The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to investigate what role the public library in Sweden may have when it comes to gender equality issues. The questions at issue that were asked, in order to give an answer to the aim, was how the librarians defined and saw work with equality, how much the steering documents for the library impact and what they are doing in their practice to weaken the dichotomies between the sexes. The theoretical starting point used for this study is three concepts, the gender system, the stereotypes and the gender contract described by the Swedish historian Yvonne Hirdman. The purpose of the three concepts is that gender is a social construction which produces gender stereotypes and a gender order in society, which the library is a part of.

Bullying and harassment is a common phenomenon that usually is associated with schools, but bullying among adults at workplaces is not as much discussed. Previous research shows that discrimination occurs in various social areas because of the individual's gender and ethnicity. Based on this there was a reason to suppose that bullying, which is a form of vulnerability, could also depend of belonging to a particular social category. The aim of this study was to get knowledge about the correlation between bullying at the workplace and concurrent collaboration of class, gender and ethnicity. The results of this quantitative study show that there is no correlation between the simultaneous interaction of gender, class and ethnicity towards bullying and harassment.

Our society has faced monumental changes and therefore our working life has changed as well. We are now in the twentieth first century and still our labor market is gender-segregated. Today networking is an important part of working life and one cannot emphasize enough the importance of having good connections in your network. Networking is now seen as an important tool when it comes to your career. In the past networking has been the men?s arena and it has almost been seen as a male institution.

The study examines conceptions of identity among girls with foreign background. The aim was to study how identity is understood by the girls based on ethnicity, images of the origin, the value of gender and the meaning of the family. The theoretical approach was post-colonial theory based on Stuart Hall in combination with gender theory by Yvonne Hirdman. The study was conducted using qualitative individual interviews of open character with six girls. They were aged 17-18 years old and were born in Sweden or had lived here since the age of six.

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.

Knowledge of ecological processes are a basis for the understanding of important environmental issues. Through qualitative interviews, 8 preschool class pupils have replied to questions concerning the concept nature, disintegration and environment. The aim of this survey was to examine what attitudes and knowledge children with different pedagogical background have about the nature and the environment.The result of this survey in whole demonstrates that all pupils have good and equivalent knowledge of the nature and the environment, independently of their different pedagogical backgrounds. A difference was however that children that have background from ?I Ur och Skur? (a Swedish outdoors preschool program) know the names of all small bugs that were in the survey.

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..

This study aims to examine attitudes and conceptions of staff who work with mentally disabled persons, concerning normalization and gender. Six qualitative interviews with such professionals were performed and subsequently analyzed. Since the method of this study is qualitative, no claim of generalizability is made. The interview material has been categorized into themes by means of coding. The result of the study is presented according to those themes.

This study aims to examine attitudes and conceptions of staff who work with mentally disabled persons, concerning normalization and gender. Six qualitative interviews with such professionals were performed and subsequently analyzed. Since the method of this study is qualitative, no claim of generalizability is made. The interview material has been categorized into themes by means of coding. The result of the study is presented according to those themes.

Uppsala Universitet Sophie DicksenMedie- och kommunikationsvetenskap C-uppsatsAbstractTitle: Communication of gender through design -A study of shapes and colors of perfumebottles and of the fonts on their labels.(Genuskommunikation genom design -En studie av form, färg och typsnitt på parfymflaskor)Number of pages: 39 (82 including enclosures)Author: Sophie DicksenTutor: Mats LindCourse: Media- and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: To study whether gender is communicated through design, and if so is the case, the aim is also to see by which aspects gender is communicated.Material/Method: 40 perfumebottles, 20 for women and 20 for men has been studied, and attributes such as their shapes, colors as well as the fonts on their labels has been analyzed in search of gender differences. An art director has also been interwiewed to receive information about genderdesign from a practical wiew.Main results: There is no difference out of a gender perspective between the colors on the bottles in aspect of lightness but colors on ladieperfumes are generally more saturated and they are also more often located among yellow, orange and red shades on the color chart while perfumesbottles for men tend to consist of yellow, green and blue colors in more unsaturated versions. The results of the study of shapes showes that there are more cubes among the male perfumes than there are in the group of womensperfumes. Concidering the study of fonts does results prove that fonts on labels of male perfumes mostly belong to the most common group of fontfamilies. This compared toperfumes for ladies where the the fonts varied between the two current fontgroups of the study, and therefore are bort rare and common.

Introduction: Although life expectancy had increased in Sweden for many decades and several health problems had diminished over time, there was no change in men's risk behaviour regarding for instance high alcohol and tobacco consumption. Many of the gender differences in health that existed in society explained were due to power structures and beliefs about behaviour based on gender; a social construction that resulted in the relatively high valuation of men with a more masculine behaviour. Aim: This literature review aimed to study and identify the scientific knowledge regarding paternity leave and its impact on men's health. Method: A literature- based study design was used and the material consisted of peer-reviewed articles from which six themes were identified: alcohol, tobacco, stress, isolation, social support and mortality risk. Results: Divided into three parts, the results described the socioeconomic background of the men who took paternity leave, as well as the impact of paternity leave and masculinity as an impact on men's health.

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.

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.

This essay deals with the rationale and aims for doing cultural or aesthetic activities and projects in schools, and gives special focus to a specific group of students, attending schools provided at special residential homes for young people (sa?rskilda ungdomshem). These homes receive young people with psychosocial and substance misuse problems and who show tendencies towards criminal behavior. The essay investigates how working with a cultural project in schools at these residential homes is justified and also elucidates how this specific group of students and their problems are constructed in the documents surrounding the project. The essay will further ponder over possible educational and pedagogical consequences of these constructions.The investigation has its theoretical frame work in curriculum theory.