This essay has examined how the administrative courts evaluate boys and girls in relation to the Swedish Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act (1990:52). This was examined using a qualitative social constructionist comparative design and analyzed using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, gender theory and Foucault’s theory of power. The findings have demonstrated that gender-based disparities exist in court rulings. Girls are frequently viewed as victims, and their behavior is often associated with their sexuality, with the latter being used as a justification for risk assessment. By contrast, the presumptions that connect boys’ actions to their mindset and compulsion for destructiveness are used to evaluate them. In comparison to girls, boys exhibit a higher degree of normalization and acceptance of anti-social behavior. The study's findings demonstrate that there are indications that the courts do not treat boys and girls equally, and as a result, not everyone is treated equally. The study encourages further studies on the subject to demonstrate and amend current gender-biased legal systems. / Uppsatsen har undersökt hur Förvaltningsdomstolar bedömer pojkar och flickor som är aktuella för 3 § Lagen om vård av unga (1990:52), LVU. Detta har gjorts med en kvalitativ jämförande design och analyserats med Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys, Foucaults maktteori och genusteori med en utgångspunkt från socialkonstruktionismen. Resultatet visar att genusskillnader finns i förvaltningsrättens domskäl. Flickor tenderar att betraktas som offer och deras beteende kopplas ihop med deras sexualitet där sexualiteten används som ett argument vid fastställandet av risk för den unge. Pojkarna bedöms i stället utifrån andra premisser där deras beteenden kopplas ihop med deras inställning och deras motståndskraft mot destruktivitet. Normbrytande beteenden normaliseras och accepteras i högre grad hos pojkarna än hos flickorna. Studiens resultat visar att det finns indikationer på att domstolarna inte behandlar flickor och pojkar på samma sätt och därmed bedöms olika. Undersökningen uppmanar till fortsatta studier om ämnet för att påvisa och förändra nuvarande genusbundna rättssystem.

The aim of this study was to examine healthcare professionals perspective on why men are less likely to seek healthcare for eating disorders. The study seeks to understand and highlight the potential challenges men face when seeking healthcare for these conditions. To address this issue, the following three questions were posed: What social factors contribute to the low proportion of men seeking healthcare for eating disorders? How are men affected by gender-specific norms and expectations when they seek healthcare for eating disorders? What difficulties do healthcare professionals experience in treating men with eating disorders? The study included healthcare professionals working in eating disorder teams across various regions of the country. The empirical data comprised ten interviews, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. The theoretical frameworks used in the analysis were social constructivism, gender theory, hegemonic masculinity theory and stigma. The results of this study indicate significant challenges in encouraging men to seek healthcare for eating disorders. Based on these findings, we claim that increasing awareness and communication, as well as challenging existing  stereotypes and norms, can enhance the effectiveness and supportiveness of healthcare for men with eating disorders. A lack of experiences among healthcare professionals also emerged as a significant barrier to effectively treating men with eating disorders.

