• Director of studies for the department's master's courses and programmes in Global Political Economy, International Relations, and Economic History.
• Course convener for the department's master thesis courses in economic history, and international relations, with and without specialization in global political economy.
• Course convener for the master course "Gendering Global Political Economy: Contemporary and Historical perspectives"

I am an associated professor and senior lecturer in economic history.

My research focuses on the social and economic history of Sweden during the late-modern and contemporary periods, with an emphasis on three main areas:

• Military labour, including military service
• Economic restrictions on political rights
• Gender divisions of labour

I frequently engage in interdisciplinary research projects and collaborations, working with scholars in international relations, gender studies, sociology, global studies, and history.

Current research projects:

• The Long Arm of Plutocracy: Economic Restrictions of Political Candidacy Eligibility in Sweden, Before and After the 'Democratic Breakthrough'
• Military Conscription, Settler-Colonialism and Discrimination of the Sami People in Sweden 
• Between Free and Unfree labour. Labour Market Relations and the Welfare Society in Sweden 1880-2022
   

Recently compleated research projects:

• The Gender Neutral Conscription
• Universal Suffrage?
• Gender Equality, Diversity and Societal Security
• The Defense of Consumption

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Suffrage, Capital, and Welfare: Conditional Citizenship in Historical Perspective

  2025. .

  Book (ed)

  This open access book examines disenfranchisement and voting barriers in ten self-governing and aspiring liberal democracies worldwide, before and after the introduction of so-called universal suffrage. Focusing on economic voting restrictions implemented through constitutional provisions and laws, it explores the various disqualifications that prevent people from voting. The notions of economic independence underpinning these restrictions have built and reinforced societal structures and power relations, particularly concerning class, gender, race, civil status, age, and education. Historically, voting rights have been celebrated as a symbol of inclusivity and equal citizenship. Yet, as contributors in this collection highlight, recent centennial celebrations of universal suffrage often depict it as a distinct milestone, overshadowing the voting restrictions that persisted post women’s suffrage. As democracy now faces new, concerted challenges, there is a compelling reason to revisit and question the narrative of the progression of democratic ideals.

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• Money and the Vote: Economic Suffrage Restrictions in Sweden, Before and After the Introduction of “Universal Suffrage” in 1921

  2025. Fia Cottrell-Sundevall. Suffrage, Capital, and Welfare. ConditionalCitizenship in Historical Perspective, 129-149

  Chapter

  In the late 1800s, Sweden had a higher proportion of disenfranchised adults compared to many European counterparts due to significant economic inequalities and a censitary suffrage system that tied voting rights to income and property ownership. Although early twentieth-century suffrage reforms weakened the link between money and voting rights, they did not eradicate it. Even with the introduction of so-called universal suffrage in 1921, financial conditions such as tax arrears and bankruptcy could still disenfranchise voters. Delving into the formal barriers to voting rights associated with financial status, this chapter traces their evolution, the lawmakers’ rationale behind them, and their impact on various societal groups. By incorporating empirical results and theoretical insights from recent studies, the chapter challenges the linear progress narrative of Sweden’s suffrage history and re-evaluates the notion that universal suffrage was won in 1921, a perspective still echoed in contemporary Swedish parliamentary commemorations.

  Read more about Money and the Vote: Economic Suffrage Restrictions in Sweden, Before and After the Introduction of “Universal Suffrage” in 1921

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

  Alma Persson, Fia Cottrell-Sundevall. Gender, Work and Organization

  Article

  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.

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• Contributivist views on democratic inclusion: on economic contribution as a condition for the right to vote

  2025. Jonas Hultin Rosenberg, Fia Sundevall. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 28 (2), 261-285

  Article

  Prior to the democratic breakthrough in most Western countries, the right to vote was premised on a person’s economic contribution. No country today reserves voting rights exclusively to contributors, but economic contribution matters once again. It matters for immigrants’ access to citizenship and its associated political rights, and it matters for emigrants’ attempts to keep the right to vote in their ‘home country’. Economic contribution has attracted very little attention in the literature on democratic inclusion. The few scholars who have discussed it have rejected it based on its expected implications, without going into detail about its different instantiations and normative underpinnings. This paper lays the foundation for a more thorough critique. Informed by historical practices, we distinguish between two main types of economic contributivist regulations: those that condition the right to vote on the size of the contribution, and those that condition it on compliance with legally required contributions. We suggest that contributivism can be based either on property rights or on reciprocity. We conclude the paper by contrasting contributivism with established principles of democratic inclusion (such as the all-affected principle), and by arguing that, unlike these other principles, contributivism is incompatible with the democratic ideal of self-rule.

  Read more about Contributivist views on democratic inclusion

• Selling soldiering: Marketisation, gender complementarity and the promise of military femininity in 1990s Sweden

  2024. Sanna Strand, Fia Cottrell-Sundevall. Gender and History

  Article

  This article examines the first large-scale attempts to recruit women as soldiers and officers in 1990s Sweden, focusing on the techniques and promises employed by the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). Building on a wide range of documents and audiovisual sources, we demonstrate how the SAF utilised various marketing techniques, including advertisements and sponsorships, to attract and ‘sell’ soldiering to young women. Analysing these efforts through scholarship on neoliberal governmentality and gendered military identity, we argue that these strategies marked the onset of military marketisation, reflecting broader neoliberal trends in 1990s Sweden. Moreover, we show how the SAF's marketing techniques promised women a narrowly defined, complementary, feminine military identity that reinforced existing gender stereotypes in the name of gender equality. Our findings shed new light on the instability of gender equality policies deemed progressive and pioneering and, in contrast, the stability of the global racialised hierarchies that inscribe some nations as gender equality forerunners.

