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This thesis has analysed the relations among the women’s movement, the state and the labour market policy during and shortly after the Second World War and to what extent this period can be characterised as a formative phase as regards gender relations. The aim has been to study women’s strategic actions in order to influence the Swedish Government’s labour market policy in the period from 1939 to 1947. The thesis shows the conflicts of interest that manifested themselves between Statens arbetsmarknadskommission (SAK, ‘the National Swedish Labour Market Commission’) and its advisory women’s group, experts on women’s issues, concerning the planning and utilisation of female labour. SAK thought that the work of the experts on female issues should only focus on the short-term labour problems caused by the national crisis situation, while the experts on women’s issues were of the opinion that they should also work with long-term labour-market issues for women. These different ways of thinking and understanding the problem originated in different views on women’s work.

The experts on women’s issues wanted to strengthen women’s position on the labour market by abolishing the wage differences between the genders, breaking the gender segregation in education, and broadening the occupational choices of girls. They had three strategies for achieving this: a strategy of professionalisation, a strategy of change, and a strategy of state feminism. The strategy of professionalisation was aimed at raising the value of traditional female work, in terms of both status and wages. The strategy of change was aimed at creating new opportunities for women to leave typical low-wage jobs and gain access to better paid jobs in male-dominated areas. The strategy of state feminism was aimed at paving the way for women in new and expanding occupational areas beside the traditional male occupations.

Can the period during and shortly after the war be characterised as a formative phase of the issue of gender relations? It is evident that this period did not involve a revolution of the societal gender order. The idea of women as reserve labour did not disappear. The post-war planners considered that, in the transition to peace, the women who had replaced men who were called up should be redeployed or retrained for employment in household work, in hotels, restaurants and cafés, in shops and in health care. In spite of the great shortage of labour in the post-war period, leading politicians and economists stuck to old ways of thinking. A clear indication on the part of the Government was that the women’s movement’s demand for long-term planning in order to utilise female labour was turned down.

One important difference from the First World War was that the Government produced peace plans for women’s work during the Second World War. The period also led to ideological and institutional consequences that could be the beginning of a change of the societal gender order. From her central position in Kommissionen för ekonomisk efterkrigsplanering (‘the Commission for economic post-war planning’), Karin Kock could see to it that women’s demands for greater occupational mobility and a loosening up of the gender division of labour had an impact on the post-war planning of the war years. The experiences of women in male industries in the Second World War, both in Sweden and abroad, showed to some extent that it was possible to change the gender division of labour.

The modern welfare state also came to correspond to a great extent to the state feminist strategy of the experts on women’s issues. With the historical formation of the welfare state a new type of occupational groups developed, the so-called welfare state professionals.

This thesis describes the impact of the notion of a calling on the development of the nursing profession during the period 1850–1933. The focus of the study is on how perceptions andnotions of a calling were altered over time, and in which way this historically shaped conceptinfluenced the professionalisation of the female health care work. Some contexts of relevancefor the notion of a calling and which are emphasised in the thesis are the women’s rights movement, the expansion of the civil servants’ movement, the professionalisation and modernisationof the health care system as well as the general secularisation of society.

The study consists of three parts. The first part constitutes a conceptual background tothe notion of a calling and here the Christian heritage of ideas is examined. The second partof the thesis describes three leading institutions of nursing education: the Ersta Institution ofdeaconesses (1851), the Red Cross education (1867), and the Sophia Home (1884). The study shows how Lutheran features influenced these educational institutions, mainly the educationof the deaconesses. The meaning of the calling differed between the deaconesses and thenurses of the Sophia Home. The deaconnesses’ notion of a calling emphasised the value ofhumbly serving fellow beings, whereas the Sophia Home attached more importance to theelevated and noble aspect of the calling.

The third part of the thesis is the most comprehensive one. It is here analysed how the circlearound the Swedish Nursing Association (SNA), used and related to the notion of a calling during the period 1910–1933. The description is structured under four themes. The first describes how the notion of a calling expresses a particular professional ideal and an ethical attitude characterised by a Lutheran work ethics with strong altruistic features. Under the second theme, the gendered perception of the vocation is discussed. It is claimed that the nursingprofession was not unambiguously permeated by feminine gendered perceptions. Instead the nurses’ professional ideal espoused a mixture of masculine and feminine gendered metaphors.Under the third theme, it becomes clear that the nurses’ proclamation of a calling strengthened and increased the status of the profession. Under the fourth theme, the nurses’notion of a calling is related to two male professional groups, doctors and clergymen, and thepessimistic and sombre spirit of time at the turn of the century, 1900. The general secularisation of society, and the gradual modernisation of the health care sector seemed to have contributedto a need for a professional corps, marked by strong tradition, apparently considereda guarantee for a health care system that would still comprise Christian love.

