In this ethnography (anthropology thesis) I explored the binary gender division in modern sports culture through the analysis of stereotypes shaped by the history of women's sport, iconography of female athletes portrayed by mainstream media, and the reinforcement of stigma and pressure to conform to social norms by the normalized everyday discourse of college men and women at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges. Even though Title IX brought significant gender equality to sport in terms of women's access to athletic participation and facilities, I argue that there is still much work to do to modify social attitudes toward women's sports. While CMS female student-athletes have a keen awareness of the existing gender disparity of athleticism and make criticisms of the male-dominated hegemony, they sometimes reproduce the very same disparity they are subjected to by reinforcing internalized stereotypes through articulations of female homosocial spaces, feminine ideals, and the worthy emulation of men's sports. Thus, I argue that women hold a great deal of agency to promote gender equality in sports culture through a reevaluation of the way they think and talk about traditional masculinity and femininity, athletic performance, body image, and sexuality.

The purpose of this study was to illuminate the everyday work of school counsellors in the City of Stockholm with a gender perspective by studying the school counsellors ́ talk about masculinity and femininity. The aim was to reach an understanding of how parts of the counsellors everyday work are influenced by gender through the perspective of the school counsellor. The study was conducted using qualitative methods. Six school counsellors, five woman and one man, were interviewed. An interview method called thematically open interview was used to identify themes regarding aspects of gender in the school counsellors ́ everyday work. The theoretical perspectives that were applied during analysis were Judith Butlers ́ theory on gender performativity and Mimi Shippers ́ theory on gender hegemony. A qualitative data analysis was conducted using hermeneutic principles for interpretation. The results show that the school counsellors gave femininity and masculinity three different meanings, that gender influenced varying aspects of the counsellors work including the interaction with teachers, pupils, parents and principal and that indications of gender hegemony could be found in the stories told by four of the school counsellors. Further some school counsellors experienced gender as an obstacle to a larger extent than others. / Syftet med denna studie var att belysa skolkuratorer i Stockholm stads vardagliga arbete ur ett genusperspektiv genom att studera hur skolkuratorer talar om maskulinitet och femininitet. Målet var att nå kunskap om hur delar av skolkuratorernas vardagliga arbete influeras av genus ur skolkuratorns perspektiv. För att genomföra studien användes kvalitativa metoder. Sex kuratorer intervjuades, fem kvinnor och en man. En Intervjumetod kallad tematiskt öppen intervju användes för att identifiera teman beträffande olika aspekter av genus i skolkuratorernas vardagliga arbete. Under analysen tillämpades Judith Butlers ́ teori om genusperformativitet och Mimi Schippers ́ teori om könshegemoni. En kvalitativ dataanalys genomfördes med hjälp av hermeneutiska tolkningsprinciper. Studiens resultat visar att skolkuratorerna gav femininitet och maskulinitet tre skilda betydelser, att genus influerade olika aspekter av skolkuratorernas arbete inklusive deras interaktion med elever, lärare, föräldrar och rektorer och att det är går att se tecken som tyder på förekomsten av könshegemoni i fyra kuratorers berättelser. Vidare upplevde vissa kuratorer i högre grad än andra kuratorer att genus utgjorde ett hinder i det vardagliga arbetet.