The Swedish Federation of Women Social Democrats was formed at the beginning of the twentieth century with the intention of supporting but also influencing the politics of the Social Democratic Party.

The Federation advocated the same antimilitarist and pacifist standpoint as the party but was always seen as the most pacifist of the party's affiliations.¹ Swedish women gained the voting rights in 1921, and the Federation grew rapidly during the 1930s, when the Social Democratic Party ran the Swedish government.

The Social Democratic women became an important voice in Swedish politics. They debated the declining birthrate, work prohibitions for married women, skilled and professional women's positions in society, and women's possibilities to be elected as members of parliament. In the 1930s, these issues were discussed in the global context of increasingly unstable international relations and the imminent threat of war. The potential for conflict ran over into domestic policy, forcing the discussion of such issues as the growing militarization of society in preparation for a possible future conflict, including civil defense, gas masks, and air-raid precautions. The Federation believed in the need to defend their country but also to defend fundamental political standpoints such as neutrality, international cooperation, antimilitarism, and pacifism. The juxtapositions between the needs for defense and the pacifist standpoints of the women offered very real political and personal dilemmas, particularly when the Second World War drew in Sweden's nearest neighbors and threatened the nation's avowed neutrality.

According to the April 1939 issue of Morgonbris (Morning Breeze), the publishing organ of the Swedish Federation of Women Social Democrats, “the majority of women” had long been pacifists. However, Morgonbris simultaneously asserted that the potential for Sweden and Europe as a whole to be plunged into a state of “total war” challenged this perception. As a result, despite living in a neutral country, Swedish women and children, who had previously felt themselves safe, must prepare themselves for the potential dangers of becoming immediate targets of war, particularly of aerial warfare.

If Sweden went to war, the technological and ideological developments that characterized modern warfare would inevitably draw women (and their families) in, whether they were pacifists or not. It was, therefore, important that they familiarized themselves with the civil defense system, such as using shelters and gas masks, helping out with first aid, and implementing air-raid precautions.² “Preparation for the worst” was the message that the Federation communicated to its readers on the eve of war.

A year later, when all Sweden's neighbors were either occupied or at war, Morgonbris published an advertisement encouraging women and their families to subscribe to defense loans. The advertisement's text appropriated the same references—to the past and to peace—as the Federation's prewar publications that exhorted total pacifism. Before 1939, peace and the establishment of good relations between peoples had been the primary goal of the Women Social Democrats who opposed military expenditure of any kind. However, when Sweden's neighbors began to be threatened, attacked, and occupied by foreign powers, these pacifist ideals were seconded to ensuring Sweden's self-defense, so that freedom and democracy could be saved for the future. Improving social conditions within Sweden became, in the eyes of the Federation, just as irresponsible and frivolous in wartime as redecorating your home or buying new furniture.³

The aim of this chapter is to understand how this major attitudinal shift from staunch antimilitarism to active engagement in the civil defense came about. On the eve of war in 1939, the Federation of Women Social Democrats, with its 648 branches and 26,307 members, faced numerous challenges in considering the mobilization of the Swedish population for war.⁴ The chapter deals with the Federation's actions in response to the invasion of Sweden's neighbors by Germany and the USSR from September 1939 onwards. It analyzes the changing attitude of the antimilitarist Federation to civil defense during the first year of mobilization (1939 to 1940). It also looks at the ways in which the women Social Democrats promoted national and civil defense initiatives (such as coordinating air-raid drills and knitting socks and rifle mittens for National Guard soldiers) from their ambivalent positions toward defense and defense propaganda.

Furthermore, the chapter focuses on the challenges facing the Federation in finding a place for “traditional” women's wartime tasks and the demands of modern professional and trained women within women's public emergency work. All these issues highlight, above all, that even in a nation removed from war, as neutral Sweden ostensibly was before and during the Second World War, war concerns, defense issues, and other military matters were a pressing concern to Sweden's citizenry.

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Source: Abbenhuis Maartje, Buttsworth Sara. Restaging War in the Western World: Noncombatant Experiences, 1890-Today. Palgrave Macmillan,2009. — 242 p.. 2009

The Swedish Federation of Women Social Democrats was formed at the beginning of the twentieth century with the intention of support­ing but also influencing the politics of the Social Democratic Party.

More on the topic The Swedish Federation of Women Social Democrats was formed at the beginning of the twentieth century with the intention of support­ing but also influencing the politics of the Social Democratic Party.:

The Swedish Federation of Women Social Democrats was formed at the beginning of the twentieth century with the intention of supporting but also influencing the politics of the Social Democratic Party.

More on the topic The Swedish Federation of Women Social Democrats was formed at the beginning of the twentieth century with the intention of supporting but also influencing the politics of the Social Democratic Party.: