This thesis provides an investigation of how gender stereotypes affect the narrative, mechanics, and experience of three different console based video games (Venetica, WET, and Velvet Assassin) with female protagonist. Each game is addressed within separate case study chapters and discusses how gender is integrated and intertwined with each narrative structure, image representation, and interactivity. Further analysis is provided in each case study as gender is addressed across several parts of each game, beginning with the female protagonist’s role as hero, her representation throughout the game (i.e. body image, attire, and weapons), and the game play experience. In conclusion, this thesis shows that the protagonist gender within a video game does affect the game in its entirety. More specifically, all three female heroines discussed in this thesis showcases stereotypes associated with the dominant sexual representation of female video game characters, as well as similar traditional feminine and masculine stereotypes associated with heroines in film and television. This provides for rather problematic representations of female heroes, alone with the games designed for them which are equally as stereotypical in their narrative, mechanics, and game play.

Recently, there has been a big surge of research and public interest in increasing the math capabilities and skills of American children. This paper serves as a literature review examining how the home environment, specifically parents, can help with that. This meta-analysis delves into the factors of maternal math talk, a parent’s own math anxiety, and the relationship between a parent and child in the context of a parent’s gender stereotypes and a parent’s perception on his or her child’s math abilities. Interventions, suggestions, and future implications are also discussed. This paper will hopefully bring needed awareness to parents about their roles in their child’s math development, abilities, and achievement.

Purpose: To research how conceptions of gender are mirrored in the preschool’s practices and how the preschool teachers treat the children in relation to the conception of gender and age. Questions at issue: How do preschool teachers treat children in preschool from a gender perspective? How are values and conceptions about gender expressed in the preschools’ practice? Method: Qualitative methods; observation and interview, discourse analysis, hermeneutics Main theoretical connections: Social constructivism, feminist poststructuralism, gender system We have concluded that preschool teachers treat children in preschool based on the expectations they put on the children. These expectations position children into different categories of “masculine” and “feminine”. Gender is expressed in the practice and affect how children relate to one another as well as how the preschool teachers relate to the children depending on their age. We have also been able to see a difference in how children are treated in relation to age. What has been made visible through our observations is that preschool teachers’ treat younger children according to concepts that strengthens the categorization of children. This was accomplished through the emphasis on gender descriptions of people and objects, which positioned children in these categories. This can be interpreted as preschool teachers’ gender categorizations was consolidated through language which is of importance regarding current expectations and values within these groups. Children thus learn to adapt to the different roles they are in preschool, which will later be interpreted as a part of that person's individual character. Teachers in the older children’s group focused rarely or not at all on consolidating concepts but confirmed and thus strengthened the standards that children were already aware of and practiced. This was done by the teachers that among other things tended to keep the children’s groups, which was based on notions that the children are acting by character and not by gender.

This thesis The Portrayal of women in Slovak print media advertising 1992-2012 addresses the way women are depicted in advertising in three selected Slovak magazines, at three points in time; 1992, 2002 and 2012. The work aims to discover in what direction the portrayal of women in magazine advertisements has evolved during this period when advertising occupies more and more space in the media. This work deals with gender issues and focuses mainly on the roles in which women are represented in advertising. Their passivity or activity and sexual objectification are examined through content and semiotic analysis. The dual mode of analysis will allow us to better understand the mechanisms of the depiction of women in advertising and compare the different ways women are portrayed in the media depending on the target audience.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur stereotypiska hotet mot kvinnors karriärambitioner uppfattas påverka deras framgång i organisationen. Metod: I studien används en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en hermeneutisk forskningsansats. I studien genomfördes tio semi-strukturerade intervjuer som analyserats enligt en tematisk analys. Slutsats: Studiens slutsats överensstämmer med tidigare forskning vad gäller de tre huvudkonsekvenserna från stereotypiska hot. Kvinnor upplever låga karriärmöjligheter, separerad identitet och ökad oro. Studien påvisar även stress som en konsekvens av en längre tids upplevelse av separerad identitet, vilket tidigare forskning inte funnit. Konsekvenserna gav oss en djupare förståelse av hur kvinnornas framgång iorganisationen påverkas av stereotypiska hoten. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: För att få en ännu djupare förståelse föreslår vi till fortsatt forskning att undersöka hur stereotypiska hot påverkar en organisation under en längre tid, genom att använda longitudinell metod. Uppsatsens bidrag: Studien bidrar till en djupare förståelse hur stereotypiska hotet mot kvinnors karriärambitioner påverkar deras framgång i organisationens. / Aim: The aim of the study is to create a deeper understanding of how stereotypical threats for women's career ambitions perceived influence their success in the organization. To understand the women and the organization we designed research questions for this purpose; How does gender stereotypes in leadership impact women's idea of leadership? How does the stereotypical threat impact women's career aspirations to climb in the organization? How do women experience that their success is influenced by stereotypical threat in leadership? Method: The study used a qualitative research with a hermeneutic research approach. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted, analyzed with a thematic analysis. Conclusions: The study's conclusion is consistent with previous research regarding the three main consequences of stereotypical threat. Women experience low career prospects, separate identity and increased anxiety. The study also found stress as a consequence of a longer experience of separate identity, which previous research has not found. Consequences gave us a deeper understanding of how women's success in the organization is influenced by stereotypical threats. Suggestions for future research: To get an even deeper understanding, we suggest further research to investigate how stereotypical threat affects an organization for a long time, using the longitudinal method. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how the stereotypical threat to women's career ambitions affect their success in the organization.

