Unofficial ambassadors: Swedish women in the United States and the making of non-state cultural diplomacy

ABSTRACT

This article examines how women contribute to cultural diplomacy by engaging in activities that relate to their country of origin. The article focuses on one non-state network called the Swedish Women’s Educational Organization (SWEA). SWEA aims to foster interest in Swedish culture by organizing public cultural events and financially supporting causes that aim to increase engagement with Swedish culture. The transnational practices that these women engage in enables them to display Swedish culture to American society. This study examines how these women assume meaningful roles as unofficial ambassadors of Sweden, and how their daily and unpaid activities to promote their homeland culture is recognized by official Swedish representatives in the United States. Study findings show that the work these women perform became entangled with official diplomatic institutions. On a structural level, the women’s agency enables them to carve out meaningful spaces for themselves within the field of cultural diplomacy. At the same time, some of their assumed roles reinforce notions about feminine spheres of action within international relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural diplomacy
• transnational migration
• gender
• non-state actors

Introduction

‘I salute you, Madame Ambassador!’ wrote editor and publisher Henry Bengston to Selma Jacobson in 1971. The recipient of his celebratory remark was an American woman of Swedish descent who had acted as something of a cultural emissary throughout her life, working to advance relations between Sweden and the United States. According to Bengston, Jacobson’s accomplishments were so commendable that the efficiency of the official Swedish consul in Chicago paled in comparison (Bengston 1971, 1).

Born in Joliet, Illinois in 1906 to Swedish parents, Selma Jacobson worked as a school teacher in Chicago her entire adult life. Up until her death in 2000, she devoted hundreds of hours of voluntary work to Swedish American causes. Jacobson organized educational exchange programs between American and Swedish teachers, restored monuments of Swedes in Illinois, established a Swedish American archive and museum, and regularly showcased Swedish traditional handicrafts at art fairs and ethnic festivals (Beijbom 2006). The records of foreign ministries and cultural institutes seldom reveal the ways in which women such as Jacobson contribute to cultural diplomacy. However, studying the archival collection of individual women and women’s organizations demonstrates that they played prominent roles in fostering cultural bonds between countries.

Selma Jacobson launched several cultural projects through her own initiative. However, for the most part she was involved with various Swedish American organizations that worked to foster Swedish American relations and cultural exchanges. The present study focuses on an a more recently established organization called the Swedish Women’s Educational Association (SWEA). SWEA was supported by Selma Jacobson that eventually became a member of the network.¹

By focusing on SWEA, the purpose of this study is to examine how migrant women contribute to cultural diplomacy by engaging in cultural activities that relate to their countries of origin. In the context of cultural diplomacy, such manifestations of national culture become particularly meaningful when presented to a target audience beyond the immediate ethnic community. Studying the transnational practices of women’s organizations and the displays of homeland culture thus offers a lens into understanding how non-state groups contribute to cultural diplomacy.

SWEA was established by Agneta Nilsson in Los Angeles in 1979. Nilsson was born in Sweden and migrated to California in the early 1960s. While she regularly visited Sweden, she felt a need to maintain the Swedish language, practice Swedish traditions, and spread information about Sweden in the United States. For these reasons, in the late 1970s, she decided to establish SWEA (SWEA, 2020i; Linde 1995). Today, SWEA is an organization with around seven thousand members in over thirty countries. The network has seventy local chapters worldwide under the umbrella organization SWEA International, and is open to Swedish and Swedish speaking women who live, or have lived, outside of Sweden. Since its founding, SWEA has actively worked to promote Swedish culture in the United States, and today, the organization presents itself as the largest non-profit organization outside of Sweden that works to foster and promulgate Swedish culture (SWEA, 2020a).