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• A Nordic model of gender and military work? Labour demand, gender equality and women’s integration in the armed forces of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

  2024. Anders Ahlbäck, Fia Sundevall, Johanna Hjertquist. Scandinavian Economic History Review 72 (1), 49-66

  Article

  This article traces the political process towards full formal integration of women in the military professions in Scandinavia and Finland, investigating the shifting roles played by military labour demands and politics of gender equality. It provides the first comparative overview of these developments in the Nordic region. The analysis demonstrates the importance of historical continuity in women’s military participation. Due to military labour demands, women were throughout the post-war decades recruited into a range of auxiliary, voluntary and hybrid capacities in the Scandinavian armed forces. The reforms opening the military professions to women in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the 1970s were the outcome of a double crisis, as military needs for the regulation of these women’s organisational status coincided with new political demands for gender equality in the labour market. Corresponding reforms in Finland were delayed by the country’s lack of continuity in women’s military participation as well as its sufficient supply of male military personnel. A common Nordic model of gender and military work nonetheless emerged in the 1990s, marked by equal rights to military participation for women on a voluntary basis, combined with mandatory military conscription for men.

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• The making of consumer patriotism: mobilizing Christmas in Sweden during the Second World War

  2024. Nikolas Glover, Klara Arnberg, Fia Cottrell-Sundevall. History of Retailing and Consumption, 1-17

  Article

  During the Second World War Swedish citizens were encouraged to send gifts to military personnel spending Christmas on duty. Orchestrated by a coalition of commercial and military interests as well as unions, women’s and employer’s organizations, the annual Frontline Christmas Gift campaigns blended traditional rituals of gift-giving with patriotic objectives. Analyzing archival documents and press clippings the study shows how this campaign both preserved and adapted consumer practices as well as gendered norms throughout the war. Primarily framing women as the givers and male soldiers as the receivers, the campaign reinforced gender structures and discourses while also subtly adapting them and embedding the whole exercise in Swedish consumer culture. The study contends that the Frontline Christmas Gift campaign not only maintained but also transformed public and private spheres during wartime. By extending the family-centric tradition of Christmas giving to a national level, it strengthened societal bonds and reinforced the Swedish wartime narrative of national unity and preparedness.

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• An unfinished suffrage reform: Voting rights in Sweden after the ‘democratic breakthrough’

  2024. Fia Sundevall, Annika Berg, Bengt Sandin. Scandinavian Journal of History

  Article

  This article examines the complex and non-linear process of democratization in Sweden after the introduction of so-called universal suffrage in 1921. The research questions address the excluded groups post-1921, the reasons for their exclusion, and the historical processes that led to further expansions of suffrage rights. The study shows that the expansion of suffrage rights in Sweden after 1921 was not guided primarily by a desire to broaden voter inclusion and/or rectify the limitations of the1921 legislation. Instead, the motivations were embedded in a more intricate and multifaceted tapestry of political aims and alliances as well as situational factors that included various social, economic, and cultural shifts. The article concludes that the history of suffrage in Sweden after 1921 has been one of continuous negotiations, transformations, and adaptations, and that this provides valuable insights for addressing challenges of political inclusion and representation in the present and future. 

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• Försvarsmaktens personalförsörjning 1980–2020.: En kvantitativ studie över kvinnors antal och andel i militär utbildning respektive officersyrkena

  2023. Fia Sundevall, Therese Christoffersson, Karla Jonsson. Militärhistorisk Tidskrift (1), 15-34

  Article

  Women in Sweden gained formal access to both basic military training and professional military occupations in the 1980s. Yet, four decades later, the Swedish Armed Forces remain predominantly male-dominated. Achieving quantitative gender equality within the organization presents a significant challenge. This study compiles and contextualizes data on female participation in basic military training and in the professional officer category over the past four decades (1980–2020). Through this analysis, the study provides empirical insights into the persistent gender imbalance within the Swedish Armed Forces, prompting further research into the root causes of this disparity.

  Read more about Försvarsmaktens personalförsörjning 1980–2020.

• Unpacking Coercion in Gendered War Labour

  2023. Julia Heinemann (et al.). Labor history 64 (3), 225-237

  Article

  While in recent decades there have been growing bodies of literature on gender and war, on war and military labor, and on various forms and degrees of labor coercion, rarely have these areas – gender, coercion and war labor – been analyzed together as intersecting and interdependent themes. The special issue on Gender, War and Coerced Labor aims to fill this gap, and this introduction to the issue will not only present the five papers but also establish the three intersecting themes uniting these papers. Together the introduction and the papers contribute toward larger debates about the place of coercion, of degrees of exploitation, and of free/unfree continuums in a variety of gendered war work. 

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Show all publications by Fia Cottrell-Sundevall at Stockholm University