Energikrisen, intet nytt Könsföreställningar och könsroller så som de kommer till uttryck i svenska energisparkampanjen under 1970-talet

Sammanfattning: The primary aim of this essay has been twofold. First, to study how gender and gender roles are portrayed in the Swedish energy advertising campaign at the time of the oil crisis, and second, to analyze whether the public’s energy saving, as it can be mapped based on survey responses, shows differences depending on gender. To achieve the aim of this essay, two sources are used: flyers from the energy saving campaign and survey results concerning the public’s energy- saving measures. The material from the energy saving advertisement campaign consists of posters, leaflets, and brochures encouraging the public to live energy efficiently. The survey was conducted in three instances between 1974-1975 at the request of the Swedish government agency, to explore whether the public made use of the energy-saving measures offered by the campaign. Consequently, two methodological approaches have been used to analyze the two vastly different source materials: both image studies and statistical analysis. Image studies is based on the theory that art can be interpreted as an expression of the social reality of in which it was produced. According to historian Peter Burke, advertising can portray an ideal world to the viewer. The campaign has been interpreted as a product of an ideal world, construed by the Energy Savings Committee. The people portrayed in the campaign has therefore been selected by the artist to be representative of a perceived whole – in this case society. The campaign has therefore, in this study, been interpreted as evidence of 1970s perceptions of norms, gender roles and gender structures in Sweden. The statistical analysis involves using the SPSS computer program to process the survey responses and present the results in tabular format. The questionnaire of the survey consists of questions at the ordinal scale level, i.e., a ranking of the question’s response options. There are also questions at the nominal scale level, which means categorization. In this essay, only the gender category has been used – in ordnance with this study’s aim. The previous research shows that a change in the gender structure took place in the 1970s. The women's movement's call for female emancipation and the Swedish government's implementation of the gender equality policy should be discernible in both source materials. To investigate this, the following research question has been formulated: what are the underlying gender perceptions in the energy saving campaign, 1973-1976, and are these reflected in the public exposed to the campaign? The study shows that the hypothesis cannot be confirmed. The conditions are not consistent. The campaign does not reinforce a more developed gender structure or an outdated version. There are elements of both in the campaign. However, most of the material shows an outdated gender structure. The survey responses do not reveal any conclusive gender roles amongst the public. If the survey had included a larger focus group, the results might have conveyed a clearer sense of current gender roles. However, this study shows a perception that men and women adapted equally to the campaign’s message.