Drawing on earlier research and theories regarding female political representation and its effects on gender equality, the attempt in this study is to investigate whether political gender quotas, legislated in the constitution, has a positive association and effect on gender equality in a society. A substantial number of studies supports the notion that quotas increase female representation in the political context. Yet, few studies examine gender quotas effect on women’s everyday life. The study investigates the variation in gender equality amongst new democracies where countries with gender quotas are compared to countries without. The overall findings appoint that political gender quotas demonstrate more far-reaching effects than to increase the number of women elected. Having a high female representation does affect women’s everyday life and a quota will increase gender equality in a society. This should be regarded as a solid argument in favour of an implementation of a gender quota. Additionally, the results from this study indicate that Anne Phillips theory the Politics of Presence, which points out the importance of having high female representation, does exert an effect.

Despite the picture portraying the U.S as a western, democratic and equal country, the U.S military has faced several downfalls when it comes to its female force, especially in relation to sexual assault. This study poses the question of how can western ‘model countries’ such as the U.S, promote democracy when its military institution seem to miss one of the central pillars to a democratic society that is equality. Furthermore, the study seeks to dive further into the military culture of the U.S military in order to understand if women adjust to the military culture or if the military culture adjusts to the influx of women. By examining narratives of male and female soldiers and veterans, who tell their stories online, this research is conducted as a case study, using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and Judith Butler’s theory of performative gender as an analytical tool in order to recontextualize the findings and gain a further understanding of the military culture from an inside perspective. In conclusion, the study essentially confirms the notion of the military constituting a male centered culture, as well as a crowd oriented culture, which contributes to females adjusting to the culture rather than it adjusting to the influx of women. In addition to this, gender equality is perceived as something applied by actors from the outside when it is convenient or solely talked about with respect to physical capabilities. Ultimately, research in relation to the U.S military needs to include a focus on culture in order for it to change and become gender equal.

In the welfare state classification in which Sweden is found housing is not fully included as a key element which implies some difficulties when analyzing equality in the Swedish housing market. Furthermore, the Swedish housing market is shifting towards becoming more marketoriented which has indicated that housing is becoming more of an individual responsibility rather than a key element supplied from the state. When it comes to the Swedish gender equality work this needs to be further problematized as it has become a norm in Swedish policy that does not reflect reality. The purpose of this study is therefore to analyze if and how the aspect of gender equality is incorporated in the work with the public housing market as well as if there are different views towards the subject in the study area of Västerbotten County. By using a short survey and stakeholder interviews, data has been collected providing empirical data regarding gender equality in relation to the public housing market across the study area. The result shows some uncertainties and different views towards the subject of gender equality in relation to the public housing market across the municipalities in Västerbotten County. These uncertainties take form as some informants does not fully understand how gender equality and the public housing market is connected to each other and as there seem to be a lack of information which needs to spread within the municipalities. Furthermore, the informants problematize some underlying norms when planning for housing that needs to be reconsidered in order to create inclusiveness in the public housing market across the county. Otherwise, the planning process might end up creating a future exclusion of those not fitting into these norms. It is therefore important to always view the gender equality work as a continuous process. / Bostadsmarknadsanalys över Västerbottens län 2018

This essay aims to investigate the teacher trainees’ relation to gender equality and gender in education. The studie is based on surveys and interviews, where the results will be problematized based on feminist and gender theory.  The essay relies on three questions. The first question deals with how teacher trainees estimate their opportunity to work with gender equality and gender issues in their teaching, in accordance with the Swedish curriculum. The second and third question focuses on how teacher trainees believe they are given the right tools to work with issues of gender equality, as well if their personal opinions and interests effect their teaching about gender equality and gender.  The results show, that according to teaching trainees, the curriculum tends to provide opportunity for using an equality perspective in teaching. Furthermore it is revealed that the education has resulted in some tools for dealing with gender equality and gender issues. However it appears that they wish to have more tools which they can use to work with gender equality in their teaching. The final question deals with how teacher trainees’ own interests and personal opinions appear in their teaching. The analysis reveals that their own opinions could affect their teaching but that they always try to base their teaching on the values of the Swedish curriculum

The theme of this thesis is gender equality, and especially gender equality in school. The study assumes a poststructuralist position and aims to demonstrate how gender equality is problematized in the world of education. Through studies of documents and interviews with people in the school world, the representations of the gender equality problem were brought to light. A WPR-perspective helped in the process of revealing how gender equality is “made”. The material were reduced to three categories: gender roles, ethnicity, and knowledge. The research questions were based on Carol Bacchis WPR-perspective: 1) what is the problem with gender equality? 2) what assumptions underlie the problem? 3) What is left unproblematic? and 4) what are the effects? The result of the study shows that there are a lot of dichotomies in how gender equality is represented, but the primary representation is a matter of me/others. Through the problematization of boys (that is, students), culture (Swedish “equal” and non-Swedish, unequal “others”) and knowledge (unknowing, hence unequal other teachers) is the problem made someone else's and hence, ones own responsibility fails to represent the problem.

