Byxan och (polis)kvinnan

This article concerns the gendered history of women's police uniforms. In Sweden, the first police women "on the beat" in the 1950s had to wear culottes instead of proper trousers, while today all police uniforms are gender neutral. Tracing the historic symbolism of "phallic trousers" as belonging only to men, and how they gradually became introduced as a garment also for women, it is argued that trousers can be used as a material and visual point of reference, through which it is possible to analyse some important social changes regarding gender throughout the 20th century. Overall, the article purports the idea that when trousers gradually were introduced as an item of cothing to (most) women, this was implicitly accompanied by an increased attention to the body as marker of gender.