The activities and programs of both United States based local chapters and SWEA International groups are funded by member fees, income from public concerts and social events, donations and sponsorship by Swedish companies, and advertising revenues from local magazines (Fundraising Committee 1994). The present study focuses mainly on the activities of SWEA in the 1980s and the 1990s and draws on archival records from its chapters in Los Angeles, New York, and to some extent Chicago,² including correspondences, member magazines, newsletters, photographs, memos, and meeting minutes. During the 1980s and 1990s, SWEA’s chapters in Los Angeles and New York had between two hundred and three hundred members, and regularly arranged activities both for members only and the public (SWEA, 1998; Moliteus 1998). The records of these chapters show how cultural diplomacy is made through bottom-up processes, and how women assumed diplomatic agency in Swedish cultural diplomacy.³

Both Swedish American women such as Selma Jacobson, and Swedish-born women who live outside of Sweden have long engaged in activities that foster an interest in Swedish culture in the United States. It is however important to note that there are differences between SWEA and earlier women’s organizations. Swedes who emigrated in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth century had left a pre-industrialized country and they had often experienced economic hardships. Most SWEA members emigrated from Sweden in the second half of the twentieth century, leaving a country engaged in economic expansion and with a well-established social welfare system. The new migrants seldom associated themselves with already existing Swedish American communities in the United States (Blanck 2013). Considering this context, SWEA has rightly been identified as a new type of organization for Swedish and Swedish speaking women living, or having lived, outside of Sweden (Beijbom 2006).

Beyond the different historical contexts of the women’s migration, the social and economic composition of SWEA itself sets it apart from previous Swedish migrant organizations. Catrin Lundström (2014) interviewed SWEA members and noted that the reasons the women cited for emigrating from Sweden to the United States included – personal choice, adventure, love, health, education, or climate preferences. In terms of socio-economic class, Lundström identifies three categories of women. The first consists of upper-class women who left traditional bourgeois European backgrounds and came to the United States in the 1940s and 1950s to experience a freer society. The second group comprises of young small-town women who first came to the United States to study or to work as au-pairs in the 1970s. Some of these women married wealthy Americans, stayed in the United States, and experienced upward social mobility. From the 1980s onwards a third group emerged. These women were travelling with husbands whose work brought them to the United States. As Lena Sohl has noted, some international members of SWEA relocated back to Sweden. The organization therefore also has chapters in Sweden, something which further calcifies SWEA’s connections to contemporary Sweden (Sohl 2019).

Cultural diplomacy and transnational migration

As foreign ministries were reformed and professionalized during the nineteenth century, a group of individuals emerged who engaged in salaried diplomacy. Official diplomacy became the responsibility of trained men, expanding over time to include an increasing number of women engaged in carrying out state policies (Nash 2020; Steiner 1982). The present study recognizes the existence of a diplomatic corps and the work of governments in cultural diplomacy but is mainly situated within a research perspective that has moved away from a state-centric approach to the study of diplomacy (Scott-Smith and Weisbrode 2019; Cull 2009; Melissen 2005). Alongside the official sphere, various non-state actors, civil society organizations, and transnational advocacy groups play a significant role in both bilateral and multilateral relations (Sikkink and Keck 1998). Moreover, research on gender and diplomacy shows that since the early modern period women, as wives and daughters, have acted as informal representatives of political entities (Sluga and James 2016). While the unofficial agency of women in diplomacy is now a well-researched topic, and the relationship between migration flows and cultural diplomacy has been noted (Cull 2009; Leonard 2002), we know very little of how migrant women historically contributed to cultural diplomacy.

Scholars who have attempted to define the concept of cultural diplomacy often point to the involvement of both state and non-state actors.⁴ According to Nicholas Cull (2009, 19), cultural diplomacy encompasses ‘an actor’s attempt to manage the international environment through making its cultural resources and achievements known overseas and/or facilitate cultural transmission abroad.’ Such a view of cultural diplomacy seems to be in line with the often-cited definition of Milton Cummings, who writes that cultural diplomacy ‘refers to the exchange of ideas, information, art and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding’ (Cummings 2003, 1). At the same time, cultural diplomacy has been described as an indistinct field. One of the key causes for this relates to agency and intention, since cultural diplomacy both includes government-led actions that aim to maximize national interests as well as the practices of civil society organizations and their aspirations to increase mutual understanding between people (Ang, Yudhishthir, and Mar 2015).

