Schyman's greatest asset was her appeal to the voters, and her party more than doubled its number of MPs during her leadership.

She gained popularity for her candor: for example, she was open about her struggle with alcoholism and supported an initiative to make the Riksdag an alcohol-free workplace.

In 2002, she made a controversial speech concerning men's oppression of women, in which she said "The discrimination and the violations appears in different shapes depending on where we find ourselves.

The stunt, staged by advertising collective Studio Total, gave Fi widespread attention;[8][9] however, the party received only 0.4% of the vote in the election.

[11] In the 2014 Swedish general election Fi received 3.1% of the vote; despite still not meeting the 4.0% threshold for getting seats, it became the most popular party outside of the Riksdag.