Abortion remains a contentious issue, which greatly raises ethical problems. This thesis examines the leading arguments in the Swedish abortion debate around the ? in terms of legislation ? critical years of 1938 and 1974. With Foucault's genealogical method, Butler's theories of gender as a social construction in relation to power and doxa, the study examines what the development of the argumentation says about the views on morality, the woman's body, life, individual and state? How has the arguments pro and against abortion changed over time and what does this say about the norms that guide and orientate the arguments? The most obvious change in argumentation is seen in the shift from an absolute moral and conservative position into an increasingly relativistic and liberal position, and this study will argue that this shift has its prerequisites in the changing status of the citizen and state.

The object with this bachelor thesis is to illustrate if equality is present during the interaction between female and male players in the World of Warcraft with focus on the female players conception. The main question is: How does gender matter in the interaction between female and male players in WoW? This question is particularly interesting because WoW is in its own construction neutral in regards to gender in the aspect that gender does not hinder or benefit your avatar when it comes to the avatars development or possibilities. This bachelor thesis describes the views three of female WoW players and how they perceive the interaction with male players with focus on equality. The informants? personal thoughts and experiences are described.

This study aims to seek knowledge about what preschool teachers think about gender issues, and if it affects their work. The study has been performed in a multicultural district in Stockholm. A working party of three teachers, one male and two females, has been interviewed and observed. The empirical material from the interviews and observations has then been analyzed based on theories about gender, femaleness, maleness and cultural behaviour. The result proves that one of the three teachers considers that there are general typical female and male behaviour.

I have done a qualitative literature study, in which the data consisted of descriptions of drug abuse in ten social inquiry text documents (that also are applications for institutional care) concerning teenagers. Social welfare secretaries representing two social welfare offices in Malmö, has written the text documents. The purpose of this essay was to examine thedescriptions and, if possible, try to make out and describe stereotyped themes and patterns depending on gender. To obtain the purpose of this essay I searched for answers of the following three central questions:- What appears to be the social welfare secretary's purpose in describing the teenager's drug abuse?- How is the parameter gender related to the descriptions of drug abuse in the social inquiry text documents?- How are other possible gender-stereotyped descriptions of the teenager related to the descriptions of drug abuse?In the analysis of the descriptions, which where the foundation of the study, I found patterns in describing drug abuse depending on gender.

This paper describes what some 9th grade students think of their sex education in school, especially when it comes to gender, sexual identity, norms and deviation. I have been using group interviews in two different schools, two groups per school. The result of the students' answers have been analysed on the basis of queer theory focusing on gender and sexual identity. The result of the study shows that the students consider their sexual education to be lacking, especially when it comes to gender, sexual identity, norms and deviation. Another conclusion of the analysis is that a sex education grounded in queer theory would be more inclusive..

Culture, orgin and identity are hot topics that are being discussed everywhere, for example in newspapers, lunchrooms and on Twitter. Politicians, media and ordinary people have displayed different antiracist acts, for example campaigns, marches and political actions.But you may wonder if it really is that effective, or if the antiracism reproduces racism with its language. The purpose of this study is to see if articles from the newspaper Aftonbladet's antiracist campaign ?We like different!? reproduces racism through its language.The method that is used is discourse analysis, more specific Chantal Laclau och Ernesto Mouffes discourse theory. The theories the study relies on are race, racism, framing, racism in news, binary oppositions, stereotypes, whiteness and orientalism.Two discourses were found in the material, ?We like different? and ?We like the same?.

Swedish consumption habits led to a discourse on consumption needs of the general public during the first half of the 20th century, involving primarily several institutions, but also a variety of popular movement organizations, among which we find Kooperativa Förbundet. In this discourse, ascetic consumption and a rationalized outlook on consumption were idealized, as the Swedes needed to be economical not to live beyond their means. The objective of this study is to investigate the ideals this type of discourse conveys throughout the latter half of the 20th century. This will be achieved by investigating selected editions of the cookbook ?Vår Kokbok? published by Kooperativa Förbundet.

