Active women within the "Passive Defence" : The renegotiation of women’s roles for the Civil defence during the national preparedness in Sweden, 1939-1945

Abstract: During the national preparedness in Sweden, 1939-1945, the new dimensions of the “Total war” pushed for a build-up of a Civil defence that could help to reduce effects on the civil population if Sweden were put under attack. This thesis poses the question of how women’s roles in the Civil defence were motivated and driven by the state and women’s defence organisations. It aims to further give knowledge to how social and economic constraints have shaped renegotiation processes of women’s roles in times of national crisis. It finds that the state and women´s defence organisations both evoked and dismissed women’s engagement in the Civil defence. Women were expected to contribute to specific assignments but were not admitted and obliged to the duties on the same terms as men. Women’s roles in the Civil defence changed over time; this can be derived from the increased threat of war and the augmented pressure to provide reserve labour to industries and the defence.