[Abstract]: Since the 1990s, the discourse of security has undergone profound change. Rather than merely pertaining to a more traditional, narrow interpretation of security primarily focusing on nation-states instead of people, a human dimension, known as human security has been added. While such discussions on human security have attempted to encompass threats to humanity as a whole, interpretations of such threats have largely failed to recognise the exceptional threats faced by women. Although threats found in analytical discussions of human security do relate to women, it is imperative that a sharper focus be placed on the additional threats women face in terms of their security; ones that might become blurred in general discourse, such as economic, educational and employment disparities, gender discrimination, substandard healthcare, restricted access to healthcare facilities, human trafficking and male violence.This dissertation seeks to provide a gendered analysis of human security, using women in China as its focus. To provide a focused examination, it takes a global source of human insecurity, HIV/AIDS, and examines why women in China are increasingly at risk from HIV/AIDS. In addition to assessing the impact that this pandemic poses for their security, it also attempts to investigate the social impacts HIV/AIDS is having on women in China and what measures the government has put in place to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. The extent and nature of the role played by intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in China’s HIV/AIDS epidemic is also explored. This research was prompted by the limited nature of a gendered analysis in the mainstream human security literature, and the need to identify the unique threats to human security faced by women. The realisation that the ‘disempowered status’ of women increases their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, and that HIV/AIDS is becoming a major source of insecurity for many women around the world (and in China in particular), provides a relevant focus for such an investigation.

<p>The aim of my study is to look at how the interaction might look like in a preschool; how interaction is between children and adults, children and children. The starting point is what is written about the interaction before and tie it together with the observation. The focus will be on how the interaction and gender roles appear in the preschool.</p><p>The theory is mainly about pre-school, different educational starting point on how a pre-school to work for gender equality. Which is also a requirement from the National Curriculum documents for the preschools and that they should strive for.</p><p>In this study, I found that you can work for several different methods and theories of interaction in the preschool and that they can complement each other. But mainly it is important that all employees have to work with the same reason.</p>

<p>Failed Feminism?: Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel Tehanu</p><p>The purpose of this essay is to show that Ursula K. LeGuin’s fantasy novel Tehanu instead of breaking away from traditional gender roles maintains them, despite the novel’s promises of change. I begin by showing the places where the possibilities of change are indicated, and then I use feminist criticism to show that there is no change in the gender roles.</p><p>I have examined the gender roles in Tehanu, by taking a closer look at the characters and the roles they have in the plot. Numerous critics claim that this novel is Le Guin’s attempt to revise her earlier, more traditional fantasy novels in the Earthsea trilogy, and that Tehanu works as a feminist reaction to the Earthsea trilogy. However, even though Le Guin makes the traditional patriarchal gender roles apparent to the unaware reader, the protagonists have internalised the patriarchal values of their society when the novel closes, which may be fairly disappointing to the reader who brings feminist awareness to the reading of novel. The women are depicted as caregivers, and the men are portrayed as the decision-makers. The gender roles are as traditional as they can be with Ged as the man who is capable to read the wizard’s books, with Tehanu who stays with her family and does not leave with the dragons, and with Tenar as the woman who takes care of the household.</p>

<p>I vårt examensarbete har vi genusgranskat två läroböcker som används i gymnasieskolan. Den ena heter Escalade 1 och används i steg 1 i franska och den andra heter Give ’n’ Take: Reader och används i engelska kurs A på yrkesprogrammen. Frågan vi har ställt oss är hur bilden av mannen respektive kvinnan förmedlas i både bild och text i läroböckerna samt om böckerna lever upp till de krav som styrkdokumenten ställer på jämställdhet mellan könen.</p><p>Vi har kommit fram till att läroböckerna bevarar den traditionella begränsningen som finns på grund av kön där mannen framhålls på bekostnad av kvinnan vilket förmedlar en bild av att mannen och kvinnan inte är lika mycket värda och inte heller har samma möjligheter. Dessutom framställs kvinnan som mer emotionell än rationell och mannen saknar till stor del känsloregister. Det här resultatet gör att ovan nämnda läroböcker inte lever upp till de krav på jämställdhet som styrdokumenten ställer.</p> / <p>In our survey we have investigated gender roles in two textbooks used in upper secondary school: Escalade 1, used for beginners in French and Give ‘n’ Take: Reader, used in English A course in the vocational programs. The aim with the essay is to examine how men and women are depicted in the texts as well as in the pictures and find out if the textbooks correspond to the part of the curriculum dealing with equality between the sexes.</p><p>The result of our survey reveals that the textbooks preserve the traditional gender roles where the man is the norm. Consequently, focus is set on him at the expense of the woman. This result suggests that men and women do not have the same status, rights and opportunities. Furthermore, the woman is described as more emotional than rational and the man, more or less, lacks feelings. The outcome of our survey makes it clear that these textbooks do not respond to the equal rights and opportunities of the sexes that the curriculum demands.</p>

The aim of my study is to look at how the interaction might look like in a preschool; how interaction is between children and adults, children and children. The starting point is what is written about the interaction before and tie it together with the observation. The focus will be on how the interaction and gender roles appear in the preschool. The theory is mainly about pre-school, different educational starting point on how a pre-school to work for gender equality. Which is also a requirement from the National Curriculum documents for the preschools and that they should strive for. In this study, I found that you can work for several different methods and theories of interaction in the preschool and that they can complement each other. But mainly it is important that all employees have to work with the same reason.

