Purpose/Aim: The aim of this thesis was to study the construction of gender and to compare Media?s portrayal of male and female athletes.Material/Method: 140 articles covering seven famous Swedish male and female athletes were selected from two Swedish newspapers (Aftonbladet and Expressen). The articles has been analysed within the frames of Norman Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis.Main results: Male athletes are often described in powerful ways and are framed as being strong and successful. Skills and strengths of women athletes are often devalued in comparison to standards of hegemonic masculinity and self-control. They are often framed as women and girlfriends in advantage of the fact that they are athletes..

The aim of this study was to examine creativity, measured with four different tests, and self-image in 18-19 year old women (N = 30), and their earlier presence of imaginary companions. The result showed that there were many correlations between the different creativity measurements. Self-image correlated significant with fluency of ideas in one test. "Psychological health" along with "skills, talent and abilities" were the two most important self-image aspects for creativity. We found negative relationships between imaginary companions and creativity, but a positive relationship with self-image.

This study aims to investigate how, in Montesquieu?s Persian Letters (1721), religion and religious structures are presented to influence women?s position in French society.In Persian Letters Montesquieu presents a dogmatic religious life, which proceed from a literal interpretation of the bible. Such a reading raises critical questions concerning the nature of women, and subsequently places man over woman. Persian Letters show how this male dominance gets institutionalized in marriage. The religious life depicted is also distinguished by a non-genuine religious conviction and by acts which take on a simulation form.

In this C-thesis, I investigate the sudden outbreak of the Swedish witch-hunts during the 17th century, mainly focusing on Gävle and Ockelbo in Gästrikland.To show the extension of the Swedish witch-hunts, I have included an introductory part of the thesis, where this is described. Another important part of the thesis is the one about views upon women and the functions of their bodies, which had to do with female sexuality. Women were indeed considered a threat, by men in powerful positions, and very often it was sheriffs, judges, commanders and governors who most strongly claimed this.People believed that the witches went to Blåkulla, which could be practically anywhere. It could be a mountain, an open area, a rock or a heath. It seems, however, to have been situated far north.My investigation mainly concerns the witch-hunts in Ockelbo and Gävle.

This is a study that will focus on the possibility to learn information about a town and its inhabitants of the 18th century by analyzing individual titles in the church records. The records that are used in this study are marriage registration administrated by the local church of the town of Uddevalla. The records are very detailed and each individual registered have a title, such as ?tradesman? or ?maiden?. Since the source are a registration of all the weddings that took place during the period of 1700 to 1749, the source gives very broad and valid information about the inhabitants of the town.

In this paper we examine how young women present themselves on their weblogs. The main purpose of this study is to get their own opinions and thoughts about their own blogging, to see if we can find norms for how they present themselves and how the presentation online matches themselves offline. We put this in relation to information technologies, social software and Computer mediated communication, CMC. It´s also in our interest to see how the phenomenon of blogs, its role and methods of communication have changed and developed in the last few years, and whether there are differences in the way people use it according to age. The major finding is that, unlike previous research, the women in our study tend to be themselves in their weblogs and they do not manipulate their identities.

This master?s thesis investigates how six Swedish public libraries integrate equality aspects in their user oriented activity. The theoretical starting point for the study is that Sweden is a part of a gender system characterized by gender separation and male superiority, as described by the Swedish historian Yvonne Hirdman and theories that argue that femininity and masculinity are social constructions. Another starting point is that the library sphere cannot be separated from the gender inequality in society. Since the library is part of a gender system that value individuals who are seen as males and separates men and women, some of the library users may be neglected.

Since social media is used more today than just a few years ago, it is easier to share our lives to the public in just a few seconds. Social media is easily accessible on smartphones, tablets and computers which allow us users to use them whenever we want.Instagram is an example of a very popular social media today. In this paper we focus on how younger women think about their privacy when using and publishing pictures on Instagram. We have been using a qualitative research method in which ten people were interviewed. All respondents agreed that privacy is important when publishing pictures or videos on Instagram, but there were also some differences between users with public and private accounts.

