The aim of the thesis is to study and compare how gender equality is treated in transportplanning in regional transport initiatives at different planning levels. The background to thechoice of aim is that gender equality is a topic that is often forgotten in transport planning. Byconsciously planning and developing the built environment, it is possible to influence the dailylives of many people, among other things by enabling equality. Gender equality work is ademocratic work that strengthens human values and equal conditions, which shows theimportance of working to achieve a society where men and women have equal value. Moreover,gender equality has a direct connection in taking part in sustainable development. In terms oftraffic policy goals, gender equality is an area that has been raised strongly in recent times andinterest in gender equality in the transport sector is increasing. In 2001, the gender equalityperspective was strengthened with the transport policy goals. The Swedish Parliament and theGovernment's transport policy goals are the starting point in the thesis when regional andmunicipal documents are examined, more specifically Mittstråket project and all the reportsincluded within the project to see how they treat the transport policy goals from a gender equalityperspective. The review shows that gender equality, and above all gender equality in trafficplanning, is not an issue that has a particularly high priority at regional or municipality level. Inthe case study Mittstråket gender equality has only been included partially. Several of thedocuments present a vision that can be seen as good on paper but have no concrete strategies forhow gender equality should be integrated in the Mittstråket project. One of the reasons for this isprobably that gender equality is a soft, abstract value that is difficult to measure. The genderequality aspect is therefore easily forgotten, and no one reacts if this happens. The chosen casestudy is directly being affected by traffic planning by municipalities and on a regional level dueto the participants of that project being from different regions all over Sweden. Thus, whentalking about regional and municipal levels, strategies for the entire municipality, which is oftentraffic planning, do not deal with gender equality. One conclusion is also that there is a lack ofindicators, competence and tools to measure how the regions and municipalities treat the goalsand implementing results so the work with gender equality can be led in the right direction. / <p>2021-09-15</p>

Sweden is the most gender-equal country in Europe, but nevertheless, there are still flaws in  certain areas, especially within the walls of the household when it comes to chores and financial responsibility. This examination is a qualitative, semi-structured interview study. The selection of respondents in this study are six heterosexual couples in the age of 20-30 and 40-60 years old, who lives together. My theoretical points of departure are Bourdieus’s theory of habitus, as well as his theory of cultural capital, which I have chosen to call resources in this study, along with a concept of generation which defines by a number of other renown scientists in the area. The study came to show that the couples which partook, tries hard to weigh out for the injustices in their relationship connected to, for example, their habitus and resources. In this study, I refer to this as compensations. These compensations are sorted into three themes: education and income, the lack of a parent, together with age and time. The result showed that the couples divided their home finances as equal as possible, that the women had a lower income than the men if they didn’t have an education, and that the people who had grown up with a single parent had from a young age had to help out a lot with chores at home. It also showed that the older couples did not wanted to follow in their own parents footsteps, but instead they wanted to create a more equal relationship by helping each other more. The younger couples had the same point of view.   The conclusions I drew from this are that the women needed a higher education in order to make as much money as their male partner, but also in order to have the possibility of making even more. It also emerged that the respondents compensated a little extra if they themselves had experienced the lack of a parent, since they had learned the value of helping each other and not letting one person draw the heavy load all by oneself.   At last but not least, the study showed that the aspect of generation had some influence since the couples broke the old conventions in one way or the other, in terms of the norms of the male versus the female role in the household.

In conflict-affected and divided societies, citizenship education has gained considerable attention for its potential to promote democratic peace and address issues of identity and societal divisions. This study demonstrates the vital role of gender equality for social cohesion by illustrating how aspects of inclusive democratic citizenship needed for social cohesion are undermined by hierarchical social relations and harmful masculinities fostered through the patriarchal aspects of education and schooling. This inquiry examines if and how policies for social cohesion through education, specifically citizenship education, contribute to peace in conflict-affected Sri Lanka, a county plagued by 30 years of war. Through a document analysis of the grade 6-9 citizenship textbooks, interviews and surveys with teachers and students, and classroom and school observations, this study explores how policies related to education for social cohesion are appropriated and enacted within schools and classrooms and how students consequently understand their role as citizens in a conflict-affected society. The study design is a transformative design mixed methods study of 13 schools across four provinces in post-war Sri Lanka. Using a post-colonial feminist approach, this study draws conclusions on how gender roles and relations intersect with citizenship education and its potential to contribute to gender transformative peacebuilding. Qualitative and quantitative findings reveal that attitudes on gender equality are closely related to attitudes on social cohesion. Many of the factors associated with patriarchy, including harmful masculinities, not only reduced gender equality, but they also undermined the egalitarian foundations of democracy needed for peace and social cohesion. However, when educators were able to engage in practices that fostered the knowledge and skills to empathize across differences (gender, ethnic, and religious) and build egalitarian relationships, they fostered inclusive democratic citizenship among students and contributed to social cohesion. At the same time, results indicate that education’s capacity to promote social cohesion, through the formal and informal curriculum, is limited due to a state-centric belligerent approach to citizenship and citizenship education, which is primarily focused on developing a personally responsible citizen.

