This essay is a feminist analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) that shows how Shelley criticizes society through presenting feminist viewpoints. I argue that Shelley critiques traditional gender roles by punishing characters subscribing to them. Most of the characters conform to traditional gender stereotypes. The male characters are ambitious and self-centered while the female characters are self-sacrificing and docile. The main protagonist Victor Frankenstein represents patriarchal belief and is incapable of any feminine attributes which leads to the demise of everyone he cares for, and himself. The male-only narration emphasizes how insignificant the male characters deem women to be, as they are rarely heard of and most of the time ignored. In the novel, nature is represented as active and feminine, and it punishes or rewards characters in accordance with their actions.

Declining birth rate in Japan has been acknowledged as a demographic crisis since the 1970s. Higher education and better jobs has given women freedom and alternatives to starting a family, and some say the value of marriage and children has decreased overall. This study explored attitudes towards childlessness on Japanese Internet forums in order to understand why Japan, a country with continually persistent and conservative gender roles, can experience such a drastic population decline. Especially since this phenomenon seems paradoxical in relation to women’s traditional roles in society. This paper has explored how people spoke about childlessness and two major discourses emerged. The attitudes were categorized into a modern versus a traditional discourse on childlessness. Money, conservative gender roles and relationships were identified as important reasons affecting the decision to have children or not. However, only money seemed as a rationale behind childlessness accepted in both discourses.

Gender roles and the nature of heterosex have been clearly outlined in the literature as having a significant impact on both individuals and societies. Some debate has existed in the field of psychology as to the nature and origin of gender and gender roles. Furthermore, it is believed that the current South African context offers a rich source of material for debate and discussion around which social factors are impacting on gender role development and how. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the perceived origins of such gender roles the study explores qualitative accounts of the various social elements of both South African and international origin which individuals perceive as impacting on gender role ideology. Individual interviews were conducted with 8 participants (4 males and 4 females) between the ages of 20 and 30, who were either living with their partner at the time of the study or had co-habited before. While all social constructs identified in the study can be understood as impacting internalised notions of gender roles some factors appear to play a more significant role than others in creating knowledge around egalitarian roles rather than perpetuating less contemporary views or gender inequality. In particular culture, religion and the family were found to be sights of perpetuation of more traditional roles, while globalisation, education, media, work and urbanisation appeared to be significant constructs in creating more egalitarian gender role ideologies. Recommendations for future research include a closer examination of these relationships within broader realms of class, religion and age.

Background: Women in senior positions have been, for a long time, discredited. We wanted to study their current situation and understand how they assert themselves in their companies. We thought it would be interesting to see their link to management and leadership. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the position of female managers in organizations through the exploration of gender roles, characteristics and stereotypes. Method: We conducted our research by reviewing literature about leadership theories, management versus leadership and gender influences over leadership. Then, we conducted a qualitative study with a comparison analysis between the banking, consulting and agri-food industries in France to update the current knowledge regarding female managers, to understand how they assert themselves. Conclusion: The results suggest that it is still hard for women to assert themselves and reach manager or leader positions. However, this is mostly due to their own perceptions of themselves. Women tend to lack self-confidence, which is unfortunate because female managers generally use a transformational leadership style which is considered as one of the best, which means they have all the keys to become both successful managers and leaders, using androgynous characteristics. They also endure the maternity leave and tend to sacrifice their professional career for the benefit of their family life. Women simply need to be more confident and keep asserting themselves.

