This thesis examines the role self-help microfinance Saving Groups play in women’s empowerment in villages in Mbale district, Uganda. Central for the study is to identify the challenges and opportunities that participation in Saving Groups brings in women’s everyday life. The thesis is a result of a qualitative field study in Uganda, where eleven mothers attending Saving Groups in the villages Nashikhaso, Bubuyera and Mulyuli were interviewed. The findings show that loans from the groups have allowed the interviewees to improve their farming and thereby gain an annual income which has led to several life-changing opportunities. The ability to pay for children’s education is recognized as most valued for the women’s self-esteem, self-confidence and hope for a better future. Moreover, the findings show that even though the Saving Group’s function as a financial instrument is important, their function as a center where women can socialize and find support and knowledge may be even more vital for women’s empowerment. Patriarchal structures are affected since the Saving Groups have given women that want to make a change an arena in which to do so. Thus, through the group, women have entered a traditionally men-only zone where they redefine roles and norms.

<p>The aim of this master thesis is to examine high school students’ understandings and experiences of gender equality and to critically study the formulations and the basis of the project from Save the</p><p>Children Sweden which are the basis for this master thesis. By using critical discourse analysis and gender theories the formulations and basis of the project and the interviews has been analyzed. The</p><p>analysis of the project showed neglect for intersectional perspectives and taken for granted hidden opinions about masculinities and femininities. The interviews have been conducted with four high school students, and the students felt that they attend schools which are equal between genders. The analysis of the interviews gave another picture which showed that there are a number of factors that indicate that their schools aren’t equal between genders. The analysis deal with discourses as equality between gender and the lack of equality between gender, individuality, responsibility, resistance to change and will to change.</p>

<p>The following thesis is dedicated to the investigation of the comparative gender discourse of two of the current South American female Presidents: Michelle Bachelet, the first woman elected President in Chile for a four year term, in 2006 and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first woman elected President in Argentina also for a four year term, but in 2007. Using secondary sources and critical discourse analysis, the study attempts to characterize their agenda on gender both before and after their election campaigns. Recognizing that a candidate must balance between many actors, as one of the principles of social constructivism runs, the essay presents a short history of the feminist movement in both countries and the current state that the movement finds itself in, either institutionalized or absorbed and fragmented by party politics. The conclusions that the study arrives to are that, of the two subjects, the one who has presented a more concrete and convincing stand on gender thanks to her political views, the space created for feminism by her coalition and the climate of her country, is Michelle Bachelet.</p>

<p>Miljökonsekvensbeskrivning, MKB, är ett redskap som används i Sverige och 120 andra länder och processen används för att förutse miljöpåverkan som kan komma att inträffa som ett resultat av olika projekt som etableras. I Sverige krävs MKB alltid för särskilda projekt, så som vägprojekt. Processen försöker inkorporera miljöaspekter i projekt och även ge allmänhet och intressenter möjlighet att yttra sig och ställa frågor kring projektet. Detta kallas att hålla samråd vilket ska hållas under hela MKB-processen. I Sverige finns lagar som begär att samråd hålls under processen, men forskning kring jämställdhet och samrådsförfarandet kallad JämSam visar att det är en överrepresentation av äldre män på dessa möten. Denna studie eftersträvar att i internationell MKB-litteratur undersöka om det förs en diskussion kring genus i samrådsprocessen och vad som, i händelse av en sådan, diskuteras.</p><p>Olika teorier rörande genus undersöktes och dessa tydde på att skillnader i genus beror på olik socialisation av kvinnor och män genom livet. Litteratur som rör genus och miljö visade att kvinnor har ett marginellt större interesse för miljöfrågor men att män är de som är mer aktivt deltagande.</p><p>Resultaten av studien var att väldigt lite material påträffades, vilket i sin tur visade att genusdiskussionen inom MKB-litteratur i princip är obefintlig. Majoriteten av artiklarna som hittades nämnde kvinnor eller genus i förbifarten och i samband med andra ämnen. Bara en artikel diskuterade djupare kring ämnet. Vidare studier på området och rörande hur samrådsförfarandet ska bli jämställt behövs för att få igång en debatt på området eftersom den nuvarande situationen inte för diskussionen framåt.</p> / <p>Environmental impact assessment, EIA, is a tool used in Sweden and in 120 other countries and the process is used to predict environmental impact of different projects that are established. An EIA is always a prerequisite for certain projects in Sweden, for instance highway projects. The process aims to incoporate environmental aspects in projects and also to give the public and other interest groups the opportunity to voice their concerns and ask questions about the project. This is called public participation wich should take place during the entire EIA process. Sweden has laws that encourage public participation throughout the entire process, but research regarding gender equality and public participation called JämSam shows that elderly men are overrepresented at the public meetings. The purpose of this study is to examine if there is a discussion regarding gender equality and public participation in international EIA literature and, if so, what the articles encompass.</p><p>Different theories regarding gender equality were examined and they suggested that socialization is the cause of gender differences as women and men are treated diffrently throughout their entire lives. Gender equality and environment literature showed that women have a marginally higher intresst in environmental issues but that men are more active and participate more.</p><p>Very small amounts of material were found during the study, which shows that gender equality basically is nonexistent in EIA literature. The majority of the articles found only mentioned women or gender briefly and in relation to other subjects. Only one study found discussed the subject troughout the entire article. Further studies on gender equality in EIA literature and regarding making public participation gender equal is much-needed to initiate debate on this field, because the present situation does not move the discussion forward.</p>

<p>This thesis takes as its point of departure the Swedish governmental family policy and the debate on the proposed reform ‘vårdnadsbidraget’. The supporters of the reform present it as something that will increase the freedom of choice for families and benefit the children, whereas the opponents warn for decreased equality and a return to the male breadwinner-model.<br /><br />From a constructivist perspective, language is closely related to power through defining and ascribing meaning to reality. By applying a feminist political theory on the debate within the Swedish national parliament 2007/2008 and conducting a discourse analysis, the aim of this paper is to analyse which concepts are used and how they construct to what makes a family within the political debate – is there any difference or similarity between the view of the opponents and the supporters of ‘vårdnadsbidraget’?<br /><br />The main conclusion of this paper is that even though the political ideal and rhetorical concepts differ between the supporters and the opponents, they still constitute the heterosexual nuclear family as an obvious norm in family politics. Even though the opponents of the reform are critical to the nuclear family as a ideal, their strife for gender equality contributes to reproduce the heterosexual nuclear family as the family norm.</p>

No description available.