There are numerous examples of how government and non-governmental actors take active part in cultural diplomacy through sports, pop music, archeology, art, classical music, tourism, photography, and various other sociocultural practices (Blaschke 2016; Kang 2015; Luke and Kersel 2013; Giustino 2010; Gienow-Hecht 2009; Endy 2004; Kennedy 2003). This is a long list probably since culture, as Cynthia Schneider noted, is about ‘nations sharing forms of their creative expression’ and because ‘it is inherently enjoyable’ (Schneider 2005, 147). Thus, a fruitful way to examine cultural diplomacy is to focus on the people involved, the intentions expressed, and the ways in which cultural diplomacy is realized in practice (Gienow-Hecht and Donfried 2010; Gienow-Hecht 2010). Since immigrants often establish long-term transnational ties with their countries of origin, a study of their intentions, aspirations, and practices reveal something about the enduring effects of the dissemination of culture. This is particularly valuable considering the difficulties in assessing the success or failure of government-led cultural diplomacy programs intended to promote national culture (Arndt 2005).

The bottom-up approach taken to the study of diplomacy utilized here relates to research on transnational migration. Transnationalism is understood as ‘a set of sustained long-distance, border-crossing connections’ (Vertovec 2004, 3). This approach emphasizes agency, and particularly focuses on the grassroots activities of migrants (Smith and Luis 1998). As Nina Glick Schiller has stated transnational migration means that people move across international borders but also keep strong links to the country which they leave (Glick Schiller 1999). Immigrants are able to act as self-ascribed ambassadors representing their countries of origin in receiving states. If they so wish, they can of course also disrupt bilateral ties (Stone and Douglas 2018; Gabaccia 2012; Tully-Day 2010; Shain and Barth 2003; Weiner 1985). Sarah Mahler connects the relationship between immigrants and diplomacy more directly by stating that migrant groups consciously and subconsciously conduct ‘grassroots diplomatics’ (2000, 201).

One of the reasons migrants can act as valuable cultural bridge-builders is because they carry aspects of their homeland cultures with them (Runblom 2000; Jacobson 1995). This includes religious practices, food culture, popular culture, social customs, and traditions. Ethnic association also bring to light the institutionalized ways in which immigrants practice their homeland cultures and sometimes present it to the majority society (Gustafson 2007). Moreover, cultural diplomacy involves the dissemination of national culture, a field that women often are deeply engaged in. As Nira Yuval-Davis (1997, 39) noted, ‘gender relations are at the heart of cultural constructions of social identities and collectivities.’ Women are also situated in and identified as, ‘participating centrally in the ideological reproduction of the collectivity and as transmitters of its culture’ (Yuval-Davis and Anthias 1989, 7; see also McClintock 1995). The transmission of national culture continues when women are outside the borders of their homeland. Through processes of migration, women can become principal actors in social and cultural activities relating to their countries of origin (Gold 2001).

Ministries for foreign affairs recognize the positive, as well as negative roles their former residents play in the development of bilateral relations and in the promotion of national culture (Østergaard-Nielsen 2003). The ways in which sending countries relate to migrants also varies across time and space. In the last decades emigrants from Sweden have not influenced the foreign policy pursued by Sweden to a greater extent. Instead, as this study shows, Swedish-born women in the United States and official representatives of Sweden cooperate around small-scale cultural projects within what may be understood as a context of cultural diplomacy. The activities of the women of SWEA are sometimes initiated organically and rooted in a deep sense of longing for all things Swedish, including watching Swedish films, speaking the Swedish language, celebrating Swedish traditions, and listening to Swedish music. On other occasions, the women consciously and strategically plan and perform activities to foster an interest in Swedish culture within American society. They also provide the means to advance cultural exchanges between the two countries. The present study argues that SWEA acts as a complementary non-state cultural institute that curates positive representations of Sweden and of Swedish women in the United States. SWEA is hardly the only organization doing this kind of work. However, their overt emphasis to promote Sweden does make them a fruitful case study, and analyzing their practices can help deepen understanding of how non-state cultural diplomacy is constructed from below.

