Stereotypical gender roles have probably existed as long as human culture and are such a natural part if our lives that we barely take notice of them. Nevertheless, images of what we perceive as typically masculine and feminine in appearance and behavior depend on the individual’s perception. Within each gender one can find different stereotypes. A commonly assumed idea is that men are hard tough, while women are soft and vulnerable. I find it interesting hoe stereotypes function and how they are preserved almost without our awareness. Once I started reading and researching the topic of stereotypes it became clear to me that literature contains many stereotypes. The intension of this essay is to critically examine the stereotypical gender roles in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams in 1947. It is remarkable how the author portrays the three main characters: Stanley, Stella and Blanche. The sharp contracts and the dynamics between them are fascinating.

This qualitative study examines middle school teachers and their thoughts and attitudes when working with gender roles and equality – both in social studies, but also as a part of schools´ core values.    The purpose of the study is to show how this work is done, both through different examples and also through understanding how these teachers look at their responsibility as teachers regarding gender roles and equality. The empiric material of the study consists of five semi-structured interviews with middle school teachers. The participants of the study had various experiences of working as teachers, which contributed to making the results and analysis interesting since they work in such a similar way with gender equality in their classrooms.    The results show that all the participants work actively with gender roles and equality in different ways. The participants say that they can use current events and ongoing discussions in society as a foundation for this work. They all see the connection between the core content in the social studies syllabus and the school’s basic values.    However, the participants have different views on their responsibilities as social studies’ teachers in relation to other teachers. On one hand, three of the participants claim that their responsibility is bigger as they are meant to teach the conceptions and their meaning within their subject. On the other hand, two of the participants say that the most important part of working with equality and gender roles lies within the school’s basic principles, and that it is the responsibility of everyone working in school to follow them.                           Keywords: gender rules, gender equality, middle school teachers and science teachers / Den här kvalitativa studien undersöker mellanstadielärares syn på och tankar kring arbetet med könsroller och jämställhet i både samhällskunskap och skolans värdegrundsuppdrag. Syftet med studien är dels att belysa hur arbetet går till genom olika exempel och dels genom att förstå hur samhällskunskapslärare ser på sitt uppdrag. Fem semistrukturerade intervjuer med behöriga mellanstadielärare har gjort den här studien möjlig. Lärarna har olika antal verksamma år, vilket har gjort resultatet och analysen intressant då de arbetar på så pass liknade sätt med könsroller och jämställdhet i sina klassrum.    I resultatet framkommer att alla lärarna jobbar mycket med könsroller och jämställdhet, på olika sätt. De menar att de allmänna diskussionerna och aktuella händelserna är bra som underlag. Alla ser kopplingen mellan det centrala innehållet i samhällskunskap och skolans allmänna värdegrundsuppdrag. Lärarna ser något olika på sitt uppdrags omfattning i förhållande till alla som arbetar i skolan. Tre av respondenterna menar att deras uppdrag som samhällskunskapslärare är något större då de i sitt arbete även ska undervisa om begreppen könsroller och jämställdhet och dess innebörd. Två av respondenterna menar att det är de som lärare som visar eleverna hur vi är mot varandra som är det viktigaste, alltså det uppdraget som finns i värdegrundsuppdraget som alla som arbetar i skolan har.                                   Nyckelord: könsroller, genus, jämställdhet, mellanstadielärare och samhällskunskapslärare

Men’s underrepresentation in the female-dominated domains of healthcare, early education, and the domestic sphere, or HEED roles, remains a persistent problem despite the fact that such careers often afford more job security and wage growth than blue-collar work. A growing body of evidence suggests that their lack of participation in HEED roles is not merely due to a skills mismatch, but rather an identity mismatch. I hypothesized that using descriptive and injunctive norms to reframe a stereotypically feminine career as more compatible with manhood could effectively reduce this identity mismatch. More specifically, I predicted that using a dynamic descriptive norm framing that highlighted the growing number of men taking on a female-dominated career and an injunctive norm framing that highlighted its compatibility with men’s gender rules would increase men’s interest in the occupation. Furthermore, I believed that such framings would be particularly effective among men who are highly communal and those who do not strongly endorse traditional male role norms. To test my predictions, 342 men took part in an online study in which they were assigned to read a newspaper article about a HEED role, nursing, that was designed to manipulate the perceived prevalence of male nurses and the job’s compatibility with male gender rules. Then, they completed a variety of measures designed to assess their interest in and perceptions of nursing and other HEED careers. Minimal support was found for my hypotheses, and I discuss limitations and future directions to shed light on these null results.