The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine how gender is produced in a contemporary technological sphere. I am examining a department called MST within the School of Electrical Engineering at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) primarily by focus group interviews and in depth interviews with a doing gender perspective. I also carry out participant observations for additional background information. I argue from a gender studies perspective that KTH as a technological institution and workplace is reproducing ideals that confirms men as norm. Furthermore, I suggest that the technical sphere and historically traditional (male) gendered environment that which KTH represents, embodies and reproduces, makes it more challenging for female PhD-students to compete against their male counterparts when it comes to gaining recognition than it is vice versa. I am studying the awareness of gender norms in a technical milieu as well as thoughts about the daily negotiations and biased representations of gender on postgraduate/research level among the female PhD-students at MST. Moreover, I suggest that there are certain connotations with and cultural conceptions of what it means to be and to work as an engineer.

This report is the outcome of a case study conducted in Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2016. The purpose of the study is to investigate in the consequences of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, from the perspective of women within socioeconomically vulnerable groups. The caste system is still practiced nearly all over Nepal and women are still facing multiple forms of discrimination. A woman belonging to the Dalits, which is the group considered to be at the bottom of the hierarchy and below the castes, have no right to control land, housing or money and are exposed to violence and forced sexual labour. The aim of the study is to shed light over how already existing discrimination leads to further examples of discrimination in the aftermath of a natural disaster and the “class-consciousness” of natural disasters. People within a society are living under different conditions and these conditions lead to different consequences when facing a natural disaster. The components of these conditions are often intertwined with each other and should therefore not be examined separately, which is why an intersectional perspective is used for this study. Furthermore, standpoint theory is used as well, to look at these issues from the viewpoint of the marginalized people of the society. Interviews were made with 6 different respondents, who are working for NGOs in and outside of Kathmandu and who through their work are coming on contact with the issues mentioned. My findings show several examples of post-earthquake consequences for women which can be linked to the strong patriarchy, the use of caste system and mistreatment from the government.

Abstract The public space is often perceived as more unsafe for women than for men and it is therefore a question of gender equality. Opinions differ on how the public space should be changed to improve women’s feelings of security. This case aims to discuss the possibility to change the physical environment to create a safer public space for women. This study is a case study focusing on the so called Stationstunneln located on Järnvägstorget in Umeå municipality. Stationstunneln was inaugurated in 2012 and had the aim to increase both women and men´s perceived safety in the public space. The tunnel has with its shape, lighting etcetera, aimed to increase security. This is as mentioned a gender issue and the topic is important to be able to continue the work for a more equal society. The result of this study is based on six semi-structured interviews and has a qualitative approach. The interviews were conducted with six female respondents who all have a relation to Stationstunneln in Umeå municipality. Three of the respondents also had a relation to the previous tunnel located on Järnvägstorget called Hagatunneln. The interviews have been analyzed through thematic analysis. The results of the study demonstrate that light and people in motion is the key factors in what makes the respondents feel safe in public spaces. All of the respondents agreed that Stationstunneln compared to Hagatunneln was seen as bright and had people in motion and that was some of the reasons why they felt safe in Stationstunneln. They also thought the place felt welcoming and safe when it comes to the trafic which also made them feel safe in and around the tunnel. However, many of the respondents said that they didn´t feel safe in and around the tunnel during the evenings because of the people occupying themself there at night. Overall, the respondents agreed that the design was important for their perceived safety in the public space. Keywords: Public space, safety, women, physical environment, tunnel, gender equality.