Denna studie utgår från en undersökning om hur elever i grundskolans årskurs 4 – 6 uppfattar jämställdhet och vilka erfarenheter eleverna har av jämställdhet respektive ojämställdhet. Jämställdhet diskuteras aktivt i samhället och berör alla människor, vuxna som barn. Barnen bör få vara delaktiga i det jämställdhetsarbete som är igång. Trots detta har jag endast hittat lite forskning kring hur just barn tänker om jämställdhet. Därför utgår denna uppsats ifrån just barns perspektiv på jämställdhet. Syftet med studien är därför att undersöka elevers perspektiv på jämställdhet för att förstå hur eleverna uppfattar området för att vidare kunna involvera eleverna ytterligare i jämställdhetsarbetet. Metoden för insamlingen av empirin är gruppintervjuer där elever indelats i grupper för att diskutera förberedda frågor om jämställdhet. Eleverna har i grupperna diskuterat de olika frågorna och sett en film om jämställdhet som senare också diskuterats. Under aktiviteten har jag antagit en passiv roll större delen av tiden. Eleverna visar att de är väl medvetna om jämställdhet och genusfrågor och har många olika erfarenheter av ojämställda händelser i deras skolvardag. Samtliga elever tycker det är viktigt att jobba med området i skolan för att göra varandra, både barn och vuxna, medvetna om hur man agerar i vardagen utifrån vissa stereotypiska könsmönster och könsroller. Eleverna upplever att de själva har blivit väldigt påverkade och uttrycker traditionella könsmönster på flera olika sätt exempelvis genom att anta att pojkar spelar bättre fotboll eller att flickor är lugnare. Pojkarna upplever sig själva som roligare medan flickorna uppfattar dem som att de måste skämta för att upprätthålla en social, konstruerad roll. / The purpose of the study is to investigate what pupils in primary school’s grades’ 4 – 6 think about gender equality and what experiences they have of both gender equality and inequality. Gender equality is currently being discussed in society and all people are affected by it, adults as well as children. The children should be able to be involved in the contemporary work about equality. Even so, I have found few studies about how children think about this. Therefore, this essay is based on their perspective. Following the purpose of this essay is to learn about pupils’ perspective on gender equality in order to involve them more in the future in this important matter. The method that is being used to collect the information is group interviews where pupils have been divided into groups to discuss questions about gender equality. In these groups the pupils have discussed different questions and then watched a movie on the topic of equality that later was discussed. During the activity I took on a passive role most of the time. The pupils show that they are well aware of gender equality and questions about gender and they have many different inequality experiences of incidents from there school days. All the pupils think it is important to work with these questions in school to make each other, both adults and children, aware of how you normally tend to act based on stereotypical gender patterns. The pupils experience that they themselves have been affected by stereotypes and express several traditional gender patterns, for example by assuming that boys are better at soccer or that girls are generally calmer. The boys experience themselves as funnier while the girls assume that the boys must joke around more to uphold a socially, constructed role.

The aim of this study was to get a greater understanding of children´s approach to each other in the after school center. We used a qualitative method consisting of interviews to collect the material to our study. We interviewed five educators that worked in the after school center and focused on their child perspective. The outset for our study was a gender perspective as well as an intersectional perspective. In recent years gender norms have got a lot of attention in media and The National Agency for Education (Skolverket) has come up with policydocuments that intend to make the schools a more equal and accepting place. In our examination we asked the educators about their view on gender- intersectional areas and how they have changed and developed in the last few years. The result in our study showed that it has been a change in equality and gender norm areas at the after school center. According to the educators, the schools have become a more accepting environment and the schools work a lot with having the children to form their identities and that they should be able to be themselves. Another result of our study was that boys and girls play with each other more nowadays than they did before. The educators think that this is because it is more accepted to break and question the gender patterns. Group pressure among children has according to the educators a large role in the selection of friends, games, activities and who should be the leader of the peer group. / Syftet med vår studie var att få en förståelse för barns förhållningssätt till varandra på fritidshemmet. För att samla in empirin till vår studie använde vi oss av en kvalitativ metod i form av intervjuer. Vi intervjuade fem pedagoger som arbetar på fritidshemmet och utgick från deras barnperspektiv. Vår studie utgick från ett genus- och intersektionellt perspektiv. Genusnormer har på senare år fått mycket uppmärksamhet i media samt att Skolverket har utformat styrdokumenten för att skolorna ska sträva efter en jämställd och accepterande skolmiljö. I vår studie frågade vi pedagogerna om deras syn på hur genus och intersektionella områden har utvecklats och ändrats i skolans värld under de senaste åren. Utifrån vår studie blev resultatet att det har skett en förändring när det kommer till jämställdhet och genusnormerna på fritidshemmet. Skolan har blivit en mer accepterande miljö och pedagogerna vi intervjuade menar att man arbetar mycket med att eleverna ska få forma sina identiteter och kunna vara sig själva. Vi kom även fram till att pojkar och flickor leker mer tillsammans nu än för några år sedan. Enligt pedagogerna har det att göra med att det är mer okej nu än då att bryta och ifrågasätta genusmönster. Grupptrycket bland barnen spelar enligt pedagogerna en stor roll i val av kamrater, lek, aktivitet och vem som ska vara ledare i kamratgruppen.

