Although Child and Youth Care research and pedagogy is committed to diversity, as yet this field has produced very little research that specifically focuses on supporting children and youth who do not identify with cis/heteronormative standards of gender. Further, despite that recent media attention to trans issues and gender diversity has sparked questions concerning how issues of gender are approached in practice, there continues to be a distinct lack of consensus on how best to talk about these issues, how to define gender, and how to approach these issues in practice. Through combining Situational Analysis (Clarke, 2005) with aspects of Relativity Theory this thesis makes a contribution towards filling the existing gap in the research. This study provides a descriptive exploration into the many ways language is being utilized by young people to shape, evoke, and construct the diverse understandings of what gender means in their lives by analyzing data gathered through the social media platform, Tumblr. This inquiry shows that these young people create unique terminology to describe, discuss, define and share their engagement with gender categories and identities. The findings of this study suggest that a creative, nuanced, and flexible understanding of the ways in which the language and terminology shape and influences how gender is lived and then discussed within specific contexts both on- and offline, will greatly assist practitioners to support youth with this highly complex topic. / Graduate

This thesis deals with the proportion of women on the boards of the companies listed on the PSE. It is researched whether men and women are equally represented. The European Commission suggests 40 % of women on the boards. There is presented the composition of the boards of directors or the supervisory boards and the management boards by the end of 2009 and 2014. Then the development in these 5 years is evaluated.

Nosso objetivo foi conhecer as histórias de vida de estudantes universitárias que vivenciam a diversidade sexual, bem como identificar sua recepção pelos docentes, em sala de aula, com vistas a compreender o fenômeno contemporâneo da inclusão da diversidade sexual na Universidade. Desta forma, norteamos o desenvolvimento deste estudo a partir dos três eixos teóricos seguintes: Horizontes da compreensão de gênero e da diversidade sexual na contemporaneidade, A inclusão educacional da diversidade sexual e a Universidade, e O corpo, a fala, a sexualidade e a diversidade sexual na fenomenologia de Merleau-Ponty. Para realizar tal intento elegemos a metodologia qualitativa fenomenológica, ancorada nos pressupostos teóricos do filósofo Maurice Merleau-Ponty, e os/as colaboradores/as foram contatados/as segundo o procedimento Bola de neve (Snowball). Foram entrevistadas, no total, cinco estudantes, sendo: três transexuais, um intersexual e uma drag queen, e cinco docentes, um homem e quatro mulheres, que tiveram, ou têm, em suas turmas, estudantes que vivenciam a diversidade sexual. Nos relatos de todas as colaboradoras estudantes emergiram 5 categorias: Nos horizontes da família; A trajetória escolar: do ensino fundamental ao médio; Nos horizontes da Universidade; e Projeto de vida. De forma singular, nos relatos das estudantes transexuais emergiu a categoria: Mundo-vida transexual; para a estudante intersexual emergiu a categoria Mundo-vida Intersexual; e, no relato da estudante drag queen emergiu a categoria Mundo-vida Drag queen. E para os/as docentes emergiram 4 categorias: O corpo percebido; A diversidade sexual e de gênero na Universidade; Nos horizontes da docência, e Intersubjetividade e consciência. Os relatos de nossas colaboradoras e seus/suas docentes revelam que os mundos-vidas destas estudantes são imersos em estigmas e sofrimentos. Muitos são os desafios a serem enfrentados para uma efetiva educação inclusiva para a diversidade sexual e de gênero. As transformações precisam atingir todas as instâncias do ensino, desde o ensino fundamental, passando pelo ensino médio para, enfim, alcançar o ensino superior / Our objective was to know the life histories of university students who experience sexual diversity as well as to find out how their teachers receive them in the classroom to understand the contemporary phenomenon of the inclusion of sexual diversity in the University. In this way, we orient the development of this study from the following three theoretical axes: \"Horizons of the understanding of gender and sexual diversity in the contemporaneity\", \"The educational inclusion of sexual diversity and the University, and\" The body, speech and sexuality in Merleau-Ponty\'s phenomenology.\" In order to carry out such an attempt, we chose the phenomenological qualitative methodology, under Merleau-Pontys theoretical assumptions. The collaborators were contacted according to the procedure Snowball. A total of five students were interviewed: three transsexuals, one intersexual and one drag queen, and five teachers, one man and four women, who have had, or have, students in their classes who experience sexual diversity. In the reports of all the collaborating students it has arisen 5 categories: In the horizons of the family; The school trajectory: from elementary to middle school; In the horizons of the University; and Life project. In a unique way, in the transsexual students\' reports emerged the category: World-transsexual life; for the intersexual student emerged the category Intersexual World-Life; and in the report of the student drag queen emerged the category World-life Drag Queen. And for the teachers emerged 4 categories: The perceived body; Sexual and gender diversity in the University; In the horizons of teaching, and intersubjectivity and consciousness. The reports of our collaborators and their teachers reveal that the world-lives of these students are immersed in stigma and suffering. There are many challenges to effective inclusive education for sexual and gender diversity. Transformations need to reach all levels of education, from elementary school, through high school and, finally, to higher education