The purpose of our essay is to investigate how preschool teachers take gender into account in the design of the physical environment at their preschool. We will examine this based on the following issues: How do preschool teachers use gender-coded material and how do they design an environment that is inviting both girls and boys? We also want to find out if the preschool teachers believe that the design of the room affects the creation of children's gender identity. Therefore, we have chosen to apply a qualitative method as it allows us to get closer to the subject area we want to investigate. The study has been demarcated, and consequently we have only studied three preschools in Stockholm. To gather our empirical material, we have chosen to interview five preschool teachers. We have also observed the physical indoor environment at three preschools. The result of our empirical material shows that all three preschools use gender-coded material. They also separated the material in defined areas. Based on the interview answers, we could see that preschool teachers work on gender equality and gender issues in different ways. We conclude that preschool teachers experience difficulties in carrying out gender equality work. Based on the research carried out by the Delegation for Gender Equality at Preschool, they address the difficulties that educators often face, as they look after the children's individual needs and ignore their gender. It can lead to gender blindness, and it counteracts successful gender equality work.

Nine years after the genocide in Rwanda, women won 48 per cent of the seats in the parliament. In the next election of 2008 they became the most gender equal parliament in the world. But does this mean that women have received an extensive influence in decision-making in the Rwandan society? The aim with this study is to develop a deeper understanding of what role women have in decision-making at local political assemblies and in households. A field study with an ethnographical approach including interviews and observations in Rwanda was conducted in November-December 2011. Interviews with female and male farmers and urbanites were performed in order to understand their roles and responsibilities in their home. This thesis also contains a brief analysis of Rwandan women’s role in the pre-genocide society. Through a Neo-institutional approach, this thesis outlines what has contributed to women’s role today. Neo-institutionalism looks at societal changes with a holistic view and from three different aspects: the normative, cultural-cognitive and the regulative aspect. These three components of the theory are vital ingredients for a societal change to occur. My findings show that women participate in decision-making, not only on the central level, but also in local political assemblies. It also indicates that women of today partake in decision-making at the household level, earlier left to men alone. Women have also since 1999 gained equal rights by several legal regulations. My analysis shows that women’s influence in decision-making on central, local and on household level is a collateral consequence of the genocide.

Organizations around the world increasingly publish voluntary sustainability reports. Stakeholders want more information than financial statements, and environmental and social concerns have grown in the past two decades. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework for sustainability reporting is used by most organizations today. This is an analysis of the indicators in the GRI framework used to report on gender equality and diversity. I have used Carol Bacchi's method "What Is the "Problem" Represented to Be?" to discover how the "problems" of gender equality and diversity are presented in the framework and what effects those constructions of the problem might have.

Background: Women's empowerment is hypothesized as a predictor of reproductive health outcomes. It is believed that empowered girls and women are more likely to delay marriage, plan their pregnancies, receive prenatal care, and have their childbirth attended by a skilled health provider. The objective of this study was to assess the association between women's empowerment and use of modern contraception among a representative sample of Nigerian women. Methods: This study used the 2003, 2008, and 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data. The analytic sample was restricted to 35,633 women who expressed no desire to have children within 2 years following each survey, were undecided about timing for children, and who reported no desire for more children. Measures of women's empowerment included their ability to partake in decisions pertaining to their healthcare, large household purchases, and visit to their family or relatives. Multivariable regression models adjusting for respondent's age at first birth, religion, education, wealth status, number of children, and geopolitical region were used to measure the association between empowerment and use of modern contraceptives. Results: The proportion of women who participated in decisions to visit their relatives increased from 42.5% in 2003 to 50.6% in 2013. The prevalence of women involved in decision-making related to large household purchases increased from 24.3% in 2003 to 41.1% in 2013, while the proportion of those who partook in decision related to their health care increased from 28.4% in 2003 to 41.9% in 2013. Use of modern contraception was positively associated with women's participation in decisions related to large household purchases [2008: adjusted OR (aOR) = 1.15; 95% CI = 1.01-1.31] and (2013; aOR = 1.60; 1.40-1.83), health care [2008: (aOR = 1.20; 1.04-1.39) and (2013; aOR = 1.39; 1.22-1.59)], and visiting family or relatives [2013; aOR = 1.58; 1.36-1.83]. The prevalence of modern contraceptive use among women with need for contraception increased marginally from 11.1% in 2003 to 12.8% in 2013.

This doctoral research is a contribution to the understanding of social activism and its socio-cultural formation in postcolonial Okinawa. It is based on eighteen months of fieldwork including participant observation and interviews at a public women’s organisation, Women’s Organisation Okinawa (WOO). This project centres on the lived practices of staff who attempted to produce and encourage gender equality in the public sector under neoliberal governance. I demonstrate through ethnographic analysis how the practice of law and social movements is distinct from the ideals of such movements as well as the particular individuals involved in them. WOO was established in the public sector by local government in alliance with various grassroots groups in Okinawa in the late 1990s. WOO embraced the dreams, hopes and anticipations of various actors - users and workers - who had been involved in the establishment, but in reality, it also contained various contradictions. First, WOO was a new workplace for those who wanted to work in activism and be paid for their work, but also reproduced precarious, low-waged, gendered labour. Second, WOO was a site which put law into practice, but it revealed that law internalised the inconsistency between what people had originally expected of the law and what law enacted as a result of institutionalisation. Third, WOO unexpectedly became a focal point of contact between neoliberal and feminist governance through public services and the requirements of performing accountability for citizens and for feminist activism. Thus frontline practitioners attempted to bridge the gap between ideal, reality, law and practice and to negotiate with neoliberal and feminist governance in the labour process. This thesis demonstrates how the inconsistencies between ideal and reality arose in the daily working practices of staff positioned between citizens, laws and social movements. More precisely, it explores how staff attempted to negotiate, accommodate and struggle with the gap between ideal and reality through their lived experience, rather than fiercely resisting or merely being subject to a form of governance or reality. In doing so, the thesis reveals how unstable and problematic the notion of ‘gender equality’ was as it was deployed at WOO.