Шведская женская добровольная организация обороны

Independent auxiliary defence organization in Sweden

The Swedish Women's Voluntary Defence Organization (Svenska Lottakåren (SLK) communicatively, , and Riksförbundet Sveriges lottakårer juridically, ) is an independent auxiliary defence organization in Sweden. The organisation is part of the Swedish Total Defence (Totalförsvaret), the national defence strategy of Sweden. The organisation was created in 1924 as a Swedish version of the Finnish equivalent organisation Lotta Svärd (created in 1918), which subsequently inspired other Scandinavian and the Baltic states to create their own organisations based on the same principles. These are collectively called "Lotta movements" as the majority of these organisations have adopted the name Lotta as the general designation for organisation members.

The organization currently consists of approximately 5,000 women of all ages throughout Sweden. Svenska Lottakåren's purpose is to recruit and educate women for tasks in the Swedish total defence, and to conduct comprehensive defence training. Svenska Lottakåren works in both the Armed Forces and in Civilian Emergency Preparedness. The organization is politically neutral, and is one of the country's largest female networks. Members are called lotta (singular) or lottor (plural).

Svenska Lottakåren was created in 1924 with the Finnish women's auxiliary organization, Lotta Svärd (founded in 1920), as a direct role model. The name Lotta comes from a poem by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, about a fictional woman named Lotta Svärd, who took care of wounded soldiers during the Finnish War. The organisation was founded by a Swedish woman named Tyra Wadner, whom also became the organization's first chairperson, and was originally an auxiliary aid unit for the Swedish landstorm militia, then named Sveriges Landstormskvinnor (Sweden's Landstorm Women). Members were divided into army, navy and airfields.

During World War II, the organization received many new duties. Due to limited manpower it was decided to let organisation members perform service duties of non combat nature in Sweden's army, navy and air force branches. It was during this period that members of the organisation started being called lottor, as their original name "Landstormskvinnor" did not fit their new roles. This soon became official as the Swedish landstorm militia was scrapped and replaced with the Swedish home guard in 1942, turning the organisation independent. The new organisation name became Riksförbundet Sveriges lottakårer ("The national federation of Sweden's Lotta corps"). The war also rapidly increased the number of organisation members and by the end of the war the organization had more than 110,000 members, which meant that about five percent of Sweden's women over 15 years were part of the organisation.

Post World War II, SLK continued to perform many non combatant roles tasks and roles in the Swedish Armed Forces organization. In 1989 the Swedish military started allowing women into all positions within the Swedish armed forces. This meant that the Swedish Women's Voluntary Defence Organization was no longer the only true option for women to get an active role in the defence of Sweden. An equivalent change in Denmark the same year had led to the dissolution of their "Lotta movement" Lottekorps.