[5] The story starred Essy Persson, in her film debut, as a young nurse who breaks free of a repressed upbringing to explore sexual freedom.

[7] By earning more than 4 million dollars in the United States, Metzger credited I, a Woman as the major catalyst for his subsequent success in making pornographic films.

[8] The young nurse Siv (Essy Persson) is frustrated by the strict restraints of her religious parents (Tove Maës and Erik Hell) and her boring fiancé, Sven (Preben Kørning).

AllMovie wrote that as an "adult-oriented drama" and as "one of the first sexually-themed films from Sweden to find an audience (and wide release) in America", I, a Woman was "a surprise box office success" which led three years later to a sequel by the same filmmaker.

[9] When The New York Times reviewed the 1968 sequel Jeg - en kvinde 2, they found it to be "dull and pointless", specially in comparison to the earlier film which was "sizzling, bad—and a resounding money-maker".

[10] He bemoaned how publicity compared the film favorably to Dear John, Virginia Woolf, Casino Royale and even Citizen Kane, writing it had "uninteresting camera work, mediocre performances and a mechanical plot", as well as very poor subtitles which destroyed the mood "every 10 minutes by throwing in something utterly vulgar, ill-timed or otherwise inappropriate".

[10] Contrarily, TV Guide praised Essy Persson in this, her debut role, and wrote that "the film's simple but stylish aesthetics are a real treat, even if they can't ultimately compensate for a disappointingly thin plot", and concluded "the film is most compelling when seen in light of the labored progress of feminist discourse; it's an artifact from a time when the notion of a woman taking charge of her sexual life was both risque and revolutionary".