In this thesis we have examined if some young people's identity is influenced by television programs. We chose to illustrate this from a gender perspective and have made use of social construction theory. We did group interviews with 13 youngsters, in three groups, to find out how much insight they had in what they watch, if they believe that they are affected and how they believe that gender roles in television programs often look. Our questions are: Does young people's identity take influence of the TV program? How? Creates a social construction of gender in the television programs that young people are watching? Is there awareness among young people on what they watch and how is this in this case out? Important to emphasize is that our results are not necessarily representative of youngsters in general when we only had the opportunity to interview a few.

The gap between rich and poor is increasing. Economic inequality is widening on a global level but also in individual countries like the USA and Sweden. The consequences for individuals are great considering life chance, health, educational level and standard of living. The curriculum for social studies from 1994 as well as the curriculum coming in effect 2011 emphasize the importance of teaching social class as a tool to interpret development in Sweden as well as the world. Earlier studies have looked at how much and in what way textbooks discuss gender, sexuality and ethnicity but social class has been overlooked. This study examines if social class is described in textbooks written for high school. The study also analyzes in which way social class is described.

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.

National and international studies, such as PISA and TIMSS, which are part of the national evaluation system, are carried out continuosly. Skolverket, in collaboration with researchers, are responsible for the implementation, evaluation, and analysis of the studies. National results show an increasing percentage of pupils who do not reach the goals in mathematics. The last completed international studies PISA 2009 and TIMSS 2007 show an impaired trend of knowledge, in international comparison. Moreover, studies also show that the differences between schools and also within the same school in Sweden have increased.

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.

In this essay I have described ecocriticism as a theory with several different subfields that are inspired by a cross-disciplinary approach, such as green culture studies, ecofeminism, and postcolonial ecocriticism. After a short summary of the background of ecocritical studies I analyze the various subfields, take a closer look at their contents and present various examples of ecocritical thinking. A presentation of the commonly used concepts within the discipline and some reflections on these is followed by my final discussion, where I state that even though ecocriticism is a relatively new theory and the concept doesn?t have a clear definition as yet, it is in my view a useful tool for analysis and can with time make valuable contributions to literary studies, not least by introducing a number of new perspectives..

BackgroundMigraine is a comprehensive endemic disease who is affecting both women and men, but with higher prevalence among women because of hormonal factors. Risk factors for the disease are female gender, hereditariness, depression and socio-economic factors. Migraine can be triggered by factors like stress, menstruation, irregular routines for sleep and unbalanced meals and diet. Migraine is a condition that causes a big suffering for the affected individuals.AimThe aim of this study was to describe individuals' experiences of how migraine is affecting the daily life, out of the aspects like working life, family life and social life.MethodA literature overview was maintained, and eight qualitative studies and two quantitative studies between the years 2003- 2014 were analyzed.ResultsThe analysis of the articles lead to one main theme; "Guilt, compensating and restrictions" and seven subthemes "Not being able to perform their best", "Met with incomprehension", "Not being able to take care of home and children", "Not enough", "Avoiding activities", "Always be prepared" and "Living with restrictions".ConclusionMigraine is affecting the daily life among these individuals in a great extent. The disease makes it hard to perform well at work.

Background:Studies show that when nurses are experiencing problems in the care of non-Swedish speaking patients, it is often due to obstacles in the communication. Studies also show that a prerequisite for adequate care is that there is a basis for a direct communication. Nurses perceive interpreters as an important link to the patient when they do not share a mutual language, the nurses perceive interpreters as a bridge in the conversation.Aim:The purpose of the study is to describe nurses' experiences of the quality of assessments done with the help of an interpreter.Method:The study was conducted through interviews with ten nurses, working at psychiatric clinics. Qualitative content analysis was used for the analysis, which resulted in five categories.Results:The analysis resulted in one theme: "it´s the interpreter who tells me and have not the feeling that the patient has" and five categories: "shades of the language", "conversation structure", "the interpreter's competence", "interpreting implementing" and "the interpreter's gender and origin". The nurses experience working with interpreters as a challenge.

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.

This thesis examines the possibility of Bolivian indigenous women?s social movements? getting their demands of a gender equal society fulfilled in the new state which was initiated in 2005 when Evo Morales became the first president representing the indigenous people of the country. By using a qualitative method I have showed that although the Bolivian indigenous women?s social movements? historically has been significant political actors for social change in the country, with representation at both regional and national level, Bolivian women are still subordinated in the social and political sphere. By applying a feminist intersectional perspective which takes its point of departure in a understanding of power as multidimensional, where gender, ethnicity and class are constitutive principals, multiculturalism theories and a social movements theory framework, I have found that even if institutional changes, that opened the system increased the indigenous women?s social movements political participation in Bolivia, power structures based on gender limited their possibilities to influence both socially and politically.

This paper studies three Swedish textbooks for the A-course in religious studies, in the Swedish equivalency of high school, to see if the image of Islam and Muslims presented is diverse or homogeneous and exotic. The purpose of the study is to see whether or not the religious studies can contribute to the forming of islamophobic beliefs in pupils. Studies have shown that islamophobia is widespread in Sweden, therefore it could be interesting to see if the schools play any part in the forming or spreading of islamophobic views. The conclusion reached is that this cannot be excluded as a possibility. There are still some textbooks that present Muslims in a homogeneous and exotic manner to some degree.

In this study I try to answer the question what to consider when teaching about identity andreligious identity in Religious Studies at Upper Secondary Schools in Sweden. This inquiry isbased on the fact that the latest Program manuals for upper secondary school, GY11, instructsthe teachers to talk about identity and religion, while in the Curriculum for upper secondaryscool, Lpf 94, as well as the latest curriculum, SKOLFS 2011, the idea of identity seemslinked with ethnicity.With this in mind I want to clarify what might be meant with the concept of identity. Byreferring to several different identity theories I propose to illustrate the complexity of theconcept. I study gender, queer and postcolonial theory as well as different aspects of classstructure and commodification of identity, all through the perspective of intersectionality.Intersectionality is not a theory as such but a method of studying various perspectives of anissue. It is an analytical praxis of using several angles of investigation and explanationtogether, all phrased with the background of the question of power.

Elderly couples have a right to live together. On June 1st 2006 the Swedish government extended couples? rights, granting special consideration to elderly partners to enable them to receive care in the same home. But what happens if only one of them is eligible for care? This paper has studied how elderly couples were affected in situations where one partner was unable to continue living at home, and what measures could be taken to improve their situation.