Conscription 2.0
Compulsory Military Service and the Rise of Women in the Swedish Armed Forces
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23310244 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elin Berg (0000-0001-5996-5470, Swedish Defence University), Ralph Sundberg (0000-0002-1167-2799, Swedish Defence University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Gender Work and Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0968-6673 • E-ISSN: 1468-0432 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/gwao.70221 |
| OpenAlex | W7170052262 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 50 |
This article provides a deeper understanding of gender integration in the Swedish Armed Forces, often portrayed as a “North Star” of gender equality, by studying (1) numeric data on the presence of women in the SAF from 2001 to 2023, (2) how official SAF personnel documents describe and explain these data, and (3) how gender integration policies have been implemented. Situated in feminist research debates on gender in military contexts, this article makes the case that there is a need to study the ebbs and flows of how state militaries approach and alter gender integration efforts over time. Through a presentation of numeric data coupled with reflexive thematic analysis, we contribute to understanding how “Western” militaries attempt to “regender” forces through various gender integration efforts. Beyond providing a detailed numeric description of women's participation in the SAF over time—and, in particular, the steep rise after gender‐neutral conscription—we contribute to the literature on gender integration and organizational change by both describing the policies enacted by the SAF and identifying themes that capture the discursive framing of gender integration policies, shedding light on how state militaries think about and frame the two‐step “regendering” process.
Doing gender · Framing (construction) · Intersectionality · Military service · Reflexivity · Situated · State (computer science) · Thematic analysis · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |