In this paper we explore how existing work place culture and gendered norms impact on the possibilities to work with so called ”norm-critical” innovation processes in an organisation. Norm-critical reflexivity in the context of innovation processes implies to pay attention to invisible and implicit norms that may result in that certain privileged perspectives is being prevailed (over others) (Balkmar & Lykke 2015). The empirical findings emanates from a two year interactive research project, in which gender researchers in collaboration with participants at Volvo Group, Sweden, have explored the ways that the company can increase its capacity to work with norm-critical perspectives in the innovation process. Volvo is a highly gender segregated organisation. At the same time the trucking industry in itself is highly masculinized in terms of different professions; ranging from truck drivers to sales personnel to technical engineers involved in the design and manufacturing of trucks. In later years the shortage of truck drivers, in combination with more women drivers entering trucking academies and haulage contractors, has led to a questioning of male norms in the transport business. This includes reports of difficult working conditions for female truckers, including how the design of the truck itself takes the male body as the implicit norm, to the assumption that it is a man that is the presumed driver of trucks.

This paper focus on the part of the project that seeks to better understand how existing work-place culture and norms structure who is considered the ideal employee (Acker 1992) and its implications for innovation. This includes studying its impacts on both the possibility for different categories of employees to take part in the innovation work on equal terms, and the ability to reflect upon the impact of implicit norms in the innovation process itself. In total, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with co-workers and managers (13 women and 5 men). The main questions concerned whether there existed ideals that formed implicit ”codes” (Bendl and Schmidt 2010) in the organization and its impact on ideas of preferred professional qualifications, behaviors, personal qualities and its links to career possibilities and innovation. The underlying theoretical assumption is that gender is a fundamental element of organisational structure and work life; “present in [its] processes, practices, images and ideologies, and distribution of power” (Acker 1992, p. 567). The way that gender plays out in the daily life in a workplace is understood as not being a static barrier prohibiting women in general, rather, it is considered fluid, relational and may vary depending on the context (Meyerson & Fletcher 2001, Bendl and Schmidt 2010). It is argued that the concept ”fire wall” (Bendl and Schmidt 2010 ), offers a fruitful way to highlight the elasticity and permeability that we believe characterize the forms of discrimination, inclusion and exclusion that takes place in these processes.

References

Acker, J. 1992. Gendering Organisational Theory. In Mills, A. and Tancered, P. (eds.). Gendering Organisational Analysis. London: SAGE.

Acker, J. 2006. Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in Organisations. Gender and Society 20(4):441-464.

Balkmar, D. & Lykke, N. 2015. Developing disruptive norm-critical innovation at Volvo: FINAL REPORT. Linköping: Tema Genus Report Series No. 23: 2015.

Bendl, R. & Schmidt. 2012. From 'Glass Ceilings' to 'Firewalls' - Different Metaphors for Describing Discrimination. Gender, Work and Organization. Vol. 17. No 5:612-635.

Meyerson, D. & Fletcher J.K. 2001. A Modest Manifesto for Shattering the Glass Ceiling. Boston: Harvard Business Review.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how the construction of the swedish national self-image can be interpreted in relation to the protests against the russian anti-gay laws, leading up to the olympic games in Sotji 2014. I form a basis for my analysis in Jasbir K. Puars conceptual frame of homonationalism and examine the swedish political action Live and Let Love that took place at Stockholms Stadion in the fall of 2013. The analysis shows how the inclusion of a homonormative homosexuality becomes an important factor for the construction of Sweden as an open and tolerant nation in contrast to Russia as a non tolerant nation. This construction of "us" and the "Other" manifests through a discourse of tolerance. The national sense of community is formed through interaction between national symbols and symbols of the LGBT community.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka svenska kvinnors kritik av det industriella nattarbetsförbud som infördes 1909. Hur argumenterade kvinnor ur arbetarrörelsens respektive den borgerliga kvinnorörelsen, och hur skilde sig kritiken åt i fråga om argumentation och huvudsakliga motiv? Hur svarade man på diskursen om kvinnors särskilda skyddsbehov? Det teoretiska ramverk som fått informera analysen har varit marxistisk feminism, arbetskritik och Butlers teoretisering av sårbarhet. Med hjälp av ett diskurskritiskt angreppssätt studeras och jämförs artiklar publicerade i tidskrifterna Morgonbris och Dagny. Den metodologiska utgångspunkten är att studera problemframställningar av förbudet i fråga, och studien visar att de båda tidskrifterna skilde sig radikalt åt beträffande argumentation och motiv, även om de huvudsakligen tyckte lika i sak. I analysen presenteras några centrala argumentationslinjer inom respektive riktning. De särskilda aspekter som tas upp är synen på arbete och på den arbetandes skyddsbehov under den tidiga industrialismen, och vad dessa skilda förståelser får för betydelse för emancipatorisk praktik. 

