Lärares genusmedvetenhet i relation till naturvetenskaplig verksamhet är fokus för denna avhandling, som belyses genom två studier: en longitudinell aktionsforskningsstudie som genomfördes tillsammans med en grupp förskollärare/lärare och en studie där verksamma förskollärare/lärare under en fortbildningskurs fick tillämpa en genusteori på en verklig klassrumshändelse. Studierna visar att genusarbete är komplicerat eftersom det inbegriper många aspekter av livet och en viktig del av genusmedvetenheten är att förhålla sig till dessa olika aspekter. Det är av avgörande betydelse att utmana föreställningar om genus, där utmaningarna resulterar i att föreställningarna blir verbaliserade och därmed synliggjorda. Vidare visar studierna att genom att ta avstamp i feministisk vetenskapskritik och pedagogik kan ett alternativt sätt att förhålla sig till lärande och undervisning i naturvetenskap bli möjligt. För lärare som inte har en naturvetenskaplig bakgrund, men som ska genomföra aktiviteter eller undervisa i ämnena, blir de didaktiska och pedagogiska kompetenser de redan besitter en startpunkt för att utveckla sina ämnesdidaktiska förmågor. Kompetensutveckling med ett feministiskt anslag kan ge lärarna ”empowerment” som medför att de känner större delaktighet i den naturvetenskapliga praktiken och därmed kan bidra till att utveckla såväl dess kultur som kunskapsstoffet. Avhandlingen ger också nya metodologiska kunskapsbidrag om aktionsforskning. Ett resultat är att tid är en viktig faktor som man måste ta hänsyn till beroende på vilken förändring man vill åstadkomma. Forskaren som deltar i aktionsforskningen som en ”outsider” har en viktig funktion genom att kunna överblicka processen samt uppmärksamma och använda sig av kritiska händelser för att driva förändringsarbetet framåt. / The main focus in this thesis is teachers’ gender awareness related to scientific practice. The thesis is based on two different empirical studies: a longitudinal action research study together with a group of teachers (K-6) and a study during an in-service development course where experienced teachers applied gender theory on a real classroom situation, a case. The studies show that working with gender is complicated and comprises of many aspects of human life. An important part of gender awareness is to be able to relate to these aspects. A question of vital importance is to challenge conceptions of gender in such a way that the conceptions will be verbalized and thereby visualized. Moreover, the studies show that feminist pedagogy and theory of science can lead to a new approach to teaching and learning in science. For teachers without any background in science, there are other competences than just subject matter knowledge that are vital for teaching. Feminist perspectives in professional development reinforce teachers’ pedagogical competences and their pedagogical content knowledge and thereby make these teachers feel they participate in the scientific practice and contribute in developing both the stuff of knowledge and its culture. The thesis also contributes to new methodological knowledge about action research. One of the results is that time is an important factor to take into consideration depending on what kind of change you want to receive. The researcher engaged in action research as an "outsider" has an important function in order to monitor the process and pay attention and use critical events to drive the change process forward.

The national curriculum states that the school actively should promote that women and men have equal rights and opportunities and that there is a responsibility to counteract traditional gender patterns. However do research observations show that teachers often treat girls and boys differently. Studies show that the teachers are influenced by their conceptions and their expectations of gender behavior. The aim of this study is to examine how teachers in preschool and primary school discuss gender awareness and how they state that they work with gender awareness according to the curriculum goals of counteracting the traditional gender patterns. The study is inspired by the phenomenographic research approach and the empirical material has been collected by qualitative interviews with eight teachers in preschool and primary school. The empirical material has together with earlier research and theories been analyzed and discussed in order to reach a conclusion. The results show that the interviewed teachers have different views in what gender and gender awareness means. This resulted in that the teachers stated different ways of working with and counteracting traditional gender patterns and with a different commitment. Despite the teachers commitment to gender awareness they admitted that they some times, even if they did not want to, treated the pupils differently based on their gender. They explained this by saying that they also were a part of a society affected by traditional gender patterns.

