The thesis provides with the broad overview about the consumer awareness of the gender dimension within brand personalities. The research contributes to branding theory and gender studies and demonstrates that consumer gender influences does not influence the perceived brand personality gender. However, it also shows that consumers prefer brands with a clear gender, but not necessarily the same gendered brands..

Sweden is a country based on democracy and equality. As a result, both men and women areencouraged to aspire equal career opportunities.The aim of this study is to explore how social and cultural contexts, as well as gender aspects,affect Swedish Upper Secondary Class pupils when they choose career. The study focuses onstudents who have chosen an ambitious school curriculum.As method, the study uses both qualitative interviews with students and a quantitative survey.The theoretical framework is based on gender theory and on the social and cultural contexttheory of Bourdieu.The result of the study shows that gender and social as well as cultural context affect students?ambitions and career choices..

Studien syftar till att studera jämställdhetsarbetet och synen på jämställdhet i en kommunal förvaltning. Ambitionen är att ur ett jämställdhetsperspektiv identifiera förbättringsområden och komma med förslag på strategiskt jämställdhetsarbete och hållbar jämställdhetsutveckling inom förvaltningens olika enheter. I vår studie har vi använt en kvalitativ ansats i syfte att nå en djupare förståelse för hur respondenterna upplever och ser på jämställdhet och jämställdhetsarbetet i förvaltningen. För att nå en sådan förståelse har vi sammanlagt gjort tio semistrukturerade intervjuer varav en dessa tio var en informantintervju. Vi använde oss av Kvales meningskoncentrering där de större meningarna som intervjupersonerna uttalade formulerades mer koncentrerat för att underlätta analysen av vår empiri.

The purpose of this study is, by groupinterviewing students in upper secondary school, to investigate students comprehension of equality on a principle level and a concrete level. The questions at issue are as follows; how is the comprehension on respective levels described and is there any difference or similarities between the two levels? Further more, this study also aims to end with a discussion regarding the result from the mainpurpose in relation to the educational environment. In my conclusion there is to be find a certain difference between the comprehensions of equality on the two levels. The conception of equality is in the beginning principled and there is no exception from the worth of every individual but however, when the conception is brought out in reality it gets depended of its context and the comprehension for equality becomes more dynamic. The project will be completed with a discussion regarding the results in relation to the educational environment. .

AbstractThe aim of this study is to investigate the implementation process and the implementation steering of the social development aspects, gender equality and integration, in the program for regional development of the region Kronoberg in the period of 2004-2007.The study asks three questions: 1) How have the social development aspects, gender equality and integration, been implemented in the program for regional development of the region Kronoberg? 2) What has facilitated or hindered the implementation of the two social development aspects? 3) What possibilities to steer the implementation process of the two social development aspects exist at the governmental and at the regional level?In order to answer these questions a qualitative method has been used. To be able to analyse the empirical material, which consists of documents and interviews, the theoretical framework comprehends the policy process and implementation steering. The conclusion is that the incorporation of the social development aspects in the regional development program does not fully correspond with the central intentions, and that is due to circumstances at the regional level..

This thesis investigates if privatization of the Swedish healthcare system influences our view on the meaning of equality. This system is based on the principle that all people are equals and that healthcare should be provided on the basis of need. I apply critical ideology analysis to investigate how our view of equality might change because of the evolvement of society. A critical view may be explained as an interest in exploring things that seem obvious to many. Important questions to answer are why equality is regarded as such a natural concept in the society and how healthcare is actually provided.

The aim with this study was to examine how social service statement in 3 § social-judgements LVU (Swedish care of young persons act) produce ideas about gender. We have taken an interest in the production of both boys and girls and their mothers and fathers because there are clear differences in the description of these. From a historical perspective, the differences between gender in social assessments occurred despite the fact that discrimination is prohibited by law and despite the fact that social service shall work on the basis of an gender equality perspective. In the analysis and interpretation of the rulings we have been inspired by a critical discourse analysis. 30 social-judgements have been analyzed where of 15 concerns girls and 15 involve boys.

Officially, the EU gender policy since 2000 has been guided by the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming. This strategy aims to promote gender equality and is informed by a feminist ontology which stipulates that women are structurally subordinated.In this essay, I examine whether the European Commission has adequately adhered to this gender policy in its free trade negotiations with the ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement. As a result of my text analysis of documents related to the negotiations, opinion pieces by interested actors and policy papers of the EU, I find that the Commission does not act in accordance to its stated gender policy.To explain this discrepancy between policy intent and actions, I employ postliberal feminist theory and Robert Putnam's Two-Level Game Theory Model. By analyzing statistics and published research, I explore how gender issues are being represented politically on a domestic and international level.My findings show that a key cause of this discrepancy lies in the low levels of female participation in the political institutions of the EU and ACP; a lack of participation that is especially pronounced in the area of international economics. In explaining the constraints on female participation and the prospects of full implementation of the EU's gender policy in the international political economy, I emphasize the role of culturally and historically gendered institutions..

