Gendered Evaluations of the State and Willingness to Defend : Perceived crisis preparedness, institutional trust and defense willingness in Sweden

This study examines how women and men in Sweden perceive the state’s crisis preparedness and how these perceptions are related to willingness to contribute to national defense. The analysis uses survey data from the 2023 National SOM Survey and applies OLS regression models with interaction terms. Defense willingness is separated into military and civil willingness. Results show a clear gender gap in military defense willingness, with men reporting much higher willingness than women, while gender differences in civil defense willingness are smaller. Perceived crisis preparedness has weak direct effects but interacts with gender in the military models. Among women, higher perceived preparedness is associated with slightly higher military defense willingness, while the association is weaker among men. Institutional trust is positively related to both military and civil defense willingness. The findings suggest that willingness to defend is structured by gender and that military and civil defense willingness should be treated as analytically distinct phenomena.