This study investigates the relationship between female representation, women as chief executive officers, and corporate sustainability disclosures in Swedish listed companies. The used data was collected from the Swedish listed companies in Nasdaq Stockholm for the period 2017-2020. The specific research period is due to the new amendments of the Swedish Annual Accounts Act (Årsredovisningslagen) which came into force 2017. To investigate the effect female representation, and women as chief executive officers have on the legally issued corporate sustainability disclosures, this study applies content analysis and quantitative methods. By estimating multiple regression models, the results revealed a non-significant relationship of female representation on the board of directors and of women as chief executive officers, on the quality of corporate sustainability disclosures. For the critical mass of at least three women, a non-significant impact is detected. Lastly, an additional test for reversed causality has been conducted, however no significant relationship was documented.

Gender diverse individuals experience stigma, discrimination, and transprejudice regularly, in response to daily interactions with society. These negative experiences lead to the development of physical, mental, and emotional instability. Gender diverse individuals experience transprejudice and discriminatory experiences in transpohobic counseling environments. Furthermore, current research highlights the need for counselors to increase training and knowledge to work with gender diverse individuals. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study, grounded in a Heideggerian philosophy, was to illuminate the lived experiences of professional counselors engaging in counseling with gender diverse clients and bridge the gap in the current literature. Data were collected from 7 licensed professional counselors with experience counseling gender diverse clients. using a semistructured interview and followed a structured thematic analysis process incorporating components of interpretive phenomenological analysis, ensuring thematic saturation. The results of this study highlighted 10 major themes and seven subthemes inclusive, but not limited to education and training, understanding gender diversity issues, intentional bias, and professional experience. These study findings provide insight regarding the potential to improve counselor training and preparation. Ultimately increasing knowledge and education may impact and improve the lives for the gender diverse clients by reducing transprejudice, transphobia, and other forms of bias.

This study aims to investigate how the proportion of female leaders on corporate boards affects firm financial performance during crises. The study investigates Swedish mid-cap and large- cap companies during COVID-19. The years observed are 2018-2021, where the two first years served as the pre-crisis periods, while the two latter as the crisis period. The sample includes 266 companies listed at Nasdaq Stockholm. Regression analysis is performed to investigate if there is a more positive relationship between the proportion of women on corporate boards and firm financial performance during a crisis. The firm financial performance measurements used are return on equity, return on assets, operating margin and Tobin’s Q. Moreover, in accordance with critical mass theory, the study examines if there is a significant relationship between a proportion of at least 40 % women on the board of directors, and financial performance during a crisis. The results of the study show no significant results for either a stronger relationship between the proportion of women and firm financial performance during a crisis or a threshold of 40 % proportion of women on the board. The study contributes to the current literature by expanding the research on gender and crisis management on a corporate level as well as explores the relationship between female board directors and firm financial performance in the Swedish market which has not been executed previously.

This thesis aims to take part of and contribute to the continuously ongoing debate ongender diversity, more specific about gender diversity in the operational level includingthe gender of CEO in Swedish firms across the Large cap, Mid Cap and Small Cap lists.The purpose is to analyze whether there is a statistical significance between operationalgender diversity and financial performance as well as firm volatility. The thesis uses aquantitative method with an OLS multiple regression analysis on a total of 448 Swedishlisted firms. The measures used for performance are return on assets (ROA) and return onequity (ROE), as well as volatility as a risk measure. The test variables used are femaleCEO and female executives, against the control variables females in the board, sector,market capitalization and full-time employees. The results of the thesis suggest that thereis not any significant correlation between the gender of the CEO and firm performance aswell as volatility, and there is neither any significant correlation between the genderdiversity amongst the executives and the firm performance or stock volatility.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the gender diversity of the top management team affects the disclosure strategy regarding gender diversity, in state-owned enterprises. The study, in addition, tests if hybridity, conceptualized as conflicting institutional logics, has a moderating effect on this relationship. Theoretical perspectives: With its starting point in the upper echelon theory, the study uses both positive accounting theory and signaling theory to explain managers’ disclosure decision, where the intuitional logics approach represents the moderating decision-making context. Methodology: The study is based within the positivistic paradigm, following a deductive approach and quantitative methodology. Both the textual and visual diversity content of the annual reports of 30 state-owned enterprises over a 5-year period, is collected and analyzed using the Spearman correlation matrix and multiple regression analysis. The moderating effect of hybridity is tested through hierarchical moderated multiple regression analysis. Findings: The findings of the study provide partial support for the relationship between the gender diversity of the top management team and gender diversity disclosure, suggesting that the influence of management depends on the means of disclosure. No support is found for the claim that hybridity has a positive moderating effect on this relationship. However, incorporating hybridity stills indicates that integrating the institutional context into the upper-echelons model facilitates understanding about the relationship, by establishing conditional boundaries and identifying main effects.

