The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which children's physical activity during school  hours  are  met  in  relation  to  today’s  health  recommendations.  This  study  was  a quantitative  research  method  through  study  with  pedometers  and  observation.  The  main instrument was pedometers which the pupils wore during one day at school. The study group consisted of 74 students, made up of 36 boys and 38 girls from the 4th grade in four schools in  southern Sweden. The  results demonstrate  that  the boys were physical active 47-50 % of what  they should and  the girls 33-36 % of what  they should according  to recommendations. The boys  took about 3000 more  steps  than  the girls.  In our  study only one boy  reached  the recommended  amount  of  steps  per  day,  but  no  girl  did. The  conclusion  is  that  the  pupils  are  inactive  during  their  time  in  school.    There  are differences  in  boys'  and  girls'  physical  activity,  both  within  each  school  and  between  the schools. The observation showed that the girls stand still more than the boys during break and the girls are generally less active than the boys at all four schools.

The aim of this study is to describe and explain how five women with a non-European background find the expression of everyday racism in today’s Swedish society, how everyday racism can affect their mental health and how they experience that the Swedish majority population handle and respond to everyday racism. The study is qualitative and was made with semi-structured interviews. The theories used are the theory of everyday racism, "we" and "the Others" and Goffman’s stigma. The results indicate that everyday racism is manifested through the population's ignorance and silence, comments, prejudices and stereotypes and is mainly expressed in arenas where there are many people at the same time. According to the women, the school and the labor market are the two most common arenas for the expression of everyday racism. They witness that the Swedish majority population rarely deal with the occurrence of everyday racism. Their mental health is negatively affected by everyday racism and can lower the individual's self-esteem. The study’s three theories that include everyday racism, “we” and “the Others” and stigma can be applied to the women's stories about their experiences and feelings about everyday racism in the Swedish society.

The care for older and disabled people has been described as a core area of the Nordic model. The Nordic countries’ welfare model has also been described as women friendly, as women are not forced to make harder choices than men between work and family. The Swedish eldercare system has, during the last several decades, undergone significant changes. Previously, eldercare could be described as universal, meaning a publicly provided, comprehensive, high-quality service available to all citizens according to need and not based on the ability to pay. In later years transformation of eldercare has been influenced by neoliberal politics, which emphasize economic efficiency and cost reduction through competition. Eldercare has become a more diverse multidimensional system, and a private market for home-based eldercare has been created. The numbers of eldercare providers have increased considerably, and new ways of organizing eldercare have been established. In January 2009, the Act on System of Choice in the Public Sector was introduced (in Swedish: Lagen om valfrihetssystem [LOV]). The Act was supposed to provide an opportunity for interested municipalities and county councils to expose their publicly provided services to market competition, and to enable users to choose their providers. This article aims to illustrate how neoliberal reasoning dominated the policy process leading to adoption of the Act on System of Choice in the Public Sector. With the use of a discursive policy analysis the authors specifically explore how neoliberal logic dominated, and also how choice and equality were understood and interpreted in the policy process. They conclude that the neoliberal turn in eldercare claiming to centre on the individual choice of persons in need of care runs the risk of creating unequal care that decentres the eldercare worker and creates precarious work situations.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) afford new possibilities for complex interactions among young people. An Internet user can be both a consumer (receiver) and a producer (sender) of mediated communication, asynchronously or simultaneously—such as someone who both uploads and watches video clips on YouTube (von Feilitzen, 2009). “And between these two extremes—the reception and sender roles— the user can be interacting or participating to different extents, for example, in games and in communities owned, maintained and copywrited by someone else” (von Feilitzen, 2009, p. 36). Communication and socializing in virtual online and real offline life through ICTs provides new dimensions to young peoples’ “identity experiments and identity formation” (p. 38). As discussed by Wellman (2001), the “social affordances of computerized communication networks” provide youth with many possibilities for new forms of production and consumption of violence in and through media technology. In this Commentary we aim to outline some important, yet relatively underdeveloped, aspects of research that connect new media, violence, and young people.

