Carin Mannheimer

Carin Mannheimer (born Karin Birgitta Jacobson; 17 August 1934 – 11 July 2014) was a Swedish dramatist, screenwriter, author and film director, born in Osby, Sweden. She garnered acclaim with Rapport om kvinnor (Swedish: Report on Women), which was published in 1969. The book is a collection of interviews with Swedish women from the working class. This was during a time period of awakening feminism in Sweden when women were assumed to want to work outside the home. The interviews, however, revealed that many women did not want to work outside the home, would have preferred to care for their children but had no economic choice. For this reason, Mannheimer was criticized by the women's movement in Sweden, and the book established her reputation as a social critic.

Television

The situation of women, children, and the elderly in society are recurring themes in Mannheimer's writing, including the television mini-series she wrote and directed; Lära för livet (Swedish:Learning for Life; 1977), about a fictional ninth-grade class. The series was aired in all the Nordic countries, and parents and teachers welcomed the realistic portrayal of compulsory public schools, while politicians criticized Mannheimer for exaggeration. Svenska hjärtan (swedish:Swedish Hearts; 1987–98) was a long-running series about nine neighbors in an affluent neighborhood who belong to a new class of Swedish white-collar workers. In Mannheimer's series, the economic upswing these neighbors experience is contrasted with the downside of a superficial, keeping-up-with-the-Jones's existence. The women in the series bear the brunt of the conflicts.