Formal social control of girls has historically focused on disciplining their sexual behavior, and studies show this is still present. This article analyses how authorities describe and give meaning to young people’s sexual behavior when assessing their need of compulsory care. The results show that in the few cases when boys’ sexual behavior is highlighted, it concerns sexual delinquency. The assessments of girls’ sexual behavior largely regards situations where they are exposed to others’ sexual transgressions, risking to victim-blame girls. This is discussed in relation to gendered understandings of sexual behavior and supposed gaps in legislation.

I föreliggande studie har nio socialsekreterare intervjuats i syfte att undersöka hur de ser på socialtjänstens bemötande av våldsutsatta kvinnor utan permanent uppehållstillstånd (PUT). I studien är det socialsekreterarnas föreställningar om våldsutsatta kvinnor utan PUT och den hjälp de kan få som står i centrum. Intervjumaterialet har analyserats utifrån ett intersektionellt perspektiv. I studien skildras kvinnor utan PUT som särskilt sårbara när de utsätts för våld. Denna sårbarhet kan både förstås som ett uttryck för kvinnornas våldserfarenheter och det faktum att de inte har rätt till samma stöd från socialtjänsten som andra våldsutsatta kvinnor.

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.

In this article we problematize the purpose of teaching science in preschool and the competences preschool teachers need in order to conduct science activities in the classroom. The empirical data were collected through an action research project with five preschool and primary school teachers (K-6). In the first section of this paper we use one situation, a floating–sinking experiment, as an illustration of how two different epistemological perspectives generate different foci on which kind of science teaching competences can be fruitful in preschool settings. In the first perspective, the central goal of science teaching is the development of the children’s conceptual understanding. With this perspective, we found that the science activities with children were unsuccessful, because their thoughts about concepts did not develop as expected, the situation even enhanced a‘‘misconception’’ concerning density. Moreover, the teacher was unsuccessful in supportingthe children’s conceptual learning. The second perspective uses a feminist approach that scrutinizes science, where we investigate if the floating–sinking activity contributes to a feeling of participation in a scientific context for the children and if so how the teacher promotes this inclusion. This second perspective showed that the children’s scientific proficiency benefited from the situation; they had a positive experience with density which was reinforced by the teacher. The children discovered that they had power over their own learning by using an experimental approach. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that there are competences other than subject matter knowledge that are also important when preschool teachers engage children in scientific activities. Through process-oriented work with the teacher group, we identified four concrete skills: paying attention to and using children’s previous experiences; capturing unexpected things that happen at the moment they occur; asking questions that challenge the children and that stimulate further investigation; creating a situated presence, that is, ‘‘remaining’’ in the situation and listening to the children and their explanations. We discuss possible ways to move preschool teachers away from their feelings of inadequacy and poor self-confidence in teaching science by reinforcing this kind of pedagogical content knowledge.

Universitetslärare i biologi, fysik och kemi lägger ingen större vikt vid att det finns lärarstudenter bland eleverna och deras uppfattning om ämnesdidaktik är diffus. Ofta sätter instrumenttunga laboratorier osynliga ramar för vad som är legitimt att fokusera. Studenter med annat fokus riskerar att stötas ut. Kulturen på institutionerna gör att ämneslärarstudenter matas med budskap om att undervisning är något underordnat – vilket sannolikt påverkar deras syn på utbildningsval, självbild och framtida yrkesroll som specialister på just undervisning. Vi har studerat lärarutbildares syn på sina ämnen och hur denna manifesteras i utbildningen.