This study focuses on correctional officers’ values and perceptions of their workplace, the people they work with and for, and members of the general public. Although prior research has investigated correctional staff members’ feelings about their occupation, far fewer studies have implemented a comprehensive qualitative, microsociological approach. The author conducted 20 in-depth interviews with current and former correctional officers (COs) in public-supported facilities. Additional data were collected through two public Facebook pages designated for COs and citizens interested in the criminal justice system. The study offers insights about the significance of COs’ feelings about their work and how the correctional environment affects their lives at work and away from the workplace among the non-incarcerated public. How COs contend with the devalued nature of correctional work and how female COs deal with a male-dominated workplace are primary analytical themes.

The inclusion of a gender perspective in medicine has shown that gender is an essential factor in health and disease, in medical encounters and also in medical students’ educational environment. The aim of this study was to explore attitudes, preconceptions and norms regarding gender within medical education and processes of gender bias. First, we explored medical students gendered beliefs about patients. Second, we examined the medical students ideas about their future careers. Third, we compared awareness on gender issues among medical students in Sweden and the Netherlands. Method and material The analyses were based on data from two different sources: one experimental study based on authentic patient narratives about being diagnosed with cancer and one extensive questionaire exploring different aspects of gender issues in medical education. Both studies had a design which enabled both qualitative and quantitative research and mixed methods was used. Study I (Paper I and II): Eighty-one anonymous letters from patients were read by 130 students of medicine and psychology. For each letter the students were asked to state the patient’s sex and explain their choice. In paper I the students’ success rates were analysed statistically and the explanations to four letters were used to illustrate the students’ reasoning. Paper II examined the 87 medical students’ explanations closer to examine gender beliefs about patients. Study II (Paper III and IV): The questionaire started with an open question where medical students were asked to describe their ideal future, it also included a validated scale designed to estimate gender awareness. Paper III examined 507 swedish medical students descriptions about their ideal future and compared answers from male and female students in the beginning and at the end of medical school. Paper IV compared gender awareness among 1096 Swedish and Dutch medical students in first term. Findings with reflections Paper I showed that the patient’s sex was correctly identified in 62% of the cases. There were no difference between the results of male and female students. However, large differences between letters were observed, i.e. there were some letters were almost all students correctly identified the patient´s sex, others were almost all students were incorrect and most letters were found somewhere in the middle. Another significant finding was that the same expressions were interpreted differently depending on which initial guess the medical student had made regarding the sex of the patient. Paper II identified 21 categories of justifications within the students’ explanations, twelve of which were significantly associated with an assumption of either a male or female patient. Only three categories led to more correct identifications of the patients’ sex and two were more often associated with incorrect assignments. The results illustrate how beliefs about gender difference, even though they might be recognizable on a group level, are not applicable on individuals. Furthermore, the results show that medical students enter the education with beliefs about male and female patients, which could have consequenses and cause bias in their future work as doctors. Paper III found that almost all students, both male and female, were work-oriented. However, the female students even more so than their male counterparts. This result is particularly interesting in regards to the debate about the “feminization of medicine” in which the increasing number of female students has been adressed as a problem. When reflecting on their own lifes and their future its obvious that medical students nowadays, male and female, expect more to life than work, especially those who are on the doorstep to their professional life. Paper IV found that the national and cultural setting was the most crucial impact factor in relation to the medical students preconceptions and awareness about gender. The Swedish students expressed less stereotypic thinking about patients and doctors, while the Dutch students were more sensitive to gender difference. In both countries, the students’ sex mattered for gender stereotyping, with male students agreeing more to stereotypes. Conclusions A gender perspective is important in medical education. Our studies show that such initiatives needs to take cultural aspects, gender attitudes and students’ gender into account. Moreover, reflections on assumptions about men and women, patients as well as doctors, need to be included in medical curricula and the impact of implicit gender beliefs needs to be included in discussions on gender bias in health care. Also, the next generation of doctors want more to life than work. Future Swedish doctors, both female and male, intend to balance work not only with a family but also with leisure. This attitudinal change towards their future work as doctors will provide the health care system with a challenge to establish more adaptive and flexible work conditions.

