This study examines the mutually constitutive relationship between the print culture of the late nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire and the framework of social, cultural and political transformations in which that culture operated. This study crosses traditional disciplinary lines between literary studies and intellectual history by arguing for the modification of one of the central premises of modernization theory: the existence of an overtly masculine political public sphere standing in contrast to a supposedly nonpolitical feminine domestic and private sphere. By examining newspapers, magazines, journals, and novels, which reflected the emergence of communities of readers, I show that the print culture became central to the mediation and diffusion of themes in public discourse; and furthermore, I show that it diminished the separation between the public and private spheres as it penetrated into the domestic space and was used to insert issues from the private sphere into the public domain. Arguing that Ottoman intellectuals saw the novel as an instrument to disseminate their political, social, and cultural agendas, I examine Henüz On Yedi Yaşında (Only Seventeen Years Old; 1882) by Ahmet Mithat Efendi, focusing on how gender, ethnicity, and sexuality in early Turkish novels were imagined and represented. Based on my research in Ottoman and Turkish archives between 2004 and 2006, I show how women’s journals ensured the visibility of Ottoman women as writers in the public sphere. Women’s journals established a real intellectual community of women writers and readers who between them overtly introduced a feminist agenda into the public sphere. As part of my project of recovering the cultural work women's novels did within the political arena of nineteenth century Ottoman society, I also discuss the forgotten life and works Fatma Aliye Hanım, one of the first Ottoman woman novelists, analyzing two of her novels, Muhâdarât (1891-92) and Refet (1897). Finally, I explore the reasons why several Ottoman women writers were forgotten after the establishment of the Turkish Republic and why they are not included in the Turkish literary canon today. / text

This thesis examines how teachers in physical education work with gender and gender roles in two religious schools in Stockholm. My main research questions were how the teachers relate to gender roles, if they think of gender when planning the lessons and do the boys or the girls get more attention from the teacher, if so, how do they get it? This study is based on interviews and observations, which makes it a qualitative study. The P. E. teachers in my study work in two religious schools. Two of them work at a Muslim school where segregated education exists, which means that boys and girls don’t have physical education classes together. The third teacher works at a Christian school that has co-education. The main theory in my study is that gender is socially created by humans. Masculinity and femininity are created when people are in integration with each other. The conclusions in my study are that the teachers relate to gender roles in different ways. All teachers find it difficult to work with gender in an active way, which means that this is something that’s not given priority during the lesson. By my analysis, I have also found that teachers to some extent follow the curriculum requirements for overcoming gender roles, but the lack of awareness from the teachers can actually lead to the reinforcement of gender roles. All the teachers in my study would like to have some form of training or practical exercises that they can improve their skills in becoming more aware of working with gender. The teachers therefore share awareness that they could be better. I can also say from my empirical evidence that teachers in my study did not prioritize gender in their planning of the lesson. During my observations in the Muslim school I found it a bit difficult to see whether the girls or the boys got more attention from the teacher. I noticed, however, that girls more often received more praise from both teachers B and C, than boys did in teacher A and C’s lessons. I felt, however, in teacher C’s lessons in the Christian school, girls received more praise from the teacher and more attention by the way he spoke to them.

Failed Feminism?: Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel Tehanu 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. 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.

This study explores eight young people’s perception of the gender roles in Zambia, Lusaka. In this study I have asked the informants to define the genders and the result were that the genders are defined based on the biological sexes. The genders therefore become homogenous based on the male and female sex. The regulations of the genders were traditionally also based on assumed ‘biologically natural characteristics’. As I argue in this study that gender roles are social constructed I also present the socialization processes in the Zambian culture regarding initiation ceremonies and premarital ceremonies, which visualizes the regulations of the gender roles and the importance of marriages as it implies social status and identity. The young informants’ perception of the gender roles was based on a complex intermixture between the cultural norms, the Western influences and their own life experiences. This means that Zambian society is changing in response to external as well as internal influences and that globalization both facilitates change and may create problems, as different values and norms collide. The informants recognized a need of change in the perception of the gender roles due to the issues that the gender hierarchy contributes to. This study also discusses the fact that cultural norms causes lack of knowledge about sexual issues, which have devastating consequences. The informants argued that the cultural perception of a man as superior and the woman as inferior caused gender based violence, domestic violence and the HIV-epidemic to continue. Based on the informants awareness that many of the social challenges exist because of the patriarchal norms in society I argue that this awareness indicates that a change is in progress.