Trots att industrin står för hela 20 % av den totala sysselsättningen i Sverige, utgörs 80 % av branschens anställda av män. I denna kvalitativa studie av det multinationella företaget Stora Enso, undersöktes företagets arbete med Gender Diversity Management på marknader med olika typer av nationell kultur. Teorier som berör International Human Resource Management, Gender Diversity Management och nationell kultur utgör studiens teoretiska referensram. Fem intervjuer har genomförts med informanter från Stora Ensos olika avdelningar. Studien visade att Stora Enso har en del lokala policys gällande GDM, men att detta bör arbetas mer konkret med på central nivå, då de anställda upplevde att företaget i vissa avseenden brast inom ämnet. Då det fanns både fördelar och nackdelar med Stora Ensos arbete med GDM på såväl hemmamarknaderna som värdmarknaden finns det inga tydliga indikationer på att olika typer av nationell kultur har varit avgörande för företagets möjlighet att bedriva GDM.

77 Abstract Obligatory representation of women on corporate boards The main topic of this master thesis deals with obligatory women representation on boards of stock listed companies from the theoretical point of view with focus on European and Czech legislation. Women are under-represented in this area for a long time, which not only violates the basic human rights principle regarding gender equality, but also does not use the available human resources and thus wastes talent. The second chapter first describes the development of EU law in relation to positive measures that can justify a higher participation of women in the bodies of business corporations in relation to the principle of non-discrimination, mentioning the most important case law of the ECJ. Than is also mentioned the possibility of positive measures in Czech legislation. The second chapter also mentions the economic aspects of women's representation on boards in the sense that the presence of women can influence the body and thus the whole corporation. The third chapter describes the means by which women's participation in corporate bodies can be increased, what goals can be achieved and what sanctions can be imposed in case of non-compliance with the set goals. The arguments for and against the introduction of legal quotas are also...

Purpose: This thesis aims to explain the relationship between board gender diversity, measured as the proportion of women on boards and different board categories, and firm financial performance.  Methodology: This study was conducted through a quantitative method with a deductive and cross-sectional approach. It aims to explain the relationship between the independent variable board gender diversity and the dependent variable firm financial performance through the measures of return on equity, return on assets, and Tobin’s Q. Data were collected from annual reports of all firms, excluding banks, listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange on small, mid, and large-cap for 2014 and 2020. The data were analysed through t-tests, Spearman’s rho, and ordinary least squares regressions with the control variables board size, firm size, industry, and financial year.  Theoretical perspective: Several different theories were used for hypothesis formulation and for interpreting the findings, which were: critical mass, upper echelons theory, human/social capital theory, and agency theory. Findings: The findings of this study indicate that there exists a positive relationship between board gender diversity and return on assets and return on equity. The largest difference in performance seems to be between the groups that have reached at least a threshold of 30% of the underrepresented gender and those that have not. Further, boards with no women had the worst return on assets. The results are not consistent between different tests or performance measures; however, the conclusion could be drawn that board gender diversity does not affect firm financial performance negatively.

The entrepreneurial team plays a crucial part in the new venture’s growth and success. This notion is present among many investors as they often choose to bet on the “jockey” (i.e. the team) instead of on the “horse” (i.e. the idea). Previous research has pointed to how diverse teams are better equipped to handle the complex practices a new venture is faced with, compared to homogeneous teams. The entrepreneurial environment has a prevalent gender inequality that hinders many women from entering and contributing to the industry. The purpose of this research was therefore to investigate what hinders and supports the formation and upholding of gender diverse teams. The study was written on commission for a Swedish incubator which led to an approach exploring how an incubator can influence and contribute to establishing these teams. Based on a literature review, the study chose an explorative and qualitative approach to answer the research questions as it was found that this area was relatively unexplored and contained little research on how to form and uphold gender diverse teams, especially in the Swedish incubator context. Data was collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with three different types of samples. These were the commissioner (i.e. the incubator team), incubatees (i.e. new venture teams of different compositions), and a few external actors within the Swedish incubator environment.  The findings pointed to that there are several more obstacles towards forming and upholding gender diverse teams than factors supporting it. More obstacles were found in terms of forming these teams and they related to entrepreneurs experiencing a lack of knowledge on how to find the right members with complementary skills. Contextual factors also affect the possibility to adopt an appropriate strategy to find team members. An inherent fear of bringing in someone new was also present among entrepreneurs. There is an absence of female role models which increases the difficulty and gap between men and women as the step becomes even larger for women to enter and succeed in the entrepreneurial environment. In terms of upholding gender diverse teams, conflict due to experienced personal differences and more challenging communication is common and can negatively affect the venture if not managed properly. Gender roles and stereotypes also have a negative impact. On the other hand, some supportive measures were also identified. In regards to team formation, resource seeking was a better option than interpersonal relationships when it came to forming a gender diverse team. Additionally, the increased demand for diversity among several actors like state agencies, incubators, and investors further pushes new ventures to form gender diverse teams. Among the incubatees, a shared outlook of wanting greater diversity and recognizing what it contributes with, shared motives, values, and expectations further supported the upholding of gender diverse teams. Other supportive measures were creating ownership directives and shareholder agreements as well as having complementary competencies, good communication, cohesion, and cognition. Further supportive measures an incubator can adopt related to strategy, networks, and placing initial demands on new ventures.

