The aim and purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the effects of affirmative action as a tool to improve the equality of the sexes in a male dominated organisation such as the Swedish armed forces. The study takes a qualitative approach, using feminist theory as a point of departure. Primarily socially based differences between men and women are identified and the resistance towards change is taken into account.To understand the impact of affirmative action I have observed the political debate on the subject and contrasted it to the ongoing debate from within the armed forces. Extensive interviews have been held with both men and women from varying ranks and ages to understand what the overall opinion of the method is.My results show that there is a widespread animosity towards affirmative action as a method of improving equality. Both in the political debate and within the organisation in question.

Our purpose with this essay is to find explanations to the genesis of the Swedish law against prostitution now in power, known as Sexköpslagen 1998:408. We enter deeply into the official reports behind the law. This Swedish law implies that in a sex trade a crime is committed only by the consumer, and not by the seller. Our essay will result in an analysis of what sexköpslagen is an expression for. Our assumption is that the so called ideology of (gender) equality in Sweden might be a part of the explanation to the genesis of sexköpslagen.

The purpose of this BA-thesis is to examine how many girls, boys, women and men who appear in children?s programmes in the years 1978, 1992 and 2007. We have also studied if they are described as typical gender role stereotypes and we have looked at the power conditions between girls and boys, women and men and children and adults. From the results we then examined the changes through out the years. We have made this possible by choosing two days each year when most children were watching the programmes.With the gender role theory we have brought up the important issue of the fact that men appear more frequently in media then women and by doing so the media preserve men as the standard gender.

The aim of this research is to do a comparison between students? view of equality in secondary school and in gymnasium. The research begins with four focus groups, two on each grade to conduct material. The focus groups with girls and boys were separated from each other. With help from the researcher, acting as a moderator in the focus groups, the students have discussed advertisement and what message it convey.

The aim with this masters thesis is to investigate how gender is presented in Swedish picture books, in order to give librarians and other actors in the field knowledge about what kind of books they supply impressionable children with. I investigate if and how the changes concerning gender-equality in the Swedish society during the last 25 years are reflected in childrens literature, and compare how men and women are portrayed in four books from the early 1980s with four books from the 2000s. My study is delimited to three aspects of character formation, introduced by Maria Nikolajeva: description of psychology, actions and relations to other characters. It is carried through by consultation of Yvonne Hirdmans theory of how men and women are held apart and that the man in this relation constitutes the norm as well as Nikolajevas list of typical male and female characteristics. By reading and interpreting the chosen books, I analyse both text and pictures.

Rules on parental leave have over the years been the subject of several gender debates. The big question has particularly been whether a further individualization of the days should be established. Sweden is a relatively equal country but differences still exist between men and women in the labor market, such as differences in wages. A fact that is considered encouraging for this is the uneven distribution of parental leave between men and women. It has now been nearly 40 years since the introduction of the first parental insurance but we have still not achieved Gender Equality in working life which was the main purpose.The main purpose of this essay is to study the motives for the proposal of individualized parental leave, and in addition examine how this change of rules could impact on Gender Equality in the work place.

AbstractSweden is a country with good reputation when it comes to questions aboutequality. The definition of equality is not always explicit though. The aim of thisthesis is to examine what Swedish equality is and what it should be. By studyingdescriptions of equality and discrimination in the political programs of the partiesof the Swedish parliament from the sixties until today, I examine which groupsare included and excluded from the concept of equality. The analyse shows thatthe concept initially was only referring to class matters.

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 bachelor thesis explores the conditions for a harmonized EU Gender Equality policy. Recently the maternity leave directive has been introduced by the European commission and seeks to improve the conditions for pregnant workers. The controversial subject of this maternity leave has illustrated many of the problems connected to the development of a social dimension in EU. First of all, the debate concerning the maternity leave directive in the European Parliament has shown that both sides in the parliament seem positive towards creating legislation in this matter on EU level. However, parties at the right tend to disagree to many of the amendments in the proposal, such as the maximum entitlement.

This master?s thesis investigates how six Swedish public libraries integrate equality aspects in their user oriented activity. The theoretical starting point for the study is that Sweden is a part of a gender system characterized by gender separation and male superiority, as described by the Swedish historian Yvonne Hirdman and theories that argue that femininity and masculinity are social constructions. Another starting point is that the library sphere cannot be separated from the gender inequality in society. Since the library is part of a gender system that value individuals who are seen as males and separates men and women, some of the library users may be neglected.

The study deals with the causes of unjustified differences in pay between women and men in the banking sector. The purpose of this paper has been to examine how a gender project implemented in the private banking organizations from a gender-and implementation perspective. The aim of the project examined is to even unjustified differences in pay between men and women in the banking and finance sector. The main issues are: ? How has the project been implemented and what are the real and perceived results? ? How can the opportunities and barriers to successful implementation course with emphasis on gender? The method used is a qualitative study, where the empirical material consisted of focus group interviews.

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.

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.

The aim of this paper is to examine how gender roles are described in two children's books and compare the results against the curriculum Lgr11 's values. The compared books have different aims though one of the analyzed books claimed to go against the gender roles and the other one isn?t. The method of analysis is discourse analysis and deconstruction of the text by using Nikolajeva´s (2004) pattern for stereotype gender descriptions and Kåreland´s (2005) analysis of story actions based on gender representations in children's literature. The analysis of the texts shows that there are differences between how the two books characters are described depending on gender. What emerges is that in one of the books femininity is valued high but instead it lacks equality between the sexes, while in the second book the main characters are described as equal even though the other characters are described in a stereotypical way.

The aim of this investigation work " What was it called...Equality...? is to study a clinics current gender equailty plan from a gender approach and by a field survey see if, and in that case, how it can be improved. A connection between existing gender norms and gender power strukctures is applied in the results of this survey in order to illustrate their significance from an individual as well as a structural perspektive.The survey has been carried through by a field survey as well as a discourse analysis as method. Yvonne Hirdmans gender power system is on of the main theoretical points of departure.The results that I have achieved in this essay is that gender can be looked at in different ways within the labour market where women have the main responsibility over the family and are considered more nursing then men. Men on the other hand are thinking of their carriers and have higher salary requirements.