The picture book is the children's first contact with the world of literature. The aim of our study is to look at how children and adults are portrayed in the picture book, from a gender perspective. Our aim is to critically examine how girls and boys, men and women are presented when it comes to both characteristics and appearance. Our research also focuses on how the text and images complete each other and we conduct a qualitative text and image analysis. We use Nikolajevas (2000) analytical model for picture books and previous research that already exists within the subject. In our paper we have clarified the concepts related to gender: gender, gender roles, gender equality and the picture book. We have also emphasized and described which gender patterns are found in each book. In order to obtain our results, we have examined three picture books that were published during the 2000s. Based on the analysis, we discovered that there are still stereotypical roles in the books. This also counts for the environment, clothes and accessories of the characters in the books. In all three books, however, we could also see some gender awareness and the willingness to question clear gender patterns.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka eventuella samband mellan inkomstfördelning samt utbildning och attityd gentemot delad föräldraledighet. Vidare blev denna problemformulering vital, då den även befrämjade möjligheten att titta på hur attityden gentemot delad föräldraledighet inverkar på synen av könsroller i ett hushåll. Undersökningen bygger på en enkät kring familjeliv och arbete, som har utförts av Sociologiska Institutionen vid Umeå universitet, och sammanförts av ISSP 2012 (International Social Survey Program). Studien grundar sig i en univariat analys som beskriver variablernas frekvensfördelningar, och därefter testas eventuella samband genom bivariat och multivariat analys. Det teoretiska ramverket där begrepp såsom könsroller, resurser och kapital inbegrips, blir på senare hand studiens analytiska verktyg. Resultatet påvisar att det föreligger ett positivt samband mellan inkomstfördelning, utbildning och attityd gentemot delad föräldraledighet. Det visar sig att man i hushåll där mannen tjänar mer, förhåller sig traditionellt på så sätt att man anser att föräldraledigheten endast bör tas ut av kvinnan. Vidare påvisar resultat att de med hög utbildning, i jämförelse med de som endast innehar gymnasial alternativt lägre utbildning, anser att föräldraledigheten bör delas upp jämlikt. Detta påvisar även ytterligare ett positivt samband i hur attityden gentemot delad föräldraledighet återspeglar synen på könsroller och därmed synen på jämställdhet. En traditionell inställning gentemot delad föräldraledighet återspeglar en syn på hur man anser att kvinnan bör ta hand om barn, och mannen försörja familjen.

Infertility affects 1 in 8 couples and the literature discusses the emotional effects infertility has on an individual. One option for infertility is to attempt medical interventions and the literature in the field does not explain why some people attempt more interventions than others. Using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), Cycle 6, this quantitative study aims to understand the relationship between traditional gender roles and values and the attempted number of medical interventions by individuals within a relationship experiencing infertility. The results from this study indicate that both males and females that are in relationship experiencing infertility are more likely to attempt medical interventions when they highly value the meaning of family, rather than their views on traditional gender roles and values for men and women.

Abstract Beliefs about which behaviors and responsibilities should typical be assumed by women and men are central in shaping gender relations and gender equality in society. The belief that women should be responsible for domestic work, while men should provide economically for the family gives rise to an uneven opportunity structure, situating women in a disadvantaged position compared to men. In order to achieve gender equality traditional gender role attitudes need to liberalize. This thesis examines who supports non-traditional gender roles in Sweden. Data representative of the Swedish population between the ages of 18-79 were used to explore the relationship between social context and individual self-interest and gender role attitudes. The results showed that women are more likely to be positive towards non-traditional gender roles if they are situated in highly educated social contexts. Conversely, men were found to be more likely to be positive if situated in gender equal contexts. This indicates that men’s beliefs regarding what is appropriate for women might be countered by women in gender equal contexts, while women may find confirmation regarding their non-traditional gender role attitude in other equally liberal women.

The aim of this study is to investigate how 20 children discusses norm breaking based on a children’s book with a focus on following questions: How do the children discuss norms based on the children’s book? Are there differences in opinions and comments between children with Swedish as their first language and children with Swedish as a second language, and if so, which ones? The investigation is based on four discussions of children’s literature, which are a method Chambers (2004) means enable the children to put their thoughts and feelings about the book into words. The theoretical frame of the study is founded on post-structuralism feminism and particularly Butler (Ambjörnsson, 2010) and Davies (2003) theories about gender and gender roles. The investigation shows, among other things, that the children are basing their discussions on the norms accepted by the society. But it also shows that there are differences in the way that the children with Swedish as a first language and Swedish as a second language discusses norm breaking.

This essay focuses on the pictures in mathematics books for elementary school. The purpose was to see if images in mathematics books for elementary school show traditional gender roles. The aim of the essay has been broken down into following research questions: Vilka färger förknippar de olika matematikböckerna till pojkar/män respektive flickor/kvinnor? How many times were girls/women and boys/men illustrated in the mathematics books? What behavior is associated with masculinity and femininity? Which colours are associated with boys/men and girls/women in the mathematics books? I used a semiotic image analysis method to study the pictures presented in the mathematics books. The theories in this essay were used to see how society makes girls become girls and boys become boys and in what ways the genders are portrayed in relation to each other. In addition, the theories include the question of whether a specific colour is given to a specific gender? The analysis evidently confirmed that the images in the mathematics books demonstrated traditional gender roles. There was evident proof that the behavior of both boys/men and girls/women showed distinct features of the traditional gender roles. However, boys/men were more likely to stay in their traditional gender roles in terms of the colours of their clothes than the girls/women did.