This Masters thesis aims to study the reading habits of readers of romantic fiction, especially focusing on gender issues. The main areas studied are the function of reading romances compared with reading other genres, and how the readers value romantic and general literature. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with seven readers of romances, five women and two men. The theoretical background is based on reader response theory and gender theory. Before I started interview the readers I asked them to read two romances; Sidney Sheldons - The best Laid Plans, and Rosamunde Pilchers - The End of Summer, which we later discussed during the interviews.

This study aims to examine how social workers, in the Swedish social services, perceive and interpret LVU § 3 from a gender perspective. In total eight social workers participated in the study, attending interviews based on a vignette. From a gender perspective we wanted to found out how the social workers define "other socially destructive behaviour" and understand their thoughts about this subject. Moreover, we aimed to see if social workers perceive any differences between boys and girls behaviour. Based on several theories, two gender theories and concepts we have analysed our result from the interviews.

This thesis examines the gender boundaries in sports. I do this by exploring three cases in which these boundaries, at least on the surface, have been questioned: the transsexual tennis player Renée Richards, the east European runners Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvilova and the Swedish golf player Annika Sörenstam. The results point out different mechanisms that contain the"danger"and restore"security". But they also point out a criticism against the struggle for equality in sports, which is based on the preserving of differences and therefore cannot challenge the ideological assumptions about gender in sports..

This essay investigates, on the basis of the medieval letters, diplomas, how the medieval monasticism contributed to the maintenance of the Danish society's gender structures. The theoretical starting points for the study are gender and class structures and Marcel Mauss presented gift - giving theory. Finally, a continuous comparison is made with Catharina Andersson's results in her dissertation, in which she examines the social structure in the Swedish medieval society. The primary material in the study is the Danish diplomas. 41 diplomas were found relevant for this study.

At the centre of this study lies the question if normative gender thinking affects the way poetry gets reviewed and how the reviews are written, this in relation to both the gender of the reviewer and the poet. The study crosses three academic fields; gender studies, poetry and journalism, and is based on the cultural studies theory of media affecting and even creating the world around it.The study is based on two types of analysis. One quantitative analysis based on the thematic criticism theory about detail studies that shows bigger patterns, this analysis focuses on how the poet and his/hers work are being treated in the reviews in areas such as how much space they´re given in the newspapers, how they are named by the reviewer and the tendency to quote the reviewed work.  And one qualitative analysis based on the new criticism method of close reading, that focuses on the reviewers way of writing and how that may be connected with theories of gender differences, this both connected to the gender of the reviewers and the poets.The material chosen for this study are all the reviews that were published in the same newspapers and that reviewed two specific poetry works by two specific poets chosen with great sensibility to age and career so that their difference in gender would be the most significant difference between them. The works were chosen based on year of publishing, they were supposed to be published as newly as possible and as close to each other in time as possible.

I denna uppsats analyseras realityserierna Rebecca & Fiona samt Danne & Bleckan med syftet att undersöka hur några av de geografiska platser, så som städer, orter och stadsdelar, där dessa serier utspelar sig är representerade. Bägge serierna är gjorda av produktionsbolaget Art89 för SVTs webbkanal SVT-play och sändes mellan 2010 och 2012.De områden som tas upp i analysen är Hornstull, Östermalm, Örebro samt Östberga i Rebecca & Fiona, och Högdalen samt Henriksdalsberget i Danne & Bleckan. Som metod har vi använt en kombination av semiotisk och narrativ analys. Med hjälp av detta har vi tittat på hur serierna konstruerats narratologiskt och vad som konnoteras från det man får se och höra. Detta har gjorts med fokus på de olika områden som serierna i huvudsak utspelar sig i, återkommer till under seriens gång eller får betydelsebärande roll i serien.Uppsatsen utgår från teorier kring genren reality, dess relation med dokumentär film och problematiken kring det sanningsanspråk som finns inom dessa.

