Only every fourth defense employee is a woman, and among officers and conscripts the percentage is even lower. According to Frida Linehagen, captain in the navy, it is due to a built-in resistance to gender equality within the Armed Forces.
– It is an organization that has been built by and for men for many hundreds of years, says Frida Linehagen
Last autumn, Frida Linehagen, captain, researcher and developer in the navy, did her dissertation at the department of risk management and public safety at Lund University.
In her thesis, she describes, among other things, a kind of built-in resistance to change within the Armed Forces.
– There is resistance to gender equality at various levels in the Armed Forces. It does not appear primarily in individuals who are against equality, but somehow it is built into the structure of the organization where these issues are not always rewarded.
Three out of four employees employed by the Armed Forces are men. Among professional officers, the largest military personnel group, only one in ten is a woman. Barely two out of ten conscripts accepted last year were women.
– It is an organization that has been built by and for men for many hundreds of years. These are normative issues and there is often resistance to such issues in male-dominated organizations worldwide.
More women do military service
According to Fredrik Peedu, deputy personnel director in the Swedish Armed Forces, they are working to even out the large differences between the sexes that exist within the agency.
– The culture is characterized by a rather adventurous, strenuous environment and it may be that it does not attract as many women as men. While doing what we can to be an inclusive authority that gives everyone equal opportunities
And the efforts seem to have a certain effect: the percentage of women doing military service is increasing, and this makes Frida Linehagen optimistic about the future, says Fredrik Peedu.
– Women are coming in in much greater numbers than before. With this as a foundation and because we are working with it, we will be able to actively achieve change at a much faster pace than we have done so far, says Frida Linehagen.