A major Western concern is that young people avoid science and technology programs. At various times, and in different countries, governments, funding agencies and businesses have made large investments in recruitment campaigns with the objective to increase students’ interest and attract new groups of students to these disciplines. In particular, girls and women have been the target group for many of these campaigns. The assumption is that if young people understood how exciting and interesting science is, they would choose these subjects. In other words, the problem is that young people "don’t understand what is best for their own good".  In addition, research has shown that primary and pre-school student teachers often feel alienated by science education (Appleton & Kindt 2002) and that it may be difficult for these students to reconcile the role of teacher of young children with the role of science teacher in their identity formation (Danielsson & Warwick 2012).

However, feminist science educators suggest that students’ lack of interest is caused by character and image of the disciplines (Brickhouse 2001; Scantlebury 2012). Feminist philosophers’ of science have challenged the view of natural sciences as objective, and argue that knowledge production is human activities that are socially and culturally situated (Haraway 1988; Harding 1986). A noted problem with science is its elitist image. Science is portrayed as difficult and demanding, and as requiring a special talent from those who study or engage with the discipline. A feminist pedagogical stance is to visualize and discuss cultural, social, and historical dimensions of science. This has also proved advantageous for the acquiring of science content knowledge (Sible et al 2006). Therefore, we argue, that one important aspect of science teacher education is to problematize science (education), e.g. by including feminist critiques of science (Capobianco 2007; Mayberry 1998).

In this paper we explore the impact of a feminist teaching intervention within teacher education, focusing on the research question: What occurs when students are situated in the encounter between feminist critique of natural sciences and teacher education? What kind of obstacles can be identified and how will these effect pre-service teachers’ pedagogy of science?

The intervention, data collection and analysis

In an ongoing research and intervention project we are studying how an increased awareness of gender issues in science and in science teaching among student teachers influences their identities as teachers, and their teaching of science. We have followed a cohort of approximately 120 pre-service teachers (early years to lower secondary) from two universities in Sweden, through their first year of science courses. As an integral part of these science courses our intervention has introduced critical perspectives on gender and science as related to the culture of science and a feminist critique of the sciences. The project as a whole is framed theoretically by Hirdman's (1990) and Harding's (1986) theories of gender order in society, where gender is constituted on different levels: the structural, the symbolic and the individual (Harding 1986; Hirdman 1990; Rubin 1975). Hirdman (1990) describes this pattern from two perspectives: first, the separation of the two sexes and second, the superior status of the male standard. The formation of gender consolidates differences between the sexes and the female gender is always subordinate the male one, independent of status, class, time, and space.

The article shows how the Danish news media’s portrayals of meetings between visible minority males and ethnically Danish females have participated in constructing certain images of gender, sexuality and race/ethnicity. It illustrates how understandings of these categories are interwoven with understandings of nationality and Danishness, and argues that in order to understand constructions of nationalities, scholars need to take gender, race/ethnicity and sexuality into consideration. The article shows how ethnically Danish females have been constructed as symbolic reproducers of the nation, and how sexual assaults against ethnically Danish women therefore have been interpreted as assaults against the nation. The article explains how this understanding has been at play in rape narratives where gender – and women’s responsibility for rape – has been articulated in rape cases with white ethnically Danish perpetrators whereas race/ethnicity has been articulated as an explanation for rape in cases with visible minority perpetrators.

This article analyses self-portrayals and gender constructions among Swedish male bodybuilders who are engaged in fitness doping. The empirical material comes from a larger ethnographic investigation into gym culture. The results show that there is a strong propensity to conform with particular gender fantasies that rests heavily on a binary understanding of gendered, doped bodies. However, this storyline does not apprehend the entire self-presentation of the analysed drug users. Negotiations and inclusive subversions of traditional gender norms are also expressed. For example, the narratives show how the use of performance-enhancing substances makes it possible for (heterosexual) men to approach, touch and express feelings of desire towards other men and their bodies. As such, this practice can be viewed as a contestation of hegemonic gender values, in which masculinity and fitness doping are detached from a quite heterosexist understanding, and turned into a symbolic world of homoerotic pleasure.

