Be more Viking: Seven Nordic keys to happiness for women today

Not in the sense of pillaging the local garden centre or taking up axe-throwing in the Aldi! Author Helen Russell shares Viking inspired ideas worth stealing...

By Helen Russell, author. Photo credit: Simon Meyer.

After more than a decade living among Danes and a career spent rummaging around the happiness habits of the world’s most contented nations, I have come to a conclusion: we could all do with being more Viking. Not in the sense of pillaging the local garden centre or taking up axe-throwing in the Aldi, but in quieter, more subversive ways - practised daily across Scandinavia.

When the 2025 World Happiness Report rolled in, the number one happiest country spot went, again, to Finland, with Nordic neighbours Denmark, Iceland and Sweden making up the top four alongside it. This cold corner of the world continues to outperform richer, bigger regions in life satisfaction, social trust and a sense that life feels worth living.

The Nordic countries aren’t perfect, but they are instructive. They offer a set of principles that gently nudge women away from burnout, martyrdom and the belief that we must do everything beautifully and alone. Since moving back to the UK and writing about midlife overwhelm for my new novel, Laura Clark Is Away from Her Desk, I’ve had the benefit of perspective on both the UK and the Nordic approach to life. So here are seven Viking inspired ideas for every woman worth stealing.

We Are Not Meant to Do It All

In Denmark, nobody expects one person to be chief breadwinner, primary carer, emotional linchpin and household logistics manager simultaneously. The system is built on shared responsibility and - crucially - shared expectations. When women stop trying to be heroic soloists and start demanding a choir, happiness improves. Viking women knew that survival depended on the group. Martyrdom is not a virtue, it’s a liability.

Our Work Does Not Define Our Worth

Nordic cultures are suspicious of people who define themselves entirely by their jobs. Work matters, but it is not The Point of Life. This is deeply liberating for women who have been sold the idea that success must look like constant productivity, visible achievement and polite exhaustion. Being more Viking means caring about your work while refusing to let it swallow your identity whole.

Rest Is Not a Reward

In the happiest countries, rest is not something you earn after collapse. It is built into the rhythm of life. Evenings are protected, holidays are sacred, and nobody applauds you for replying to emails at midnight. Viking women understood seasons. There was a time to sow, a time to reap and a time to sit by the fire. These winter months are prime ‘sit by the fire time’. If not full-blown grizzly-bear hibernation. Winter exists for a reason.

Equality Is Practical, Not Theoretical

Nordic societies consistently score among the most gender-equal in the world. Iceland has led various global gender equality rankings for over a decade, and the Nordic region generally demonstrates high female labour participation rates and comparatively narrow employment gaps between men and women. Equality doesn’t mean the work is done - pay gaps and uneven representation still persist. But it does create a social fabric in which women’s contributions are expected, respected and structurally supported. Affordable childcare, parental leave for fathers, flexible work and social trust create a culture where equality is not an aspiration but an operating manual. When women are supported structurally, they do not have to negotiate every domestic task as if it were a United Nations summit. Living Danishly, my parent friends and I didn’t face a myriad of energy-depleting decisions on a daily basis – there were fewer choices, all of them decent. And it was liberating. Excess choice doth not a happy ‘me’ make. Being more Viking means asking for better systems - not just the ‘freedom’ to take on the arduous admin of researching, testing and implementing better individual coping strategies.

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Comparison Is the Enemy of Contentment

The Nordic social code quietly discourages showing off. The goal is not to dazzle others into snowblindness or shout louder than everyone else in the room. This has its drawbacks, but it also reduces the endless comparison that makes modern life so corrosive for many of us. Happiness grows when we stop measuring ourselves against curated lives and start asking whether our own life feels liveable. Viking women were too busy surviving winters to compete over collagen.

Community Is a Survival Skill

Loneliness is a known happiness killer, so the Nordics take community seriously. From shared childcare to communal singing to the simple habit of checking in on neighbours, connection is treated as essential infrastructure. Women thrive when they are embedded in networks of support, not isolated behind closed doors with a to do list and a sense of failure. Vikings knew you needed your people to get through the dark months (from October to March in the Nordics). It may be less Baltic where I live now back in the UK - but I still need a crew to get by.

Good Enough Is Plenty

Perhaps the most radical Nordic idea of all is that life does not need to be optimised to be enjoyable. Homes are cosy rather than perfect. Meals are simple. Parenting is pragmatic. There is permission to be ordinary. For women raised on the promise that we can and should have it all, the idea of choosing ‘enough’ instead is, well, quietly revolutionary. Being more Viking means trusting that a good life does not require constant self-improvement.

The lessons from the world’s happiest countries are not that we should all move north, grow stoic and knit socks. It’s that happiness is often found not in striving harder, but in arranging life more kindly. Viking women are not superheroes. They are practical, resilient and deeply aware that joy, like warmth, is something you build together.

Helen Russell is the author of The Year of Living Danishly and writes Living Danishly with Helen Russell on Substack. Her latest book is How to Raise a Viking. And her new novel, Laura Clark Is Away from Her Desk, is available to preorder now.