The aim of this thesis is to revise the theories on the roles of first ladies, so that they can be applied to spouses of heads of government in non-presidential countries and so as to interpret the roles of spouses to head of government in the light of the social, cultural, political and religious contexts in which they exist. In order to do so, Watson’s theory on the roles of first ladies is applied on the Swedish context. The following research questions structure the study: 1) Which have been the roles and the political activities of the Swedish Prime minister’s wife Birgitta Ed during the Prime minister’s first year in office? 2) With which spheres of influence are those roles associated? 3) Do the roles and political activities reflect the social, cultural, political and religious context of Sweden? 4) How do the empirical findings and the ecclesiological perspective from questions 1-3 relate to Watson’s theory?

When applying an operationalised version of Watson’s theory, made up of ideal types of the roles and political activities of first ladies, a hybrid thematic analysis of articles from Swedish newspapers is used. The same sources are also used for looking particularly on with which spheres of influence those roles are associated. This is then complemented by an attempt to a thick description of the meaning of the roles of spouses of head of government in the Swedish context, using data from a wider range of secondary sources. 

The study sheds light on that Watson’s theory largely can be applied to a non-presidential country, but it also shows the need to make it more explicitly sensitive to the social, cultural, political and religious context in which it is applied. Especially it indicates the need to include also religious aspects in the study of first ladies globally.