When discussing the gender imbalance of the labour market it is usually women in maledominated jobsthat end up in the center of attention, while less interest is centred upon men who choose a femaledominated occupation. In the name of gender equality it is however important that also these men arenoticed and that resources are provided for countermeasures that will influence more men to choose thesekinds of professions. In this study such a measure is in the limelight, a measure that aims to encouragemen to break traditional gender structures and to increase the gender equality on the labour market. Thefocus of attention in this study is upon the project ”Fler män till läraryrket” and its preparational year. Themajority of this study is based upon statements from a selection of students as well as the projectmanager. Especielly the ways in which the students and the manager talk about and look upon gender andgender equality, particularly in relation to the teaching profession, has been of utmost importance to thisstudy. There is no doubt that people in general support the thought of gender equality, the questionhowever is if it is possible to completely disregard the differential gender structures that mould andinfluence our identity and our minds from birth? Could it even be that these structures keep their firm gripinspite of new gender awareness and the strive for gender equality? This study is an investigation of how afew students look upon their future roles as male teachers in a female dominated occupation and how thetraditional gender structures quite often is reproduced in their statements inspite of the critical genderawareness that they have developed.

För att designa interaktiva digitala system som tillfredsställer användarens behov applicerar interaktionsdesigners ett användarcentrerat perspektiv på sin design. Designers bör då beakta demografier så som kultur, ålder och genus för att lära känna slutanvändarna av systemet. Idag beaktas demografin genus i en betydligt mindre utsträckning än exempelvis kultur, vilket kan betyda att interaktiva digitala system som designas inte blir genusneutrala, dvs. att systemet ska tillfredsställa både feminina och maskulina individer i samma utsträckning. Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka hur praktiker hanterar genus genom hela designprocessen för interaktionsdesign. För att undersöka detta har en kvalitativ intervjustudie med inspiration av Grounded Theory utförts. Empirin ifrån intervjuerna har presenterats och analyserats med hjälp av kodning. Slutligen har resultatet diskuterats. Resultatet från studien pekar på att interaktionsdesigners inte alltid medvetet beaktar genus och att det inte anses behövas då designers redan upplever att den digitala världen är genusneutral. Diskussionen av resultatet tycks påvisa två faktorer som behövs för att designa ett genusneutralt system. Faktorerna som det argumenteras för är dels att ett feministiskt synsätt på design skapar goda möjligheter för att designa jämställda system. Dels är det av vikt att beakta genus som demografi i samma utsträckning som kultur för att öka möjligheterna att designen tillfredsställer såväl feminina som maskulina individers behov. / A user-centered perspective is often used by designers to be able to design interactive digital systems that attempt to meet users’ needs. The designers should take demographics such as culture, age and gender into consideration to get to know the end user of the system. Today, gender as a demographic area is considered in a lesser extent than for example culture. This indicates that systems are not designed to be gender neutral. The aim of this study is to examine how practitioners consider gender through the design process. To do this, a qualitative interview study inspired by Grounded Theory has been followed. The data from the interviews have been presented and also interpreted by coding. The discussion of the results tend to show two factors that are needed to be able to design a system that meets the needs of both feminine and masculine individuals equally. The factors argued for are that a feminist approach on design could enable a possibility to design a more equal system. Also, designers should take gender into greater consideration while designing systems so that the systems in fact meet the needs of both feminine and masculine users equally.