This study examines conceptions about the biology discipline and its practices, which are explicitly and implicitly presented in biology environments at Swedish universities. The empirical material has been obtained through “shadowing” and interviewing biologists and is analyzed with inspiration from Gee’s discourse analysis. The overall biology discourse consists of a number of sub-discourses, which sometimes express tensions between each other. One of these is the discourse of superior research with competitive, high performance, heavily equipped environments – a discourse which is in opposition to teaching activities. Another sub-discourse concerns the successful strategic biologist, and this discourse is in tension with the discourse of the enthusiastic, devoted, nature-loving biologist. The meritocratic discourse characterized by competence, knowledge and talent supposedly without the influence of gender, ethnicity, or class, contrasts, in its turn, with the discourse of the gendered practice that is visible in the material. These different sub-discourses are more or less inclusive for different individuals, something which can be observed in the gendered practices.

Våren 2005 har ett skolutvecklingsprojekt initierats tillsammans med åtta verksamma lärare för att studera om en ökad genusmedvetenhet kan påverka undervisningen inom naturorienterade ämnen (NO) och teknik. Lärargruppen har tillsammans med projektansvariga diskuterat litteratur från forskning inom genusvetenskap och ämnesdidaktik vid sammanlagt sju seminarietillfällen. Lärarna uppmärksammar könsbundna attitydskillnader till naturvetenskap och teknik. En ökad insikt om flickors behov av att se helheter och förstå sammanhang har fått lärarna att tänka kring sin undervisning i NO/teknik på ett nytt sätt. Lärarna har bland annat provat att presentera samma undervisningsmoment på olika sätt i flick- respektive pojkgrupper. Träning och erfarenhet inom ett område som eleverna tidigare inte behärskar, skapar trygghet och förtrogenhet med ämnet och därigenom kan attitydskillnader överbryggas. För att bättre kunna förmedla ett intresse och engagemang till eleverna uttrycker lärarna en önskan om kompetensutveckling inom NO/teknik. I artikeln presenteras delresultat från intervjuer med fyra av de deltagande lärarna.

This study examines to what extent experienced teachers are aware of gender issues in the science classroom. It also explores how an introduction to gender theory might alter this awareness. Teachers wrote their reflections about a real classroom situation. They were then asked to analyse the same situation after having read texts that discussed gender theory concepts. The fourteen teachers' understanding about gender and society were challenged. Some teachers were able to analyse the case differently by applying gender theory, others discussed the case on a more general level, while one teacher showed signs of resistance regarding gender theory.

This study examines to what extent experienced teachers are aware of gender issues in the science classroom. It also explores how an introduction to gender theory might alter this awareness. Teachers wrote their reflections about a real classroom situation. They were then asked to analyse the same situation after having read texts that discussed gender theory concepts. The fourteen teachers' understanding about gender and society were challenged. Some teachers were able to analyse the case differently by applying gender theory, others discussed the case on a more general level, while one teacher showed signs of resistance regarding gender theory.

Syftet med den här studien är att genom diskursanalys analysera hur genus konstrueras i två läseböcker avsedda för grundskolans tidigare åldrar. Vidare syftar uppsatsen till att undersöka huruvida konstruktionerna av genus i läromedlen förstärker och/eller bryter mot rådande genusstereotyper. Utgångspunkten för uppsatsen är teorier som ser genus, och vad vi uppfattar som kvinnligt och manligt, som sociala, kulturella, historiska konstruktioner, snarare än som biologiskt nedärvda, beständiga och oföränderliga egenskaper. Uppsatsen har ett diskursanalytiskt angreppssätt. Analysen syftar därmed till att analysera läsebokstext och söka diskurser i dessa, diskurser som visar på hur genus konstrueras i texterna. De tre mest framträdande genusdiskurser jag funnit vid textanalysen är Den duktiga flickan/Flickan som biroll, Flickan som objekt för pojkars kärlek och Pojken som huvudperson. Det faktum att flickor och pojkar i läseböckerna ofta positioneras i dessa diskurser resulterar i att läsebokstexterna i hög grad bidrar till att befästa och tradera rådande genusstereotyper. I båda läseböckerna förekommer dock även brott mot dessa stereotyper.

