Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka eventuella samband mellan inkomstfördelning samt utbildning och attityd gentemot delad föräldraledighet. Vidare blev denna problemformulering vital, då den även befrämjade möjligheten att titta på hur attityden gentemot delad föräldraledighet inverkar på synen av könsroller i ett hushåll. Undersökningen bygger på en enkät kring familjeliv och arbete, som har utförts av Sociologiska Institutionen vid Umeå universitet, och sammanförts av ISSP 2012 (International Social Survey Program). Studien grundar sig i en univariat analys som beskriver variablernas frekvensfördelningar, och därefter testas eventuella samband genom bivariat och multivariat analys. Det teoretiska ramverket där begrepp såsom könsroller, resurser och kapital inbegrips, blir på senare hand studiens analytiska verktyg. Resultatet påvisar att det föreligger ett positivt samband mellan inkomstfördelning, utbildning och attityd gentemot delad föräldraledighet. Det visar sig att man i hushåll där mannen tjänar mer, förhåller sig traditionellt på så sätt att man anser att föräldraledigheten endast bör tas ut av kvinnan. Vidare påvisar resultat att de med hög utbildning, i jämförelse med de som endast innehar gymnasial alternativt lägre utbildning, anser att föräldraledigheten bör delas upp jämlikt. Detta påvisar även ytterligare ett positivt samband i hur attityden gentemot delad föräldraledighet återspeglar synen på könsroller och därmed synen på jämställdhet. En traditionell inställning gentemot delad föräldraledighet återspeglar en syn på hur man anser att kvinnan bör ta hand om barn, och mannen försörja familjen.

Infertility affects 1 in 8 couples and the literature discusses the emotional effects infertility has on an individual. One option for infertility is to attempt medical interventions and the literature in the field does not explain why some people attempt more interventions than others. Using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), Cycle 6, this quantitative study aims to understand the relationship between traditional gender roles and values and the attempted number of medical interventions by individuals within a relationship experiencing infertility. The results from this study indicate that both males and females that are in relationship experiencing infertility are more likely to attempt medical interventions when they highly value the meaning of family, rather than their views on traditional gender roles and values for men and women.

The aim of this study is to investigate how 20 children discusses norm breaking based on a children’s book with a focus on following questions: How do the children discuss norms based on the children’s book? Are there differences in opinions and comments between children with Swedish as their first language and children with Swedish as a second language, and if so, which ones? The investigation is based on four discussions of children’s literature, which are a method Chambers (2004) means enable the children to put their thoughts and feelings about the book into words. The theoretical frame of the study is founded on post-structuralism feminism and particularly Butler (Ambjörnsson, 2010) and Davies (2003) theories about gender and gender roles. The investigation shows, among other things, that the children are basing their discussions on the norms accepted by the society. But it also shows that there are differences in the way that the children with Swedish as a first language and Swedish as a second language discusses norm breaking.

This essay focuses on the pictures in mathematics books for elementary school. The purpose was to see if images in mathematics books for elementary school show traditional gender roles. The aim of the essay has been broken down into following research questions: Vilka färger förknippar de olika matematikböckerna till pojkar/män respektive flickor/kvinnor? How many times were girls/women and boys/men illustrated in the mathematics books? What behavior is associated with masculinity and femininity? Which colours are associated with boys/men and girls/women in the mathematics books? I used a semiotic image analysis method to study the pictures presented in the mathematics books. The theories in this essay were used to see how society makes girls become girls and boys become boys and in what ways the genders are portrayed in relation to each other. In addition, the theories include the question of whether a specific colour is given to a specific gender? The analysis evidently confirmed that the images in the mathematics books demonstrated traditional gender roles. There was evident proof that the behavior of both boys/men and girls/women showed distinct features of the traditional gender roles. However, boys/men were more likely to stay in their traditional gender roles in terms of the colours of their clothes than the girls/women did.

Mitt syfte med denna studie är att undersöka och beskriva hur genus kan konstrueras i barnlitteratur. Studien avhandlar hur genus framställs och konstrueras i två stycken skönlitterära böcker som är skrivna för barn i åldersgruppen 6-9 år. Som metod har jag använt en diskursanalys vilket är en kvalitativ textanalys. Mina resultat visar en ganska stereotyp framställning av genus även om det görs små avsteg från normerna. Jag ser en risk i att barnen kan påverkas av dessa stereotypa framställningar och att de tvingas in i genusordningen utan att få möjlighet att utveckla identiteter med breda genuspositioner. Karaktärerna i min studie visade upp både feminina och maskulina drag vilket jag tror är ett problem som återfinns i alla genusstereotyper och inte enbart i litterära sammanhang Jag upplevde det problematiskt att strikt tolka karaktärerna mot ett motsatsschema. Det jag ändå kom fram till i mina slutsatser är att jag håller med den tidigare forskningen om att värderingar återfinns i barnlitteraturen, samt att den kan både utmana och förstärka normer som finns i samhället.

