The purpose of this study is to examine Russia's foreign and security policy towards Sweden, as bordering practices, in the state-controlled media's international news reporting on gender equality. To achieve this goal the following two questions were formulated: 1) which narratives about gender equality can be read from English-language news articles about Sweden from the Russian state-controlled news company Sputnik News? and 2) in what ways do these narratives function as bordering practices? Utilizing critical border theory and both narrative analysis and strategic narrative analysis this study's results confirm previous research in several ways. The identified narratives have a predominant majority of negative angles to Sweden's disadvantage and there is use of ridiculing language with the intent to diminish Sweden's international position. I have been able to distinguish four main narratives that all touches upon gender equality in some way. These narratives,1) a polarized Sweden, a country in free fall, 2) extreme gender equality /feminism, 3) gender equality as a mirage, and 4) an elite that pursues an extreme agenda, are created by Sputnik by "harvesting" domestic media and then translating and repackaging the content to portray a negative image of Sweden. These narrative themes function in a normative way by highlighting the unusual and that which stands out, and through performative repetition, these foreign policy motivated narratives acts as bordering practices that constantly produce and reproduce the nations' borders, identity and sovereignty. This study concludes that the strategic narratives on gender equality in the Russian state-controlled media identified in this study function as a weapon in Russia's political war towards Sweden. / <p>2021-06-02</p>

The representation of women in parliament is a subject that has been up for debate since the beginning of the 20th century and the beginning of women’s suffrage. Gender quotas is a way to increase the representation of women in modern parliaments, even in the Swedish riksdag. This qualitative, comparative study shows that out of the eight Swedish parties of parliament, six is implementing gender quotas but in different ways and for different reasons. These reasons get brought into light in official party documents where the parties discuss their stance on gender equality politics and gender quotas. The parties’ opinion on gender quota is defined by three different kind of arguments: the argument of equal representation, the argument of resources and the argument of interest. The left-wing parties tend to use all three of the arguments, while the right-wing parties tend to be more sceptical of the use of gender quotas and therefore use two or less arguments. The parties’ stance on gender quotas are furthermore analysed from the perspective of the theory of feminist institutionalism. Parties who use all three of the arguments, or all the argument except the argument of resources, tend to have a feminist approach to their politics. These parties use gender quota as a way of reforming the parliament’s structure. Other parties who focus on justice and resource as arguments of gender quotas is often more conservative or focused on preserving the structure on which the riksdag is built upon.

The movement Caravana de Madres de Migrantes Desaparecidos; a transnational social movement uniting Central American mothers from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua whose children have disappeared in Mexico while migrating to the US, is part of a Latin American tradition where a mother-centered kinship system is at the center. The movement has managed to reunite more than 300 families. The concept of motherhood is important in forming the identity of this particular movement, when making their voices heard in the public sphere to find their disappeared children, fight for migrants rights and for social change. In what ways does the concept of motherhood influence the Caravana de Madres de Migrantes Desaparecidos’s struggle and communication for social change? How does the movement’s use of motherhood as a primary identity marker contribute to or hinder the movement's struggle for human rights and development?  To explore these questions we have collected data primarily through semi-structured interviews with members of the movement. We have also included other material such as recorded meetings, articles and videos for the contextual data in our content analysis. Our theoretical framework spans from more general theories on social movements and transnational movements to post-colonial theories on feminism and development, especially the Women Culture Development Approach (Bhavnani et al. 2016). Theories that concern cultural trauma and collective identity are also included since these are of specific relevance to the particular social movement of our case study.  We found that besides spreading awareness on the widespread issues of migration and enforced disappearances, the movement is contributing to both gender autonomy and empowerment for the mothers of the Caravana de Madres de Migrantes Desaparecidos. In the process of joining the movement many women undergo a journey from being a victim in mourning to becoming a social activist who encourages the engagement of even more women in social change initiatives. This in turn has long lasting effects on social change in their home countries. Unfortunately, we found that since their male spouses often are not part of this process, when returning home many mothers experience a backlash in terms of gender equality.

