Sexual violence in armed conflict is not a new phenomenon. Although it has a long history, it's only in recent years from 1990 that is has been given more attention in science and media. I will in my thesis look at the conflicts of former Yugoslavia and Congo (DRC) and I will use two theories to investigate how the use of conflict-related sexual violence best can be explained. The two theoretical frameworks I have chosen are Feminist theory and Rational Choice theory. The conflicts will be at the center of analysis.

This essay examines how non-swedish feminist activists look upon the conditions of their work, in relation to the broader context of womens activism in Sweden. It focuses on relationships between feminist activists and their organisations, on issues of cooperation and also on activists definitions of the concept of feminism. Activists from two different non-swedish womens organisations, both located in Stockholm, have been interviewed. Consequenses of intersections of race, class and gender connected to womens activism have been analysed. Through an intersectional analysis the authour tries to answer questions regarding the positions of womens organisations, relationsships between them, definitions of feminism and the possibilities of cooperations - to shed a light on the power relations of womens organisations in Sweden..

This thesis is a study of Parties as an outflow of societal changes where the aim has been to find out how parties are affected by societal changes and how they justify to new party formation. This is done by using a theory called Parties as an outflow of societal changes which is a theory developed by Swedish researchers in Political Science. To confirm the theory it is necessary to do an argumentation analysis of one external developed party?s electoral program. In this case the party selected is Feminist Initiative which brings a different view on how the society of Sweden should look like.Selected parts of the argumentative analysis will be examined with the purpose to give a perspective on how Feminist Initiative values the changes in society and how they describe their role as a new party.The main question of this study is; Are new parties an outflow of societal changes? The basic arguments includes that along with societal changes in Western Europe also changes the view of a representative democracy in which political parties play a central role.

Sweden has an active and growing culture of feminist comic book artists that use comedy as a mean of disseminating political ideas and critic. In this essay I do a reparative reading of Sara Granér?s comic book All I Want for Christmas is planekonomi in order to find out if it advocates alternative orders and/or ways of expression. By exploring what the comic book does to me as a reader and how, using the term ?skev? ? a hybrid of queer that examines normativity not strictly tied to sexuality ? and gulesque theory ? a mix of feminism, cuteness, the grotesque and riot grrrl ?, I show that the comic book, through the use of comedy, works as a trojan My Little Pony, reclaiming the girly franchise, while challenging several so-called dichotomies, such as: femininity/masculinity; youth/adult; high art/kitsch.

This paper takes it points of departure in a gender equality perspective and the perceived paradox between the governmental labour market policy and family policy. The first policy area has the aim to put people to work, whereas the other introduces a reform, vårdnadsbidraget, that point in the opposite direction. Which are the problem representations within the two policy areas and are the problem representations concordant or contradictive? From a constructivist perspective, langue is closely related to power through defining and ascribing meaning to reality. Drawing on political documents, speeches and articles formulated within the government, this paper analyzes problem representations through the use of discourse analysis and feminist political theory.

In this paper I study the Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann?s novel Malina (1971) from the perspective of Gérard Genette?s narrative theory and his notions of tense, mood and voice. In dialogue with earlier research on Malina I reflect over the last scene in the novel, what really happens there and how it matters for the rest of the novel. I give an account of feminist theories with focus on the annihilation of the female voice, the memory as theatre and the folklore tale as flight. The result is a more distinct perception of Bachmann?s skill, closeness and awareness as a writer and her use of Malina as contribution to the feminist debate and as a tool to find a place in the patriarchal world of intellectual, postwar Vienna. .

This essay examines the Alberte triology, by the Norwegian writer Cora Sandel, from a gender/feminist perspective. Taking Yvonne Hirdman's theory about the gender system as a starting point I will show how the living conditions and the different roles of men and women are represented in the novel and how they are changing during the centuries before and after the First World War.I am particularly interested in Alberte, the main character, what attitude she takes to her position in the gender system and in what way she differs from the traditional female model. Is she a New Woman, a different ?species?, who doesn't fit into the rigid gender system? Does the New Woman have a male counterpart, and is he to be found in the novel? Does the novel give a positive vision of a future where men and women can meet as equals?.

Every now and then new political ideas appear which creates debate. A current example of political debate is the one which concerns the creation of a feminist political party in Sweden -Feministiskt initiativ. Apparent in the current debate is that there are two existing conflicts of ideas present. The liberal thought of politics of ideas stands against feminism's demand for presence in the political life. And the other, the conflict which concerns the question of where a line between the public and the private spheres should be drawn.

AbstractThis composition is an analysis of the British writer Jeanette Winterson's novel Sexing the Cherry. My interpretation originates from the tradition of feminist literary criticism and my purpose is to read the novel against the queer theorist Judith Butler to reach an understanding of the characters queer selves.Judith Butler's theory of performative gender and her notion of sex as something derived from cultural manifestations might help me to understand the characters in the novel. For they are ambiguous in their gender identity, and the novel in it self is set forth to expand all boundaries.Keyword: Sexing the cherry, Jeanette Winterson, queer, queer-theory, queer writing, JudithButler, feminist theory.SammanfattningDen här uppsatsen är en undersökning av Jeanette Wintersons roman Skapelsens kön. Genom att läsa romanen mot queerteoretikern Judith Butler hoppas jag kunna bilda en förståelse för romankaraktärernas queera identiter. Butlers teori om genus som performativt görande och hennes resonemang kring könet som härlett från kulturella manifestationer kan hjälpa mig med detta.

In this paper I have studied how feminist parents talk to their children about body and sexuality and with which intentions they speak the way they do. The aim of the study was to locate strategies applied to give children positive relations to their bodies and their sexuality. My data are constituted by answers from a questionnaire sent out to an e-mail list for feminist parents. The answers have been compiled and analyzed, mainly qualitatively by the use of discourse analysis, with support of poststructuralist theories about language, gender and heteronormativity, as well as theories about children?s sexuality.

The purpose of this essay is to identify how violence against women is understood in the government's policy action plan called Handlingsplan för att bekämpa mäns våld mot kvinnor, hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck samt våld i samkönade relationer. The main issue that the study is based on, is whether there is a feminist gendered understanding that permeates the action plan. To examine this, I have formulated two more specific questions:     - What is considered to be the main problem of men's violence against women?     - What is considered to be the reasons for men's violence against women?    The empirical material of the study consists of the government's action plan. With the help of Carol Bacchis discourse analytical approach "What's the problem approach", important patterns in the material have been detected.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how gender in Islam and Hinduism are described in textbooks for high school. The study was conducted using a qualitative content analysis and also using a feminist gender theory and postcolonial feminist theory. All textbooks are written or revised after 2011 when The Swedish National Agency for Educations? new curriculum came into force. Previous research in this area shows that it is most common that gender is treated in isolated parts within the chapters, but that there are textbooks that allows the gender perspective permeate the entire text.

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..

This essay investigates the results of participation by teenage girls in feminist groups, the so called girl groups. These groups are descendants of the awareness-raising groups of the 1970?s feminist movement. The essay assumes the relevance of theories of heteronormativity and performativity, as well as theories surrounding two different ways to organize girl groups. It is done either through the Pippi-feminism, named after strong independent book character Pippi Longstocking, or through the collective empowerment feminism.

People with positive affect seem to have great advantages in life. Goal achievement, the main cause of well-being for all organisms, seem to be a typical trait of these people. The purpose of this study was to examine (i) what influences positive affect, (ii) the relation between positive affect and goal achievement, and (iii) characteristics of individuals with positive and negative affect. Five individuals with self-rated positive affect and two with negative were interviewed. The responses were classified in fifteen themes.