This article presents the photographers Mathilda Ranch (1860-1938) in the town of Varberg in the south of Sweden and Agnes Andersson (1865-1958) in the parish of Alfta in north of Sweden. In their lifetime Sweden was changing into the industrial era introducing new professions beyond gender connotations. Individuals desiring independence found new lifestyles. Ranch and Andersson both lived in their own houses and never married. As photographers they lived in a modern zone where they could reject a compulsory heteronormative partnership. In Varberg, people said that Mathilda Ranch did not like men, due to her inferior social position as an unmarried woman. In Alfta, there was a silence concerning the familylife of Agnes Andersson although her "foster daughter" took over the atelier. Agnes Andersson is an appreciated photographer and parishoner, but as "Mathilda" in Varberg often intimately diminished as "Agnes" and far from fame outside Alfta. Why is Agnes Andersson held back?

Sammanfattning

I denna studie har vi undersökt hur barnen bemöts av pedagogerna i den fria leken på förskolan ur ett jämställt perspektiv. Vi har valt att fokusera på pedagogernas agerande gentemot barnen ur ett genusperspektiv, detta därför att det är ett aktuellt ämne som ofta debatteras i media och vi har ett stort intresse av ämnet. Könsroller är något som vi alla tidigt i livet ”tar på oss”. Barnen i vår omgivning blir påverkade av oss vuxna som finns i deras närhet.

Den metod vi använt oss av i studien har varit av kvalitativ sort. Vi har använt oss av intervjuer med pedagoger samt observationer av barn, där vi har koncentrerat oss på hur pedagogen bemöter barnen olika om de är flickor eller pojkar.

I arbetet har vi bland annat kommit fram till att när det kommer till hur pedagogerna bemöter barnen i den fria leken, måste de bli mer medvetna om att deras bemötande av barnens kön påverkar hur jämställt ett samhälle blir i framtiden. Undersökningen har också visat att pedagogerna gärna vill tro att de redan arbetar jämställt och inte gör någon större skillnad mellan barnen, utan att de i första hand ser till individen. Vilket inte alltid har visat sig stämma med verkligheten.

In this essay I analyze the ways in which gender and space are shaped and made sense of through digital gameplay. Specifically in the turn based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Within for the MacBook Air with a computer mouse as the primary input device. Using a mixed methods approach consisting of gameplay sessions of XCOM and qualitative interviews with two players regarding their gameplay I argue that earlier research on space within game studies has overlooked the ways in which the shaping of space in gameplay is also gendered. Developing a theoretical framework influenced by gender studies, critical theory, affect theory, assemblage theories of space, and game theory, I argue for how the shaping of space and gender in game-play is interdependent. This in that the shaping of space and gender in digital gameplay is in constant relation and tension with societal norms and the affective capacities of bodies and digital games. In conclusion, I reflect on the possibilities to develop more empirical research based on the the theoretical framework explored in the essay.

Male and female non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners differ in inheritance positions, valuations and forest management style. A survey of Swedish NIPF owners found that male and female owners differ in their willingness to take a financial risk. The preliminary analysis, looking only at gender, revealed no difference in the willingness to take risk. Dividing the population according to dependence on income from forestry, however, showed that female NIPF owners increased their willingness to take financial risk when the dependence of income from forestry changed from insubstantial to notable. Females' tolerance towards risk was also significantly higher than males' at the notable level of dependence of forestry income. Having or not having economic yield as one of the most important objectives of ownership seemed to have a little effect on the willingness to take financial risk; however, the results were further strengthened when adding this dimension. A gender perspective was applied to explain identified differences between male and female forest owners concerning their willingness to take financial risks. Whether these differences emanate from real differences in willingness to take risk, or whether they are effects from other differences in male and female forest ownership, is discussed.

Previous research has shown that breastfeeding in public environment is not completely accepted, neither in Sweden nor internationally. Therefore, women feel restricted. Research indicates that the female body is sexualized and the woman is seen as an object. However, it is possible to change the norm concerning public breastfeeding, it’s done by people questioning, being educated about but also being exposed to breastfeeding. The aim of the study is to examine women's perceptions of breastfeeding in public space, their potential strategies and which societal changes they find are needed for safe breastfeeding in the public. This qualitative study is based on five semi-structured interviews with women who have experiences of breastfeeding in public environment. Thematic analysis method and abductive analytic strategy was used. The analysis is informed by feminist theories on gender and public space. The results indicate women’s perceived fear of receiving unwanted attention, gazes and insecurity. To be able to breastfeed in the public, the women created safety strategies such as covering up, planning and creating “an own private room”. The analysis shows that the women see both themselves and society as responsible for change and that normalization is required.