Detta examensarbete är en kvalitativ studie vars syfte är att beskriva och förstå hur könsfördelningen ser ut i grundskolan i musikundervisningen utifrån fyra olika musiklärares perspektiv. Studiens syfte är att undersöka genusmönster i musik undervisningen och hur lärare förhåller sig till genusmönster och om hur lärare arbetar med stereotypiska könsfördelningar. Bakgrundsavsnittet, som är baserat på tidigare forskning i form av avhandlingar, skolans läroplan och annan litteratur, framkommer det att pojkar tar mera plats i klassrummen och dras gärna mer mot trummor och gitarr medan flickor är mer försiktiga och tar det som blir över eller väljer endera sång eller piano. Enligt forskningen kunde man konstatera att instrument och sång är könskodade. I metodavsnittet presenteras det att studiens resultat är baserat på kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra musiklärare som analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys som metod. Studiens resultat visar att informanterna som arbetar som aktiva musiklärare generellt ser en skillnad på könen i form av dragning till olika instrument i högstadiet men att skillnader inte är stora i tidigare årskurser. Resultatet tar även upp hur informanterna arbetar med genus och hur de ser på skillnader och likheter i klassrummet / This thesis has been done at the department of education at Umeå university. The study’s aim is to explore and understand how the gender distribution in junior high school in music education look like from the perspective of four different music teachers. The purpose of the study is to study the awareness of stereotypical distributions in music and music education, how teachers work with stereotypical gender distributions and what development opportunities there are. The background section, which is based on previous research in the form of dissertations, the school curriculumand other litterature, shows that boys take more space in the classrooms and are more likely to be drawn to drums and guitars while girls are more cautious and take what is left or they choose either vocals or piano. In the method section it is presented that the study's results are based on qualitative interviews with four active music teachers who have been analyzed with qualitative content analysis as a method. The study's results show that the informants who work as active music teachers generally see a difference in the sex in the form of attraction to different instruments in high school, but that differences are not seen in previous grades. The result also addresses how informants work with gender awareness and how they view differences and similarities in the classroom

The inclusion of a gender perspective in medicine has shown that gender is an essential factor in health and disease, in medical encounters and also in medical students’ educational environment. The aim of this study was to explore attitudes, preconceptions and norms regarding gender within medical education and processes of gender bias. First, we explored medical students gendered beliefs about patients. Second, we examined the medical students ideas about their future careers. Third, we compared awareness on gender issues among medical students in Sweden and the Netherlands. Method and material The analyses were based on data from two different sources: one experimental study based on authentic patient narratives about being diagnosed with cancer and one extensive questionaire exploring different aspects of gender issues in medical education. Both studies had a design which enabled both qualitative and quantitative research and mixed methods was used. Study I (Paper I and II): Eighty-one anonymous letters from patients were read by 130 students of medicine and psychology. For each letter the students were asked to state the patient’s sex and explain their choice. In paper I the students’ success rates were analysed statistically and the explanations to four letters were used to illustrate the students’ reasoning. Paper II examined the 87 medical students’ explanations closer to examine gender beliefs about patients. Study II (Paper III and IV): The questionaire started with an open question where medical students were asked to describe their ideal future, it also included a validated scale designed to estimate gender awareness. Paper III examined 507 swedish medical students descriptions about their ideal future and compared answers from male and female students in the beginning and at the end of medical school. Paper IV compared gender awareness among 1096 Swedish and Dutch medical students in first term. Findings with reflections Paper I showed that the patient’s sex was correctly identified in 62% of the cases. There were no difference between the results of male and female students. However, large differences between letters were observed, i.e. there were some letters were almost all students correctly identified the patient´s sex, others were almost all students were incorrect and most letters were found somewhere in the middle. Another significant finding was that the same expressions were interpreted differently depending on which initial guess the medical student had made regarding the sex of the patient. Paper II identified 21 categories of justifications within the students’ explanations, twelve of which were significantly associated with an assumption of either a male or female patient. Only three categories led to more correct identifications of the patients’ sex and two were more often associated with incorrect assignments. The results illustrate how beliefs about gender difference, even though they might be recognizable on a group level, are not applicable on individuals. Furthermore, the results show that medical students enter the education with beliefs about male and female patients, which could have consequenses and cause bias in their future work as doctors. Paper III found that almost all students, both male and female, were work-oriented. However, the female students even more so than their male counterparts. This result is particularly interesting in regards to the debate about the “feminization of medicine” in which the increasing number of female students has been adressed as a problem. When reflecting on their own lifes and their future its obvious that medical students nowadays, male and female, expect more to life than work, especially those who are on the doorstep to their professional life. Paper IV found that the national and cultural setting was the most crucial impact factor in relation to the medical students preconceptions and awareness about gender. The Swedish students expressed less stereotypic thinking about patients and doctors, while the Dutch students were more sensitive to gender difference. In both countries, the students’ sex mattered for gender stereotyping, with male students agreeing more to stereotypes. Conclusions A gender perspective is important in medical education. Our studies show that such initiatives needs to take cultural aspects, gender attitudes and students’ gender into account. Moreover, reflections on assumptions about men and women, patients as well as doctors, need to be included in medical curricula and the impact of implicit gender beliefs needs to be included in discussions on gender bias in health care. Also, the next generation of doctors want more to life than work. Future Swedish doctors, both female and male, intend to balance work not only with a family but also with leisure. This attitudinal change towards their future work as doctors will provide the health care system with a challenge to establish more adaptive and flexible work conditions.

