The purpose of this thesis is to, based on interviews and document studies, critically discuss how the introduction of kickboxing in Physical Education (PE) could affect gender equality in society. Based on a queer feminist and norm critical perspective on the prevailing teaching of PE, which, despite official efforts to challenge and modernize PE, persists in reproducing gender norms by e.g. spending 75% of class time on ball games. The hypothesis is that girls accessing violence (empowerment) through a bodily awareness in the form of kickboxing, positively would challenge the power imbalance that gender norms create. Girls are brought up, even today, in accordance with gender norms arguing against girls/women wanting to use their bodies as powerful tools to set limits.

Body esteem is the affective aspect of body image, which is shaped by social experience. Compared with men, women have a more negative body image, which is more frequently correlated with depression and dysfunctional thoughts, especially in the case of eating disorders. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in body esteem and its subcategories, and to find out whether there exists a stronger link between negative body esteem and higher levels of dysfunctional thoughts in women. The relationship between body esteem, dysfunctional thoughts and mental illness was examined. Participants were 73 college students doing social sciences and sports training educations.

This study examines how women are portrayed in four of Disney?s feature films, withthe focus on the presentation of relations between women. The films examined areSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Little Mermaid(1989) and Frozen (2013). The aim is to analyse the development that has taken placefrom a gender perspective, from the earliest film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(1937), to the latest, Frozen (2013), and to reveal the significance of the femalecharacters for each other. The films? portrayal of women and female relations isdiscussed in relation to previous criticism of Disney for their stereotyped portrayal ofwomen, and through a thematic comparison with the known fairytales on which thefilms are based.

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.

The exposed position of a social worker entails serious demands to their working environment. The experience of the working environment is coherent with various circumstances such as physical, technical and psychosocial factors. The aim of this study is to investigate how social workers in Gotland experience their psychosocial working environment. As a theoretical ground we describe the working environment regulations and it´s framework. Previous national and international research enlighten issues such as definitions of threat and violence, the significance of education and policys within social work, social support and riskfactors.

AbstractThis essay concerns young women´s point of view and discussions about rape and rape victims. The purpose was to examine young women´s view on rape and rape victims. By young women we mean 17 to 18 year-old-high school-students.Our main questions were how young women define rape, if there are any circumstances were they blame the victim and/or consider her less trustworthy and how they explain rape.This study is based on one qualitatively oriented group interview, with six young women, and four individual interviews, as compliment to the group interview. We have used our interviews and earlier research to answer our questions. The analysis is based on a feministic point of view and Nils Christies article on "ideal victims".The result that appeared was that the young women´s broad definition of rape narrows down through the different circumstances concerning the alcohol consumption, the woman´s way of living and what clothes she was wearing, the acquaintance-level between the victim and perpetrator and how the woman says "no" to sex.

During the last few years the countries in the African continent have experienced an enormous increase in female politicians on a national level. Rwanda is even the country with the highest number of female politicians in its parliament in the world. Despite this development in Africa, the quantitative research on women's political representation in the world has not yet paid attention to the situation there. Some of the surveys that have been done have even excluded countries that do not fit the homogeneous pattern ? which is precisely the problem with African countries ? for it to be possible to explain the situation with existing theories.The intention of this paper is therefore to, with all of the 53 African countries included in the study, examine whether the already existing explanatory factors regarding women's political representation also can be applied to an African context to explain the situation there.

This thesis discusses how the education in the Master of Engineering program can change to become more into line for the students needs, especially for the women, both directly in the education situation and later in their occupational roles. This is done using a gender perspective. Both the education and the occupation today is characterised by masculine norms and values. The education lacks gender perspective and is created by men, for men. The thesis gives concrete proposals on how to change two existing courses to better fit the students.

Introduction: Studies have shown that women are not always satisfied with the effects of contraception and that contraceptive advice is perceived as non-specific. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate what contraceptive women have chosen to use in the different phases of their reproductive lives, and what they felt had influenced their choice. Method: A retrospective cross-sectional comparative study with a quantitative approach. A survey with fixed and multiple-choice options was sent to five hundred 45-year old women. Result: The study shows that various birth controls are different in the normal reproductive life.

This study aims to show what differences, if any, there are between how men and women are decribed in new litterature history textbooks for upper secondary school and then to compare them with and older textbook where differences already have been spotted. The books we anlyze are Svenska timmar litteraturen by Svante Skoglund (2012) and Ekengrens svenska by Hans-Erik Ekengren and Britta Lorentzson-Ekengren (2011) and the one we compare them to is Den levande litteraturen by Ulf Jansson (2007). To help us anlyze these textbooks we use Charles Tilly's theory about categorical inequality where he states that inequality exists because of people's fondnes for placing their fellows in different categories such as e.g. man/woman and old/young. We also use De los Reyes' and Mulinari's theory which states that to get rid of the categorical inequality we need to think intersectionally.

The purpose of this study is to use a qualitative approach to get an understanding of what is expected of social workers targeted towards women managers in social services. Nine social workers were interviewed. The empirical data was then analyzed on the basis of gender theory. Respondents did not see their supervisor as a manager but more as a social worker with special tasks. Our empirical data indicates that there is a strong belief that men and women possess different properties.

The aim of the study was to examine if and how the social service and the social welfare secretary provides against threat and violence in the encounter with clients. The study is qualitative and carried out with six semi-structured interviews with social welfare secretaries and participation observations at the social welfare offices in three municipalities. The theoretical starting points used were symbolic interactionism and strange loops. The result shows that social service and social welfare secretaries both use measures to prevent threat and violence to occur. The precautionary measures mainly used by social services are ; looked doors, alarm device, loose objects removes and interview rooms are furnish in purpose for the social welfare secretary to flee the room at urgent need.

The Trappan Model is one of the most implemented treatment programs for children who have experienced domestic violence. This study undertakes a wider evaluation of the model through a pilot study. The approach is both quantitive and qualitative. Theory as well as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire have been used to fulfil the aim. The design is pre-post.

In recent years more and more people have been sick-listed due to stress and it has happened to more women than men. The purpose of this paper is to see if recoveringfrom stress related states of ill-health can be promoted through participation in a stress management course. Five women who were or had been sick-listed and had participated in the life management course were interviewed. The results show that the course was an important forum for expressing emotions. The participants were more positive about the future after than before they entered the course.

With the expansion of the internet, the conditions for the online journalists have changed. Feedback is faster and more blatant than offline. The online abilities of anonymity and dispersion attracts people to both use and misuse. During 2013, the online expressions of hate towards women has been brought to attention in the media more than ever before. Nevertheless, the phenomenon is far from new.Our qualitative research including interviews intends to find out how the afflicted women journalists are affected in their exercise of their profession.