Through hegemonic ideas about muscles and extraordinary performances, image- and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) and their use have been traditionally connected to hypersexualized masculinities. This link has resulted in spectacular ideas and fantasies about what IPEDs can do to/with men regarding their bodies and sexual performance. However, these ideas do not always manifest or correspond with daily life. Using a qualitative and case-study-based approach, this article investigates the relationship between doped and spectacular masculinities as they are presented and constructed in and through an online doping community, and users’ experiences of side effects of the doped body and its social consequences. Analytically, the article draws on Guy Debord’s work on the relationship between the spectacle and the real, and the ongoing theoretical debate on different reconfigurations and redefinitions of doped masculinities. It argues that anticipations of and effects from IPEDs can bring alternative ways of enacting doping masculinity and sexuality in the context of online communication while also blurring the lines between fantasy and lived experience.

Men have increasingly been dedicating time and effort to childcare. Consequently, the idea of the ‘new’ emotionally involved father has been discussed in the literature. This article focuses on narratives of divorced Swedish fathers with joint physical custody of their children. This arrangement, a new model of post-divorce parenting, has become increasingly popular in several Nordic countries. The article aims to analyse the experiences attached to and emanating from this particular form of post-divorce agreement, and how it is understood in relation to the Swedish childcare system. The fathers interviewed had a strong ambition to share things equally, as well as to carry on family practices in gender-equal ways. This desire was, however, balanced with a number of obstacles, such as work requirements, living conditions and conceptions of gender differences. In this way, the fathers’ subjective aspirations and strivings were filtered through structural and cultural conditions in society, with clear connections to Swedish family and gender politics.

Förenklade föreställningar om manlighet och mäns kroppar är vanligt förekommande i såväl den offentliga debatten som i forskningssammanhang. Män beskrivs som dominerande, disciplinerande och våldsamma. 

De sägs också ha svårt att söka hjälp för psykiska och somatiska problem, att tala om känslor och att fullt ut eftersträva jämställdhet. De vill inte dela ansvar för hemmet eller vara fysiskt nära sina barn. Men stämmer dessa stereotypa bilder in på den samtida vardagsmannen?

I denna bok erbjuds en nyanserad, men också kritisk bild av manlighetens olika ansikten. Genom att analysera manlighet utifrån dels kritisk forskning om män och maskuliniteter, dels kroppsstudier, närmar sig författarna denna komplexa fråga. Boken diskuterar mäns relation till muskler, våld, faderskap, kroppslig estetisering, åldrande och sjukdom liksom en rad andra frågor.

Den perfekta mannen? utgör ett bidrag till den akademiska forskningen om män, maskulinitet och manlighetens förkroppsligande – men riktar sig också till alla som är intresserade av genus- och identitetsfrågor.

This article analyzes self-portrayals and gender constructions among female personal trainers within an Internet-mediated framework of fitness culture. The empirical material comes from a close examination of three strategically selected blogs. The result shows that some of the blogs clearly build upon what Connell calls emphasized femininity, as a means of legitimizing and constructing appropriate female fitness. In addition, there are also tendencies of sexualization in text and imagery present. As such, these self-representations are framed within a cultural history of body fitness dominated by stereotypical ways of perceiving masculinity and femininity. However, this does not capture the entire presentation of the self among the analyzed fitness bloggers. The blogs also point in the direction of ongoing negotiations and subversions of traditional gender norms. Among other things, they show how irony and humor are used as a means of questioning normative gender constructions while empowering female fitness and bodyliness.

This article is based on written accounts posted on an online forum called Flashback.The purpose of the study was to explore how participants in this community negotiated themeanings of fitness doping and how such negotiations could be understood in terms of masculinity.The findings indicate that the Internet community studied in this article can be read as an example ofa transformational process in which ordinary rules are questioned and partly put out of play. In theworld of the bodybuilder, the marginal masculinity is, in certain senses, dominant. On the one hand,achieving a muscular and well-trained body is regarded as a core aspect of manhood within thecommunity. Marginal masculinity is thus momentarily transformed into dominant and hegemonicmasculinity. On the other hand, however, the findings also indicate that a drug-using, muscularmasculinity is constructed in negotiation with other central masculine ideals, such as the employableman and the responsible father. Found within the community is a complex and dynamic interplaybetween intersecting discourses of manhood.