This thesis aims to examine if and how gender is framed, presented and problematized in contemporary art exhibitions. To achieve this, exhibitions and the curatorial function at the museums Bildmuseet in Umeå and MAN (Museum Anna Nordlander) in Skellefteå are investigated through interviews and analyses. These were made from a gender theoretical perspective, guided by Judith Butler's poststructural approach, focusing especially on perfomativity and queer. The thesis describes how contemporary art exhibitions can be curated in a gender aware manner. The areas identified as important when it comes to gender aware curation are: including and problematizing gender, educating in gender issues and gender awareness during internal as well as external collaborations. All of the analysed exhibitions contain gender aspects that ​are examined deeper, even though the curators did not intend all of the exhibitions to highlight and problematize gender. In the thesis, it is also discussed what role the curator has in the gender aware work and how gender/sex are represented in the examined exhibitions. It also problematizes the lack of non-binary artist in previous exhibitions of the museums and how this, through different strategies, can be counteracted in order to create a more democratic and inclusive museum.

There is a massive gender gap in the tech startup industry. 1% of the CTOs at venture-backed companies in Europe are women and only 1% of the venture capital in Sweden is given to all-female founding teams. The author believes that gender equality should improve because of the fundamental right to have equal opportunities, but also because it could benefit the industry. Research indicates that gender equality, for example, can lead to increased profitability. This thesis is a qualitative study aiming to understand the effects of the industry gender gap by investigating how women in the industry perceive gender inequality. The study will answer to what extent gender equality is seen as a problem, what barriers female tech entrepreneurs face and present some explanations for the gender gap. The foundation for the results and discussion sections is a literature review on entrepreneurship and gender and semi-structured qualitative interviews. The interviews were carried out with women who had worked in the tech startup industry in Stockholm. A total of 12 respondents with various professions and degrees of technical skills were interviewed. They worked or had worked as founders, investors or at incubators. Throughout the analysis, two distinct views on the extent of the problem were identified. Some women perceived the gender gap as mainly unproblematic and their gender as beneficial yet insignificant. These respondents have been labeled the Positive Gender Neutral (PGN) group. They stated that their gender was more advantageous than impeding. Being a minority makes one stand out, which can be beneficial. The other group of respondents raised that this visibility can be both advantageous and tiring. This group has been labeled the Structure Acknowledging (SA) group. They expressed that there are layers of gender inequality in addition to the gender discrepancy. They stated that there are significant barriers to female entrepreneurs and wished to decrease gender inequality. Both groups expressed that there are certain barriers to women, although the PGN group tended to view the barriers as relating to individual women and the SA group to structures in the industry and society. Some expressed that women have internal barriers such as a lack of confidence and unwillingness to take risk. Some structural barriers expressed were the male entrepreneurial norm and male domination of the industry, including a ”bro culture” and