In 1997 the journalist and author Maciej Zaremba published an article in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The article drew associations between racial biology, eugenics and the Swedish social democratic governance. Zaremba’s article presented records from a period of forty years when over 60 000 people of the Swedish population were sterilized. The records showed that many of them were executed under questionable circumstances. Zaremba woke a debate within the Swedish mass media with the intended goal to foil the general view of the Swedish state of welfare. In this study the debate that led to the laws of sterilization will be investigated to provide answers if the motives behind the law were based on eugenic motives. Furthermore, any disagreements between the different parties in the parliament are analyzed. Previous published research in the field evolves around the origin and the consequences of the Swedish sterilization laws however, the analysis of the argumentation that led to the creation of the regulations seems to be missing. The empirical data is gathered through qualitative research of parliament protocols and newspapers followed by an analysis based on Foucaults concept of bio power. The model for a power analysis by Axelsson and Qvarsebos have been used to concretize the concept of bio power. The analysis shows that the arguments were often rooted in eugenic thoughts and beliefs. The overall purpose was to improve the human race through the fabrication of sterilizations.

Min uppsats handlar om diskussionen om sterilisering i media i samband med steriliseringslagarnas införande 1934, genomförande och avskaffande 1976. Undersökningen har även undersökt hur diskussionen förhöll sig till manligt och kvinnligt. För att möjliggöra denna undersökning har tre frågeställningar besvarats. De två första av dessa handlar om argumenten för och emot steriliseringslagarnas införande och avskaffande. Den tredje frågeställningen handlar om vilka det var som debatterade i frågan och hur man såg på sterilisering av män och kvinnor. Studien utgår från en genusteori, vilken grundar sig i Yvonne Hirdmans genussystem och genuskontrakt. Med hjälp av detta perspektiv har tidningsartiklarna analyserats för att se hur maktrelationen mellan män och kvinnor framträder i media. Undersökningen har även funnit hur genussystem lyser igenom i tidningarna men också sett hur genusperspektivet har förändrats över tid. / My thesis is about the discussion that arose in media in connection with the introduction of the sterilisation laws in 1934, their implementation as well as the abolition of them in 1976. The research also focuses on how the discussion related to different gender. To enable this study three research questions have been answered. The first two questions relate to arguments pro and against the implementation and abolition of the sterilisation laws. The third question is regarding who debated the issue and how they viewed sterilisation of men and women. The study departs from a gender perspective, based on the Swedish historian Yvonne Hirdman’s research, in order to expose the power relation between men and women as they appear in media. The study show how the public discussion changed in the 1950s to a more negative view on sterilization and that ideas of gender had an impact on the discussion. During the 1960s and 1970s women took part in the public discussion with and introduced new perspective on sterilisation laws.