This thesis uses a norm-critical perspective to highlight the diversity presented from a selection of picture books published by swedish authors between the years 2016-2021. The work will focus on some of the norms that the picture book presents regarding, among other things, gender, functional variations and culture

Furthermore, the picture book's multimodal communication method will be analyzed on the basis of the method approach semiotic modality and further examined through quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. This is to highlight the importance of the text and the equivalence of the illustration in the multimodal communication.

In my process, a selection of nine books has been selected and critically examined on the basis of norm-critical criteria and through both conventional and iconic signs in order to create as comprehensive an analysis as possible.

In conclusion the results of this study are presented where norms and/or themes that recur, or are not noticed, are also addressed in several of the books. Furthermore, the importance of the preschool educator's understanding of the picture book, norm criticism and inclusion is highlighted. Emphasis is placed on the educators understanding why regular reflections and analyzes of the material the preschool offers the children should be made.

Several of Darwins ideas about evolution have taken time permeate in to main stream biology. One of them was the idea about the sexually active female. During the last thirty years androcentrism and schematic thinking on sex has been challenged by gender perspectives and modern behavioral ecology but a lot remains to be done. There is much suggesting that in particular the study and transgression of the boundary between theories on gender and sexual selection might produce surprising counter knowledge.

Psykologen Virginia Valian talar om traditionell kategorisering baserad på kön (gender schemas). Man har med experiment tydligt kunnat visa att sådana kategoriseringar påverkar vår perception radikalt. Studier visar till exempel att försöks¬personer som ställs inför uppgiften att uppskatta mäns och kvinnors längd regelmässigt underskattar kvinnors längd. Föga förvånande så bär vi med oss dessa könskategorier även när vi studerar djur och evolution.

Den ornitologiskt kunnige som slår upp sparvhök i Bonniers Alla Europas fåglar i färg slås av att honan avbildas som likstor med hanen trots att honorna i verkligheten är mycket större. Tvärtemot vad fågelboken antyder så är det lättare att missta en sparvhökshona för hanen hos den större duvhöken, än för hanen av den egna arten. Det här är en typ av reproduktion av könsstereotyp och missvisande information som är vanlig i den ornitologiska litteraturen.

Ornitologin i sin tur är intimt kopplad till och uppvisar strukturella likheter med den del av evolutionsbiologin som får allt större inflytande på vår förståelse av beteenden, beteendeekologin.

Beteendeekologiska teorier och resultat kan innebära en revolution för tänkandet kring kön och könsbundna egenskaper. Att plocka isär och återuppbygga könsbegreppen har delvis varit nödvändigt, i synnerhet för de som studerar vad vi kallar ”sexuell selektion”. Därför har genusperspektiven stora möjligheter att kunna bidra med insikter viktiga för både teoribildningen och det praktiska vetenskapliga hantverket.

The field of evolutionary ecology in general and behavioural ecology in particular is often regarded as an androcentric science where sexual stereotypes pervade. In this article we review some of the evidence for this notion and suggest that behavioural ecology still is suffering from such gender bias. The criticism so far has mainly been centred on how these problems affect the understanding of humans. Here focus on how it can produce misconceptions of animals and animal behaviour. In particular we discuss why gender perspectives are relevant to theory production, experiment design and the choice of study species. We also suggest that sexual stereotypes and androcentrism are not a necessary part of behavioural ecology, and that the field has the potential of producing knowledge that could revolutionize some of the thinking around sex and gender.

