The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ongoing changes in German family policy. It explores the issue of whether the German welfare state, in this policy field, can still be regarded as a conservative welfare model or rather approaches a more liberal or social democratic model. A qualitative method is used to analyze the material, especially from the German government, including press releases, other public documents and also articles from the political weekly magazines Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. The changes analyzed are the new parental benefit, the expansion of child care, the concept of whole-day schools and the system of joint taxation. The point of departure is Gösta Esping-Andersen?s categorization of three types of welfare states: the social democratic, the conservative and the liberal.

This study in Public Administration uses feminism and historical institutionalism toanalyze a highly debated contemporary policy problem that concerns genderequality in the policy of parental leave. The parental insurance was introduced in1974 with the governmental goal of gender equality. In 1974 only 0,5 percent of thenumber of days of parental benefit was paid to men. Today, 40 years later, the goalremains the same and the numbers of days of parental benefit paid to men are 24,8percent.The debate that has characterized the Swedish policy of parental insurance andspecifically the design of the parental benefit is the debate of freedom of choiceversus quota.Our study focuses on ideas and arguments that influence the policy of parentalbenefit. The study assumes, with basis in the theories of feminism and historicalinstitutionalism, that a policy like parental benefit is slow-moving and that pathdependency has lead to a slow development of gender equality..

Scientists argue that gender affects foreign policy and security policy, that ideas of gender are inconstant and that there is a lack of feminist perspectives in International Relations. The changes seen in the global security context may have challenged the way politicians and scientists understand war and its impacts, and led to increased gender awareness.Using securitization theory and feminist international relations theory, the aim is to examine how women and men are being spoken of in the Swedish foreign policy discourse regarding participation in the UN-led stabilization mission Minusma in Mali. By applying a feminist perspective on the securitization process, the intention is to increase the knowledge of whether there is gender awareness in this context.The result shows that there is limited gender awareness. There is minor consideration for the conflict?s different implications on the situation for women and men.

This paper is a discourse analytic policy study with the intention to investigate the swedish government's policy action plan against prostitution and trafficking for sexual purposes. The document is called Handlingsplan mot prostitution och människohandel för sexuella ändamål. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether there is a feminist gender understanding taking place in the action plan. This is made by both see how the problem of prostitution is produced partly by examining whether there is a gender-based power analysis in action. The research questions of this study are:What is considered being the problem with prostitution and trafficking fosexual purposes?Is there a feminist gender understandning in the government's prostitution politics?To answer these questions I use Carol Bacchis method Whats the problem represented to be? And the material being used is the government's actionplan.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the various factors that influence the balancebetween the working lives and family lives of social workers. The research questions posedwere: Do social workers consider there is a conflict between their working lives and familylives? Which factors make maintaining a balance between working life and family life moredifficult and which make it easier to do so? How do social workers describe equality betweenthe sexes in their own family? Regarding methodology, the selection method is strategic andcombines data sources with quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The material collectedand via online survey, targeted to 120 municipal employees social workers in a district councilin a big city, and through interviews with four social workers in a rural community. The studywas performed using gender theory and the demand-support-control model.

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.

The purpose with this essay is to study police students perception of men?s and women?s role taking and behavior in a group. The question that is presented is if a group?s efficiency can depend on which gender the members of the group have. There are many theories about the concept male and female and the meaning of these words.

After the last election Sweden has got a government that claims to be feminist. This thesis discusses whether the change of labels has also brought along policy formulated in a feminist way, arguing that the way policy is expressed affects how people see a certain problem. Three policy proposals are analysed, and in only one case the government seems to have been influenced by feminist ideas. The other proposals partly support claims made by new institutionalism that norms and routines in an organisation work to resist policy change, but also shows that feminist ideas are resisted more actively. The fact that so called policy entrepreneurs was present in the policy process at a certain period in time, probably counts for one explanation to the exceptional policy.

The European Union's work on equal opportunities for women and men can be described historically in three eras; equal treatment, positive action and, most recently, the gender perspective. In accordance with the latter, gender mainstreaming is the latest method in dealing with these issues. Its aim is the implementation of the gender perspective in all policy processes and to challenge the male norm that permeates all decision making. EU:s work on equal opportunities, though, persists not only of gender mainstreaming but has a double approach also including special actions.This thesis bases its argumentation on discourse analysis of communications from the Commission regarding employment and social affairs. It argues that the two components of the double approach; gender mainstreaming and special actions, are incompatible and even becomes contra productive put together.

  Author: Moa di Zazzo EilertsenTitle: ?Children should not grow up like that. They may turn out the same?: Social workers, working with foster care investigations, reasoning about family and family structures of foster homes. [translated title]Supervisor: Annika StaafAssessor: Norma MontesinoThere has been a change in family structure which shows that the nuclear family, which is still the main form of family pattern, is becoming less frequent nowadays.

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.

The right wing party the Sweden Democrats is through their conservative and nationalist approach and socio-political heritage, connected to various extreme-right populist movements, which have all been in conflict with different branches of feminism. This connection is argued for in relation to the research survey. The party has likewise been accused of pursuing misogynistic, homophobic and racist politics, but differ from its ideological peers due to their outspoken equality policy. The party shows strong rejection of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation or geographical, religious or ethnical background. In the analysis chapter of this study, texts produced by members of the party are analyzed by means of parts of Karlberg and Mral?s rhetoric analysis method, aiming to clarify what ideals of family and the roles within it are being constructed.

The object of this essay is to discuss the relationship between the definition of the concept of gender equality and attitudes towards gender equality and their consequences for gender equality measures. The point of departure is feminist political theory and interviews about attitudes towards gender equality at a department at the University of Linköping. The conclusions of this study is that there are a wide range of definitions and attitudes, and these conceptions are not necessarily the same as those being pointed out in the official gender equality policy at the University of Linköping. In this study the opinions of measures for gender equality among the interviewed are widely spread. Some finding Swedish men and women already being equal and therefore there is no need for measures, since this would result in discrimination of men since women would gain advantages from being women.

This thesis uses the ?What's the problem?-approach developed by Carol LeeBacchi. This approach studies how the problem that a certain policy is supposedto take care of is represented. Each representation will rest upon certainassumptions and will accordingly support certain solutions while other solutionswill be considered less suitable to the problem as it is represented.The thesis therefore evaluates the competing problem representations forgender mainstreaming in Sweden. The theory chapter explores two developmentpossibilities for gender mainstreaming, based on diversity and deliberativedemocracy.

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