This study researches how communication provided by supervisors working in homes for unaccompanied refugee children about gender equality, sex and sexuality should be conducted and executed for children acclimating to Sweden. This studied topic was founded in the desire expressed by RFSU to demand sexual education for unaccompanied refugee children coming to Sweden. This desire was expressed after unaccompanied refugee boys were discovered to have sexually abused and harassed a number of girls during a youth festival in Stockholm. RFSU, and the president for the Unaccompanied Children’s Union in Sweden, brought to the attention that the cultural backgrounds URC commonly have differ from the Swedish culture concerning gender equality and sexuality. Thus, the issue with communication about gender equality, sex and sexuality intended for unaccompanied refugee children is that it needs to be befitting and susceptible to them according to their usual and previous context.  The method used in this study was to implement a qualitative research method of phenomenological nature. Data were mainly accrued through a questionnaire that was answered by supervisors that currently work with unaccompanied refugee children. These answers provided with an understanding, together with the compiled frame of reference, of how to befittingly and susceptibly communicate about gender equality, sex and sexuality with unaccompanied refugee children acclimating to Sweden. Keep in mind, not all unaccompanied refugee children who come to Sweden are in fact refugees. However, to distinguish these children who come from other countries from other children in general, the choice was made to continue calling them unaccompanied refugee children throughout this study.    The conclusions drawn from the result of this study ended up being four. The first is that not all unaccompanied refugee children are alike, and can therefore not be seen as one identical target group. The second is that unaccompanied refugee children’s previous cultural and religious contexts, with their previous experiences about gender equality, sex and sexuality, need to be considered, along with the suitability of how to execute such information. The third conclusion is to naturally, and clearly, discuss and debate on a regular basis with a suitable supervisor. The fourth is that media, for instance pornography, can provide misguided and biased information. The practical recommendations that these conclusions resulted in are also four, and are as follows; 1) to create multiple communication materials as to satisfy most children’s needs and attitudes, 2) to learn about URC’s previous cultural and religious contexts, and their previous experiences, and have different suitable information sessions based on the needed level of privacy, 3) to discuss and debate gender equality, sex and sexuality on a regular basis in a natural setting through a suitable supervisor, and 4) to include media, especially pornography, when discussing and debating about gender equality, sex and sexuality.

The purpose of my study is to find out how preschool teachers reason concerning their work withgender equality from outside of the curriculum. I propose the following questions: If there is apositive view over the relevance of gender equality from outside of the curriculum? Does thepreschool teachers think themselves to work with gender equality from outside of the curriculum?Does the preschool teachers have any thoughts on whether working with gender equality will have apositive or negative effect on the children? In what way does the preschool teachers reason on theirown meetings with boys and girls? The method chose to use is a qualitative study that is based oninterviews. I have interviewed four preschool teachers in a small society called Katrineholm. Afterthe interviews I have analyzed the material and split it into themes that has been processed. Mytheoretical approach to analyze the empirical data in this study is gender theories and powerperspectives. A gender perspective is based on the belief that men and women, boys and girls are asociological creation by man and something we can change to create balance in the world. Powerperspectives are crucial in this debate, since its based on women wanting as much power as men.The conclusion reached in this study is that when it comes to gender equality from outside of thecurriculum the preschool teachers need a lot of support. The curriculum states the importance of ourcommitment to change the schools to a more equal context/environment between boys and girls.Not one of the three preschools in this study have an active work concerning the subject. Thismeans that despite research is moving forward and the curriculum is being changed as such, it hasnot yet established in real life. One of the problems that presented itself was the preschool teachersattitudes towards the curriculum and its context. Torn views made my material harder to analyze butfacts remained the same. There is not enough time given and interest taken to work according to thecurriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender equality in Mpasa Community in Malawi by measuring the access to work, education, health, and political empowerment as measurements. An investigation of how the pre-colonial social structure, based on matriarchy, will determine to what extent the cultural factors affects gender equality. This thesis is based on observations made possible through a minor field study scholarship financed by SIDA in 2013. Previous research and theories are used as framework for the thesis. The Malawian Parliament, consisting of mainly men, passing a gender equality bill hoping to empower women and increase female political representation is evidence of willingness to improve the current living situation of women and girls. It turns out the degree of gender equality is high for such an underdeveloped country as Malawi and the cultural factors do have a big impact on the political development. Inequality does occur in the field of political participation investigated at chief level in the district and matriarchy seems to be the underlying social structure that sets the norms and rules.

