The groundbreaking society of swedish libraries : Female librarians who advanced at the town library of Lund

This master thesis in Library and information science, explores who four women succeeded in advancing at Lund’s city library year 1929-1960. Through library records and newspaper articles, women's external factors are exposed and explained what institutions are crucial for these women to advance in their profession. The internal factors are highlighted through newspaper articles written by and about these women to show perceptions about a female library manager. Together, these two perspectives will respond to why these women managed to advance in the library profession. The thesis shows that perceptions of female gender and the role of leadership are crucial for women to succeed in achieving a leading position in the library profession. This means that influential institutions such as family, university, workplace, and society must see female gender as a natural part of the leadership position. But this is not enough, according to this thesis women must apprehend themselves as suitable managers. This means that when female gender clearly matches the executive role, the number of women in leading positions will increase