The Swedish armed forces are currently experiencing difficulties with the recruitment and further maintaining of women and their competences within the organization. This due to a lack of traceability and understanding of women's motivation within an military organization. This paper investigates female first-year cadets' motivation to study to become an officer in order to gain wider understanding of women's choice to engage in a military organization on a higher level.
This study is performed with a thematic analysis with support from Fabrizio Battistellis theory about motivation, which then applies to the material from interviews with four female first-year cadets at the Swedish Defense University, which were held during the spring of 2024. The study examines how the female cadets' described motivation can be explained with Battistellis theory and thematic analysis.
The results of this study indicates that the female first-year cadets are mostly motivated by Battistellis postmodern category and second the paleomodern. Aside from the theory another category was formed by the female cadets' descriptions which were social, this category appeared by thematic analysis and was constructed by the themes fellowship and social connection.