Only when the servant or wife is abruptly removed from the household and the well-oiled wheels of domestic machinery grind to a halt does the superior realize just how important such services really are. This quote shows how important domestic services are, it also points out who executes it and that society and people, at least the superior, tend to take it for granted. The quote also gives a hint to the aim of this study which is to analyze the arguments behind the policy proposal presented in Promemorian Skattelättnader för hushållstjänster from 2006. The study focuses on the social problems behind the policy proposal and if there were problems left unproblematized. Another aim is to study if assumptions on gender and class can be seen in the policy proposal. Two methods have been used; primarily argumentation, but to some extent (theoretically) also Carol Lee Bacchi’s approach ”what’s the problem represented to be?”. Bacchi’s approach is useful because the presented solutions to a problem depend on the representation of problems and how they are formulated. The results show, among other things, that the interpretation of women’s role in household and society, which also contain a representation of problems, line up the solutions of the problems. They also show that gender equality, as well as gender and class, has been left unproblematized in the policy proposal.

Fältstudiens syfte har varit att analysera och beskriva jämställdhets effekter på den unga generationen i dagens Rwanda. Min uppsats utfördes med en kvalitativ ansats där intervjuer har varit centrala som metod för att samla in mitt material och data. Jag har intervjuat unga vuxna kvinnor som är entreprenör eller i ledare position. Mitt resultat erhålls genom deras berättelser och upplevelser om jämställdheten i Rwanda.  Rwanda har haft en stor representation av kvinnor i parlamentet vilket har i sin tur påverkat dessa unga kvinnor. Genom mina intervjuer har jag kommit fram till att Kvinnor i Rwanda tar mer plats som aldrig förr. Sammanfattningsvis har Rwanda gjort en stor skillnad för deras kvinnor. Den stora representationen av kvinnor i höga positioner har haft en bra inverkan på nästa generation och har inspirerat dem att drömma stort. Även om Rwanda har kommit långt när det gäller jämställdhet, utmaningar finns fortfarande och hela arbetet är inte gjort.

<p>UN is a non-governmental organization which should promote gender equality within the organization. It is an organization which is based on human rights and claims that in order to solve the problem of poverty, famine and development we need to promote women’s status. In Sweden there is a strong tradition of gender balanced representation at the governmental level and this perspective raise the question if there is a spill-over effect to the civil society as in the case of a non-governmental organization. This makes it interesting to look at if a non-governmental organization which is not under state control work for gender equality within their own organization. What does the gender equality pattern look like in a sphere that is not controlled by the government? Does it work by itself? The main purpose of this thesis is therefore to examine opinions about the gender balance within the Swedish UN-movement.</p><p> In order to understand and analyse the gender equality context within UN, interwievs with chairmens for each UN-district in Sweden was conducted and it was found that there was no active promotion of this issue within the organization. Instead, the survey showed that the promotion of gender equality issues was directed towards other societys. To a certain extent it was also shown that women’s understanding of UN as a gender equal organization was less prominent than men’s understanding. This thesis concluded therefore that gender equality does not work by itself in the civil sphere. Instead, it seems as if work for gender balance needs directive and control from the government in order to function. </p><p>Key words: Gender equality, FN, feminism, politics of presence, non-governmental organizations.</p>

<p>The purpose of this essay is to investigate and analyze the term diversity in five Swedish municipality’s combined gender equality- and diversity plans. The purpose is also to investigate who or whom of the employers that are included in the term diversity and if gender equality is included in the diversity work. The material is analyzed on the basis of theory of intersectionality and discourse analysis. The outcome of the analysis indicates that the municipalities use the term diversity in many different ways in the combined gender equality- and diversity plans. The municipalities usually use the term diversity for all of the employers and all groups of people are included in the work with diversity. Gender is included in the term diversity but gender quality work is often not included in the diversity work. In this essay the term diversity seem to be a difficult term for the municipalities to use and they often uses the term in different contexts.</p>