Jag har undersökt hur kvinnliga respektive manliga idrottare presenteras i tre olika medieformer under en vecka i april 2016, datumen 18–24 april för att vara exakt. De tre olika medierna jag använt mig av är SVT:s Sportnytt, tidningen Expressens sportbilaga i pappersform samt webbupplagan av tidningen Gefle Dagblads sportsidor, www.gd.se/sport.   Jag har använt mig av kvantitativ metod för att procentuellt se skillnaderna mellan könens representation och kvalitativ metod för att se om texter och bilder har tendenser till könsstereotypa framställningar av idrottarna. Resultatet blev att en överhängande majoritet av inslag, artiklar och krönikor skrivs av manliga journalister och tillägnas manliga idrottare samt att kvinnor och män beskrivs på olika sätt i texter och rubriker.   När det gäller det visuella finns en tydlig tendens att i artiklar med kvinnliga idrottare är bilderna ofta porträttbilder eller miljöbilder, med manliga idrottare är bilderna situationsbilder där de typiska manliga attributen muskelmassa, styrka och snabbhet framhävs. I en värld där männen har dominerat sportens värld i tusentals år har vi fortfarande en lång väg att gå för att nå jämlikhet mellan könen.  

The following essay examines The black tides of Heaven by Neon Yang and its trans representation through a trans reading. The essay is based on research questions involving trans representation and how these representations challenge cisnormative ideas of gender and body and how fantasy is a possibility for trans stories. Throughout the essay, the novella is discussed from different topics such as trans as starting point, trans bodies and depathologisation, the novella as a decolonial work, and trans representation, exit scapes and a trans fantasy alliance. From this analysis, I can conclude that there are multiple disruptive representations of trans, making it an important piece of trans text and also in giving hope and comfort to trans readers.

Barn idag tillbringar en stor del av deras barndom på förskolan och mycket av dagarna där spenderas i utemiljöerna. Att förskolan ska erbjuda och sträva efter att barnen ska mötas och behandlas på jämlikt vis är en viktig fråga inom förskolan men det krävs kunskap och förståelse för hur jämlikt tolkas och användas. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om de lekredskap och ytor som förskolans utemiljö erbjuder påverkar barns lek ur ett genusperspektiv. 

Studien baseras på en kvalitativ metod genom intervjuer av två förskollärare samt deltagande observation av sex barn som visat och berättat om vad och hur de leker i förskolans utemiljö. För att tolka och analysera min insamlade empiri så utgick jag ifrån barndomssociologiska teoretiska begrepp som kamratkultur, tolkande reproduktion och det miljöpsykologiska begreppet affordance. 

Resultatet av min studie visar på att utemiljön på förskolan inte är så genusneutral som den oftast antas vara. I intervjuerna som gjorts framkom det att grupper av barn tar sig an utemiljön och dess innehåll olika beroende på könstillhörighet. Studien vill bidra till kunskap om hur utformningen av förskolans utemiljö kan påverka barnens lekar ur ett genusperspektiv. 

This article investigates discourses of Sweden's success in gender mainstreaming. Using the theoretical concept of myth, discourse analysis is performed on different categories of texts (including academic texts, grey papers and official reports). The aim is to analyse how this discourse of success is constructed and to increase the understanding of its components. The themes identified in the reading include adaptation, integration, volume and initiatives. In conclusion, it is argued that a conflation of gender mainstreaming (viewed as a strategy) with gender equality (as a policy objective) has been a vital part of the construction of Sweden as the best case of gender mainstreaming.

This article discusses gender equality and how and why a gender mainstreaming strategy avoids the question of gender conflict. The making of gender-equality work is studied by investigating how feminism is talked about and rejected in a specific gender mainstreaming project in the municipality of Örebro, Sweden. Drawing upon the theoretical concepts of hegemony and discourse, the focus is on the silences—the unspoken questions and problems—surrounding the project. I examine how the exclusion of feminism and conflict is articulated when gender mainstreaming is introduced as a new way of doing gender-equality work in the municipality. The struggles identified show that feminism is rejected because it is seen as being in opposition to (1) professionalism and (2) legitimate political issues. I conclude that within the local discourse of gender mainstreaming there is a notion that this form of gender-equality work ought to be performed without harmful or threatening gender conflicts. This means that the strategy of gender mainstreaming constitutes a short-cut to bypass controversial problems like equal treatment, special efforts for women, and men's privileges in gender-equality work.

