The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how actors linked to the care administration of Kalmar municipality relate to the introduction of “Right to full-time-employment” as an organizing strategy. The purpose is also to describe how the introduction of the political decision will affect actors linked to the care administration of Kalmar municipality. By interviewing actors linked to the care administration of Kalmar municipality, both actors from the field (care-workers), management representatives and trade union representatives the study explores how these different actors relate to the new political agreement. This essay analyses the interviewees' statements and opinions regarding the agreement's pros and cons based on several different theories, including John Atkinson’s concept of labour market flexibility. The main purpose of this study is to analyze how the practical operationalization of the new political agreement have been influenced by the modern catchword (“flexibility”). The results show how the care administration have conducted a form of “internal flexibility” which purpose is to create economic conditions giving a higher number of employees full-time work opportunities. Although the previous full-time work opportunities is described as a “secure form of employment”, the study show that it has resulted in an apprehension of insecurity within the majority of the workforce.

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze why or why not Swedish municipalities implement the gender equality policy – ”right to work fulltime”. In order to understand this institutional change, the analysis is based on a theoretical framework consisting of two fields: political representation and feminist institutionalism. The study is divided into two empirical inquiries. The first part is based on a quantitative survey that describes the casual relationship between two independent variables; women´s political representation and party ideology, and the dependent variable; political decision about “right to work fulltime”. The findings are that women´s representation does not explain the existence of political decision. Rather, political ideology has a higher explanatory factor. The second inquiry is divided into two single-case studies; Nynäshamn, a municipality that has implemented the policy, and Eskilstuna, that failed the implementation process. Four theoretical concepts are developed and one analytical model is used to understand institutional change in these cases. The study concludes that in order to understand the implementation process in these municipalities, local and contextual institutions must be emphasized; both formal and informal institutions need to be in favor for the agents promoting change. However, to fully understand these processes, focus should be directed towards the ways in which gendered power relations shape the construction of new institutions.