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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.

No description available.

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This study sets out to examine how men and women within the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) reason about decision-making and the use of violence in relation to security and conflict resolution, and whether or not their reasoning differ. The study comprises a qualitative case study whereas the SAF has been identified as a critical case. The research takes off in theoretical fields such as; international relations, gender, security and feminism. With departure in essential-, standpoint- and difference feminism in particular, an analytical framework has been created. The core assumptions in the framework are: women are peaceful and prefer individual decision-making in relation to security and conflict resolution. Men on the contrary are violent and prefer individual decision-making. The validity of these assumptions is tested by ten qualitative interviews with five women and five men within the SAF. The finding of the study is that the SAF appears to socialize a similar behavior amongst their male and female co-workers. Hence, men and women within the forces seem to reason about security and conflict resolution in comparable ways. The feminist assumptions in the analytical framework are thus proven invalid. Nevertheless, the branches of the feminisms that depart from social construction rather than biological determinism are proven correct.

<p>Between 1964 and 1975, approximately 7,500 to 11,000 American military women served in the Vietnam War. They served in many roles – they worked as air traffic controllers, dieticians, physiotherapists, clerks, and cryptographers – but the bulk of American women who went to Vietnam served as military nurses with the Army, Navy, and Air Force Nurse Corps. This dissertation explores the wartime and homecoming experiences of female nurse veterans whose Vietnam experiences have been largely ignored or minimized by historical accounts of the war. By refashioning the narrative of the war to include women, this study challenges cultural constructions of war as an exclusively male sphere, and in doing so offers a more sophisticated understanding of both men’s and women’s Vietnam service.</p> <p>In Vietnam, American women risked their lives for their country. Motivated by a blend of patriotism, humanitarianism, professional advancement, and educational opportunity, female nurses volunteered for war at a time when many young men sought to evade military service. Yet the women who served have been consistently denied the rewards of their sacrifice. After the war, sexist attitudes about who is eligible for the privileges which accompany military service led the VA to routinely deny veterans entitlements including health care and disability pensions to female military nurses. Efforts to memorialize the war, through their focus on male veterans’ experience, relegated women’s service in Vietnam to the periphery of public memory. Based primarily on oral history interviews with 29 female military nurses who served in the war, this dissertation reveals women’s agency through an exploration of their responses to these and other gendered challenges associated with their military service, and exposes the connection between public memory and women’s access to the benefits bestowed upon martial citizens.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the armed-force method of instruction and the civilian method of instruction are similar or different. The five basic steps of instruction emphasized in the armed-force bulletins receive special emphasis in this study. They are as follows: 1. Preparation by the instructor; 2. Presentation; 3. Application; 4. Examination; 5. Discussion and critique. It is with these five basic steps that the writer has endeavored to show the difference or similarity between the educational programs used in the armed forces and in the public schools.

With a more dangerous international climate the need for states to expand their armed forces has become more prominent. When the supply of volunteers is too low, states turn to conscription in order to fulfill the demand for fighters. This thesis asks the research question; How does the recruitment strategy affect the treatment of recruits within state armed forces? By combining pre-existing theories of rebel recruitment, socialization and militarized masculinity, this thesis argues that utilizing conscription as recruitment strategy increases the amount of mistreatment recruits face. To explain the causal relationship between conscription and mistreatment, a perceived lack of commitment to the ideals of militarized masculinity is proposed as the causal mechanism. Due to the masculinity norms mentioned within the causal mechanism, the thesis argues that female recruits will face high levels of mistreatment independently of recruitment strategy. Utilizing a structured, focus analysis method, the thesis tests this theory on three different time periods within the Swedish armed forces history. The empirical data used was decisions made by the Swedish armed forces disciplinary board. The empirical evidence gives minor and inconclusive evidence in support of the theory. Unnecessary endangerment of recruits increases with the use of conscription.