Abstract In today’s society, clothing companies and their consumers have an increased presence on social media where they interact with each other in different ways. This relatively new kind of interaction can have many advantages for both clothing companies and consumers. It makes it possible for the clothing companies to meet their consumers on the consumers’ home ground, and for the consumers to interact with the clothing companies. How the presence of clothing companies on social media is perceived among the consumers and whether or not this is in line with what the consumers’ expect from companies’ presence on social media, is still not completely developed. To help the clothing companies to increase their knowledge about their consumers’ needs and what they expect of the clothing companies while being present on social media, the intention is to answer the following research question: “What are the female consumers’ perceptions and expectations of the Facebook & Instagram usage by clothing companies?” The purpose with this degree project is to increase the understanding of how consumers perceive and expect clothing companies to act toward them on the social media channels Facebook and Instagram, in order to satisfy their needs. We aim to specifically explain how clothing companies’ are perceived on the social media channels Facebook and Instagram, based on consumers’ experiences of clothing companies’ activities. Furthermore, we aim to provide insight into what consumers expect from a presence of clothing companies on Facebook and Instagram. With this, we want to help the clothing companies to create a better relationship between them and their consumers on Facebook and Instagram. In this explorative study, a qualitative sampling method has been used. The data collection consists of 8 semi structured in-depth interviews of female students at Umeå university. The biggest reasons for why the female consumers perceive that clothing companies have an online presence is to: Act as a source of information, communicate and socialize with their consumers and to create value by being more available. They furthermore expect clothing companies on Facebook to provide their consumers with: To make it more comfortable/easy to shop online, act as a source of information and to communicate and socialize with consumers. On Instagram the female consumers perceived that clothing companies’ want to have a presence to: Be a part of the consumer’s everyday life, reach the consumer in a relaxed way, communicate and socialize with consumers. On Instagram, the consumers expect clothing companies’ presence for: To reach the consumer in a relaxed way, make it more comfortable/easy to shop online, create value by being more available. These activities taken into consideration will increase the understanding for clothing companies’ online presence and lead to a better relationship between the clothing companies and their female consumers. The study contributes with new theoretical knowledge about the consumer’s perspective on clothing companies on social media. Our findings show that previous recommendations regarding how companies should try to act on social media is too general, and needs to be applied based on consumer preferences, needs and the specific social media channel. The empirical contribution are the reasons that the consumers expect clothing companies to have for being present on Facebook and Instagram.

Fitness relates to several life aspects, such as health and exercise. Because of its vast popularity, it is often referred to as a ‘fitness trend’ where the body has a central role. Due to technological advances, fitness has found its way into mobile applications and Social Network Sites (SNSs), prompting the linguistic analysis of these environments. This study investigates how female fitness is discussed by female personal trainers (PTs) online. A mixed approach of quantitative methodology (Corpus Linguistics) and qualitative textual analysis (Discourse Analysis) was adopted. Following Baker’s corpus-driven approach (2006), a specialised corpus was compiled with a total of 440 posts (51,779 tokens) from the Instagram accounts of three female professional PTs. Various patterns were presented under four themes: mind and body, physical strength, empowerment, and the FITNESS IS A JOURNEY metaphor. The most salient patterns discussed were health, aesthetics, weight-loss, and body-representation. There was strong evidence of other trends (‘fitspiration’, ‘HAES’, and ‘body positivity’) which promote a positive body image and strength (physical and mental) as a health indicator. In sum, the findings provide a female PT’s perspective on fitness and show how female fitness is promoted by encouraging positive narratives around fitness, the body and ourselves.

Females continue to have negative dispositions towards mathematics even though the performance gap between females and males has all but disappeared. While there are many hypotheses for why these negative dispositions exist among females towards mathematics, this paper explores the possibility that the field of mathematics could favor more masculine ways of reasoning at the exclusion of valid, non-masculine mathematical thought. To research this idea, the day-to-day, non-formal, non-school mathematical activities of two women were identified and analyzed. The analysis uncovered complex mathematical processes among both women that were fundamentally different from the mathematical processes common in the mathematics field. Such results seem to affirm the idea that females' ways of doing mathematics are not acknowledged or validated by the mathematics community and therefore suggest the development of more inclusive mathematics research and instruction.

This thesis will investigate the relationship between lighting and perception of safety through a case study. The main focus of this study is outdoor lighting with consideration of gender equality and perception of safety. Although street lighting is generally recognized as the most important environmental features that influences subjective perception of safety after dark, there is still lack of knowledge regarding the needed quality of light for this purpose and how it may influence perceived safety. Literature review indicates that effect of light on perceived safety works through two different mechanisms: natural surveillance and social integration. The main focus of this thesis is on natural surveillance. Indeed, light by increasing visibility in interaction with presence of people, enhance possibilities of natural surveillance. Based on literature review, a tool has been developed to have a more specific examination of visibility.Besides, the women’s safety audit (WSA) diagnostic tool is used as a qualitative data collection tool to identify unsafe spots in the chosen area by 10 local female participants. The chosen area is a residential area in Eskilstuna city, called Årby neighbourhood. All the participants were asked to determine unsafe spots from their perspective in the chosen area during an exploratory night walk. In the next step, the identified unsafe spots are analysed by means of the developed tool in terms of visibility.The result of this thesis supports the previous findings regarding the relationship between visibility and safety perception. Results show that urban settings with low level of prospect (obstructed view), high level of entrapment (escape difficulty), high level of concealment (lots of hiding spots), lack of illuminated visual spatial boundaries (sky plane, vertical plane and ground plane), low level of facial recognition and obstacle detection, low level of illumination of path, high level of glare and varied lighting distribution are judged as the most unsafe by women. In addition, the study revealed that illuminated ground plane has the minimum impact on sense of safety in comparison with other safety-related environmental factors. Consequently, this study highlighted that standards and guidelines, which are related to ground plane, are not very beneficial for improving perception of safety.

This thesis is based on my own experiences of dancing Halling, a type of folk dance. Halling is commonly referred to as a male or masculine dance. This has been entangled in the problems I have had with the dance, as I have felt uncomfortable performing all the movements to their full extent. Therefore, I have researched my experiences of this dance through a practical study with a focus on specific movements that I have struggled with. Combining the findings of my practical study with theories about feminism, gender and masculinity has shown me that, while my problem is complex, it is nevertheless possible to structure into two parts of my own understanding. The first part concerns the movement that make up the dance. Through my research I was able to deal with some of the problems that I had with specific movements, and this led me to the conclusion that the movements of Halling in themselves do not have to be problematic in a gendered way. The second part concerns Halling within its context, and the way that its representation and the expectations surrounding it affect me and my dancing. The study has also shown me that being a pedagogical role model is a very complex situation where it is not only important for me to be aware of the choices I make but also the person I am in the teaching situation. / <p>En video presenterades även i samband med examination av arbetet och innehas av författaren.</p>