I vårt examensarbete har vi genusgranskat två läroböcker som används i gymnasieskolan. Den ena heter Escalade 1 och används i steg 1 i franska och den andra heter Give ’n’ Take: Reader och används i engelska kurs A på yrkesprogrammen. Frågan vi har ställt oss är hur bilden av mannen respektive kvinnan förmedlas i både bild och text i läroböckerna samt om böckerna lever upp till de krav som styrkdokumenten ställer på jämställdhet mellan könen. Vi har kommit fram till att läroböckerna bevarar den traditionella begränsningen som finns på grund av kön där mannen framhålls på bekostnad av kvinnan vilket förmedlar en bild av att mannen och kvinnan inte är lika mycket värda och inte heller har samma möjligheter. Dessutom framställs kvinnan som mer emotionell än rationell och mannen saknar till stor del känsloregister. Det här resultatet gör att ovan nämnda läroböcker inte lever upp till de krav på jämställdhet som styrdokumenten ställer. / In our survey we have investigated gender roles in two textbooks used in upper secondary school: Escalade 1, used for beginners in French and Give ‘n’ Take: Reader, used in English A course in the vocational programs. The aim with the essay is to examine how men and women are depicted in the texts as well as in the pictures and find out if the textbooks correspond to the part of the curriculum dealing with equality between the sexes. The result of our survey reveals that the textbooks preserve the traditional gender roles where the man is the norm. Consequently, focus is set on him at the expense of the woman. This result suggests that men and women do not have the same status, rights and opportunities. Furthermore, the woman is described as more emotional than rational and the man, more or less, lacks feelings. The outcome of our survey makes it clear that these textbooks do not respond to the equal rights and opportunities of the sexes that the curriculum demands.

The aim of the study was to develop an understanding of how adolescent South African girls in institutional care perceive their female gender role, in the past, the present and future. The research question was: How do adolescent girls living in institutional care in South Africa perceive their female gender role in the past, the present and future? A mixed design, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, was used in order to answer the research question. The quantitative part of the study consisted of a questionnaire, and the qualitative part of the study contained seven interviews. To interpret the analyzed data a theoretical framework was used, consisting of the theory of social constructionism and gender theory. The final result of the quantitative and the quantitative parts of the study showed that the perception of the female gender role among the respondents is more stereotyped/ traditional when it comes to the area of relationships and sexuality, but more equal in the field of future occupation and the professional role. The result shows that a majority of the respondents have one view of gender roles in general, a more traditional picture of how things are supposed to be, and another, less conservative when they express their own desires of how they want their future life and household.

One major question in the area of Feminist Media Studies is to analyze the stereotypical female role portrayals in media. Researchers in this area have examined diverse media including television, radio, films, textbooks, literature and so on. Empirical evidence provided by these studies shows that women in media are often underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed in traditional roles such as housewives or mothers associated with feminine values, such as dependent, submissive, and passive. Using content analysis and semiotic analysis, this study is designed to examine the portrayals of female roles in a sample of contemporary (1949-2010) Chinese films. Content analysis is employed to examine how women have been portrayed in films, with the primary focus on the frequency of three types of female roles including (1) traditional roles, (2) modern role, and (3) ideal role. Results suggest that during this long period of time, representations and constructions of women in films have shifted from promotion of gender equality, to diminishing and erasing gender difference, and finally regressed to confining them to traditional roles while emphasizing traditional feminine values and expectations. In using semiotic analysis, this research is able to outline the connotative meanings of the female characters as well as the implicit cultural values and messages of gender that are embedded in films. On this cultural analysis, the findings reveal that female role portrayals in films, which are influenced by political, cultural, and social changes, remained associated with traditional feminine stereotypes, values, and expectations.

This study presents an account of experiences of recent immigrant women professionals in negotiating labour market opportunities after arriving in Canada. The purpose of this research is to bring in immigrant women’s perspectives on immigration and employment study. Six immigrant women professionals from different cultural backgrounds were interviewed within the framework of qualitative research. Informed by feminist theories, this study intended to make women’s experience in post-arrival integration and settlement more visible and prominent. Research findings indicate both labour market and household factors contributed to shape the labour market experience of immigrant women professionals of recent years. Their experiences reveal the complicated social relations of their doubly burdened and triply oppressed location.

This thesis is a feminist interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s treatment of Shakespeare in Orlando and A Room of One’s Own. Although Woolf’s admiration of Shakespeare is evident in both texts, Woolf’s identification of Shakespeare as a gender-neutral or feminist-friendly writer must be qualified. Woolf presents Shakespeare as a worthy but incomplete artistic model, for his work does not explore women with adequate complexity. In these texts, Woolf partially “writes with” Shakespeare, but she also uses his literary works and his status as a cultural icon both to critique the conventional treatment of women as limited by the male perspective and to highlight the gender privilege male writers have historically had. In these two texts, Woolf presses beyond what she perceives to be Shakespeare’s limited exploration of women, ultimately calling for a feminist re-evaluation of gender roles in literature and emphasizing the need for women writers to record women’s experiences.