The purpose of this essay is to provide an insight into the role of women in male dominated workplaces who sell recreational and other vehicles, and why there is so few women working in this area even though there are a lot of women using these kinds of vehicles. I have chosen cultural analytics as my staring point because it gives me the tools to problematize and put a light on the phenomena of women in male dominated workplaces and what can be done to further increase diversity within these workplaces. As I will show the male dominated workplace is not completely void of women, there is however a gender segregation meaning that there are very few women to be found in the sales and more labor-intensive department. Women who do work in these workplaces are found in more traditional female rolls, as in accounting and finance. The argument I put forth is that retailers have a lot to gain by including more woman in the front end of the business, not only because it is good for the brand to appear inclusive but also because there are a growing number of female users of recreational vehicles, some of whom prefer to interact with a female sales representative when visiting the showroom. The methods that I have used are observations and qualitative interviews. During field studies I observed several different showrooms to identify customers and get a sense of the number of women and men going in and out. My purpose has been to try to identify if there is a correlation between the idea of recreational as a masculine phenomenon and the gender of the actual customers going into a showroom. The other method has consisted of interviews where I interviewed female and male employees to gain insight into their view on female representation and why there are so few women working in sales and other frontend roles.My conclusion is that even though there is a general recognition that motors and vehicles traditionally is associated with masculinity it does not have to be the case in practice. Everyone I have talked to is open to the idea of more woman working in these roles, the challenge is not a lack of will but rather how to find more women who are willing to occupy roles traditionally occupied by men. There is also an awareness of the toxic masculinity that sometimes exists where women are diminished and marginalized and that diversity training within the organization is the answer to achieve a more inclusive working environment

This study investigates the relationship between population density and pension income as well as the Gender Pension Gap in Swedish municipalities between 2011 and 2019. Despite Sweden’s reputation as one of the most gender-equal countries, the country’s Gender Pension Gap persists and surpasses the OECD average. Additionally, the Urban Wage Premium adds another dimension to the drift in pension depending on the choice of residence. Using panel data fixed effects, our empirical findings show that both men and women benefit from a higher population density in terms of higher pension income while suggesting a reduction in the Gender Pension Gap in more dense areas. The robustness of the fixed effects model results is confirmed through various models, including the consideration of an alternative main independent variable, the exclusion of time dummies, and the inclusion of additional control variables. Our research contributes to labour economics, urban economics, and sociology regarding gender equality.

In the rural village Umoja one can witness a reaction to the unequal society; the women opposed the deep-rooted cultural habits and created their own dream space, a place designed through the eyes of a woman. A village ruled by women, built up by their needs. The Umoja women’s way of life is very controversial and a huge contrast to the rest of the country. Looking at Nairobi, and the informal settlements the situation is completely different, but the dream about an equal space is the same. In this thesis we are looking at how architecture can work with the social issues about equality, focusing on the public room in one of the larger informal settlements – Korogocho. Due to the density the only space that is public is the street. The streets become the only space for interaction, as well as the place for political, economic and social activities. Through observing, analysing and interacting it is clear that the streets are mostly claimed by men. In combination with high levels of unemployment, crimes, drugs and alcohol creates a very insecure public sphere, especially for women and children. These vulnerable group needs new context that is not limited to the private home. Through a series of spatial interventions, we are interested in how architecture can question this norm, by understanding the street as a public area and analysing how it is used and can be used in the future.

Located in Central America, Guatemala is the most populated country of the area with around 15 million inhabitants. The capital, Guatemala City has 923,000 inhabitants and is currently home for 55% of the country’s urban population. Guatemala City, with its 42% of territorial extension consisting of green, is considered a green capital. The city has a very characteristic geographical composition called ravines which creates the ecological and green belt of the city. Currently, there are efforts being made to create more projects relating to the green and public spaces of the city, but we still have a long way to go.  As many other cities in Latin America, Guatemala is facing a constant challenge regarding public spaces. The use of public space has been decreasing for years due to factors such as feeling of safety,  difficulty in accessibility, poor distribution of public spaces in the urban grid, and poor condition of the infrastructure. These challenges have shaped new social patterns. Nowadays, shopping malls have become the new public space. These spaces provide more than just shopping, they provide experiences. On the other hand, they also limit and control who can access them and when, under which conditions, and following a set of rules.  These challenges have made me question; Where do we meet equality? How can we provide proper urban public spaces that meet their function? How will shopping malls transform over time and how can we adapt these new social dynamics created by the shopping malls to the public space?  Throughout this project I attempt to challenge these questions with the idea of bringing people back to the streets so that they can engage with the city and the streets on an everyday basis. To achieve it I have proposed the following manifesto with 3 main statements: “- Equality manifested through the city’s urban structures which start on the streets.     Everyone can access them; in them we are all equal.  - Streets are places to be, to share, to experience. Spaces to live outdoors, to enable interaction.  - Shopping Malls are spaces of constant transformation that will progressively change its functions. “ The aim of the project is to explore in a challenging way how the relationship between shopping malls, green and public space can be addressed and interact in a process of transformation in Guatemala City.

