Kvinnor, politik och kvinnofrågor : Kvinnliga politikers arbete i Karlstads stadsfullmäktige under 1940-talet

Sammanfattning: The aim of this essay is to study the politics of elected women in Karlstad´s town council in the 1940s. This is done by examining the motions they put forward. The motions are examined through the records from the town councils’ meetings. To fulfil the essays’ purpose three questions are asked, the first one relates to the content of the motions, what do they contain? The second question asks whether the motions follow certain themes and if the themes coincide with the traditional roles in politics where women do politics in areas pertaining reproduction. This part of the essay is analysed trough a model created by Lena Wängnerud. Reproduction means social, caring areas such as healthcare, education, and welfare whereas the other end of the scale is production with areas such as finance, taxes, and commercial politics. The women put forward 23 motions over a 10-year period where more than half of them fell under the reproduction category. The third question asks where or not the women act within the frames for the gender system and gender contract theorized by Yvonne Hirdman. The study finds that the women in the town council often followed the norm, which is for them to put forward motions pertaining other women, children, elderly and the lesser fortunate. The study also finds that Karlstad had a high percentage of women in the town council, comparing to the rest of Sweden and both Denmark and Norway. Even though the women were many in percentages, compared to the rest of the country they were rather passive. Only a few women put forward several motions. The reason for this is unclear but being in a male dominated field could mean that the little power existing for women were given to a small minority of the women, who got to be the voice for all the women. The study does find that one third of the motions could be placed under the production end of the scale meaning they might not have been as bound to the gender contract as first thought.