The Swedish Equine Sector in the 20th Century

The Swedish Equine Sector in the 20th CenturyDuring the 20th century the equine sector in Sweden has transformed from being a sector closely related to agriculture, forestry, transport and the army to a sector related to leisure. The number of horses have changed too, from about 700 000 horses in the 1920s to 70 000 in the 1970’s. During the last decades the number has increased again and today there are about 300 000 horses in Sweden (maybe making Sweden the most “horse dense” //horses per capita in the world). Simultaneously the gender order of the sector has changed. Hundred years ago horses and the work around them were seen as masculine and a “real man” was a “horse man”. Today horses are connected to women, girls and a socially constructed femininity. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how these changes are interrelated and connected to agricultural and sports politics in Sweden