Making Room for Women. Gender and Space at Work in the Swedish Armed Forces

Alma Persson and Fia Cottrell‐Sundevall

Gender, Work and Organization, 2025, vol. 32, issue 5, 1875-1886

Abstract: This article contributes new insights into the spatiality of gender relations in military work and organizations, focusing specifically on the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). It examines the unique and longstanding practice of gender‐mixed rooms, which have served as the standard way of lodging soldiers in Sweden for decades. Drawing on a combination of in‐depth interviews, archival research, and document analysis, the study follows the process of making room for women, tracing back to the early 1980s when the first women enrolled in the SAF. The findings demonstrate that gender‐mixed rooms have played a pivotal role in shaping both gender relations and institutional norms within the SAF. We argue that women's inclusion into the soldier collective has been simultanously facilitated and conditioned by this spatial arrangement. The case underscores the need to closely examine both the “how” and the “where” of gender equality initiatives when striving to foster more inclusive organizations.

Date: 2025
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