The aim of the present study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of the contact with the ?fear of childbirth?-team (called Aurora-team) made by women who feared childbirth. Qualitative content analyses according to Graneheim and Lundman was used to analyse 91 womens own written notes made at the end of a questionnaire which (with a quantitative approach) evaluated the counseling made by the Aurora-team at a hospital in the south of Sweden. The following five categories developed during the analyses; experience of the conversation, not knowing creates fear, thoughts regarding mode of delivery, the importance of how the birth plan is managed and the personnel´s standpoint regarding fear of childbirth. These categories can be seen as parts of the themes of experiences which made the fear of childbirth easier or which made it worse.

In recent years, the Internet has exploded with different kinds of social media, where a significant function is to share your life in text and images. This changes how we form our identity, our religious identity included. The aim of this paper was to study how Instagram forms a space for the creation and development of religious and spiritual beliefs. For this purpose, Instagram updates from five women with yoga oriented Instagram accounts have been analyzed in relation to two theories: Paul Heelas? och Linda Woodhead?s theory of a spiritual revolution and Heidi Campbell?s theory of networked religion.The aim of the study was to explore how these women presented themselves in their Instagram flow and what part religion and spirituality had in their presentations.

This essay analyzes the scripts of the swedish plays Jösses flickor! Befrielsen är nära (Jeez girls! Liberation is at hand) from 1974 and Jösses flickor ? återkomsten (Jeez girls ? the return) from 2006. The analysis is done within the theoretical framework of political and feministic theatre. The essay also includes a discourse analysis of the reviews that were written about the plays and the debates that followed.The result shows that the feministic discourse has changed primarily in two ways. In the 1970's there was a large confidence in the collective, in the 2000's focus has shifted to the individual and tointersectional perspectives.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of leadership and gender issues circulat- ing in Womentor leadership development programme, and to have a discussion around what conse- quences they may have on participants' careers. To answer the question I have used a qualitative approach in the form of 10 interviews and non-participant observations. The theories in this study are based on gender and leadership issues.The problem which forms the basis of this study is the underrepresentation of women at senior posi- tions. A basic assumption in this study is that notions of gender and leadership affect the individual's ability to act. The circulating concepts identified in Womentor are: The leader who wants to be a manager, The leader who gets things done, The communicative leader, Change leader, The motiva- tional leader and The leader as a role model.

In this essay, I have interviewed six young women about their views on body image and how their views are affected by their surroundings, massmedia and social media. Also the relationship between body image and eating disorders is relevant in this context and has a part in the study. The purpose of this study is to build an understanding of how young women relate to the body ideal that exists around them. Theoretical auxiliary tools used are George Herbert Mead's theory of the generalized other, Erving Goffman's theory of dramaturgical perspective and impression management, and Du Bois's theory of double consciousness. I have also used two scientific articles to get a deeper understanding of the subject.

New forms of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become more influential in development contexts. The concept of ?The Digital Divide? points at a large division between rich and poor countries regarding access to ICTs. Critics say that the debate concerning this topic for far too long has focused mainly on the technology itself rather than social factors which impact social inclusion and development. Scholars agree that ICTs holds a tremendous potential, but how is this implemented in development contexts and how can it be used with more sensitivity towards local preconditions and social aspects?This paper aims to examine how ICTs are being used in the context of development within an India based organisation for women called SEWA (Self Employed Women?s Association).

AbstractSouth Africa is a country where apartheid has created a segregated population and the countrys cultural traditions affects the human situations in a unique way. Equalities between gender, class and ethnicity is a main focus for female activists in their work to give the exposed population tools and knowledges to stand up for themselves to cope with the unbalanced structure. This examination paper is done in a qualitative case study in South Africa. The content consists of thourough descriptions of how the society is percieved by four different people, explained by feministic theories and former research that is connected to the papers purpose and question formulations. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Sikhula Sonke, a women´s movement in South Africa looks at the female?s situation in the society and how they are going about their work to improve social equality.