Under hösten 2005 genomfördes vid Institutionen för Historiska studier ett projekt med syfte att prova nya sätt att implementera genusperspektiv i grundutbildningen i historia/idéhistoria. På institutionen fanns en önskan att vidareutveckla didaktiska arbetsformer som både integrerar genusperspektivet och samtidigt genererar studerandeaktivitet. Projektet finansierades av medel för pedagogiskt utvecklingsarbete från Humanistiska fakulteten och bedrevs inom ramen för en programutbildning där tidigare års studenter hade efterlyst mer och tydligare genusperspektiv i undervisningen. I fyra workshops fick studenterna lösa olika arbetsuppgifter med olika arbetssätt, och olika typer av material. Projektet utvärderades kontinuerligt genom regelbundna träffar med en fokusgrupp, men även naturligtvis i en avslutande utvärdering där alla deltog. Under projektets gång upptäckte vi ganska snart att det i gruppen fanns en skeptisk inställning eller till och med ett motstånd mot projektets arbetsformer i allmänhet och mot genusperspektiv i synnerhet. Detta motstånd uttrycktes dock på ett annorlunda sätt än vi tidigare stött på i andra undervisningssammanhang. Erfarenheterna av studenternas motstånd under genomförandet av detta projekt, väckte många frågor hos oss. Det är dessa frågor vi diskuterar och reflekterar kring i artikeln.

Polio epidemics appeared in Sweden in 1881 and at the turn of the 20th century the disease became an annual feature in the epidemiological pattern. Due to vaccination starting in 1957 epidemics ceased to exist in Sweden around 1965. This thesis deals with the history polio epidemics in Sweden, 1880-1965 and studies the demographical influence of polio, how the medical authorities investigated and tried to combat it, and the care of those who contracted the disease.

A study of polio mortality and incidence in Sweden at the national level during 1905-1962 reveals that the disease caused 6,000 deaths out of the 51,000 cases reported. At the beginning of the 20th century polio primarily attacked children up to 10 years of age. At the end of the period victims were represented in all age groups, but mainly in the ages 15-39. Moreover, a regional incidence study shows considerable regional differences.

Sweden and the USA developed different ways of investigating and explaining the causes of polio thinking that led to diverse preventive measures. Moreover, in the 1950’s Sweden developed its own vaccine, different in choice of methods and materials from the widely used Salk-vaccine.

When polio was classified as an epidemic in 1905, those infected by polio were usually taken to an isolation hospital. These hospitals were owned and financed by the state. The aftercare of polio victims was organized by philanthropist organizations.

Polio was associated with dirt and unhygienic circumstances until the 1950’s when the theory of polio epidemics as a backlash of good hygiene and sanitary standards was established. The theory is built upon the correlation between neonatal mortality and polio incidence. However, correlation analysis at the regional level reveals no significant relationship between these variables. In Sweden, the hygienic movement had been very influential, and this study suggests that the theory quickly was accepted, because it explained why Sweden could be hit by epidemics and still be considered a welfare state with good hygienic and sanitary standards.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera hur Gustav Vasa framställts i olika läroböcker under tidsperioden 1919-2000 samt diskutera på vilket sätt de statliga läroplaner som utgivits under samma tidsperiod påverkat hur Gustav Vasa skildrats i läroböckerna. För att få svar på dessa frågor har vissa specifika delar av såväl läroplanerna som läroböckerna granskats utifrån ett antal på förhand fastställda kriterier. De granskningsresultat som framkommit har sedermera legat till grund för de slutsatser som utfärdas i uppsatsen. I uppsatsen framkom att de tidigast utgivna läroplanerna i huvudsak framhävde att kunskaper i den nationella historien och förmedlandet av en sund fosterlandskänsla var historieundervisningens primära fokus, alltmedan de senare utgivna läroplanerna i högre grad framhäver vikten av en ökad förståelse för andra folk samt vikten av ett breddat historiskt perspektiv. De resultat som framkommer ur läroboksanalysen är att det inte finns något stöd för att de tidigast utgivna läroböckerna i högre grad än de senare skulle försökt införliva en god fosterlanskänsla och en positiv nationell bild i undervisningen. Läroboksanalysen påvisar nämligen att läroböckerna under den granskade tidsperioden uppvisar ett tämligen beständigt mönster vad gäller den i huvudsak negativa bild som målas upp av Vasa som regent.

Denna uppsats beskriver ett projekt i syfte att försöka förbättra genomströmningen och antalet studenter som får betyget VG på ett av momenten inom kursen Historia A, samt resultaten av en förstatest omgång. Bakgrunden till projektet är att studenterna på detta moment generellt för det första uppvisat vissa problem med att få en bra överblick över det momentet omfattar och för det andra inte riktig tkunnat behandla kurslitteraturen på ett självständigt sätt, vilket gjort attantalet VG varit lågt. I syfte att få fler studenter att skriva VG har momentet förstärkts med en workshop om vetenskapligt skrivandemed hemskrivningen i fokus, samt ett antal litteraturseminarier där studenterna dels har arbetat med momentets instuderingsfrågor, dels framställt geografiska och tematiska "kartor" som har ordnats längs en tidslinje. I skrivande stund har förändringarna bara testats fullt ut en gång vilket gör att de resultat som kan uppvisas mycket väl kan vara fullständigt slumpartade. En jämförelse mellan HT 2005 och HT 2006 ger dock vid handen, att såväl examinationsfrekvensen som andelen studenter som fått VG ökat signifikant. De enda förändringar som gjorts mellan de två kurstillfällena är tilläggen av workshop och litteraturseminarier, i övrigt är momentet detsamma.