While same-sex marriage rights have expanded to twelve states, the time-lag in research and publishing has meant that most published studies on same-sex relationships has relied on a hodge-podge of same-sex relationship types. This study uses interview data with same-sex couples who have wed in the years after marriage became available and examines their incentives to wed and the decision making process they go about in planning their weddings. Against a backdrop of larger debates in the queer community surrounding assimilation and access to benefits, couples are changing how we must think about marriage and creating new norms for the institution. This study seeks to answer the following questions: This raises the following questions: How do a group of people previously barred from a legal institution make the decision to enter into that institution? Do they consciously see the act of marrying as a political decision, as a flouting of convention or as a reproduction of it? Does this shift to marriage represent an assimilationist tendency on the part of participants, or are they changing relationship norms and the institution of marriage itself? Studying the ways in which same-sex couples answer these questions allows us to see the meaning making that those couples do when engaging in public rituals and they will be shaped by access to this institution while changing marriage itself.

Gender equality has long been a part of the curriculum for the Swedish school system. The subject is meant to permeate all aspects of school operation and teachers' education in the classroom. History as a subject is no exception. Although it is part of the school curriculum and practice, there is a lack of studies concerning the topic. Moreover, there is a lack of studies concerning how students perceive and think about these practices and subjects.  This study examines how Swedish students experience and express thoughts about gender equality in an historical, contemporary and future perspective. The method in hand has been a content analysis, used on 110 student-answers from the Swedish National test within the history-subject of 2015. Within this method, narrative theories constructed by Jörn Rüsen have been used to study and categorize students' historical consciousness in the form of their temporal orientation. In order to examine how students perceive gender equality, we have primarily made use of the political definition provided by the Swedish government and the separation between quantitative and qualitative gender equality described by Victoria Wahlgren.   Results of this study shows that students' attitudes regarding gender equality today are often linked to their identification within the subject of history. The same is also true for their thoughts about the future. Differences between boys and girls are identified, with girls being more nuanced about modern gender equality. This difference underlines the connection and importance of knowledge about the past in order to understand questions at hand. Differences regarding gender can be seen in how students define gender equality. In general, all students seem more focused on quantitative gender equality questions. Nevertheless, girls tend to discuss the subject in a more qualitative way.  Finally, there is a discussion of how these results influence history teachers' practices. Aspects such as the consequences these practices may have on students of different genders is also discussed. Furthermore, we want to highlight the need for additional research about gender equality in school operation and historical education.

Despite considerable improvements in women’s social and material conditions, progress has stagnated since the 1990s. Women remain disadvantaged compared to men across a range of domains, including political representation, division of labor, and workplace hiring and promotion. Although scholars have studied attitudes toward women more generally, understanding men’s attitudes toward women is especially important for advancing gender equality since men are often in positions of power with the resources and influence necessary to effect large-scale change. Previous research has measured demographic correlates of men’s gender attitudes, but scholars have yet to examine how gender attitudes are dynamic across contexts, shaped not only by the social characteristics of actors themselves but also by the context in which—and the women about whom—men express these attitudes. This dissertation draws on theories of status processes and social identity to examine how and under what conditions men support equality with women. Employing three complementary studies, this research takes an innovative, mixed-methods approach that combines in-depth interviews with experimental design. Specifically, it examines how men’s gender attitudes are shaped by 1) their audience 2) the target of their attitudes, i.e., the women in question and 3) men’s own life experiences. Together, these studies contribute a deeper understanding of the processes underlying men’s support for gender equality, suggesting actionable paths forward for addressing persistent gender inequities. Chapter 1 develops a synthesis of scholarship on gender attitudes and inequality with research on group processes and intergroup relations. I argue that relational, group-level theories of status, social identity, and symbolic boundaries can enrich our understanding of the persistence of gender inequality. In Chapter 2, I argue that expressing support for gender equality earns men social rewards. Results from an original survey experiment reveal that men who espouse egalitarian attitudes toward women are attributed greater status, considerateness, and authenticity. These findings provide the first causal evidence of the measurable social and symbolic rewards that men accrue by espousing egalitarian gender ideals. They also demonstrate a novel and paradoxical mechanism of status enhancement—egalitarian attitudes earn men status over other men at the same time that these men repudiate the legitimacy of their group advantage over women. Chapter 3 examines what impediments to addressing gender equality men anticipate. Drawing on 49 in-depth interviews, I find that men’s conversion of gender-egalitarian attitudes into actions that address gender inequality in daily life is contingent on perceived risks (social and material) and barriers (interpersonal and structural). The findings reveal how individual, relational, and institutional mechanisms impact men’s support for gender equality. Chapter 4 shifts the focus to the target of men’s gender attitudes, i.e., women. I employ an original experimental design to test how men’s levels of support for gender equality depend on the race and class identities of the women who stand to benefit. Results reveal previously obscured heterogeneity that helps explain persistent gender inequality despite men’s seemingly widespread support for egalitarian gender attitudes. Chapter 5 concludes with a discussion of implications and potential directions for future research.