Migrant women and diplomatic agency

Ever since the mass migration of around 1.3 million Swedes to the United States between 1840 and 1930, Swedish and Swedish American women have been engaged in cultural activities relating to their country of origin (Beijbom 2006). Swedish emigration history is mostly associated with the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but Swedes continued to emigrate after the Second World War, and the United States still constitutes one of the most popular countries for Swedes to relocate to (Westling 2012). As stated in the introduction, it is these latter post-war emigration waves that make up the majority of SWEA members. Unlike previous generations of women who emigrated to improve their life situations and were often-times economically underprivileged, SWEA members are identified as coming from middle- or upper-class backgrounds (Lundström 2014; Lintelman 2009; Beijbom 2006). Like their predecessors, however, SWEA is genuinely engaged in promoting Swedish culture in American society. The abbreviation of the organization is a reference to Mother Svea, the feminine national symbol of Sweden (Eduards 2007; Tornbjer 2002). The organization’s graphic profile includes three gilded crowns; the national emblem of Sweden, and the blue and yellow coloring of the Swedish flag combined with the slogan, ‘promotion of Swedish culture and tradition’ (SWEA, 2020b). The graphic profile was recently updated with a slender illustration of a woman portrayed in a softer shade of yellow. Her profile is set on a petroleum blue background and according to SWEA, the new profile represents ‘a timeless and stylish woman’ (SWEA, 2020h).

From an official standpoint, since the end of the Second World War Swedish cultural diplomacy has been the primary responsibility of the Swedish Institute, a semi-governmental body that operates under the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This organization recognizes that Swedish women represent Swedish ideals, social policies, values, and culture in the promotion of the country (Glover 2011). Images including; the loyal and hardworking Swedish maids serving American households, the beauty of Swedish women exemplified by movie stars as Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, images of sexually liberated Swedish women, and an expansive welfare state promoting gender equality have all been adopted to shape the image of Sweden in the twentieth century (Werner 2008). According to historians Nikolas Glover and Carl Marklund, representations of Swedish sexuality, and sin in particular, has worked as an ‘asset of national brand recognition’ (Glover and Marklund, 2009, 490). While representations of Swedish women have actively been used to promote Sweden, there is limited research focusing on how women themselves assume roles as unofficial ambassadors of the country.

The migratory experience can create more equal gender relations, while also perpetuating gender inequality (Fouron and Glick Schiller, 2001). For the Swedish women who migrated to the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the migration experience had several positive outcomes. Upon their settling, many young and single Swedish women began working as maids in American households. Domestic work provided the women with more stable incomes, individual freedom, and social prospects to improve their life situations (Jackson 2019; Lintelman 1991).

The conditions for Swedish migrant women in the later parts of the twentieth century was quite different. Women in SWEA, for example, have a complex and sometimes contradictory relationship with both the gain and loss of status they experience when relocating to the United States. Some women leave careers and a country with an extended welfare system to become housewives and stay-at-home mothers in the new country. At the same time, the women acknowledge their blondness and whiteness as an advantage in an American ethno-racial hierarchy, their appearances attracting positive comments and reactions from other Americans (Lundström 2014; see also Sohl 2019). Catrin Lundström notes that the ‘women are ascribed certain notions of Swedish (or Nordic) hyper-whiteness that are attached to standards of racial purity, extraordinary beauty, and sexual liberation’ (2017, 180). Similar analyses have been made on race and Swedish American women during the era of mass migration (Jackson 2019).

It is clear from studying archival records that the women in SWEA have long been aware of the benefits of being Swedish women in the United States. For several women this privilege is connected to earning the role of unofficial ambassador by migrating to the United States. In fact, SWEA members used the word ambassador repeatedly when they described themselves and their work to promote Sweden in the United States, and their gender is connected to their ability to display Sweden in a positive manner (Nilsson 1987). One member in New York declared that, ‘Swedish women are well respected, and the best ambassadors Sweden have’ (Johnsson 1986, 4), and a former president of SWEA International stated that she had realized ‘what a great culture’ Sweden had and how proud she was of ‘being one of its ambassadors’ (Haley 1999, 1).

The activities of the women are also recognized as valuable by Swedish diplomatic representatives in the United States. In 1999, Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekéus declared that women in SWEA have important functions since they spread Swedish culture outside of Sweden (Ekéus 1999). Similarly, Swedish Ambassador to the United States, Wilhelm Wachtmeister (1974–1989) stated that non-governmental organizations such as SWEA perform immeasurable work that helps develop relations between Sweden and the United States (Wachtmeister 1988).