In this thesis, gender in children's literature is the focus. The purpose is to analyze the gender balance and how the characters affecting the storyline are portrayed. Are the characters portrayed with gender stereotyped characteristics? This study also aims to investigate what educators think of the study's selected books. The books selected for this study are popular children’s books in Sweden that are often used while teaching. The text provides information as to whether educators show awareness of the gender perspective in the study’s chosen books. Do they make conscious decisions and are they aware of what the literature contains? To obtain this, both a questionnaire and a literature analysis will be conducted. The literature analysis creates a deeper picture of which values ​​the literature conveys while the questionnaire is to expand the knowledge of the teachers' views on the books that the study process. The result shows factors that educators have taken into consideration when choosing children's literature and general opinions on specific literature. The result of the literature analysis shows a stereotypical gender distribution among all the children's books, but the main characters was not stereotypically portrayed. / I detta examensarbete är genus i barnlitteratur i fokus. Syftet är att analysera genusbalansen och hur huvudkaraktär och deras motspelare framställts. Har karaktärerna könsstereotypa egenskaper? Studien syftar också till att undersöka vad pedagoger tycker om studiens utvalda böcker. Böckerna som blir utvalda för studien är populära böcker i Sverige som ofta används i undervisning. Texten ger information huruvida om pedagoger visar medvetenhet om genus i dessa populära böcker. Gör de medvetna val och vet de vad litteraturen innehåller? För att få dessa resultat genomförs både en enkät och en litteraturanalys. Litteraturanalysen skapar en djupare bild av de värderingar litteraturen förmedlar medan enkäten är för att utöka kunskapen om pedagogernas syn på böckerna som studien behandlar. I resultatet framkommer faktorer som pedagoger har tagit hänsyn till när de väljer barnlitteratur och överskådliga åsikter gällande specifik litteratur. Resultatet av litteraturanalysen visar en stereotyp könsfördelning i barnböckerna men huvudsakligen ingen stereotyp framställning av litteraturens huvudkaraktärer.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the same murder case is being portrayedin three of Swedens biggest true crime podcasts; P3 Dokumentär, True Crime Sweden and Mordpodden. The case that has been studied is the murder of 15 year old Therese Johansson Rojo who was killed in June 2009. She was found dead in a forest in Stureby, Stockholm in Sweden and later on a 16 year old boy and his 16 year old girlfriend got arrested for the murder. Both of them were found guilty, the boy for murder and the girl for conspiracy to commit murder. The study examined similarities and differences in how the three main characters are described in the different podcasts and how gender is being represented. To achieve valid and reliable arguments and results, we have supported our statements in theories and previous research related to crime, gender and framing inmedia. The method that has been used in this study is a qualitative study including toolsas lexicality, modality and rhetoric. The analysis is divided in three parts, one for each main character and with two themes for each part, how their looks and personality are described in the different podcasts. The analysis showed that all three podcasts portray the main characters in similar ways. There is a lot of focus on the looks of the victim, Therese who is being portrayed as a stereotypic girl. She is also described as the ideal victim as a young and innocent girl. The mainly focus is however, especially in Mordpodden and in True crime Sweden, on the 16 year old girl and 16 year old boy and their relationship with each other. The boy and the girl are being described with dichotomies and are not portrayed, unlike Therese, as typical gender stereotypes. The 16 year old girl is mostly described as controlling and the boy is often described as an innocent victim. This means that the girl is being portrayed as masculine and the boy as feminin. By describing Thereseas the ideal victim and the perpetrators based on dichotomies, the podcasts create gender, based on Fagerström and Nilssons (2008) theory about how gender is being created.