The aim of this paper is to elucidate and analyze history teacher's didactic choices in the conflict between unequal educational materials and the requirements of equality in the curriculum of Swedish secondary school. The empirical data consists of interviews with five secondary school history teachers, observations of their lessons as well as analysis of their tests. The starting point was to investigate teachers' didactic work in the role as a bridge between the non-equal historiography presented in textbooks in history and the curriculum?s demands for equality. Three different approaches have been observed in the teachers' didactic work when considering gender perspective into their teaching: that women become extensions in a male-dominated historiography; that another part of the story is presented when a gender perspective is considered; and that the gender perspective is included in history teaching and becomes an integral part of all the content of the subject.Several of the teachers acknowledged that gender equality is less prioritized than the courses core content and related assessment criteria.

AbstractTitle: The Construction of Science in Television Crime Shows ? a Critical Discourse Analysis of CSI and Bones (Om konstruktionen av vetenskap i kriminalserier på TV ? en kritisk diskursanalys av CSI och Bones).Number of pages: 45 (50 including enclosures)Author: Lovisa SandbergTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communications Studies DPeriod: Spring 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim was to explore the construction of science in the television crime shows CSI and Bones.Material/Method: The method used is critical discourse analysis based on the thoughts of Norman Fairclough. The analysis includes three episodes of CSI and three episodes of Bones,broadcast from between the 10th and 25th of April, in 2006 on Swedish television.Main results: The scientists in CSI and Bones are constructed as rational and calm; they are mainly concerned with finding the truth. On the surface, the truth is objective and reachable, although, in these TV-shows all observations are theory laden.Keywords: CSI, Bones, crime shows, television, science, discourse analysis..

This paper intends to examine how parents think and reflect on gender issues when they borrow books for their children at the library. The theory applied is Yvonne Hirdman?s theory of a gender system. A questionnaire was made available at the Children's department of Uppsala City Library in February, 2010. The material was compiled and analyzed with the intention to try to detect trends, patterns and themes, rather than statistics and hard data.Parents in the study perceive themselves as gender-conscious.

In Sweden there is an integration policy and a policy for national minorities. The integration policy aims to integrate newly arrived immigrants (nyanlända invandrare), whereas the minority policy aims to maintain and strengthen the rights of the national minorities. The national minorities are though, at times, included into the integration policy, even though they hold a minority status in Sweden. This paper aims to, through discourse analysis, investigate the research question: ?how is the content of integration referred to, when it is related to immigrants, contra when it is related to national minorities?.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how Ranma ½, one of the most popular Japanese Manga series, reflects the gender system in society. We have chosen to make use of two different gender theorists to determine if Ranma ½ follows the gender norms of society or not. The theoretical framework is based primarily on Yvonne Hirdman's theory of the two basic principles: the principle of dichotomy and the principle of hierarchy. Judith Butler's theory of performative gender is used as a complement.

In our study we examined recurrent patterns and changes in the representation ofhomosexual persons in Swedish daily newspapers 1987, 1997 and 2007.We analysed articles about HIV-infected persons and articles with a view to portray thelife conditions of gay and lesbian persons from the three different years. We chose toonly analyze news articles that intend to represent real human beings, which mean thatwe did not analyze reports that only reproduce abstract knowledge from authorities.With analytical tools from semiotics and discourse analysis we identified some recurrentpatterns in the representation of homosexual people. We found that a recurrent pattern inthat when homosexual people are seen as groups, they are described as deviant,discriminated and some times as a threat. When portrayed as individuals the nonanonymouspersons appear in articles and pictures as normal, strong and healthy. Lesbianwomen are not represented in the articles from 1987, but in articles from 1997 and 2007they appear as unhappy when single and happy in a relationship.The results also showed some interesting differences in news representation ofhomosexual persons between the three investigated years.

The aim of this essay is to examine how gender is described in pictures in textbooks used in swedish upper secondary school. The research question is: How is gender being potrayed in the pictures of new age in the textbook in relation to traditional dichothomy, hierarchy and detraditionalization? The material used in this study consists of five textbooks in religion used for education in upper secondary schools in Sweden. In total, 18 pictures from these books that describe new age, constitutes the subject of analysis. The method used is picture analysis.

The aim of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers reason about gender stereotypical and gender neutral toys and other material. I would also like to see how the pedagogues reason about gender segregation when it comes to toys. To investigate the issue, I have interviewed three pedagogues from different preschools. The results showed that the work procedures differed a bit from school to school, although they all wanted to achieve the same goal. A goal that our curriculum mention as well: Not to make a difference between boys and girls.