Editing Swedish Academy (section)

===Members===
[[File:GierowOlssonGustavVI.jpg|thumb|Academy members [[Karl Ragnar Gierow]] and [[Henry Olsson]] with the Swedish king [[Gustav VI]], 1966.]] 
Members are elected by a secret ballot in the Academy and before the result is made public it must be submitted to the Academy's Patron, the [[King of Sweden]], for his approval. Members of the Academy include writers, linguists, literary scholars, historians and a prominent jurist. Initially writers were in the minority in the Academy, but during the twentieth century the number of writers grew to represent more than half of The Eighteen. The Swedish Academy have a long history of being a heavily male dominated institution, but the Academy has recently moved towards better equality. Since 20 December 2019 one third of the chairs belong to female Academy members.<ref>[https://www.svenskaakademien.se/en/the-academy The Academy] Swedish Academy</ref>

Prior to 2018 it was not possible for members of the academy to resign; membership was for life, although the academy could decide to exclude members. This happened twice to [[Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt]], who was excluded in 1794, re-elected in 1805 and excluded again in 1811. In 1989, members [[Kerstin Ekman]] and [[Lars Gyllensten]] chose to stop participating in the meetings of the academy, over its refusal to express support for [[Salman Rushdie]] when [[The Satanic Verses controversy|Ayatollah Khomeini condemned him to death for ''The Satanic Verses'']],<ref name="upi">{{cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/03/13/Two-Swedish-Academy-members-resign-over-Rushdie-affair/3078605768400/ |title=Two Swedish Academy members resign over Rushdie affair |author=Burman, Pal |date=13 March 1989 |publisher=UPI }}</ref> shortly after a third member, [[Werner Aspenström]], also stopped participating in the meetings for unspecified reasons. In 2005, [[Knut Ahnlund]] made the same decision, as a protest against the choice of [[Elfriede Jelinek]] as Nobel laureate for 2004.<ref name=bbcref2>{{Cite news | title=Nobel Judge Steps Down in Protest |work=BBC News | publisher=BBC | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4329962.stm |date=11 October 2005 | access-date=13 October 2007}}</ref><ref name=msnbc1>[[Associated Press]], [https://www.today.com/popculture/who-deserves-nobel-prize-judges-don-t-agree-wbna9665122 "Who Deserves Nobel Prize? Judges Don't Agree"], [[MSNBC]], 11 October 2005. Retrieved 13 October 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/12/books.booksnews|title=Nobel winner's work is violent porn, says juror|last=Harding|first=Luke|date=12 October 2005|work=The Guardian|access-date=24 August 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> On 25 November 2017, [[Lotta Lotass]] said in an interview that she had not participated in the meetings of the academy for more than two years and did not consider herself a member any more.<ref>[http://www.bt.se/kultur/darfor-lamnade-lotta-lotass-svenska-akademien/ Därför lämnade Lotta Lotass Svenska Akademien], 25 November 2017.</ref>