The way towards an equal society, where both women and men has the same possibilities both private and in professional life, has been a long and still ongoing process. During my practical studies to become a recreation instructor I have noticed a difference between the children I have met in my workplace. What I saw was that girls and boys had a different approach towards their future, plus that the pedagogues at the school had different roles depending if they were men or women.In this study I have investigated which dreams and visions a group of after-school children has, plus how these distinguish between the genders. I have through group interviews, first three boys and then three girls, investigated how children look at their future focusing on career, spare time and familysituation. The questions have also focused on how children look at the schools pedagogues with gender as a premiss.My result shows that the children's vision on their future tends to look different between the genders.

During recent decades several studies have investigated how different social roles and socialization processes between women and men affects our attitudes, values and priorities to environmental problems. Many empirical studies among the general public, indicates that women tend to show a greater environmental concern than men, because of women?s different health- safety- and risk perception. Even though the results are well established among the general public, when investigating if elected women in public offices tend to express a higher environmental concern, than do men, the results are not that clear. By using a dataset covering all the 290 municipalities in Sweden, this study aims to investigate if there is any correlation between the amount of female representatives in the municipality and the amount of emissions of CO2e per capita.

The purpose of this essay is to examine clergywomen?s experience of discrimination within the Swedish church as to clergywomen?s opinions about their work and their work situation and how they handle contingent discrimination. The method used in this essay is qualitative, and in order to create an understanding of the topic we have used semi structured interviews and text analysis. Three clergywomen have been interviewed and in addition to this we have studied four clergywomen's reports to JämO regarding gender discrimination. The analysis is based upon a social constructivist perspective and Hirdman's gender system theory.

AbstractThe author Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 at Mårbacka, in Värmland and died in 1940. Fifty years after Selma´s death were her correspondence released and ten thousand of letters were found in the collection. But it was just the correspondence between Selma and Sofie Elkan who interested people because they wanted to know if Selma and Sofie have had a sexual relationship. Later, in time for Christmas 2008 the Swedish Television shows a film about Selma. "Selma Lagerlöf Society" was critical to the movie and thougt that the movie focused too much on Selma`s sexual orientation.

Women, etnicity and illict drug useA litterature reviewAuthors: Cecilia Eriksson & Hanna Rapp AnderssonSupervisor: Odd LindbergABSTRACTThis study aims to examine how womens illict drug use appears in different ethnic groups. The chosen perspectiv is social constructivism. The study is based on 20 scientific studies: 17 from Northern America, two from Great Britain and one from Sweden. Central themes from the studies have been created from different subject viewpoints. The results of this study shows that women have different needs when treatment is required.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how masculinity and femininity are constructed in the magazine Veckorevyn, through a critical discourse analysis of 18 articles from six issues in 2011. This is done by using a variety of theories and previous research results, which is gender theory, the theory of late-modern society and media theory. The analysis shows that Veckorevyn depicts virility and feminine differently. Furthermore, pointing the results from the analysis that a change of manhood and womanhood takes place in the social practice. The selection of articles from the magazine also shows that Veckorevyn seems to promote gender equality. .

We are constantly being fed information. Everything and everyone we come into contact with may somehow make a new impression on us, whether we are aware of it or not. One of the ways that people in today?s society in Sweden are being given information is via different types of media, for example through commercials. Whether it?s a video clip or a still-frame picture, a commercial is an effective way for a company to reach out to potential customers.However, it is not only the messages or signals that may appear obvious that these companies send out when advertising with commercials.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to study how DIK (Documentation, Information and Culture), the major trade union for Swedish librarians, work with the status and professionalization of the occupation. The status is, as we see it, low and depending on several factors. They are among others: the knowledge base, how extended the research base is and the domination of women within the profession. These factors all work together to maintain the status and the prestige of the occupation at a low level. With the help and work of the trade union DIK the status can improve if the focus is right.

The goal in doing this study has been studying public interpretations of media content in the commercials that this study uses. The analysis was based on two TV commercials for feminine hygiene products. Initially, they seemed to differ from each other, but soon the question whether or not they in fact did convey the same underlying message was raised. The theoretical premises on which the study was founded on are the gender perspective in advertising and the social construction of gender. To reveal the hidden signs appearing in these commercials and to find out their meanings, we used the method of semiotic analysis.