This study investigates if the proportion of women on Board of Directors (BOD) and Top Management Teams (TMT) in Swedish listed firms affect the financial performance. Using a sample of 1,432 firm-year observations for firms listed at Nasdaq Stockholm during the years 2012-2019, the study estimates multiple regressions to investigate the association between proportion of women on BODs and TMTs and firms’ financial performance, measured as ROA, ROE and Tobin’s Q. Using an interaction variable, the study also investigates if female representation in TMT affects the association between BOD gender diversity and financial performance. Furthermore, in line with critical mass theory, the study investigates whether there is a specific threshold of female representation that needs to be achieved for the performance effect to occur. The study’s results provide some evidence for a positive association between proportion of women on BOD and financial performance, but only possible indications for a negative effect of proportion of women in TMTs and financial performance. No support is found for the interaction effect. The positive impact of female representation on BOD and TMT does not seem to depend on any critical mass threshold. The study contributes with a new perspective on how gender diversity on several firm levels affects the financial performance.

In this thesis the relation between gender diversity and innovation in technology and manufacturing companies is explored. Data on firm-level are used from The Enterprise Surveys of the World Bank, which are designed as a panel data survey and comprise a collection of data on 146,000 firms in 143 countries, from years 2006 to 2019. Our focus group is technology and manufacturing firms, therefore, the final data used comprises of 8,839 firms in 47 countries for the year 2013 to investigate whether gender diversity is positively related to innovation of technology and manufacturing firms. Binary logistic regression analysis is used due to the nature of the available data measuring innovation output, which is the survey answer whether a firm introduced a new product/process or not. There are controversies in current research findings caused by the classification of incremental and radical innovation, therefore, this thesis takes an inclusive approach that accounts for total innovation (both incremental and radical). We also assess the total innovation in terms of new products and processes. Gender diversity is measured as total gender diversity of the permanent full-time employees and also on top management level. We also control for industry type, firm size, firm structure, firm’s export activity, R&D investment and employee training. The results show that there are currently low levels of gender inclusion on various firm levels globally. The regression analysis shows that only female presence on top management level made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model, and not total gender diversity on employee level. Regarding the control variables, only firm size, having invested in R&D, and offering employee training made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model. Conclusively, we found that gender diversity on top management level is positively related to innovation performance of technology and manufacturing firms, but not on employee level. However, due to the nature of panel data surveys when it is not possible to lag the cause with respect to the effect, a ‟cause-effect” relationship cannot be deduced with confidence. Nevertheless, our results are in line with the existing theory which indicates that gender diversity on leadership level may have a small but positive effect on achieving firm goals and innovative ideas-decisions-strategies. An explanation why we did not find a positive relationship on employee level can be the fact that during the innovation process the role of individuals and thus gender is invisible - hidden within processes, organizations, systems and there is lack of separating creativity from implementation; employee diversity might improve the creative process but impede the implementation. It is probably easier to assess the role of individuals on top management level and compare the effect of different leadership styles across companies. For external observers this assessment seems more complicated on employee level, thus the benefits of gender diversity even on employee level should not be underestimated. Therefore, more gender diversified quota and policies may need to be taken by decision makers with potentially positive impact both on society and economy. The relationship between innovation and gender diversity is a rather complex subject, affected by many internal and external firm contexts. By accounting for control variables including firm size, structure, export activity, R&D investment, employee training and industry type, some possible causal factors are eliminated. As prior research has already indicated, other factors that have not been addressed yet (and not covered by our framework either) are firm level structures, capabilities, innovation strategies, management style, team structure-functional diversity.

The debt-to-equity ratio is useful for showing a company ́s financial capacity. As a result of the accompanying risks that a high level of leverage entails, most companies strive to be financed by equity as much as possible. However, tax benefits obtained through debt financing add complexity to the issue as a trade-off between risk and reward should be carefully considered. Previous empirical literature has shown that there is a relationship between the composition of the board, the gender of the CEO and the company’s capital structure.  The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the relationship between the composition of the board and the CEO’s gender as well as the company’s capital structure in Swedish listed companies of Large, Mid and Small Cap between the years 2016 – 2020. This is done through a quantitative method where secondary data is analyzed through a multiple regression analysis. The result shows that there is no statistically significant relationship between the composition of the board and the company’s debt-to-equity ratio, while there is a negative statistically significant relationship between the CEO’s gender and the company’s debt-to-equity ratio. This leads to one of the study’s two hypotheses being rejected while the other hypothesis is accepted.