The low levels of gender diversity is an characteristic that is directly associated with the gaming industry. The gaming industry is multi-dollar business with huge influence on technological advancement and possesses a great power and influence over its users. It is in a position to shape how users view the world and how they interact with it. Studies within the field of gaming have previously showed that gaming can have a significant impact on children and adolescents’ behavior. Therefore, it becomes of great interest to examine how gender imbalance is created and how it is explained by the gaming firms. The study will examine these questions through a Swedish perspective. The methodology of this research paper can be divided into two main section. Firstly, a literature review was conducted to gather information about relevant theories, concepts and previous research. Thereafter, ten individuals working for different Swedish gaming companies were interviewed to gather their perspective and view on the topic. The results showed that the gaming firms explained the gender imbalance and how it is created through gender and societal norms. However, when discussing the structure of the company, culture and other practices, results indicated that the gaming firms play a larger contributing role to the imbalance through; male-dominated gender structures and cultures that makes it difficult for women to progress and feel belonged in the company, establishing requirements that exclude certain candidates, and by having a confused perceptive regarding the situation. / Den låga könsmångfalden är något som är direkt associerat med spelindustrin. Spelindustrin är en enorm industri som har stort inflyttande på teknisk utveckling samt har stort inflyttande över sina användare och kan forma hur de ser på världen och interagerar med den. Studier inom spelområdet har tidigare visat att spel kan ha en inflytande på barn och ungdomars beteende. Därför har det blivit ett stort intresse att undersöka hur könsubalans skapas och hur det förklaras av spelbolagen. Denna studie kommer att undersöka dessa frågor ur ett svenskt perspektiv. Metodiken för denna forskningsrapport kan delas in i två huvudavsnitt. Först genomfördes en litteraturstudie för att samla information om relevanta teorier, begrepp och tidigare forskning. Därefter intervjuades tio personer som arbetar inom svenska gaming bolag för att samla in deras perspektiv och syn på ämnet. Resultaten visade att spelföretagen förklarade obalansen mellan könen och hur det skapas genom köns- och samhällsnormer. Men när man diskuterade företagets struktur, kultur och andra aspekter, visade resultaten att spel bolagen har en större bidragande roll till obalansen än vad de själva tror. Dessa företag utformas av mansdominerade köns strukturer och kulturer som gör det svårt för kvinnor att utvecklas och känna sig del av företaget, formar krav som exkluderar vissa kandidater och så vidare som bidrar till en låg könsmångfald inom branschen.

Alarming statistics provides that only 10,2 percentage of companies listed on the Swedish stock exchange has achieved gender equality in their top management. The fact is that women being discriminated, since men dominates these positions of power. The study is of a qualitative nature and aims to achieve a deeper understanding and knowledge contribution of how gender equal companies´ has achieved this gender diversity in their top management. Sweden's highest ranking business leaders has been interviewed in order to obtain their view, and the companies they represent, in order to get an answer to what the most important requirements has been in the achievement. The study's main result has shown that strong core values and corporate culture are basic and required condition for a successful gender equality strategy. A deliberate or emergent strategy can then be successfully implemented, and it is mainly the impact of structural barriers that determine which strategy a company uses. At a deliberate strategy, following measures are in additional to core values and corporate cultural crucial; commitment towards gender equality, a specific plan with clear objectives, and a conscious objective recruitment process. The result found aboute these two factors and three measures also identified a required specific order to follow in order to achieve gender diversity in top management. These findings, which in a near future, aims to contribute to a more gender equal Sweden.

Currently in the United States there are more than 4 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in K-12 public schools (Bochenek, Brown, & Human Rights Watch, 2001). Despite the prevalence of LGBT youth and the diversification of family populations, teacher preparation programs rarely acknowledge "queer" aspects of multiculturalism (Letts, 2002). As a result, a majority of K-12 educators enter the field of teaching unwilling and/or unprepared to engage with queer issues as they relate to students and families, curriculum, and instruction. The culture of silence around homosexuality can put queer youth at risk and deter school stakeholders from addressing queer issues, the discussion of which can lead to deepened understanding, increased empathy, and social action. Employing critical social theory as a theoretical framework, this paper examines the promise of increased awareness about and use of queer-inclusive pedagogy and curriculum in pre-service teacher education. It is argued that such inclusion is necessary to counteract heterosexism in schools that reinforce gender norms and impart heteronormative values. Guided by interpretivist inquiry, the current multiple-case study describes how eight pre-service teachers encountered, made sense of, and responded to sexual and gender diversity in their K-8 field placements. Findings are presented in individual case descriptions followed by a cross-case synthesis and suggest that pre-service teachers came into direct and constant contact with queer issues. Participants' overwhelming desire to process and make sense of their encounters as a means of supporting students as well as negotiating their own personal sense of identity also emerged from the data. The implications of these findings for pre-service teacher education are discussed as is a proposed framework for queer inclusion and next steps for future research.

