This dissertation scrutinizes the problem domain of gender-knowledge integration into Swedish higher education study programs in informatics. This integration has been expressed as desirable by for example the Swedish government, individual universities and university colleges and the student union alike. In Swedish informatics study programs however, gender-knowledge seems to have been integrated to a limited extent and there is a dearth of research in this area as well. This indicates that gender-knowledge has so far only to a limited extent been recognized as important for Swedish informatics study programs. The purposes of this research is to 1) increase the insight of managers and developers of informatics study programs into the potential of gender-knowledge to enrich informatics as a subject; and to 2) inspire commitment and provide a means for the design of informatics study programs in which gender-knowledge is integrated. The overarching research question for this project is: What are the crucial challenges for a successful integration of gender-knowledge into Swedish informatics study programs? To address the overarching research question, several studies have been conducted through scrutinizing documents like articles, reports, evaluations and syllabuses, as well as listening to the accounts of experiences of the gender-knowledge integration process communicated by lecturers, PhD students and study program coordinators following a hermeneutic research approach. The results of these studies indicate that the process of integrating gender-knowledge is challenging and that there is a need of support for getting the process up and running. For this, a guide that identifies different important questions to be addressed related to challenge categories like knowledge, organization, pedagogical, and resistance has been developed. The knowledge challenge seems to be particularly challenging hence special attention is paid to the development of a basic theoretical gender-knowledge base that, along with some concrete examples on how the basic theoretical gender-knowledge base, could be integrated into areas of concern for informatics study programs. The different types of support suggested above should be considered food for thought and perhaps pointers of where to start looking. After all, only the local informatics community can integrate gender-knowledge into a study program in an enriching way thus making the systemically desirable culturally feasible.

There is an awareness of the importance of gender equality in most western societies, both at the political level and in everyday life. In academia, for instance, gender is nowadays a scientific field which indicates that there is a lot of knowledge about the subject. What we do not have much knowledge about is whether gender knowledge leads to changes in gender relations in practice. The aim of this study is to explore how gender scholars relate to using – practicing – gender knowledge. Key issues in this study are how gender scholars construct gender, how they practice gender theoretical knowledge, and their reflections of gender boundaries.             Theoretically, this study is mainly based on Sara Ahmed’s perspective on gender. The main finding of the study is that despite gender knowledge gender scholars tend to reproduce traditional gender orders. By identifying concepts such as reflected and unreflected masculinity/femininity, different ideals of masculinity/femininity are made visible. There seems to be an ideal among gender scholars to practice their gender knowledge. This ideal is practiced among “gender scholar women” by doing reflected masculinity and reflected femininity. Among “gender scholar men”, however, the ideal to practice gender knowledge by doing unreflected masculinity and reflected femininity seems to be a taboo at the same time. For men, it seems important to mark a distance to a certain type of femininity and to maintain the heterosexual – straight – line. For women, it seems desirable both to distance themselves from a certain type of masculinity and femininity and thereby follow alternative – queer – lines. / Stereotypa föreställningar om kön lever vidare i dagens samhälle, trots att det finns en medvetenhet om vikten av jämställdhet på politisk nivå och i vardagslivet. Det bedrivs även forskning om genusfrågor inom akademin. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur genusvetare förhåller sig till att använda – praktisera – genuskunskap. Centrala frågeställningar i uppsatsen är hur genusvetare ser på kön, hur de praktiserar genusteoretisk kunskap och vilka begränsningar och möjligheter som kommer till uttryck i intervjuerna.           Teoretiskt utgår uppsatsen huvudsakligen från Sara Ahmeds perspektiv på kön. Uppsatsens viktigaste resultat är att även genusvetare som har gedigen teoretisk kunskap tenderar att reproducera maktordningar om genus. Genom att identifiera begrepp som reflekterad och oreflekterad manlighet/kvinnlighet synliggörs olika ideal för manlighet och kvinnlighet. Det framstår vara ett ideal för genusvetarna att praktisera genuskunskap. För ”genusvetarkvinnorna” praktiseras idealet genom att använda reflekterad manlighet och reflekterad kvinnlighet. För ”genusvetarmännen” är idealet att praktisera oreflekterad manlighet och reflekterad kvinnlighet samtidigt tabu. För männens del verkar det viktigt att markera avstånd till en viss typ av kvinnlighet och upprätthålla den heterosexuella – straighta – linjen. För kvinnorna framstår det eftersträvansvärt att både ta avstånd från en viss typ av manlighet respektive kvinnlighet och följa alternativa – queera – linjer.

In consequence of the economic restructuring of universities the issue of equality programme implementation to boost the standing of academic organisations in the competition for economic resources and young scientists is focused increasingly. Therefore the importance of expert gender knowledge as well as academic gender knowledge has intensified in the university context. Having this in mind, the following article asks which gender knowledge (cf. Wetterer, 2008; Wetterer, 2009) affects three different academic disciplines (mechanical engineering, disciplines of linguistic, literature and cultural studies and architecture) and to what extent can this become an impediment or an enabler on the shift towards gender-equitable universities.

In consequence of the economic restructuring of universities the issue of equality programme implementation to boost the standing of academic organisations in the competition for economic resources and young scientists is focused increasingly. Therefore the importance of expert gender knowledge as well as academic gender knowledge has intensified in the university context. Having this in mind, the following article asks which gender knowledge (cf. Wetterer, 2008; Wetterer, 2009) affects three different academic disciplines (mechanical engineering, disciplines of linguistic, literature and cultural studies and architecture) and to what extent can this become an impediment or an enabler on the shift towards gender-equitable universities.