Sonja Åkesson is one of Sweden’s most well known poets. Her most productive period was from 1957 to 1977, and besides poetry she wrote novels and drama. Today, Sonja Åkesson is famous for criticizing society, mostly in a feministic way. But she was not aware of her critical approach until she became successful among her feministic readers in 1960, with poems like ”Äktenskapsfrågan” and ”Självbiografi (replik till Ferlinghetti)”.

This essay examines professor Yvonne Hirdman’s theory about women’s inferior position in relation to men’s between 1930-1960 in Sweden. During the 1960’s, women were obstructed from the labour market and bundled off to their homes where they became “housewives” or “homemakers”. At home, their sole responsibilities were cleaning, cooking and caring for the children. I show how this inferior position exists in three of Sonja Åkesson’s poems from the same time:”Hjärtans fröjd”, ”Monolog” and the last part of ”Husfrid”, ”III (påskfrid)”.

My work is based on linguistic change in the Swedish language such as realism and dada. These linguistic changes, among others, became important and innovative sources for the process and together they developed new Esthetics: ”nyenkelheten”. Nyenkelheten also got inspiration from changes in the political and cultural climate, like women’s emancipation and industrialization. Sonja Åkesson is one of the first poets to be called ”nyenkel”.

Other writers and professors, like Eva Lilja, Per Rydén, Amelie Björck and Lars Elleströms essays and discourse will assist me in my work about Sonja Åkessons way of expressing the Swedish society in her poems. My conclusions are that the “housewife” in Åkessons poems often feel both bored and stressed from her tasks at home. This expresses itself in forms of grotesque realism and irony in the language, and also often a feeling of duality.