[pt] Este trabalho aborda a problemática da expressão afetiva masculina em relacionamentos heterossexuais. Para tal são discutidas questões relativas à construção cultural dos estereótipos de gênero, os fatores psicossociais que contribuem para o desenvolvimento da identidade masculina, bem como a relevância da comunicação em relações afetivas. No intuito de verificar a influência de tais estereótipos na forma como alguns homens experimentam e expressam o sentimento amoroso, foram realizadas doze entrevistas com homens de classe média, residentes na zona sul da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, com idades entre 24 a 30 anos e 40 a 47 anos. A análise das entrevistas permitiu observar que o clichê de que os homens não falam sobre emoções e sentimentos não se verifica nas experiências amorosas de quase metade dos sujeitos. / [en] This work investigates the problem of male communication of emotions in heterossexual relationships. We discuss the cultural construction of gender stereotypes, the psychossocial factors that contribute to the development of the male identity, as well as the relevance of communication in love relationships. In order to verify the influence of such stereotypes in the way a few men experience and express love, twelve interviews were conducted with middle class men, with ages ranging from 24 to 30 years and 40 to 47 years, who live in the more affluent districts of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The analysis of the interviews allowed us to observe that the cliché according to which men do not speak about emotions and feelings was not verified in the love experiences of almost half of the subjects.

The different spatial experiences in the lives of young boys and girls may partly explain sex differences in spatial skills (Baenninger & Newcombe, 1995; Nazareth et al., 2013; Newcombe, Bandura & Taylor, 1983). While several studies have examined the influence of spatial activities on the development of spatial skills (e.g., Nazareth et al., 2013) there currently exists no widely used comprehensive measure to assess children’s concurrent participation in spatial activities and engagement with spatial toys. Study 1 of the current dissertation filled this gap in the field of spatial research through the creation of the Spatial Activity Questionnaire, a comprehensive survey designed to assess children’s involvement in spatial activities and engagement with spatial toys of diverse gender-typed content. The toys and activities 295 children were reported to have access to and engage with were explored to assess patterns of play with spatial and gender-stereotyped toys and activities. A sample of 76 children between 4 and 6 years of age and their primary caregivers participated in studies 2, 3, and 4 to explore the toys and activities young children have access to and play with (study 2), the link between play and mental rotation (study 3), and the relation between play, gender stereotypes, and mental rotation skills (study 4). Findings reveal great variability in the toys and activities children have access to and play with, with sex difference suggesting girls play with low-spatial and stereotypically feminine toys and activities more than boys while boys play with highly-spatial and stereotypically masculine toys and activities more than girls. Adding to the exiting literature suggesting the inconsistency of sex differences in early mental rotation skills, our results suggest no sex differences in children’s mental rotation ability. Furthermore, no relations were discovered between children’s play, gender stereotypes, and mental rotation ability. These findings point to the need to further explore the influence of play on when and how sex differences in mental rotation ability develop in order to promote fun and easy ways to support spatial learning in young boys and girls.

Stereotypes associating men more strongly with science compared to women have harmful implications for women’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) outcomes. Exposure to successful female STEM role models can buffer women from the effect of these stereotypes and lead to better performance and greater interest in STEM fields. Moreover, role model identification is especially important for improving women’s STEM outcomes. The current study posits that encouraging women to reflect on the ways in which they identify with a role model will improve women’s STEM identification, STEM sense of belonging, weaken explicit STEM stereotypes, and will strengthen implicit associations between women and science over the course of a semester, which will then lead to increased desire to pursue STEM opportunities and improved STEM GPA. Seventy-two incoming freshmen women interested in majoring in STEM completed the study. Participants read two role model biographies at different time points during the semester, and at both time points were asked to either write about the ways in which they identified with the role model, asked to write facts about the role model, or asked to write facts about a woman whose hobbies they read about (i.e., control condition). Results revealed that encouraging women to identify with a role model weakened explicit stereotypes and strengthened implicit women-science associations compared to merely exposing women to a role model. Furthermore, encouraging women to identify with a role model and merely exposing women to a role model tended to increase STEM sense of belonging compared to not exposing women to a role model. These findings suggest that encouraging women to identify with a role model is important for improving women’s STEM attitudes. / acase@tulane.edu