The value of SWEA’s work is also praised by Swedish and Swedish American organizations. As the founder of SWEA, Agneta Nilsson herself received several honors for her accomplishments in advancing Swedish American relations over the years. For example, in 1989 Nilsson was presented the Sven A. Eliasson Award by the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce (SACC) for her work with SWEA, and her support of various Swedish American causes (SACC 1989). Moreover, in 1995 Nilsson was selected as International Swede of the Year by the non-profit organization Swedes Worldwide, an association that primarily monitors political matters concerning Swedes who live in other countries. Nilsson received the title since she, ‘personifies the strength that many Swedish women have’ and since Nilsson and other women in SWEA ‘silently perform a great accomplishment’ for Sweden (Swedes Worldwide 1995).

The informal and unpaid work that women undertake is perceived – by the women themselves, as well as by others – as complementary charitable work that displays Swedish culture in the United States. There is an understanding that women are effective transmitters of national culture both within and beyond their immediate communities. SWEA is not only an organization that promotes Swedish culture in contemporary American society; it also has an inter-generational function. For example, in Chicago, SWEA worked extensively on organizing Swedish language courses and school activities for Swedish and Swedish American children (Sjögren 1995). As one of its members explained, women in SWEA preserve ‘Swedish traditions and pass them on to future generations’ (Sterling 1986, 2).

Fostering Swedish American relations

It is difficult to measure the success, or failure of campaigns and projects intended to promote the national culture of a country. SWEA itself has not undertaken any research or analysis regarding how their work has resulted in generating positive images of Sweden, increased foreign investment in the country, attracted more tourists, and/or the type of impact it has had on Swedish American political relations. However, a review of SWEA’s events and programs during mainly the 1980s and 1990s indicates how the organization actively assumed agency within the realm of cultural diplomacy, and also how some of their activities successfully reached the American public.

The Christmas fairs organized by local chapters throughout the United States represent an example of their accomplishments in this regard. In the 1990s the organization estimated that over one hundred thousand North Americans attended these fairs every year, enjoying Swedish food and traditions (Nilsson 1995a, 22). In fact, SWEA asserted that the Christmas fairs were the largest, ‘Swedish public relations activities on the American continent,’ declaring that these events were guided by the women’s voluntary work and did not cost Sweden and its tourism office anything (Vänman 1999).

The Christmas fairs in Los Angeles continue to be the most well-known, attracting thousands of guests each year (Nilsson 1999). SWEA has engaged with Swedish celebrities such as Hollywood actor Dolph Lundgren (SWEA, 1990), sportspeople such as golfer Annika Sörenstam (SWEA, 1997), and representatives of Swedish businesses, consulates, and Californian politicians (Fetzer 1987) through these events. The Christmas fairs have been covered in local and regional media, including the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News (SWEA, 1986).

The stated purpose of the Christmas fairs, regardless of where they take place, were to present Swedish traditions and the quality of Swedish handicraft to the general public. The showcasing and selling of Swedish products generated publicity for Sweden in addition to functioning as a source of revenue for SWEA (Nilsson 1995b; Brown 1981). On a more general level, the Christmas fairs are an example of how the strategic and marketing abilities of SWEA successfully presented Swedish culture to the American public. The images of Sweden displayed at the fairs in the 1980s and 1990s included famous Hollywood actors, but they also related to an ethno-sentimental and traditional view of Sweden. A case in point is the use of folk costumes by women at the fairs (Brashers 1981). At the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, folk costumes became a popular attire among Swedish and Swedish American women regardless of class background. They symbolize national and regional distinctiveness and reference nationalist ideologies rather than class difference (Lundström 2005; Barton 1997). These costumes also became temporally flexible, worn at events ranging from Christmas fairs, the inauguration of exhibits of Swedish contemporary art in Los Angeles, to the official opening of the IKEA store in Burbank, California (SWEA, Los Angeles, minutes 1990; Lewerth 1981).

Another successful activity in terms of fostering interest in Swedish culture were the various scholarships SWEA awarded to Swedish and foreign citizens from the 1980s onwards. Currently, SWEA International and SWEA chapters contribute around 250,000 USD annually to causes promoting Swedish film, art, music, and literature (SWEA, 2020c). Scholarships for graduate studies continues to be a prioritized category, and often enables students to visit Sweden for studies and research. These educational scholarships were framed as increasing the ‘understanding, tolerance and friendship between peoples of different countries’ (Nilsson 1982, 2). SWEA chapters also sponsored events that promoted Swedish classical music and folk music (Johnsson 1987), and arranged fashion shows displaying Swedish contemporary designers (SWEA, 1991). According to SWEA, the screening of Swedish films in New York was a good way for members to stay in touch with Swedish film production, while ‘giving the American friends an opportunity to practice the Swedish language and come in contact with Swedish culture’ (SWEA, 1985a, 1).