This study introduces narcissistic entitlement as a correlate of homonegative attitudes and behaviors and examines the relative strength of relations along with established correlates of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), conformity with masculine norms, and intrinsic religious orientation. It also tests the role of negative attitudes towards lesbian women and gay men (ATLG) in mediating the relationship between the predictor variables and gay- and lesbian-rejecting and affirming behaviors. Implications for what these findings may offer psychologists are discussed, as are ways findings may inform the political process. Earlier studies support the link between entitlement and homonegativity (Exline, et al., 2004). Narcissism was positively related to dominance, neuroticism, social anxiety, and more aggressive/sadistic and rebellious/distrustful interpersonal styles (Emmons, 1984). Entitled narcissists are quick to take offense (McCullough, et al., 2003), externalize blame (Campbell, et al., 2000), and derogate or attack those who provide ego-threatening feedback or social rejection (Bushman, et al., 2003; Konrath, et al., 2006). Entitlement increases the risk of the narcissist becoming prone to hostile and reactive aggression and extreme violence, even without an ego-threat (Bushman, et al., 2003; Reidy, et al., 2008). Participants were recruited through the Department of Educational Psychology subject pool and data was collected by online survey. Given the focus on heterosexual men's attitudes toward lesbian women and gay men, participants were excluded from analysis if they identified as female, bisexual, or homosexual. Results indicated that entitlement, RWA, and intrinsic religiosity, but not conformity to masculine norms or SDO, were related uniquely to ATLG. ATLG was also related uniquely with measures of behavior, positively to gay- and lesbian-rejecting behaviors, and negatively with gay- and lesbian-affirming behaviors. ATLG was found to significantly mediate the links of entitlement and RWA with lesbian- and gay-rejecting behaviors. Results also indicated that the indirect link of intrinsic religious orientation with lesbian- and gay-rejecting behaviors was significant. Additionally, ATLG significantly mediated the links of entitlement with lesbian- and gay-affirming behaviors. Such an examination advances research and practice by identifying unique correlates of homonegative attitudes and the mechanisms through which they are related to lesbian- and gay-rejecting and -affirming behaviors. / text

In this essay seven children’s books aimed at the age group 6-9 years are read using a matrix to determine if the characters, from a viewpoint considering current gender norms and power, are normative, norm-breaking or falsely norm-breaking. The latter means that they have been attributed transgressive characteristics without there being any shift in power balance from the masculine to the feminine. Results show that the authors have tried to break gender norms, for example with regards to the child -characters’ clothes, which are consistently very alike regardless of gender. These efforts remain shallow as the power still rests with the boys, whose awareness of their own position within the gender -power system give them a sense of intrinsic power (power-to). The female characters reflect societal gender norms by being self-effacing, compliant and reactive, for example by praising the boys, providing them with room to be competent as well as both silencing themselves and letting themselves be silenced. The boy -characters show falsely norm-breaking behaviour in some areas, for example by having atypically broad emotional spectra, yet the boys’ superiority is retained and is reflected in their behaviour towards the female characters. / I denna uppsats granskas sju stycken barnböcker för åldersgruppen 6–9 år utifrån en matris för att bestämma ifall karaktärerna, med utgångspunkt i rådande genusnormer och i förhållande till makt, är normativa, normbrytande eller falskt normbrytande. Det senare innebär att de tillskrivs transgressiva egenskaper, utan att någon maktförskjutning från det maskulina till det feminina sker.Resultatet visar på försök från författarnas sida att bryta genusnormer, t.ex. vad gäller barnkaraktärernas kläder som genomgående är mycket lika oavsett genustillhörighet. Dessa försök blir dock ytliga då makten i de flesta fall fortfarande vilar hos pojkarna, vilkas medvetenhet om sin position i könsmaktssystemet ger dem en inneboende känsla av makt (power-to). De kvinnliga karaktärerna reflekterar samhällets normer genom att vara omvärldsorienterade, fogliga och reaktiva, t.ex. genom att berömma pojkkaraktärerna, ge dem utrymme att vara kompetenta samt att både tysta sig själva och låta sig tystas. Pojkkaraktärerna visar på vissa områden exempel på falskt normbrytande beteende, t.ex. genom att ha atypiskt breda känslospektra, medan pojkarnas överordning kvarstår och reflekteras i deras beteende gentemot flickkaraktärerna.