Statistiken och mäns upplevelser av vårdnadstvister antyder att mammor har flera fördelar i de vårdnadstvister som leder fram till ensam vårdnad. I vår studie genomför vi en kritisk diskursanalys av de domar som har lett fram till ensam vårdnad i Stockholms tingsrätt under år 2018. Vi undersöker om normer och föreställningar kring mammaroller och papparoller påverkar utfallet i domarna. Till vårt statistiska resultat har vi utgått från 121 domar och vårt kvalitativa resultat baseras på 18 domar. Vi använder Norman Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys som teori och metod och som komplementerande teori använder vi Lewis och Welsch modell som delar in ett fungerande föräldraskap i fyra kategorier samt Ylva Elvin-Nowaks forskning om könspositioner. Resultatet uppmärksammar att många fall innehåller historier av mammor som har blivit utsatta för våld och barn som har bevittnat våld. Det förekommer även fall med pågående missbruk och psykisk ohälsa. Alla dessa påverkar tydligt utfallet på domarna till nackdel för problemföräldern. Dominerande teman och diskurser i resultatet är Riskanalys, Barnets nuvarande boendesituation, Könad omsorgsförmåga, Strategier samt En mammas känsla av rätt till sitt barn är större än pappas känsla av rätt till sitt barn. Studiens resultat visar att den omständighet som beaktas som viktigast är barnets nuvarande boendesituation, boendeföräldern har ett tydligt försprång framför umgängesföräldern. Resultatet visar också att det förekommer omsorgsförmågor som beskrivs olika beroende på om de relateras till en mamma eller pappa. Mammor gynnas dessutom av att kunna exkludera pappor från familjen. Studien ger en mer nyanserad bild av hur pappor idag inte bara bedöms i avsaknad av “feminina” kvaliteter. / Statistics and fathers´experiences from custody battles imply that mothers have more benefits when the court is ruling for sole custody. In our study we examine if norms and conceptions regarding parenting roles and gender roles might affect the outcome in these custody battles. Our empirical material is based on court documents from Stockholm District Court in 2018. We have created statistics from 121 custody battle court orders, and performed a qualitative study based on 18 custody battle court orders. We use Norman Fairclough´s critical discourse analysis as our theory and method, and as a complement we use Parenting practices divided in four dimensions by Jane Lewis and Elaine Welsh a theory, as well as research about gender roles av Ylva Elvin-Nowak. Our research show a high number of cases with violence towards the mother, where the child has been witness to the violence. Some court cases concern parents with existing drug abuse or mental illness. All of these cases effect the outcome of the custody battle, with disadvantage to the violent parent or the parent with drug abuse/mental illness. Dominating themes and discourses in the results are Risk analysis, The child´s current living arrangement, Gendered Care Ability, Strategies and A Mother´s sense of right to her child is more apparent than a Father´s sense of right to his child. The results show that the outcome of a sole custody battle is primarily based on the child´s current living arrangement. We can show that some care abilities have different implications for mothers and fathers, and that mothers can exclude the father from the family as a strategy and benefit from it. Our study depicts a more nuanced image of how fathers are judged not only in the absence of “feminine” qualities.

Ledarrollen definieras ofta stereotypiskt manligt vilket kan vara en möjlig förklaring till det låga antal kvinnor i höga ledarpositioner. Kvinnor anses vara mindre lämpade på grund av den stereotypa kvinnliga könsrollen. Studien undersökte om manliga och kvinnliga mellanchefer skulle bedömas olika beroende på om de visade stereotypiskt manligt (agentic) eller kvinnligt (communal) beteende. De 176 högskolestudenter, varav 80 kvinnor, som deltog läste en vinjett där chefsagerande utifrån könsstereotypa egenskaper samt chefernas kön varierades. Därefter skattade de chefernas grad av communal och agentic egenskaper, samt hur positivt de uppfattade cheferna. Trevägs-ANOVOR visade att kvinnor, till skillnad från män, skattade manliga chefer mer positivt än kvinnliga chefer. Communal chefer bedömdes generellt vara bättre chefer och mer lämpade för rollen än agentic chefer. Resultaten gick emot tidigare studier samt studiens hypoteser, vilket tyder på att en eventuell förändring av den traditionella synen på ledarskap kan vara på gång.

This essay uses The Kite Runner, a well-known novel written by Khaled Hosseini in 2003, to analyse what is missing in the novel. Much of the previous research has discussed Hosseini and the main characters' roles as well as the important part of the settings to discover unseen messages. However, only one has analysed the novel through a gender perspective. This essay analyses the meaning behind the absent mothers and the present fathers through the use of Hélène Cixous’ view of women in literature and Hisham Sharabi’s theory of neopatriarchy. This paper argues that The Kite Runner intends to replace motherhood with fatherhood through the absence of mothers (and women) and the presence of fathers (and men), to strengthen patriarchy. The novel shows that women are unnecessary through their absence, which the characters of Soraya (who is infertile), Sanaubar (who is absent but returns and dies “again”) and Sofia (who is dead) demonstrates. In order for the woman to be present, she must be imperfect and if she is absent, the man claims both fatherhood and motherhood. Also, the novel uses male characters such as Hassan and Sohrab to make them feminised in order to need salvation and form the idea that those in need of rescue (in this case they are rape victims) can only occur to women or feminised men. Thus, this novel not only excludes women but also strengthen patriarchy and male dominance. This essay intends to contribute within the field of English literature, but further research is needed to demonstrate and make visible of gender inequality and (male) dominance.

