Kvinnor i försvarsmakten - En jämförelse mellan Norge och Sverige

Sammanfattning: Throughout history the right and the duty to participate in the country's national defense has been exclusively for men. Women have traditionally been excluded. During the 20th century male conscription was the main way to assure the need for soldiers in Norway and Sweden. Today both countries are seen as pioneers in gender equality issues, but the proportion of women in both countries' armed forces remain low even though they share the same goal to increase the number of women in the military. In 2015 Norway will become the first NATO country to introduce female conscription. In Sweden conscription was gender neutral but it ceased to be the platform for recruitment in 2010. This thesis outlines the arguments made for a higher proportion of women in the Norwegian and the Swedish Armed Forces as sourced from official documents published on each government’s official websites. The arguments are analyzed from three feminist perspectives of security; a liberal feminist approach, a standpoint feminist approach and a post-structuralist feminist approach. In the conclusion it is stated that the arguments in Norway and Sweden as a whole are similar.