homosociality. The two distinct views on gender inequality can be seen as coping strategies for succeeding in a male-dominated environment. That could be an indication that there is a strong male norm in the industry. Many raised rhetoric such as master suppression techniques or excluding entrepreneurial language as barriers. The respondents furthermore also often explained the gender gap with women being attracted to other industries or lacked tech entrepreneur role models. Finally, comparing the results to previous research, all respondents have a high gender awareness level, in particular, the respondents in the SA group. Gender awareness can lead to change. Thus, hopefully, there is a positive trend of gender awareness in the industry, which this thesis hopes to contribute to. / Det finns ett stort könsgap i tech startup-industrin. 1% av CTOs på företag backade av riskkapital i Europa är kvinnor och endast 1% av riskkapitalet i Sverige ges till helt kvinnliga grundarteam. Författaren anser att jämställdheten bör förbättras dels på grund av den grundläggande rättigheten att ha lika möjligheter, dels för att det kan gynna industrin. Forskning tyder på att jämställdhet till exempel kan leda till ökad lönsamhet. Denna avhandling är en kvalitativ studie som syftar till att förstå effekterna av industrins könsdiskrepans genom att undersöka hur kvinnor i branschen upplever ojämställdhet. Studien ämnar besvara till vilken utsträckning jämställdhet ses som ett problem, vilka hinder som kvinnliga teknikföretagare står inför och presenterar några förklaringar för könsskillnaden. Grunden för resultaten och diskussionen är en litteraturstudie om entreprenörskap och kön samt halvstrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer. Intervjuerna genomfördes med kvinnor som arbetat i tech startup-industrin i Stockholm. Sammanlagt tolv respondenter med olika yrken och grader av tekniska färdigheter intervjuades. De arbetade eller hade arbetat som grundare, investerare eller på inkubatorer. I analysen identifierades två olika synsätt på problemets omfattning. Vissa kvinnor upplevde könsskillnaden som huvudsakligen oproblematisk och deras kön som fördelaktigt men likväl obetydligt. Dessa respondenter har benämnts den positiva könsneutrala gruppen (PGN). Att vara en minoritet gör att man sticker ut, vilket kan vara fördelaktigt. Den andra gruppen av svarande hävdade att denna synlighet kan vara både fördelaktig och tröttsam. Denna grupp har benämnts den strukturerkännande gruppen (SA). De uttryckte att det finns ojämställdhet utöver könsgapet. De uppgav att det finns betydande hinder för kvinnliga entreprenörer och att de ville minska könens ojämlikhet. Båda grupperna gav uttryck för att det finns vissa hinder för kvinnor, även om PGN-gruppen tenderade att se hindren i relation till andra kvinnor medan SA-gruppen nämnde samhälleliga strukturer. Några uttryckte att kvinnor har interna hinder som brist på självförtroende och ovillighet att ta risk. Några strukturella hinder som uttrycktes var den manliga entreprenörsnormen och den manliga dominansen i branschen, inklusive en "grabbig” kultur och homosocialitet. De två distinkta föreställningarna om jämställdhet mellan könen kan ses som strategier för att lyckas i en manligt dominerad miljö, vilket kan kopplas till att det finns en stark manlig norm i branschen. Andra hinder som lyftes var härskartekniker, manligt entreprenörsspråk och brist på förebilder. Slutligen visar en jämförelse av resultaten med tidigare forskning att respondenterna har en hög könsmedvetenhetsnivå, i synnerhet SA-gruppen. Könsmedvetenhet kan leda till förändring. Således finns det förhoppningsvis en positiv utveckling av könsmedvetenhet inom branschen, som denna avhandling hoppas bidra till.