One of the most well-known activities of SWEA remains their annual award, Swedish Woman of the Year. The selection criteria specifies, ‘that the contributions of the recipient should strengthen the bonds between Sweden and another country.’ While cultural events and the scholarship programs are generally aimed at foreigners, this award highlights the Swedish women who act as informal ambassadors of Sweden on the international scene. When the award was presented to Ulla Wachtmeister, wife of Swedish diplomat Wilhelm Wachtmeister in 1989, the official motivation for her win centered on the fact that, ‘Ulla’s position demanded grace and hospitality, involvement in cultural affairs, and commitment to promote Sweden’ (Enhörning 1999, 10). In 1993 Kerstin Lane, the Director of the Swedish American Museum in Chicago, received the award since ‘what better way to promote Sweden in a foreign country than to display its history, culture, traditions and human achievements in a museum?’ (Enhörning 1999, 12). The range of cultural fields supported by SWEA is exemplified by the 2012 award winner, the designer Filippa Knutsson, founder of the clothing brand Filippa K. According to SWEA, Knutson’s ‘distinguished entrepreneurship has contributed to Swedish fashion industry and it has spreads goodwill for Swedish design and entrepreneurship’ (SWEA, 2020d). Regardless whether the Woman of the Year Award highlights Swedish culture or honors successful entrepreneurs, it is framed to reflect contemporary Sweden. A case in point is the 2019 recipient, environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who received the award since she ‘symbolizes respected Swedish values’ (SWEA, 2020e).

The juxtaposition of references to both folkloric and modern Sweden in SWEA’s many public activities since its founding relate to the role the organization assumes as a promoter of contemporary culture and national traditions outside of Sweden. For the members themselves, it continues to be important that the organization helps to uphold Swedish traditions in the United States and the particular type of ‘Swedishness’ that SWEA practices resonates more with present-day Sweden than with the particular culture that developed within Swedish American communities (Blanck 2013; Barton 1997; Barslund 1994). Moreover, in terms of intentions, since its founding SWEA has the explicit ambition to brand Sweden and foster an interest in all things Swedish. As detailed below, this is the result of a strategic and well-planned effort that was often formed in close cooperation with official work to promote Sweden and Swedish culture in America.

The migrant–state connection in Swedish cultural diplomacy

Since Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme’s criticism of American involvement in the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Swedish American relations have centered on expressing the long friendship and connection between the two countries. From Sweden’s perspective, diplomatic relations are aimed at advancing trade agreements and business opportunities between the countries (Hjorthén 2018; Marklund 2016). The work that SWEA undertakes to promote the country rarely stands in conflict with the official images that Sweden has disseminated since the 1980s. As a small, neutral and geographically peripheral country like Sweden, there are no apparent, or potentially tricky areas in the field of foreign policy for an organization like SWEA to negotiate. Instead, the informal meetings and gatherings that SWEA arranges form an important forum where women members engage in cultural diplomacy. At an early stage SWEA had the explicit intention of promoting Sweden and was keen to ensure their country of origin was represented in a professional manner. By attending seminars with consuls, cultural attachés, and other officials since the 1980s the women have gained up-do-date information on how to represent Sweden in the United States (Project, 6 1989, 1).

The contacts between SWEA’s chapters in Los Angeles and New York City and the Swedish Consulates in California and New York State reveal a collaborative relationship. It has long been a tradition that the local SWEA chapter in Los Angeles and New York made the wife of the consul an honorary member of the association. If the consul was a woman, she became an honorary member during her official stay. A common practice has also been to regularly court the consul (and, if the consul was a man, also his partner) at birthdays and to host them at welcome and farewell dinners (SWEA, 1989).

