This essay analyses text written by a gender equality movement critical of feminism. Themovement is active on the Internet and through this essay I would like to show the tensions in contemporary political debates on gender equality and feminism. 350 blogposts have been deconstructed through discourse theoretical method. In the analyses I have shown the discursive struggle that is going on within the movement in giving meaning to concepts as knowledge, society, gender, politics, feminism and gender equality. The movement is using the technical potential in blogs and common Internet forums tocreate a common political we.

For the last decades, Sweden has transformed from a state with strong elements of corporatism, to a governance of pluralistic character. This development has opened up to a new form of participation ? lobbyism ? which since has spread and commercialized. Because of this, a report on the state of Swedish democracy ? Demokratiutredningen ? was issued to examine the phenomenon of lobbyism as it was feared to challenge the functioning of a representative democracy.

The aim for this thesis is to study the international gender Equality work from a perspective of the concept of universalism and particularism, with the United Nation?s Declaration of Human Rights, and especially -?The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women?, in focus. The shadowreports of Namibia and Sweden are used as examples of how countries with different historical, political and social contexts are working with gender equality.A theroetical framework is constitued by theories as postmodernism, postcolonialism and feminism with basis from social constructionism. The thesis is methodological influenced by Critical Discourse Analysis. Notions from former studies were also used as tools in the analysis.

This paper takes it points of departure in a gender equality perspective and the perceived paradox between the governmental labour market policy and family policy. The first policy area has the aim to put people to work, whereas the other introduces a reform, vårdnadsbidraget, that point in the opposite direction. Which are the problem representations within the two policy areas and are the problem representations concordant or contradictive? From a constructivist perspective, langue is closely related to power through defining and ascribing meaning to reality. Drawing on political documents, speeches and articles formulated within the government, this paper analyzes problem representations through the use of discourse analysis and feminist political theory.

AbstractEssay in Political Science, C ? level, by Ylva Björkegren, spring semester 2008. Tutor: Anna Spånning. ?Sida from a liberal feministic perspective.

The purpose of this study is to analyze picture books from a gender perspective. The books are found in a book box that the libraries send out to preschools. This study is based on the following questions:How are boys and girls portrayed in picture books?Do the picture books encourage or discourage the principles of equality found in the Curriculum for the Pre-School and the Equality work conducted in the preschools?I performed a qualitative text and picture analysis of 12 picture books. I used Maria Nikolajeva and Kajsa Wahlströms schedule of typical masculine and feminine qualities and activities when analysing the picture books.

AbstractThe aim of this thesis is to investigate how the Swedish political parties have been discussing gender politics since 1970 to nowadays, in order to see which problems and solutions that have been suggested by the parties to increase the representation of women and the equality between the sexes. The theoretical framework is constructed by theories of women´s representation, gender politics and women?s interest.To describe how the discussions about gender politics have been between the different parties, the methodological foundation consists of an ideology critical textual analysis of the political programs from the Swedish parties.The analysis confirms that the discussions about gender politics and the political representation of women increase over time. The most important issue of equality is the lack of women´s rights and possibilities in the labor market as a consequence of women´s responsibility of home and childcare. The analysis also shows that parties which discuss women as a category and the underrepresentation of women also point out the importance to increase equality between men and women..

The purpose of this study has been to look into and analyze the view on sex equality in textbooks and teaching media, and teaching of a group of upper secondary school teachers, through a gender perspective. The teachers teach subjects within social- and political science. The two questions that I wanted to answer are: What views do the teachers have on sex equality in their teaching? What views do the teachers have on sex equality in the teaching media (textbooks and other teacher media) which they have access to? Since I wanted to look into the teachers own views I chose unstructured interviews as the method of gather empirical information. To interpret the transcribed texts I chose the hermeneutic view of people as intentional.

This paper is a statistical examination about how the European Parliament views questions about equality between women and men. It focuses on how the members understand gender equality depending on ideological standpoint, nationality and gender. In other words, it focuses on whether the politicians have different point of views depending on which parliamentary political group they belong to, which member state they are coming from or which gender (man/woman) they have.Equality between women and men is a complex problem. This paper is concentrating on two questions; the problem about setting up a European gender institute and the problem about gender mainstreaming.The examination, which is a statistical examination about how politicians were voting in both questions, shows that all variables, ideological standpoint, nationality and gender, are determining factors for their voting behaviour in questions about gender equality. Ideological standpoint is the most important variable, second in place is gender and the least important factor is nationality..

The purpose of this examination was to make a qualitative study focusing on children's influence from a gender perspective. The study is based on interviews. We wanted to investigate teachers' perception of children's influence in the preschool.Earlier research on children´s influence and gender has also helped us in the conclusion of this examination.The survey consists of ten interviews with teachers of varied work experience in the preschool. We also chose to interview teachers in other positions, since this is often the case in preschools today. From the result we can see that there are different levels of skill and awareness regarding the topic of children's influence from a gender perspective.

The aim of my thesis was to examine if educators need to be critical of what they read to the children from a gender perspective. I examined how picture books depict gender and if the books enhances or breaks perception of gender roles. I also examined educator?s perception of gender and if they think picture books can affect children?s perceptions of gender, but also what educators think about gender equality through picture books. The study is based on analysis of five picture books and interview with five educators.The results of analyzes showed that picture books are stereotyped and enhances perceptions of gender roles.

The aim of this study is to describe, from a didactic point of view, wether gender norms are challenged and sex equality is maintained when two teachers in grade one communicate with their pupils. This is based on the existing norms in our society which generates into certain expectations of how one should act depending on wether you are a girl or a boy. In addition to this, the lack of equality between women and men is a global question. The norms and conditions in society are reproduced, but can also be deconstructed in school (Martinsson and Reimers 2008, p. 8).

AbstractEquality between donor and receiver, a study about equality in the Swedish aid politics 1960 ? 2000.Essay in political science, C-level, at Karlstads University, by Britt-Louise Orrmalm Karlsson. Spring 2006. Tutor: Hans Lödén.Sweden has a history as an official aid donor since 1950. The development cooperation has changed through the years in accordance to the Swedish policy and the politics.

The legal right to take time off from work to care for one`s children has been regulated in Swedish law since late 1930. This right was limited to mothers and was provided under restricted forms. There was a long qualification period and the length of parental leave was limited.Since then, the right to parental leave has been extended through several modifications of the law. The question of equality in both the labour market and the private sector has been one of the greatest forces behind these changes. By including men in the right to take parental leave, the work place has become more equal and it is now considered a natural part of the employee?s life to request time off to care for children.Labour Arbitration Court has shown through its case law that equality in the work place is of the utmost importance and has shown its support in this matter through its judgements.

In today´s labour market, men and women are segregated, both vertically and horizontally. Exceptions to the rule of gender segregation are few. There is, however, one managerial group where women and men are equal in numbers: school principals. In a short period of time, the distribution in terms of sex among principals in Sweden has changed dramatically. How does gender equality in numbers affect gender equality in a qualitative sense? That is the focus of this thesis.