Submitted by Navjeet Singh Gill (navjeetgill7@gmail.com) on 2018-02-23T18:00:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017-18_Navjeet_Gill v6.pdf: 1539898 bytes, checksum: c559bf4e5d8539b1b89e7d6f75555716 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josineide da Silva Santos Locatelli (josineide.locatelli@fgv.br) on 2018-02-23T18:06:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017-18_Navjeet_Gill v6.pdf: 1539898 bytes, checksum: c559bf4e5d8539b1b89e7d6f75555716 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-26T12:51:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017-18_Navjeet_Gill v6.pdf: 1539898 bytes, checksum: c559bf4e5d8539b1b89e7d6f75555716 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-01-16 / This empirical research examines the relationship between board’s diversity and firm performance, providing a comprehensive quantitative analysis between diversity factors (demographic - gender and race, cognitive - age, education, role and network) and financial factors (ROA, ROE, ROIC, asset turnover and current ratio) in the component companies of the FTSE 100 index. The dataset also includes a wide array of information about 1053 board members. The results indicate that a diverse board positively impacts ROA, ROIC, asset turnover and current ratio but were insignificant for ROE. It proves that diversity leads to better social reputation, performance and financial performance. / Esta pesquisa empírica examina a relação entre a diversidade do conselho e o desempenho da empresa, fornecendo uma análise quantitativa significativa entre os fatores de diversidade (demográfico - gênero e raça, idade cognitiva, educação, papel e rede) e fatores financeiros (ROA, ROE, ROIC, rotatividade de ativos e liquidez geral) nas empresas que compõem o índice FTSE 100. O conjunto de dados também inclui uma ampla gama de informações sobre 1053 membros do conselho. Os resultados indicam que um conselho diversificado impacta positivamente no ROA, ROIC, rotatividade de ativos e liquidez geral, mas são insignificantes para ROE. Isto demonstra que a diversidade leva a uma melhor reputação social, performance e desempenho financeiro.

Cette thèse propose d'étudier dans quelle mesure la diversité du genre au conseil d'administration influence la qualité des états financiers. Plus précisément, cette thèse explore la relation entre la diversité du genre au conseil d'administration et la qualité des états financiers en soulignant l'influence des attributs des femmes administrateurs sur la qualité des états financiers.Cette thèse repose sur un large échantillon d'entreprises françaises appartenant à l'indice CAC All-shares d'Euronext Paris entre 2001 et 2010. Après avoir contrôlé l'endogénéité et d'autres facteurs spécifiques au conseil d'administration, à l'entreprise et à l'industrie, nos résultats montrent que la diversité du genre au conseil d‟administration est positivement associée à la qualité des états financiers. De plus, nos résultats mettent en lumière une influence significative des attributs des femmes administrateurs sur la relation entre la diversité du genre dans les conseils d'administration et la qualité des états financiers. En ce qui concerne plus particulièrement les attributs, nous avons trouvé que l'appartenance au comité d‟audit, l'expertise comptable et financière et l'expérience des femmes ont un impact positif et significatif sur la qualité des états financiers. L'ensemble de ces résultats témoigne de l'importance des compétences dans les conseils d'administration diversifiés en termes de genre et révèlent la pertinence des attributs des femmes administrateurs pour assurer la qualité des états financiers. / This thesis proposes to study to what extent board gender diversity influence the quality of financial statements. Specifically, this thesis explores the relation between gender-diverse boards and financial statements quality by highlighting the value relevance of female directors‟ attributes for enhancing the quality of financial statements.This thesis focuses on a large sample of French firms belonging to the CAC-All shares index listed on Euronext Paris over the period 2001 to 2010. We find, after controlling for endogeneity and other board, firm and industry specific factors, that board gender diversityis positively associated with the quality of financial statements. Further, our findings provide evidence of significant influence of female directors‟ attributes on the relation between gender-diverse boards and financial statements quality. With regard to female directors‟ attributes, we find concrete evidence to suggest that audit committee memberships, financial expertise and experience of women have substantial impact on the quality of financial statements. Taken together, these results testify the effective monitoring skills of gender-diverse boards and the value relevance of female directors‟ attributes for ensuring the quality of financial statements. Finally, an important implication of thesis is that the decision to appoint women on corporate boards should be more based on their statutory and demographic attributes than blind implementation of gender quotas.