SWEA and the Swedish consulates has also co-arranged events. For example, when a Swedish music ensemble toured the United States in the 1990s, their performances were sponsored jointly by SWEA in New York, the Swedish Consulate in New York, and Ericsson, the Swedish networking and telecommunication company (SWEA, 1985b). The New York chapter worked closely with the Swedish Information Services (SIS), a body operated under the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs through offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco that at the time (Williams 1984). In cooperation with SIS, SWEA hosted public screenings of Swedish films such as A Swedish Love Story by director Roy Andersson (SWEA 1985a).

The fact that the members of SWEA are women is seen as particularly valuable, not only by the women themselves, but also by Swedish consular personnel. In 1998, Anita Näsström-Ekman, the Acting Head of the Swedish Consulate in Los Angeles, referenced the feminine capacities of both herself and the members of SWEA. In a letter addressed to the members, Näsström-Ekman stated that she wanted to collaborate with SWEA in California, and that the consulate together with professional women members could raise the Swedish profile on the American west coast (Näsström 1998, 17). Näsström-Ekman’s statement primarily speaks to working Swedes living in California, and addresses their mutual resources as women. But what exactly this specific feminine resource encompassed is not expanded on by Näsström-Ekman. Her request could be seen as an attempt to engage with recent Swedish emigrants to the American west coast, and the business and entrepreneurially oriented women living there. Coincidentally, SWEA Professional, a sub-group for career women within SWEA International, was established in San Francisco in 2010 (SWEA, 2020f).

The women of SWEA became a resource for Sweden in multiple ways. At least three SWEA members; two from California and one from Chicago, have held the position of honorary consul and consul general of Sweden, blurring the distinctions between unofficial and official connection to the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Bolling 1993; Johnsson 1995; SWEA, 2020g). The present author argues that such overlaps between official and unofficial roles form another reason there were so few conflicts between SWEA members and official representatives of Sweden in the 1980s and 1990s. Besides working closely with consular personnel and government representatives, from its founding the organization already had an idea of the kind of images of Sweden the organization would market. As noted by Swedish American newspapers Vestkusten on 1 May 1998, Barbro Osher, the current Swedish Consul General in San Francisco and founder of SWEA in San Francisco, is known as someone who wants to ‘build bridges between people.’ The statement relates both to her official role as representative of Sweden and the voluntary work of SWEA to promote Swedish culture.

Osher is also a good example of how SWEA members have assumed multiple roles and work to promote Sweden in different ways. When Positive Sweden, a non-governmental organization founded by the Swedish business sector was established in the 1980s, Osher became its North American representative, regularly arranging workshops on how ‘Swedishness’ could be used for branding purposes and in promoting the country in the United States (SWEA, 1996). SWEA and its individual members were either professionally or voluntarily attuned with how modern Sweden could be marketed in congruence with official Swedish government representatives and Swedish institutions. While SWEA activities sometimes referenced Swedish folkloric traditions, the ambition of the organization often exceeded this framing, echoing instead the visions of official Sweden and Swedish representatives in the United States.

However, SWEA’s women members also adopted a very different and supportive role. SWEA’s voluntary activities is an example of how women undertake unpaid work for political entities within the field of diplomacy. From the perspective of SWEA, various Swedish Consulates in the United States relied on the organization to arrange various extra-curricular cultural projects (Velander 1999). An illustrative example of this supportive role comes from the Chicago chapter. In 1982 the city’s Museum of Science and Industry featured the exhibit The Viking world. Eva Thorén, the wife of Swedish Consul Arne Thorén, asked SWEA members if they could help prepare the official opening of the exhibit. Thorén thought that the event would provide valuable PR for Sweden and she believed that the women, unlike a random catering firm, were capable of making authentic Swedish food for the event. A few evenings prior to the opening, the women used the Scandinavian Airlines catering kitchen at O’Hare Airport to prepare the food. They cooked thirty thousand Swedish meatballs for over three thousand guests, and then acted as hostesses at the museum event (Thorén Undated; Rosenberg 1991).

The relationship that developed between official diplomatic Sweden and SWEA members took on different forms, including exchanges of courtesies, planning and hosting events together, SWEA members holding positions as consuls and honorary consuls of Sweden, and SWEA member helping out as event hostesses. The transnational ties did not only include references to the homeland through the self-ascribed roles as unofficial ambassadors. On a very basic level, their work also comprised real connections with Swedish consulates and consular personnel in the United States. SWEA’s cultural work did not clash with the images of the country that the Swedish government wanted to present. On the contrary, the efforts of SWEA were often strategically planned and based on the collaborative effort of promoting Sweden abroad.