Syftet med det här arbetet var att undersöka hur huvudkaraktärerna i tio barnböcker rent språkligt gestaltas ur ett genusperspektiv i en jämförelse med de traditionella stereotyperna för vad som anses manligt respektive kvinnligt. I studien undersöktes även likheter och skillnader mellan positivt och negativt laddade ord ur ett genusperspektiv. Metoderna för undersökningen gick ut på att först dela in de personbeskrivande orden i barnböckerna i tre olika semantiska kategorier: känslor, psykiska egenskaper och fysiska egenskaper. Sedan gavs orden en positiv eller negativ laddning.Baserat på de vanligast förekommande orden finns ingen skillnad mellan beskrivningar av manliga och kvinnliga huvudpersoner. Baserat på alla förekommande personbeskrivande ord finns dock en skillnad mellan ord som beskriver manliga och kvinnliga huvudpersoner. Resultatet följer de traditionella genusstereotyperna vi har om manligt och kvinnligt: nämligen att pojkar beskrivs som skyddande och flickorna som omtänksamma och omsorgsfulla. Denna skillnad tyder dock på en mer jämställd situation, jämfört med studier av barnböcker från 1960-talet. Två tredjedelar av de personbeskrivande orden är negativt laddade. Jag kunde inte se någon skillnad mellan positiva och negativa laddningar på orden i en jämförelse mellan manliga och kvinnliga personbeskrivningar. De stereotypa beskrivningarna av manliga och kvinnliga personer överensstämmer även med vissa av huvudkaraktärerna i de enskilda böckerna.

This thesis explores the National Action Plans of Sweden and Austria concerning the UN adopted Resolution 1325 about Women, Peace and Security.

The increase of the number of women in the armed forces has for a long time been a prioritised topic for the Swedish Armed Forces. This thesis investigates how the Swedish and the Austrian NAPs are dealing with this question.

The NAPs are written with the purpose of making the implementation of Resolution 1325 easier and faster, in a national context. In this thesis, the parts concerning increasing the number of women in the armed forces and in peacekeeping operations are the ones investigated. A qualitative methodology is used in the thesis and a comparison is conducted between the National Action Plans to see what Sweden and Austria can learn from each other.

The results show that the Austrian National Action Plan does not consist of any particular part that concerns how to make more women work in the armed forces. However, there is a section concerning the importance of raising the number of women in peacekeeping operations. This section is within the Swedish National Action Plan as is the part which is concerned with having more women employed in the Swedish Armed Forces.

The Austrian National Action Plan would benefit if how to get a higher per cent of women in the armed forces was included. It is a prioritised topic in Austria, as well as in Sweden, to increase the number of women in the armed forces. This is also an issue that goes hand in hand with the implementation of Resolution 1325, which makes it an important element in the NAP.

Key words: Resolution 1325, National Action Plan, Sweden, Austria, Gender, Implementing Resolution 1325, Swedish Armed Forces, Austrian Armed Forces, Peacekeeping Operations, increasing women in armed forces.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur kön och genus framställs i nyare läromedel ämnade för läsförståelseutveckling i ämnet svenska. För att få en djupare förståelse för vikten av jämställdhet- och genusmedvetenhet har också två lärare intervjuats. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats i både text- och innehållsanalysen. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten i studien är Hirdmans genusteori, som legat som grund för analys av det insamlade materialet. Den tidigare forskningen som presenteras i arbetet belyser att det funnits ett intresse i att undersöka genus och jämställdhet i skolans läromedel, men att det saknas studier på läromedel ämnade för läsförståelseutveckling. I bakgrunden presenteras resultat från de senaste PIRLS-mätningarna, vilka påvisar att pojkar presterar sämre än flickor samtidigt som den tidigare forskningen visar att representationen av pojkar och män i läromedelstexter varit övervägande majoritetsbärande. Resultatet av lärarintervjuerna visar att vilka aspekter som tas i beaktande vid val av läsförståelsetexter skiljer sig åt även om det hos de båda lärarna finns en medvetenhet om värdegrundens skrivningar om genus- och jämställdhet. I analysen av de tre läroböckerna ämnade för läsförståelseutveckling i svenskämnet framkommer det ett blandat resultat, där Hirdmans teoretiska antaganden både bekräftas och utmanas.