There is currently an increasing amount of research on online fatherhood. In this article, we have used international blogs as our empirical data, in order to investigate and create an in-depth picture of fatherhood as it is expressed in various men’s stories about their everyday lives. Three distinct conceptions of fatherhood and masculinity emerge. The first of these positions could be described as a nostalgic position in relation to hegemonic masculinity. The second position is referred to here as complicity. This position indicates a changing landscape of fatherhood and family politics, moving towards gender-equal conditions. Thirdly, we have an inclusive position that reflects a gender-neutral position, and are understood less in terms of masculinity, heteronormativity and gender-divided responsibilities.

This article investigates how Swedish gay men pursue and understand fatherhood, using a qualitative, semi-structured methodological approach. We are interested in how practical issues and different fatherhood arrangements are understood and handled by the fathers; how the construction of “rainbow families” is understood in relation to legal issues; parental responsibilities; and thoughts regarding gender-equal and gender-neutral relationships within Swedish society and culture. The results show that the trajectory of gay men toward fatherhood is shaped by a variety of mediating factors such as interactions with agencies, clinics, attorneys, and the state. There are some significant legal, social, financial, and cultural obstacles to realizing gay parenthood. There are also cases where study participants talked about a sense of intolerance expressed toward gay parents within a gay community. Although there are still strong normative dimensions involved in the construction of modern parenthood, the grip of heteronormative views on family life and sexuality is changing; the narratives presented also represent a questioning of the hegemonic image of fatherhood in Sweden. Consequently, it is possible to discern different attempts at transgressing and changing the cultural landscape of fatherhood and the ways people build families today.

Both by participating in the everyday life of fitness professionals, gym-goers and bodybuilders, and by analyzing fitness blogs and other sources, The Global Gym explores fitness centres as sites of learning. The authors examine the kind of learning processes that take place within the gym and the wider fitness industry, and investigate how knowledge is acquired, negotiated and embodied by different agents operating within this context. Beyond this, the book also addresses the construction of gender within fitness culture. Many images of the body beautiful and perfect body ideals are manufactured and sold on a global commercial market. Jesper Andreasson and Thomas Johansson illustrate various extant modes of learning by asking how physical, psychological and cultural knowledge about health and the body is incorporated into people's (gender) identity in a local, national and global gym and fitness context.

Through a close study of blogs, where male fitness experts share their expertise, this article analyses how masculinity are framed within the Internet-mediated context of the fitness culture. This is done against the background of Connell's theory of masculinity, and recent critiques of the concept of hegemony. Through an in-depth analysis of three blogs, we get a complex and contradictory image of the different forms of masculinity portrayed in these blogs and in fitness culture at large. The texts and imagery on the blogs clearly exceeds the criteria/limits of traits and norms traditionally considered male or female. In doing so, the may contribute to an increased acceptance for, for example, gay identities and other submissive masculinities.

Using a minor case study of the local fitness culture scene in Tokyo, Japan, this exploratory and qualitative article aims to discuss and analyse the consequences of globalisation of fitness culture. The article focuses particularly on how fitness culture is negotiated in Japanese society – at a national, local and subjective level, and in relation to attempts to uniformly rationalise and standardise gym and fitness culture. The results indicate that the fitness geography is changing, and through the establishment of a globalised fitness culture, Japanese youth are following in the footsteps of many other countries. However, this does not mean that we are witnessing a homogenisation process, or a completely McDonaldised version of fitness culture in Japan. Instead, this cultural phenomenon is shaped and formed in particular ways, pointing towards certain strong national sentiments concerning body ideals, views on gender and exercise and relaxation. For example, the cuteness ideal has a strong influence on the way young women talk about and perceive body ideals and corporeal performances in Japan.