Syftet med studien är att bilda kunskap om genuspedagogikens innehåll och arbetssätt med utgångspunkt tagen i genuspedagogernas erfarenhet. Målet är att kunna generera ny kunskap om hur jämställdhetsarbetet i gymnasieskolan ska kunna fungera och att elever i gymnasieskolan ska kunna bemötas på ett jämställt sätt, oberoende av kön. Bakgrunden till studien är det påtalade problemet att elever i ungdomsskolan inte bemöts likvärdigt. Studier visar ett deras kön påverkar hur lärare förhåller sig till dem och vilka betyg eleverna får. Studien undersöker hur genuspedagoger erfar att det genom ett genuspedagogiskt arbetssätt går att förändra de genusnormer och strukturer som lever i gymnasieskolan. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer med sex genuspedagoger som är verksamma i gymnasieskolan. Intervjuerna tolkas genom hermeneutisk metod för att nå en förståelse av hur genuspedagogerna upplever och an-vänder genuspedagogiken i sitt arbete i gymnasieskolan. Metoden är inter-vjuer gjorda genom digital teknik: @ography, som innebär intervjuer genomförda via e-post. Resultatet visar att genuspedagoger erfar att det är möjligt att föra in genuspedagogiska arbetssätt i gymnasieskolan, men att det kommer att ta tid då motståndet mot arbetssättet från både lärare, skolledningar och kommuner är stort. Det mest effektiva sättet att förändra arbetssättet på gymnasieskolan är att lärare handleds i arbetslag för att ändra attityder, förhållningssätt och invanda normer. / The aim with the study is to form knowledge about the content of gender pedagogy with starting point in the experiences of gender pedagogues. The objective is to generate new knowledge about how the equality work in the upper secondary school can function and that students in the upper secondary school can to be treated in a more equal way, independently of sexes. The background to the study is the attention of the problem that students are not treated equally. Studies show that the students sexes influences how teachers relate to them and it also influences what grades the students receive. The study examines how gender pedagogues experience a gender pedagogical approach to change norms and structures in the upper secondary school. The empirical materials are interviews with six gender pedagogues who are active in the upper secondary school. The interviews are interpreted through a hermeneutical method in order to reach an understanding of how gender pedagogues' experiences and uses gender pedagogy in their work in the upper secondary school. The method is in-terviews done through digital technology: @ography, which are interviews via e-mail. The result shows that gender pedagogues experiences that it is possible to pursue a gender pedagogical approach in the upper secondary school, but that it will take time when the resistance against the approach from teachers, school managements and municipalities are immense. The most effective way to change the approach on the upper secondary school is if teachers are supervised in teams in order to change attitudes and subconscious standards.

Although Swazi women's contribution to national development has been phenomenal, they like any other women in patriarchal societies confront an overbearing situation in which they have been regarded and treated as minors, both in the family and most spheres of public life. This has largely been due to the social construction of gender. Traditional gender-based attitudes, deeply ingrained in the people's mind set, not infrequently, have limited women's access to and control of various aspects of public life, and impinge on their rights, most especially the rights to selfdetermination and equal participation in the decision making process. Coupled with religion which influences "the deepest level of what it means to be human" (King, 1994:4) and zealous cultural conservatism, the Swazi women, with a few notable exceptions, experience an asymmetry of power due to the pervasive nature of gender. Nonetheless, the history of Swaziland bears testimony, however muted, to a legacy ofwomen's struggles to overcome gendered conditions imposed upon them either by taking full advantage of their spiritual endowment and charisma to overcome attitudinal barriers or by organising themselves into groups to work for the social transformation of their conditions and status. This study examines the Swazi women's search for gender equality. It discusses the social and cultural context of gender in Swaziland, the various moments in the Swazi women's quest for equality and its manifestations, and the push and pull effect of religion and culture. Particular attention is given to four organisations, namely Lutsango lwakaNgwane (loosely referred to as women's regiments), the Council of Swaziland Churches, the Women's Resource Centre (Umtapo waBomake) and Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA). The study shows that Swazi women have, across a passage of time, adopted different strategies, including ritual, economic empowerment and creation of new knowledge through promotion of gender awareness and social advocacy either in a womanist approach that accepts women's embeddedness in Swazi culture or in the liberal feminist tradition that espouses women's individual rights. However, the study shows that the women's movement has yet to reach the critical mass level so as to influence public policy and come to terms with the deconstruction of the dominant gender ideology. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)