The diploma thesis deals with gender aspects of preschool education from kindergartens leading's view. The main aim was to research situation and approach to gender equality in preschool education. Because of it I have decided to focus on knowledge and attitude of leading of kindergartens and their importance to preschool curriculum and also to order of children group from the gender perspective. The theoretical part summarizes findings about school socialization, preschool institutions and documents about curriculum. This part also focus on viewpoint of character of institutional children education, studies of school and preschool socialization and the aspects which are cause for feminization of preschool education. The empirical part introduces the methodological steps of the research. That means method, data collecting or the way of questioning which work on the constructivism and critical theory. This offers the results of analysis of semi-structured interviews. The main part of the thesis includes the results of twelve research and refers to occurrence of gender topics in the space of kindergartens - construction of professional identity of leading schools or definition of teaching and preschool education. The research refers to understanding of gender issues by preschool leaders in connection...

The current study has been analysing and discussing the rise of alternative masculinities among the younger generation of Iranian men, with the focus on the protest action of part of Iranian social media users to Romina’s honour killing as a case study. This interpretative research was conducted using thematic analysis within a perspective of intersectionality, and the case study in this research is built upon analysing material of the against honour related campaign following the hashtags #NoBelieveInHonour, # IOwnNoNamus and #ManWithoutNamus on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The study argues how young Iranian men are taking initiative to combat violence against women and achieve gender equality. The result demonstrated that among the generation of young, educated and secular men who are against the Islamic Republic in Iran and are more familiar with the values of modernity and gender equality under the influence of globalization and digital media, alternative masculinities have emerged in a small section of society. Reacting against the concepts of namus is one of the most difficult and controversial areas for men in traditional societies, as they feel that their masculine authority is being further questioned by criticizing and tarnishing the culture of honour and sexual restrictions. Therefore, the fact that men are willing to radically critique the concept of namus in this way can be a hope that feminist values have developed among these men.

Mot bakgrunden av den könsneutrala värnplikten var uppsatsens syfte att identifiera diskurser om gender och jämställdhet inom Försvarsmakten. För att undersöka detta användes en diskursanalys där dagstidningsartiklar och Försvarsmaktens jämställdhetsdokument analyserades utifrån frågeställningarna om hur gender respektive jämställdhet diskuteras och förstås i dessa material. Analysen resulterade i elva identifierade diskurser; sex för gender och fem för jämställdhet. För gender identifierades en binär uppfattning av gender, drivande manlig sexualitet och kvinnliga offer som diskursiva ramar i jämställdhetsdokumenten. I dagstidningarna identifierades diskurser om mäns och kvinnors olika intresse, om maskulint förhållningssätt och manlig sexualitet. I analysen av jämställdhet identifierades en diskurs där kvinnor synliggörs och jämförs mot en osynlig manlig standard samt en diskurs om sexuella trakasserier i jämställdhetsdokumenten. I dagstidningsartiklarna identifierades diskurser om att kvinnor bidrar till försvarets operativa förmåga, att sexuella trakasserier utgör hinder för jämställdhet och att jämn könsfördelning ses som jämställdhet. Diskurserna i jämställdhetsmaterialen och dagstidningarna överlappade varandra till viss del, exempelvis gällande manlig sexualitet och sexuella trakasserier. Utifrån analysen konstaterades att Försvarsmaktens jämställdhetsarbete har ett fokus på sexuella trakasserier. Femininitet associeras till offerskap medan mäns sexualitet formuleras som aggressiv, vilket underbygger förståelsen av sexuella trakasserier inom Försvarsmakten. Den slutsats som dras från uppsatsen är att uppfattningarna om jämställdhet baseras på diskursiva uppfattningar om gender. Likaså baseras uppfattningarna om gender inom organisationen på de diskursiva förståelser som finns om jämställdhet. / In the context of the Swedish conscription being reformulated as gender neutral, this thesis aimed to identify discourses about gender and equality in the Swedish Armed Forces. A discourse analysis was used to identify how gender and gender equality is understood and discussed in newspaper articles as well as in the Swedish Armed Forces’ documents on gender equality. The analysis resulted in six identified discourses on gender. A binary understanding of gender, aggressive male sexuality and female victims were discourses about gender in the gender equality documents, whereas men’s and women’s different interests, masculine attitudes and aggressive male sexuality was discursive perceptions of gender in the newspapers. The analysis resulted in five identified discourses on gender equality. In the gender equality documents a discourse about women being compared to an invisible male standard was identified as well as a discourse about sexual harassment. In the newspapers one discursive notion was that women contribute to the efficiency of the defense; another was that sexual harassment is an obstacle for gender equality and a third discourse regards even gender ratio as gender equality. To some extent, the discourses in the newspapers and the gender equality documents overlapped, for example regarding male sexuality and sexual harassment. The analysis showed a skewed focus on sexual harassment in the Swedish Armed Forces’ gender equality work. Femininity is associated with victim hood while men’s sexuality is articulated as aggressive, which underpins the understanding of sexual harassment. The conclusions that are drawn from this thesis are that perceptions of gender and gender equality are co-constructed, meaning that they mutually depend on and construct each other.

