Lika men så olika

Sammanfattning: The changing patterns of conflicts create new requirements and tasks. Military personnel trained for war is now working to create peace. The Swedish Armed Forces express an increased need for more female soldiers since they consider women to obtain different and specific peaceful and calming characteristics. The Swedish Armed Forces are working to increase gender equality in the organization and in its peacekeeping operations but progress is slow and sexual harassment is a continuing problem. The aim of the study is to critically examine and analyze the arguments used by the Swedish Armed Forces to include women in peacekeeping operations. This is achieved by using a joint discourse analysis and a critical gender perspective. The results of this study show how the consequences of these arguments result in women’s marginalization, invisibility and implemented gender differences, which is counterfactual to the purpose of the arguments.