[bjoli]

It was a different time as well. There was one central resource for phone-related things and the spirit of the time was very much a bureaucratic efficient one. The idea was that you could make the society better and more efficient, often top down. In Sweden there was even a standardisation of kitchens made by a government agency. Everything from height of the counters to placement. It wasn't always followed, but it did shape things. This was done at a time when the Swedish population hade a staggering increase in housing standards due mostly to government policy. The houses might not be very highly regarded today (mostly because the areas are considered bad) but they are solidly built and are usually very practical with lots of storage in the right places.

In Sweden we had the "du"-reform where we stopped referring to people either by their title or surname and the plural-you ("ni"). Instead we started using singular you ("du") and first name. This was started at a government agency and spread quickly through society.

There was actually a gender neutral pronoun introduced recently that is getting used more often. In addition to "han" and "hon" (he and she) we now have "hen". Depending on language situation it is actually very handy, and you can actually see it used in large newspapers or semi-official documents.

[Sesse__]

The standardization of kitchens (to optimize the housewife's day, based on observations) also lead to the hilarious black comedy “Psalmer från köket” (English title “Kitchen stories”) where the premise is that the government tries to repeat the success for single males. Who are considerably less amenable to having a researcher sit high up on a perch to write down their every move :-)

[actionfromafar]

What people don't remember about the plural-you reform, is that neither "du" nor "ni" were used very much. Instead, "Han" (he) and "Hon" (she) were used to address people of similar standing.