The Havoc of Good Intentions: Destructive Leadership through the Gender Lens

One important objective of the Swedish Armed Forces, which is expressed in the plan for implementing gender mainstreaming from 2015, is to increase the number of women in the organization and especially in the higher ranks. Recruiting more women to the officers' program, while at the same time ensuring that women who have already enrolled as officers will remain in their occupation, is therefore of utmost importance. This chapter is based on a previously made qualitative study where six female cadets were interviewed regarding experiences of their time in training to become officers at the Swedish military academy, as well as how they perceive a future career in the Swedish Armed Forces. The result that emerged was analyzed as three factors: ambition, culture, and visibility. When reviewing the material from a leadership perspective, destructive leadership behaviors at strategic levels were identified as influencing the experiences of the cadets. Seen through a gender lens, destructive leadership in the Swedish Armed Forces describes a pattern where the design of equality work, which is based on good intentions, in some cases fosters leadership behaviors that have a negative impact on the room of action of women in the organization.