This article discusses how the idea of a social revolution was interpreted by the major fascist movements in Sweden during the interwar period, and how this social revolution was intended to result in the rebirth of the collective folkgemenskap [people’s community] in the form of the fascist ideal state the folkstat [people’s state]. The analysis will focus on the ideological rather than the practical political level, and is based on source material from the three major fascist organisations in Sweden: the Swedish National Socialist Party, the National Socialist Labour Party and the New-Swedish National Federation.

The importance of the specific context of interwar Sweden will be taken into account, and the analysis of the fascist quest for the people’s state will be made against the background of the contemporaraneous discourses on the people’s home and on eugenics. To conclude, it will be considered whether there are any variations discernible within the fascist ideological spectrum regarding the idea of a social revolution and the construction of a people’s state.

The aim of this study is to investigate colonization processes and population and agricultural development during the 16th century. The studied geographical area consists of the northern part of the northernmost province of Sweden of that time, Västerbotten. During this period, this part of Sweden consists of four parishes, from the south to the north: Piteå, Luleå, Kalix and Torneå. The area constitutes a bailiwick (county administrative division) of its own, the northern bailiwick of Västerbotten. The geographical area studied in this thesis is today’s County of Norrbotten below the border of Lappmarken and Torneå Municipality in Finland.

By the middle of the 16th century the region is an established and developed agricultural district. The average farm’s acreage is nearly three acres. The differences between the parishes are considerable, however. Besides arable farming and cattle farming, fishing is important.

Studying land colonization, settlements and population in 16th century Sweden means being limited mainly to one kind of source, namely bailiff accounts (fogderäkenskaper). These accounts consist of cadastres (land registers of rent and revenue), registers of other ordinary and extraordinary taxes, and, from the end of 1560s, the tithe registers. This collection of registers constitutes the bailiffs’ accounts of incomes and expenses and is an expression of the increased control exerted by the Crown over production and private wealth in the country.

An important task has been to check the quality of the sources for the study. Quality means in this context up-to-dateness and completeness. An investigation of the sources shows that they were regularly updated. By comparing the different registers the completeness can be examined, i.e. the extent to which they correctly follow the instructions, “undervisningar”.

These circumstances, the up-to-dateness and completeness of the sources, guarantee the possibility of describing, in a correct manner, the real situation in the region regarding the land colonization, settlements and population.

Placing the development in the studied region in a geographical context has been important. Some studies have been performed using the cadastre registers, many of which were included in the Nordic project studying the late medieval desertion of the colonization process in Sweden during the 16th century, Nordiska ödegårdsprojektet.

A feature of the development in Sweden during the 16th century is two periods of growth and a weak or retrograde period in between. A common pattern in the settlement development is a strong growth in 1540s and 1550s. In the late 1560s and during the 1570s the settlements are weakening, stagnating or decreasing. From 1580 and onwards, another growth of farms is established again, to a greater or smaller extent.

The increase in the population is generally considered to be the main cause of the land colonization process in the 1540s and 1550s. The weaker development of the next two decades is related to the Nordic Seven Years’ War (Nordiska sjuårskriget), with its great negative impact on many areas in Sweden. After a fast recovery the colonization process starts again and is in progress for the rest of the century.

A closer study of the situation in two parishes in Norrbotten shows that the two periods of growth have different qualities. The first period, during the 1540s and 1550s, illustrates traditional progress through colonization. The growth consists of farm divisions and the establishment of new farms. The development of new farms follows a certain pattern. By clearing land the farm is established, a first registration is made, and the farm obtains tax release for a few years and is finally entered in the land register (jordeboken). During this period the agricultural sector is growing when both new and already established farms contribute by land reclamation.

During the second period of growth the farm division process continues and new farms are established. However, this time the new farms are generally of another kind. They are very small and are established mainly by detaching parts or buying land from older farms, not by land reclamation. The agricultural sector is not growing, with some exceptions, during this period. Furthermore, the population increase during the earlier period, which seemed to “force” the agricultural sector to grow, is not effective this time. Instead, during this second period, a population decrease takes place.

The general picture of the settlement development in Sweden during the 16th century is growth. The differences between regions concern the strength of the total growth of farms during this century. In Norrbotten the development is weaker than in most other regions in Sweden. The western part of the country seems on the whole to have a stronger growth than the eastern and northern part. It should be observed, however, that areas situated very close to each other can show quite a different progress.

Many studies in the past have emphasized the positive correlation between infant mortality and fertility, but how this operates remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate these interdependent processes using data from the Demographic Data base at Ume{\aa} University. More specifically, we have data from regions in the northern part of Sweden, starting in the fifteenth century and ending around the year 1900. In an earlier paper, we have studied the intergenerational aspects of infant mortality and in this paper we incorporate fertility. We investigate the interaction between the two processes and how patterns are tranferred from generation to generation.