This article aims to explore the connections between bodybuilding, (hyper)masculinity, sexuality, and the construction of subcultural and sexual spaces among Swedish male fitness dopers. Analytically, the article employs the perspectives of hardcore masculinities—and the potential harms to relationships and health involved in the use of doping—as well as more legitimate and hegemonic masculinity configurations. The results show that there is a delicate balance between masculinity-connoted sexual and other bodily urges and desires, on the one hand, and the loss of control, on the other. Living in a pornographic imaginary can also result in a loss of reasonable contact with the world outside the subculture of bodybuilding. Upholding this lifestyle thus involves an ambivalent construction of masculinity found at the intersection between marginality and hegemony, which sometimes leads to loneliness and a lack of intimate relationships.

The aim of this study was to investigate how Swedish men diagnosed with prostate cancer understand the effects of their treatment in relation to sexual health and masculinity. Utilising a phenomenological and sociologically informed approach, the study involved interviews with 21 Swedish men who experienced problems following treatment. The results showed that participants’ initial response post-treatment, involved the development of new bodily understandings and socially informed strategies to handle incontinence and sexual dysfunction. Due to impotence and the loss of ejaculatory ability following treatments such as surgery, participants re-articulated the meaning of intimacy, as well as their understanding of masculinity and themselves as ageing men. Unlike in previous research, such a re-articulation of masculinity and sexual health is understood as taking place within rather than in opposition to hegemonic masculinity.

This article builds on data gathered through focus group interviews with Swedish mentreated for prostate cancer. First, we aim to analyse how the participants talk about andhandle sensitive issues and common side effects. Second, we investigate how theparticipants’ feelings about their disease affect or interfere with their understanding ofmasculinity. The findings illustrate how participants partly break with historical ex-pectations of men as emotionally inexpressive. Instead, in the groups they talk openlyabout incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and other sensitive issues. At the same time,these discussions can be positioned within certain discursive coping strategies. Usingjokes and intellectualizing their health narratives, combined with a problematizationand partial redefinition of gender and masculinity, most of the men adapt to their newlife situation. The men’s ways of handling their emotions can be situated in the interfacebetween discursive and gendered emotion ideologies, and lived experiences ofmasculinity.

This study aims to examine how healthcare professionals (HCPs) understand the impact prostate cancer treatment can have on patients’ sense of masculinity, sexuality, and intimate life, and how they describe such issues are communicated with patients. Theoretically, HCP narratives are interpreted as part of a reflective process in which notions of hegemonic masculinity are communicated, and sometimes rethought and redefined, within the rehabilitation process. The study showed that HCPs sometimes felt unqualified to deal with issues concerning masculinity and sexuality as such topics were understood to be partially outside the medical domain of their professions. Nonetheless, HCPs engaged in such conversations with patients and described how they tried to support them in reorientating their sense of masculinity. The article concludes that, whereas HCPs tended to describe their patients’ responses to rehabilitation from an embodied and psychological perspective, their own professional and personal views on masculinity usually departed from a sociocultural level (focusing on what it means to be a man in contemporary Swedish society, suggesting that penetrative sex is overrated), where ongoing configurations of hegemonic masculinity were more evident.

The aim of this study was to try to identify what young women see as typically female and how this affects them as individuals, focusing on the female body. How free or limited do they consider themselves to respond to prevailing ideals of beauty, to men and other women. Our questions are how young women construct femininity through the body and why? We do this by using a holistic gender perspective and with the help of key theoretical concepts; gender, normative femininity, heteronormativity, performance, freedom/power and the female body,. We have had a qualitative approach and we have done interviews with six girls in secondary school age. The material is processed and analyzed on the basis of the IPA model, which aims to build themes from the interviews. The themes we have stressed in the study are: Female with large F, To find balance, I want to be unique... (but in the right way), Get a good boyfriend and learn to socialize with girls, To be something for everyone and desire after impossibility and the road ahead. By letting our informant´s voices be made visible in our analysis, we have been able to answer the question of how they experience their own construction of femininity. What becomes visible in the analysis is the great knowledge and awareness which are among the girls on this subject. This shows the complexity that exists around young women today. More conclusions that can be drawn is that whichever way the woman construct her femininity gives different degrees of social status. Lack of freedom is not about the limited possibilities for action it is rather the impact the effectiveness of the choices made and the awareness of those who provide the experience of not being free. 