<p>The number of female officers employed in the Armed Forces is low. Of the total proportion officers, female stand for 4.8 %. The Armed Forces are currently working actively to level out the distribution. This paper is intended to create a better understanding of the slow increase in female officers in the Swedish Armed Forces. The study is qualitative and the results from the data collection have been based partly on a text analysis, partly on a theme-based group interview in which three themes have been discussed. The results are then analyzed through theories with the related areas: Organizations, genderand leadership. The study shows that there are no formal regulations that prevent women in the Armed Forces. However, it is possible to identify a number of factors that may affect efforts to achieve genderbalance in the organization negatively. The experience of gender equality is not permeated throughout the organization suggests a lack of commitment of managers at different levels. Furthermore is the conscription system, which only affected men, a major contributing factor, where a broad basis for recruitment of female officers has been lost. Finally may be mentioned that the fact that the Armed Forces currently is engaged in a variety of organizational changes can lead to a marginalization of the gender mainstreaming in favour of the other changes.</p>

The present thesis focuses on causes and consequences of paid working hours and housework hours among women and men in Sweden and Europe. It consists of four studies. Study I investigates changes in the division of housework in Swedish couples when they become parents. The study shows that women adjust their housework hours to the number and age of children in the household, whereas men do not. Longer parental leave periods among fathers have the potential to counteract this change towards a more traditional division of housework. Study II explores the associations between psychological distress and paid working hours, housework hours and total role time in Sweden. The results suggest that women’s psychological distress decreases with increasing paid working hours and housework hours, but that a long total role time is associated with high levels of distress. The gender difference in time spent on housework accounts for 40 per cent of the gender difference in psychological distress. Study III asks whether hours spent on paid work and housework account for the European gender difference in well-being, and whether the associations between well-being and hours of paid work and housework is influenced by gender attitudes and social comparison. The results indicate that gender differences in time spent on paid work and housework account for a third of the gender difference in well-being. Gender attitudes and social comparison do not to any great extent influence the associations between well-being and paid work and housework, respectively. Study IV examines possible differences between European family policy models in the associations between well-being and hours of paid work and housework. Some model differences are found, and they are accounted for by experiences of work-family conflict among men, but not among women. For both women and men, work-family conflict appears to suppress positive aspects of paid working hours.

This dissertation takes up developments in European Union policymaking that indicate important shifts from an emphasis on prioritizing markets and economic arrangements to a greater recognition and competing prioritization of what can be broadly characterized as "social" concerns. Potentially sweeping changes are taking place in EU policy in the areas of food safety, chemicals, and gender equality. Each is being substantially guided, even driven by concerns for public health, sustainability, and basic rights defined in terms of their social consequences. Such a socially defined agenda is increasingly important in European Union policymaking. This dissertation investigates these developments through case studies - based on interviews and original documents, as well as secondary literature - in three otherwise quite different policy sectors: the transformation of EU food policy from its focus on food as primarily a market commodity to taking into consideration and prioritizing public health and consumer safety concerns; EU chemicals policy and the banning of asbestos in Europe; the development of gender equality as an EU goal and the emergence of domestic violence as an EU policy concern. The concepts of public policy paradigm - and paradigm shifts - are employed as theoretical tools to specify, analyze and understand: 1) the priority ordering of guiding principles and institutional arrangements for defining and creating public policy, 2) public problem definitions and attributed causes, 3) the classes of social actors who are deemed authoritative, credible, and responsible for the amelioration of such problems, 4) the choice and formation of institutional strategies and definitions of appropriate means for problem solving, and more broadly, 5) the ways in which competing compelxes of leading ideas influence the choice and formation of institutional strategies. A paradigm shift in this perspective entails changes in one or more of the core dimensions of a paradigm. Such shifts also typically result in pressures to restructure institutional arrangements to make them consistent with a new paradigm. The cases examined here illustrate varying stages in an ongoing interplay between policy paradigms, actors, and institutional arrangements. The dissertation concludes that paradigmatic shifts have taken place in the three policy sectors examined, and that institutionalization is in varying phases of development.

The number of female officers employed in the Armed Forces is low. Of the total proportion officers, female stand for 4.8 %. The Armed Forces are currently working actively to level out the distribution. This paper is intended to create a better understanding of the slow increase in female officers in the Swedish Armed Forces. The study is qualitative and the results from the data collection have been based partly on a text analysis, partly on a theme-based group interview in which three themes have been discussed. The results are then analyzed through theories with the related areas: Organizations, genderand leadership. The study shows that there are no formal regulations that prevent women in the Armed Forces. However, it is possible to identify a number of factors that may affect efforts to achieve genderbalance in the organization negatively. The experience of gender equality is not permeated throughout the organization suggests a lack of commitment of managers at different levels. Furthermore is the conscription system, which only affected men, a major contributing factor, where a broad basis for recruitment of female officers has been lost. Finally may be mentioned that the fact that the Armed Forces currently is engaged in a variety of organizational changes can lead to a marginalization of the gender mainstreaming in favour of the other changes.