Background: Over decades, companies have been integrating quality management to constantly improve and develop their businesses. Techniques and tools have been used as support to meet the company’s values, and to increase external and internal customer satisfaction with a reduce amount of resources. Recent projects have demonstrated that gender mainstreaming works as an effective approach for business improvement and development. The method is claimed to have a positive impact on the company’s business performance, for instance by improved working environment, increased creative and innovative capacity of employees and an increased ability to attract well-trained staff. In addition, it is considered that gender mainstreaming contributes to social sustainability and the achievement of the UN’s global goals faster, which in turn leads to sustainable development.

Purpose: The purpose of this study has been to investigate how gender mainstreaming and quality management interact, and how gender mainstreaming can contribute to the improvement of construction projects.

Methodology: The study has been carried out as an in-depth case study at Skanska Commercial Development Nordic in Gothenburg. In order to understand the business case, its problem and current situation, a qualitative methodology with quantitative data was made. The qualitative data was used to obtain a deeper understanding of the case, and the quantitative data consisted of statistics from the company and the construction industry. As method of analysis, a Thematic analysis and Voice Of The Customer Table (VOCT) was done to understand the needs of the employees at Skanska.

Result: In the study’s theoretical framework, several similarities between gender mainstreaming and quality management were identified, in which gender mainstreaming could be seen as a technique within quality management. From the study of Skanska’s way of working, it emerged that there is no link between their work with quality and gender equality. That entails gender mainstreaming in the project Götakvarteren will involve major changes as new ideas and methods must be established. On the other hand, the analysis indicated that the employees need of an equal construction project would be beneficial for the company’s sustainable development. Based on the needs of the employees, recommendations have been given for how Götakvarteren could become profitable by becoming Skanska’s most equal project.

Conclusion: There is a distinct link between gender mainstreaming and quality management, in which gender mainstreaming can be argued to be a technique within quality management. Just as Skanska’s current quality management system, the work with gender equality should be integrated in the daily activities and accepted as a method for continuous improvement. After identifying the company’s challenges, opportunities and needs, actions have been developed for how gender mainstreaming can contribute to successful and equal construction projects.

Much concern is given to increasing participation of “minorities” in Science and Technology. Simultaneously, research shows how these areas can appear hostile to people outside the norm. However, formation of and inte- ractions with the norm is complex and occur in the intersection of various aspects, such as gender and program belonging.

To explore the dynamics of unequal treatment in science and technology, we have analysed reports of negative experiences from students at a Swedish research university. 3123 students responded to web-based questionnaires about educational experiences in 2012 and 2014. Negative experiences were reported by 14% of the female respondents and 7% of the male re- spondents.

Qualitative analysis of answers about negative experiences identified more than two thirds of the responses as regarding how students are perceived, valued and treated, primarily in relation to gender and programme belonging. Female students were positioned as less knowledgeable and therefore needing and receiving more, often unwanted, help than their peers. Responses related to the expected masculinity of science and technology were more than four times as common among female respondents. Students in “non- traditional” programmes were perceived as having lower status and mee- ting unfair treatment. These programs often recruit larger fractions of female students and, consistently, responses regarding program status was three times more common among female respondents.

Our study illustrates how normative factors affect higher education experiences in science and technology, especially for female students, who may be subject to unequal treatment both as women and as students on non- traditional programmes.

This article is based on an empirical case study with an interactive research approach focusing on gendered norms in a Swedish truck Company. It discusses the combined value of using the metaphor of a firewall for (1) analysing how organizational constraining gendered norms are done in everyday organizational life, and (2) as a practical tool to facilitate the processes aimed at improving norm awareness. The metaphor embodies an understanding that makes it possible to visualize relational ongoing organizational processes and power dimensions. In addition, the firewall is useful for emphasizing variations and complexity. Variations and dynamics are manifested in the ways that employees need to fulfil varying “codes” in order to be accepted. The possession of certain codes (norms) that are required to pass through the first layer of the firewall (employment), and give access to some networks, does not automatically ensure acceptance and integration into more influential networks (referred to as the informal and inner layers of the firewall). The results furthermore show that the firewall metaphor is fruitful when facilitating reflection processes amongst employees to improve norma wareness and to discuss strategies for change. The conclusion is that the firewall metaphor facilitates an analysis of the relational and complex doing of constraining norms, and that it also can be used to initiate change.