The aim of this research is to evaluate whether the social environment of Swedish high school students affects their views on the multicultural society. The research material was collected through the use of two focus groups containing high school students from two different schools, one group is used to a multicultural social environment while the other group is used to a less multicultural social environment. With the researcher acting as a moderator in the focus groups, the students discussed different questions regarding multiculturalism, gender equality and religion. The theory that this research is based on suggests that the social environment and the social capital affects the students views on the multicultural society. The results of the research were evaluated and connected to the theory.

This paper attempts to display how five teachers of social studies use and relate to the policy documents and their instructions on gender. To penetrate the subject, five teachers were intreviewed. Each interview focused on how the curriculum attempts to guide teachers regarding gender, sex differences and equality of opportunity. The collected information was processed, analyzed and discussed using gender studies and discourse theory.The results show that the interpretation and usage of the curriculum is very subjective and varies greatly between all the interviewed teachers. Their personal interpretation proves to be crucial when it comes to making reality of the stated goals in the curriculum, concerning actively working towards equality of opportunity between sexes.

The main strategy of gender equality policies has since the 1990s been gender mainstreaming. Many government inquiries show how much the Swedish government, provincial governments and municipalities are working with gender mainstreaming. The purpose of this paper is to investigative how the municipalities within the county of Stockholm handle gender mainstreaming demands in relation to other demands that the municipalities face. This is in order to closer investigate the hidden factors that create barriers to gender mainstreaming efforts. Given the study's purpose and the formulation of research question, qualitative method is the most suitable method to fulfill the purpose.

The purpose with this essay is to get a deeper insight into why there is a lack of male educators in Swedish preschools. I also want to know which role the male educators have in comparison to the female educators. This essay builds on four questions, which covers:The cause of the lack of males in Swedish preschoolsIf there are any gender bound expectations on male educators in the Swedish preschoolsWhat the woman educators perceive about the roles of the male educators in the Swedish preschoolsHow the male educator experience his own work in a workplace dominated by womenThe method I have used is a qualitative interview study in which I have interviewed four male educators and two woman educators from three different preschools. The result of this study shows that male educators gave different reasons to why there is a lack of male educators in Swedish childcare. According to the male educators the reason for this situation is that there is a worry to be seen as a feminine person, get singled out as a pedophile and that the childcare sector has low status.

This study is based on the notion of "the postsecular society". I have identified both similar and dissimilar values within current and official publications regarding human rights and gender equality authored by the Swedish Feminist Party and the Church of Sweden. The aim of this study is to identify and review similarities and differences in values, as expressed in definitions and standpoints, and also to try to explain how it is that the actors have similar and dissimilar values. In this context I have chosen the sociologist Jürgen Habermas's theory about "the postsecular society" to increase the understanding how and why similar values within religious and secular actors are presented in, what Habermas calls, "the postsecular society". I have used a qualitative and comparative content analysis for this study. The result shows that the Swedish Feminist Party has a more humanistic view.

This paper attempts to display how five teachers of social studies use and relate to the policy documents and their instructions on gender. To penetrate the subject, five teachers were intreviewed. Each interview focused on how the curriculum attempts to guide teachers regarding gender, sex differences and equality of opportunity. The collected information was processed, analyzed and discussed using gender studies and discourse theory.The results show that the interpretation and usage of the curriculum is very subjective and varies greatly between all the interviewed teachers. Their personal interpretation proves to be crucial when it comes to making reality of the stated goals in the curriculum, concerning actively working towards equality of opportunity between sexes.

During our formative years, technology has always had a natural part of everyday life, and for us technology has never been particularly gendered. If this depends on the climate and the attitude of our homes, ourselves, the combination of both or something completely different is a question we have asked ourselves at times. But our approach to technology does not seem as obvious to all women, and today the IT industry is heavily dominated by men. This has meant that we have asked the question whether there is any underlying reason why so few women opt for IT courses? Is there a link between how different IT organizations profiles and the prevailing gender ratio? The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is any connections between how IT organizations are related to gender issues and how the structures, attitudes and gender actually looks like in the IT industry today, and how this can be seen in their branding efforts.