was frequently constructed as the binary opposite of the non-productive woman. The former was associated with liberation, moral integrity, and independence. The latter was characterized in terms of passivity, laziness, and dependence. By engaging in paid labour, or by otherwise demonstrating her contribution to the greater good of society, the productive woman was envisioned to attain the same social status as men. These feminist ideals - emphasizing liberation as contingent upon work and a strong work ethic - were shaped in close dialogue with modernist and welfare-state ideologies. This strong emphasis on productivity, and the corresponding disdain for non-productivity, in dominant narratives of postwar feminism tended to reaffirm, rather than challenge, capitalist market logics.<br/><br/>This article examines exceptions to the strong emphasis on productivity during the 1970s, focusing on two key examples: Marie-Louise Ekman’s art project "Utvikningsflicka: Marie-Louise De Geer, photographed by Carl Johan De Geer" and Ingamaj Beck’s engagement with the concepts of “unnecessary art” and “weak thought”. Through the lens of feminist anti-work theory, the article suggests that Ekman’s and Beck’s positions articulate an attempt to think beyond capitalist market rationalities. Placed in dialogue with similar artistic interventions from the 1970s these works enable, I argue, the identification of an alternative feminist genealogy in a Swedish context, in which work and productivity are no longer central normative ideals.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Suneson, Ellen}},
  issn         = {{0905-6998}},
  keywords     = {{Non-productivity; Feminism; Historiography; Marie-Louise Ekman; Imgamaj Beck; Passivity; Welfare ideology; 1970; Anti-work}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  publisher    = {{Forlaget Medusa}},
  series       = {{K & K}},
  title        = {{Icke-produktivitet och svaga tankar : en feministisk genealogi från 1970-talets Sverige}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}