Kvinnors möjligheter i Försvarsmakten : En studie om faktorer som påverkade det svenska försvarets riktning under 1972–1981

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to study how the attitude of giving women increased opportunities to get employment as a commander in the Swedish Armed Forces changed during the period 1972-1981. The aim is to show which arguments that dominated the debate in the political parties and in government investigations that affected the outcome of the decisions that were taken in 1978 and 1981 regarding women’s increased opportunities within the Armed Forces. The following three defence branches: the air force, the army and the navy are investigated. A combination of a qualitative and a quantitative method are used with the source material in the form of political decisions and government investigations to answer this study’s questions. The result of this paper shows that the main argument that motivated the change towards giving women increased opportunities to get employment as a commander in the different branches of defence was equality. The second argument is that other western countries have given women better opportunities and increased their possibilities to get employment within the Armed Forces. The third argument is that by giving women increased opportunities to get employment as a commander within the three defence branches could lead to a domino effect and spread equality in other working areas that still are closed for women. The fourth argument is that this may result in loosening up the traditional gender division of labour. The decisions taken in 1978 and 1981 shows that there was a consensus among the parties and there was not any difference in voting when it comes to gender.