Professional legitimacy in Swedish wildlife management: frontline bureaucrats in a gendered governance landscape

Swedish wildlife management is characterized by multi-level governance, stakeholder conflict, and strong cultural ties to hunting. In this contested arena, frontline wildlife officers play a central role in mediating between state authority and local interests, making professional legitimacy a critical institutional resource. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with wildlife officers from 20 out of 21 County Administrative Boards, this article examines how wildlife officers in Sweden build and sustain professional legitimacy through everyday practices within a gendered governance landscape and analyses legitimacy as a situated accomplishment enacted through bureaucratic neutrality, relational and emotional labour, and alignment with cultural norms. Findings show that while objectivity and rule adherence are formally universal ideals, access to legitimacy-enhancing practices is shaped by gendered expectations, amplifying credibility for some while constraining others, particularly women. The study contributes to research on environmental governance by integrating institutional work and gender theory, revealing how legitimacy is maintained in practice.