Conclusions

The objective of this study was to examine cultural diplomacy from a bottom-up perspective. An analysis of the agency of migrant women in cultural diplomacy and the transnational ties that they established reveal how the participation of women in this field both empower women and reinforce gendered ideas of feminine cultural spheres of action.

The migratory experience itself enables women in SWEA to self-ascribe as unofficial ambassadors of Sweden. The actions of the women are also recognized by official Swedish government representatives as particularly valuable in proliferating positive images of Swedish culture abroad. This suggests that Swedish women who migrate to the United States are able to generate individual and collective spaces of action and act as diplomatic agents for their country of origin.

SWEA’s archival collection reveals that their members actively sought, and successfully established regular contact with official representatives of Sweden. These ties were mutually beneficial. They gave consulates and government funded institutions practical support in projects within the field of cultural diplomacy, and a direct point in American society from which to promote Sweden. These official networks were also beneficial for SWEA’s women members, giving them access to the more formal and politically motivated dissemination of Swedish culture in the United States, and thus the women gained status as unofficial cultural emissaries of Sweden. Together, the women created what can best be described as an unofficial cultural institute by establishing transnational connections to their country of origin. Migrant women might appear to be detached from diplomatic practices, but studying the groundwork of their activities reveal that they may take an active part in cultural diplomacy.

The practical work undertaken by the women in SWEA, both with and without the support of consulates, also points to how the women could determine what images of Sweden to display to American society, and how they themselves influenced the ways that cultural exchanges develop between countries. One of the best examples of this is the substantial annual donations that chapters in the United States award to students, musicians, filmmakers, artists, and designers. This funding gives SWEA the possibility to further channel representations of Swedish culture. Another significant influence they have in this regard is their support of successful Swedish business women, entrepreneurs, and activists, through which SWEA can display images of accomplished Swedish women who represent claimed Swedish values.

At the same time, the active participation of the women in cultural diplomacy calcifies certain ideas of feminine spheres of action and symbolic representations of women as the bearers of national culture. That the women hold particularly effective positions to spread Swedish culture is directly connected to their feminine capabilities, framed as such both by the women themselves and others. However, exactly what these feminine abilities are is often not expanded upon. Looking particularly at the supportive role they assume, the term suggests that the work of the members relates to the caring responsibilities that women have had within diplomacy for centuries. It also perpetuates the idea that women perform unpaid work in international relations.

SWEA has been identified as a different type of organization compared to earlier similar organizations because of its class composition and explicit self-identity as one of the largest non-governmental institutions working to proliferate positive images of Swedish culture internationally. A study from below, which focuses on other similar networks, as well as individual women as Selma has the potential to reveal how organizations and different generations of women have been taking active part in cultural diplomacy. An effective method of understanding how they have done so is to study the self-ascribed roles that individuals assume, to examine their intentions in performing certain cultural work, to identify their target audience and to study the ways that they establish contact with official representatives of the sending state.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Anna Ahlström and Ellen Terserus Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Nevra Biltekin

Nevra Biltekin is a researcher at the Department of History, Stockholm University and an affiliated researcher at the Department of Northern European Studies at Humboldt University, Berlin. Her previous work has centred on gender and the professionalization of the Swedish diplomatic corps and the history of international relations.

Notes

1. Selma Jacobson became a member of SWEA in Chicago in 1982. Although her actual work in the organization appears to have been limited, her early connections to SWEA attests to her participation in various organizations that worked on Swedish American causes.

2. The Chicago chapter was founded by Kerstin Lane in 1981. Although established as Svea (with a standard ‘v’) and as a separate organization from SWEA, communication between Svea and SWEA was frequent. In 1993, Svea in Chicago officially became a local chapter of SWEA operating under the umbrella organization SWEA International.

3. The empirical sources referenced in this study are held at the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center (SSIRC), Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. Analysis of the material was conducted in February 2019. The data consists of correspondence, minutes from board meetings, member magazines, photographs, and newsletters produced in the 1980s and 1990. The article also includes information from SWEA’s webpages.

4. For a distinction between cultural diplomacy and cultural relations, see (Arndt 2005).