In 2015, 70% of the asylum-seekers in Sweden were men. This skewed ratio combined with the image of the threatful male immigrant have raised a topical question within the most gender equal country and self-proclaimed feminist state. Through a gender perspective that has never been researched and which gives voice to Swedish women, this issue is investigated. In particular, it is relevant to consider how socially engaged Swedish women reflect on male newcomers who have arrived in Sweden since the 2015 refugee crisis. Alongside it is pertinent to investigate how those Swedish women assess the impact of the new arrivals on their lives and the society they live in. Using qualitative research,fifteen women are interviewed on account of their relevant opinion on the topic, their experience with refugees, their political stance and their work. The informants reminisce about the refugee crisis in Sweden and examine the characteristics of male newcomers,their empathy and support towards male newcomers, gender (in)equality and the impact of the arrival of male newcomers in Sweden. Results display a dense and complex picture of the viewpoints of Swedish women on the refugee crisis and the arrival of male newcomers to Sweden, between enthusiasm and prudence on the issue.

This paper investigates the relationship between gender equality and SEA allegations in peacekeeping missions with the help of structural focused questions aiming to answer; How does UN troop-contributing countries' gender equality affect their SEA allegations during peacekeeping missions? The paper focuses on the troop-contributing countries, selected through Mill’s Method of Difference, Morocco and Bangladesh in the missions MONUSCO and MINUSCA. The results indicate a significance with the hypothesis as the empirical information shows fewer SEA allegations in both missions by Bangladesh, who also appear to have made more domestic attempts to create structural changes for gender equal standards.

Through the lens of analyses of populist mobilizations informed by political sociology, this study offers a new perspective on tactics used by anti-gender campaigns. Specifically examining the Education Curriculum and the Enfoque de Igualdad de Género [Gender Equality Approach] in congressional debates in Peru in 2018 and 2019, this study uses a qualitative content analysis to identify central themes. The themes reveal tactics that sabotage feminist gains in educational reforms, spearheaded by Christian political actors. The argument is thus that Christian political actors use tactics such as coopting feminist concepts such as “gender” and re-framing it as “gender ideology”. This is an example of using “emotional epistemic loops” of information to achieve political goals, in this case advancing patriarchal Christian values and undermining feminist and gender equality gains.

This thesis aims to investigate the phenomenon popularly referred to as the pink tax, otherwise known as gender-based price discrimination in the Swedish hygiene product market. The subject is thoroughly researched in markets like the United States and the United Kingdom, where evidence has been found that a pink tax does exist. Thus, women tend to pay more for initially the same product than men, where seemingly, the only difference between the two is packaging and/or fragrance. The sample collection consists of five different product categories: razor blades, razors, shaving cream, deodorant, and soap. The samples have all been collected manually from 16 different locations, distributed at a 38 km radius between the area Skövde to Mariestad in Västra Götaland, Sweden.  Inspired by previous research, this study starts examining the market using a t-test. To further the investigation, two types of regression models are used. The findings support the possibility of a pink tax existing in the Swedish market. Where the largest and most stable regression showed a 4,1% difference in prices for female versus male products. Hence, women tend to pay 4,1% more for hygiene products and the research can conclude that prices are not statistically equal. From this result, we recommend the Swedish customer protection agency- Diskrimineringsombudmannen, to further work on the laws against price discrimination by clarification of guidelines and construction of a stricter legal environment to prevent gender-based price discrimination in the future.