Manliga män & mindre manliga kvinnor : representationer av kvinnor och män i militära förbands sociala medier

Sammanfattning: Sweden is considered to be among the most egalitarian nations in the world, scoring high in international surveys of gender equality. Despite this the Swedish armed forces have been struggling to increase the number of women serving in their ranks. Studies point to social media as an increasingly important platform for recruiting young people in general and young women in particular. This raises questions regarding the effects of social media-representations on military recruitment. This thesis seeks to examine material posted during the second half of 2020 on two Instagram accounts belonging to two Swedish logistics regiments, Trängregementet and Marinbasen, having percentages of women among the highest and the lowest in the armed forces respectively. The material will be subjected to analysis using a theory outlined by Melissa Brown in previous studies of American recruitment ads to determine whether the representations of men and women presented in the material are in line with traditional military masculinity or can be said to expand the roles of women in the military. This is in order to raise awareness regarding, and prevent the further usage of recruitment material detrimental to increasing female participation in the Swedish armed forces. The results suggest that both cases portrayed men in traditionally masculine contexts more often than women but Trängregementet slightly more so than Marinbasen in spite of the higher percentage of women serving in the former. Nyckelord: Rekrytering, militär maskulinitet, sociala medier, Trängregementet, Marinbasen.