Abstract

This paper is a study in press reception with the intent to examine how twelve female actionheroes have been portrayed in Swedish media between 1974 – 2006. The purpose is to discern patterns and differences in how the female movie character is received by their contemporary journalists and to relate their views to social and gender related theories.

 The female actionhero is an independent and brutal character, often alone and without a mother or a child. This separates her from typical female roles, which historically been characterized by passivity, fear and dependency on the male characters in the movie.

 The female actionhero as a character opens up for complex reception. One perspective in the research identifies the independent woman as a feministic icon. Other researchers and writers relate her masculine attributes, sexual charisma and the movies' financial driving force as a projection of male fantasies.

 The summarization of the critique expressed by Swedish press journalists based on 124 movie reviews and other film related articles expose noticeable differences. From a girl who stood in the shadow of male heroes to a coarse woman who surpass them. But there are still areas in which 30 years haven’t changed a thing. Critics still fixate on the female heroe's physical appearance and her achievements are with few exceptions compared to men, and not other women. The critic reception also establishes that journalists since 1974 have become less inclined to apply gender or other social theories to the movies and female heroes. A gender related perspective is despite an independent and strong woman in the background for other perspectives while male critics are in comparison to female critics significantly more inclined to apply feministic theories to movies with female actionheroes.

In this RISJ factsheet we have analysed the gender break-down of top editors at a strategic sample of 200 major online and offline news outlets in ten different markets across four continents. We have found that the clear majority of top editors across the sample are men, and not a single market covered has a majority of women among top editors. While there is a strong and positive correlation between the percentage of women working as journalists and the percentage of women among top editors, there are fewer women in top roles than there are women in the profession as a whole – in line with previous research documenting vertical segregation in the news industry (Franks 2013). We also find no meaningful correlation between overall gender equality in society and the percentage of women among top editors, underlining that there are specific dynamics at play in journalism and the news media. That said, in contrast to previous work suggesting no significant differences between offline and online outlets (e.g. Franks 2013), in our sample there are many more women among the top editors at online outlets than (often older) offline ones. Perhaps there are thus signs of progress? We will know more when we repeat this analysis in 2021 to track developments in gender equality among top editors across the world.

This study examined the communication styles of rectors and vice-rectors of German public universities during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore the influence of gender on leadership communication. We collected data from social media and university websites; and analysed the language used to identify transformational, transactional, and servant leadership styles. Our results showed that female leaders demonstrated more positive communication than men and a stronger preference for transformational leadership, while male leaders tended to use a transactional style. Additionally, we found that both male and female leaders exhibited a high degree of empathetic concern for their stakeholders, contributing to the overall positive tone of communication. These findings suggest that gender may play a role in how university leaders communicate during times of crisis, highlighting the importance of inclusive and compassionate leadership in higher education.

This thesis analyses the feminist foreign policies of Canada (2017), Spain (2021), and Germany (2023) through a post-colonial feminist perspective, and applying Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach as method of analysis. It aims to deconstruct the representations of gender inequality as a policy “problem” within these policies, identify the underlying assumptions, and silences of these representations. The thesis reveals that while these policies promote rhetoric of intersectional, inclusive, and transformative approaches, they often perpetuate tokenistic, top-down solutions to gender inequality.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka könsrepresentationen i Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet. Mer specifikt undersöks könsfördelningen bland experter i tidningarnas coronarapportering under april månad 2020. Detta görs i huvudsak med hjälp av en kvantitativ innehållsanalys, vilken kompletteras av kvalitativa intervjuer med redaktionscheferna på de två tidningarna. Det teoretiska ramverket för studien har sin utgångspunkt i genusteorier samt dagordningsteorin.

I den kvantitativa innehållsanalysen analyseras 262 artiklar, varav 130 från Dagens Nyheter och 132 från Svenska Dagbladet, vilket ger ett analysunderlag på 200 experter för vardera tidning. Utöver den totala könsfördelningen analyseras dessutom materialet utifrån olika ämnesområden och förekomsten av manliga och kvinnliga experter inom dessa. Slutligen mäts även könsfördelningen bland olika typer av experter.