The overall aim of the study is to investigate how a social and collective memory is mobilized by the directors’ depiction of ethnicity and gender roles from a post- colonial and gender perspective. The thesis focuses on how ethnicity and gender roles are depicted in each movie and how this results in a mobilization of a social and collective memory. The results show that Django Unchained mobilizes a memory by its use of the invective nigger and iconic acts of slavery, such as whipping and cotton picking. From a gender perspective, the results show that men worked with jobs that required more strength, compared to the jobs of women and thus mobilizes a memory of how we remember the gender roles of slaves. Nevertheless, these memories can result in traumas and to recover from them, memories must be revisited. Similarly, yet differently, the results show that 12 Years a Slave mobilizes a memory by its use of the invective nigger and by the use of songs that solidified the hierarchy present during slavery. In other words, these songs were used to exhibit the level of supremacy Caucasians possessed from a post-colonial perspective. The conclusion drawn in the study is that 12 Years a Slave, as a historical source, provides audiences with considerably more authenticity compared to Django Unchained. Therefore an individual might feel as if he or she has lived the life of Solomon Northup and experienced and endured everything he did.

One major question in the area of Feminist Media Studies is to analyze the stereotypical female role portrayals in media. Researchers in this area have examined diverse media including television, radio, films, textbooks, literature and so on. Empirical evidence provided by these studies shows that women in media are often underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed in traditional roles such as housewives or mothers associated with feminine values, such as dependent, submissive, and passive. Using content analysis and semiotic analysis, this study is designed to examine the portrayals of female roles in a sample of contemporary (1949-2010) Chinese films. Content analysis is employed to examine how women have been portrayed in films, with the primary focus on the frequency of three types of female roles including (1) traditional roles, (2) modern role, and (3) ideal role. Results suggest that during this long period of time, representations and constructions of women in films have shifted from promotion of gender equality, to diminishing and erasing gender difference, and finally regressed to confining them to traditional roles while emphasizing traditional feminine values and expectations. In using semiotic analysis, this research is able to outline the connotative meanings of the female characters as well as the implicit cultural values and messages of gender that are embedded in films. On this cultural analysis, the findings reveal that female role portrayals in films, which are influenced by political, cultural, and social changes, remained associated with traditional feminine stereotypes, values, and expectations.

This study sets out from the premise that the fantastic, in the hands of the women writers with feminist awareness,can be used as a tool to subvert patriarchal gender roles that are culturally constructed. The dissertation aims at analysing the fantastic novels by Angela Carter, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman and Nights at the Circus, and by Jeannette Winterson, The Passion and The.PowerBook as examples in which the transgression of gender roles is achieved through the use of fantastic images. The analysis of the fantastic images in these novels is confined to the definitions by Tzetvan Todorov and Rosemary Jackson. The study asserts that through an efficient use of the fantastic mode, both Carter and Winterson negate culturally dominant notions of reality, whereby they resist the cultural constructions of gender. Within the framework of this dissertation, some concepts like the New Woman, historiographic metafiction, the lesbian continuum and compulsory heterosexualism are also studied where they become indispensable to the role that the fantastic images play. Thus, this study identifies each fantastic image in the novels studied with its possible cultural and political implications so that the &ldquo / un-seen&rdquo / of the culture, a term suggested by Jackson, can be seen. In other words, the study concentrates on the subversive nature of the fantastic images so as to see the ways in which the rigid boundaries of the gender roles in patriarchy can be transgressed

In this thesis, the systematic usage of sexual violence towards women as a weapon during the Yugoslavian Civil War is analyzed. The study attempts to underline the role of gender identities of women during the Civil War as a means for the victimization of women through sexual violence, especially mass rapes. It is argued that with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, as men clashed for power, the portrayal of women as mothers and carriers of the nation under the nationalistic discourse caused these women to become the primary targets of the war. It is also argued that the primary aim of rape as a weapon of ethnic cleansing during the war was to destroy the harmony and unity of the enemy by dishonoring and violating their women.

Svenska kvinnor sjukskrivs oftare än män till följd av utmattningssyndrom och det sociala stödet har visat sig vara viktigt för återhämtningen. Studiens syfte var att undersöka effekten av högskolestudenters kön och tidigare akademiska prestationer på andra studenters allvarsuppfattningar av symptom och empatiska respons, när målpersonerna uppvisar symptom på utmattningssyndrom. En vinjettstudie med enkäter i fyra versioner genomfördes, där målpersoners kön och prestationer hade manipulerats. Två skalor för skattning av empati respektive allvarsuppfattning användes. Deltagarna var 84 (n män = 40, n kvinnor = 42, n annat = 2) högskolestudenter i åldrarna 20 - 40 år (M = 25.3, SD = 4.93). Resultatet visade att kvinnliga målpersoner väckte mer empati än manliga. Inga skillnader i allvarsuppfattning eller effekter av målpersoners tidigare prestationer kunde beläggas. Ytterligare forskning behövs för att se om effekten på empati finns i andra populationer som exempelvis yrkesverksamma, arbetsgivare eller anställda inom psykiatrin.