Bakgrund: Genus är något som engagerat och intresserat mig under hela utbildningen men även utanför skolan, i vardagen. Med denna undersökning vill jag synliggöra, inte minst för mig själv, vilka stereotyper dagens barn blir exponerade för i litteratur som riktar sig specifikt till dem. Frågor om genus, jämställdhet och könsroller är något som jag vill påstå är högaktuellt i dagens samhälle, vilket gör undersökningar av denna typ än mer angelägna. Dessutom finns det relativt få undersökningar som behandlar genus i barnlitteratur (Kåreland, 2005). Syfte: Mitt syfte är att undersöka hur genus framställs i ett urval bilderböcker skrivna på 2000-talet för barn i åldrarna 3-6 år; vilka stereotyper och normöverskridningar som blir synliga men också hur de olika karaktärerna framställs beroende på vilket kön de tillhör. Metod: Urvalet består av sju av de mest sålda bilderböckerna för barn i åldern 3-6 år på Adlibris. Böckerna är alla skrivna på 2000-talet. Varje bok lästes noggrant och analyserades ur ett genusperspektiv. Resultat: Resultatet visar att män/pojkar och flickor/kvinnor ofta framställs på ett stereotypt sätt med avseende på exempelvis karaktärsdrag och yrkesroller. Det finns dock även karaktärer som överskrider normerna på mer eller mindre tydliga sätt. Pojkar/män är överrepresenterade som huvudkaraktärer och i böckernas titlar, trots det högre antalet kvinnliga karaktärer totalt sett. Även de yrkesroller som var synliga i urvalet var nästan genomgående stereotypa, med kvinnor som omvårdare eller verksamma inom serviceyrken och med män i beskyddande yrken som vakt och polis.

There has been a renewed research focus on developments within the family as a result of the broad social, economic and cultural developments that have occurred across Europe since the middle of the twentieth century. Arguably the rise in female, and particularly maternal employment, has produced the greatest impact on family life and gender roles. Given that this division of labour is changing there is debate about whether men and women's expectations and acceptance of some aspects of gender roles - their gender role attitudes - have also changed. Gender role attitudes feed into an array of sociological debates such as those concerning gender inequalities, women's position in the labour market, declining fertility rates and family breakdown, and naturally feeds into the discourse surrounding welfare state and policy decision making. Whilst discussions that concern the family and personal life have also been littered with debates about the existence and influence of individualisation over every aspect of modern life. Three waves of the European Values Study (EVS) are used to explore gender role attitude change, focusing on the division of labour, over time from 1990 to 2008 and across 19 countries in Europe. Two data classification techniques are used to derive a three pronged and interconnected measure of gender role attitudes (Maternal employment, Job fulfilment and Economic independence). Two types of cluster analyses are then used to explore similarities in attitude change across countries and over time. Five welfare state typologies are then tested based on their efficacy to predict attitudes to gender roles. Finally cohort and sex-based variations in attitudes are also examined. The main findings are:• Gender role attitudes have shifted at the cross-European level towards more progressive perspectives over time from 1990-2008, with men found to be lagging behind women's more liberal attitudes.• There is evidence that welfares state typologies capture only a small amount of variance within gender role attitudes and therefore little evidence is found to support the idea that similarities in family-policy and socio-economic contexts are mirrored by similar attitudes.• The findings uncover evidence to indicate that both cohort and period effects are associated with gender role attitude change over time.• The results also identify some congruence with specific elements from theories of individualisation. The study supports findings of previous research that suggests people in these countries seem to be becoming more accepting of women's evolving biographies but that gender inequalities remain and men's attitudes continue to lag behind those of women. There is evidence to both support and reject the idea that we are living in more individualised societies.

Women are under-represented in both numbers and at the command level of police agencies after over 40 years of women in policing. The national average for women in policing, as reported by the 2012 Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report, was 11.9%. Women in state police and highway patrol agencies are well below the national average, particularly in the southern states where the percentage is below 6%. This study uses qualitative data to examine the role of gender and the gendered organizational structure and culture of police agencies through interview data from 24 women troopers and one academy cadet who are or were employed in seven southern state police and highway patrol agencies between 1972 and 2012. The data from their lived experiences indicate that women continue to encounter barriers and challenges to recruitment, employment, assignment, retention, and promotional opportunities. Understanding how women experience paramilitary policing institutions and the gendered nature of a male-dominated workforce can be used to argue for meaningful social and organizational changes in state police and highway patrol agencies and, by association, the profession of policing. Keywords: gendered roles, gendered institutions, gendered structure organizations, gendered culture, police, troopers, state police, highway patrol, women police, leadership, hegemonic masculinity, gender