Studien visar att kvinnor utgör mindre än en tredjedel av samtliga experter i det undersökta urvalet. Det går också att se en stor skillnad mellan de olika ämnesområdena. Störst andel män fanns inom ”Vetenskap/hälsa” och inom ”Vårdfrågor” var andelen kvinnor störst. Resultatet visade dessutom på en större andel kvinnliga experter än tidigare studier visat. De kvalitativa intervjuerna visar att båda tidningarna kontinuerligt mäter könsfördelningen i sin journalistik, bland annat med hjälp av AI-teknologi. Resultatet för intervjuerna indikerar även att Dagens Nyheter har en något tydligare målsättning för detta än Svenska Dagbladet. 

Det finns mycket information om de som prostituerar sig och prostitutioner, men sexköparna är inte synliga på samma sätt. Huvudsyftet med uppsatsen är att synliggöra sexköparna i dagens Sverige. Det har gjorts genom att undersöka diskursen kring dem. Studien har även tre delsyften:

1. Åskådliggöra de sexköpare som finns
2. Påvisa att utbudet av prostitutioner beror på efterfrågan
3. Belysa maktaspekten

Uppsatsens material består i huvudsak av böcker publicerade mellan 2005-2011 och diskursanalys har använts som metod för att undersöka dem närmare. Studien kretsar delvis kring maktaspekten i förhållande till prostitutioner. Den åskådliggör även hur diskursen kring sexköparna är inkonsekvent, i förhållande till verkligheten, då diskursen osynliggör andra sexköpare, förutom män. 

This study is about inclusion in digital environments with a focus on videogames. The purpose of the study is to provide insight into how to increase inclusion in the digital environment, primarily for women, and provide examples of how to apply good information design to digital spaces to contribute to increased inclusion in videogames. The aim is also to increase the understanding of how spatial design affects inclusion for users and which parts of the spatial aspect are important for the environment to be perceived as inclusive or not. The goal is to try to raise awareness about inclusion in the gaming environment and to get people to question the design. The methods used are questionnaire, interview workshop, site analysis and traditional masculine and feminine scale, as well as human centered design as a method and process in the work. Of these methods, prototypes were made and used to produce different notions of what is masculine or feminine, as well as what the users in the study perceived as more inclusive designs. The results show signs that the spatial environment gives signals to be able to behave in a certain way that can be linked to hypermasculinity. The users in the study perceived the most popular games to be in the more masculine direction with Counterstrike as the most masculine direction. The attributes of the game's environment and spatial elements were perceived by the users in the study as violence and terror, which may in this way send signals to the users that it is okay to behave in a more hypermasculine way as one of the attributes of hypermasculinity is violence. The conclusion is that a larger study would need to be carried out on the interaction between the environment and its signals to the users to see if it has a greater impact on the inclusion of the users, as there are signs that the spatial design also contributes to a hypermasculine environment in the digital space. 

Aims: To analyse whether gender inequality in the couple relationship was related to leisure-based physical activity, after controlling for earlier physical activity and confounders. Methods: Data drawn from the Northern Swedish Cohort of all pupils in their final year of compulsory schooling in a town in the North of Sweden. The sample consisted of 772 respondents (n = 381 men, n = 391 women) in the 26-year follow-up (in 2007, aged 42) who were either married or cohabiting. Ordinal regression, for men and women separately, was used to assess the association between gender inequality (measured as self-perceived equality in the couple relationship using dummy variables) and a measure of exercise frequency, controlling for prior exercise frequency, socioeconomic status, the presence of children in the home, and longer than usual hours in paid work. Results: The perception of greater gender equality in the couple relationship was associated with higher levels of physical activity for both men and women. This remained significant when the other variables were controlled for. Amongst men the confidence intervals were high. Conclusions: The results point to the potential of perceived gender equality in the couple relationship to counteract the general time poverty and household burden that often arises from the combination of paid work and responsibility for children and the home, especially for women. The high confidence intervals among men indicate the need for more research within the field with larger samples.