The fiction book series After for young adult has had a big impact and spread among young people, this was also made possible based on the book series being filmed. The book's descriptions have been debated based on the book's content, the discussion has been based on whether the book portrays a young relationship as a destructive or a fantastic love story. The purpose of this study is to examine the fiction book series After with a focus on domestic violence. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative thematic analysis has been applied, to examine the content of the book series and investigate the existence of domestic violence. To interpret and understand the study material, the normalization process has been used. The results show that various forms of violence are described in the books, psychological violence is most common but also other forms such as material, economic, physical and sexual violence occur. Response from the social network and the victim is made visible in the results. The results also indicated that violence and control can be made possible by digital platforms, and it is a prominent form in young relationships. The study highlights the importance of having a discussion with young people about the depictions of violence presented in the media and fiction books. / Den skönlitterära bokserien After har haft stort genomslag och spridning hos unga, detta möjliggjordes även utifrån att bokserien filmatiserades. Bokens skildringar har varit omdiskuterade utifrån bokens innehåll, diskussionen har grundats i om boken porträtterar en ung relation som destruktiv eller en fantastisk kärlekshistoria. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka den skönlitterära bokserien After med fokus på våld i nära relationer. För att uppnå studiens syfte har en kvalitativ tematisk analys tillämpats, för att granska bokseriens innehåll och undersöka förekomsten av våld. För att tolka och förstå studiens material har normaliseringsprocessen använts. Resultatet visar att olika former av våld skildras i böckerna, psykiskt våld är mest förekommande men även andra former som materiellt, ekonomiskt, fysiskt och sexuellt våld förekommer. Respons från det sociala nätverket och från den utsatte synliggörs i resultatet. Resultatet indikerade även att våld och kontroll kan möjliggöras och effektiviseras av digitala plattformar, då det är en framträdande form av våld i unga nära relationer. Studienlyfter vikten av att föra en diskussion med ungdomar kring de våldsskildringar som presenteras i media och skönlitterära böcker.

The purpose of this study is to investigate social workers' experience in meeting men who are victims of domestic violence by women. Through this study we want to acquire an in-depth understanding of how social norms of gender and masculinity have an impact on domestic violence by women as well as its impact on social workers in their treatment of the abused men. The methodological starting point of this study is based on a hermeneutic qualitative approach where empirical data have been obtained through semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with six social workers who all come in contact with domestic violence through their work. Results from this study show that the norms of gender and masculinity which exist in our society do affect the view of men and manhood and it affects the view on women’s violence and violence in general. It also affects how the social workers treat men who are victims of domestic abuse by women. The result of this is that men feel a lot of shame about being victims of domestic abuse hence making it hard to reach them in efforts to help. Our conclusion is that social workers need to learn more about how norms of gender and masculinity affect what the men are feeling and hence find ways to treat these men without shame interfering in that treatment.