Globally female smoking rates are considerably lower than male smoking rates. However, there is great concern regarding female smoking due to the potential for future increases and the associated harm to health. To gain a better understanding regarding female smoking, this study examines the role of gender equality and economic development in explaining the variability in female smoking rates and female-to-male smoking differentials by examining data from 193 World Health Organization member states. Data on the dependent variables, female smoking prevalence rates and female-to-male smoking prevalence ratio, were obtained from the Tobacco Atlas. Data on independent variables i.e., measures of gender equality and gross national income per capita, proxy measure for economic development, were obtained from the 2005 Human Development Report, Central Intelligence Agency, and the World Bank. A composite gender equality index was constructed from the individual measures of gender equality. Multiple regression analysis showed composite gender equality index and gross national income per capita to be significant positive predictors of relative and absolute female smoking rates, with income being a stronger predicator. Individual measures of gender equality failed to show significance with either dependent variable. The results attest to the need for disentangling smoking from the notion of advancement in gender equality and economic development.

Šiame darbe apibrėžiama palankios šeimai politikos sąvoka, išanalizuojamos pagrindinės palankios šeimai politikos priemonės ir jų taikymo galimybės Lietuvoje. Darbe siekiama atskleisti darbdavių požiūrį į darbuotojų, auginančių vaikus, šeimos ir darbo sferų derinimą. Pagal Barnett (1999) suformuotus teorinius darbo ir šeimos sąveikos modelius, darbe mėginama įrodyti, jog Lietuvoje darbdaviai remiasi požiūriu, kad darbuotojai turi palikti šeimos problemas už darbovietės ribų. Palankios šeimai politikos sąvoka darbe apibrėžiama kaip visuma priemonių, padedančių asmenims derinti darbo ir šeimos sferas. Šių priemonių įgyvendinimas priklauso ne tik nuo valstybės vykdomos valdžios sprendimų, bet ir nuo darbdavių požiūrio, motyvacijos taikyti palankios šeimai politikos priemones darbovietėse. Palanki šeimai politika yra įgyvendinama tuomet, kai taikomas visas komplektas priemonių, nukreiptų į šeimos ir darbo derinimo galimybes. Kuriant bei vykdant palankią šeimai politiką, susiduriama su lyčių, ypač moterų, lygybės klausimais, todėl priemonės turi būti nukreiptos į tai, kad visiems asmenims būtų suteiktos vienodos galimybės dalyvauti darbo rinkoje. Autorės atlikto tyrimo kiekybiniai apklausos rodikliai rodo gana teigiamą darbdavių požiūrį palankios šeimai politikos priemonių atžvilgiu, tačiau gauti kokybiniai rezultatai išryškina neigiamas darbdavių nuostatas į darbuotojų darbo ir šeimos derinimo sunkumus. Remiantis gautais kokybiniais duomenimis, taip pat galima daryti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This study defines the concept of family-friendly policy, also analyzes the means of family-friendly policy and the practice of their implementation in Lithuania. Further more this work reveals the attitude of employers towards exertions of employees with children to reconciliation work and family. According Barnett (1999) theory of interaction model of work and private life this study verifies the hypothesis that employers want their employees leave their family problems out of work boundaries. Family-friendly policy is understood as those that facilitate a better work and family balance for individual employees. The implementation of means of family-friendly policy depends on legislative either the attitude and motivation of employers to build family-friendly workplace. Only the whole package of measures with great emphasis on gender equality can be an effective response to the conflict of work and family spheres. The quantitative data of author made survey shows fairly friendly attitude of employers towards family-friendly policy. Despite that, the qualitative results of the survey highlighting negative attitude of employers to in reconciliation of work and private lives of the employees. According to the finding it is worth to mention employers’ belief that generally women are required of the family-friendly workplace. It verifies the patriarchal attitude of employers to the gender roles in the family.

No description available.

More than a decade has now passed since the concept of “gender mainstreaming” and polices addressing a gender perspective first appeared on the international agenda, yet evaluations on these policies’ implementation show that progress has been slow in the field of humanitarian assistance. As executive workers, the humanitarian field staff have in policy documents been identified as crucial actors in the “gender mainstreaming” work, however, no previous research have been found evaluating their achievements in the field. This study examines if formulated gender policies, within Swedish humanitarian organisations and agencies, are implemented and translated into action in the field. This was carried out by investigating Swedish humanitarian fieldworkers’ gender sensitiveness and experiences of working with a gender perspective in the field. The empirical material was collected from qualitative deep interviews with ten fieldworkers from four different humanitarian organisations/agencies. The interview data was then analysed by using a theoretical framework based on Gender theory, Postcolonial feminist theory and Policy implementation theory. The results show that even though most of the interviewed fieldworkers mean that they are aware of gender issues and the importance of using a gender perspective in the field, they have a general low understanding of the gender concept. An emerging “cultural sensitivity versus gender policy implementation” dilemma was valid and possibly affecting the informants’ attempts to act on formulated policies. Moreover, the method that the organisations/agencies use when educating staff on gender issues seem to have an impact on this dilemma. It became apparent that the fieldworkers underestimate their own responsibility in using a gender perspective in the field; at the same time the organisations/agencies overestimate their workers’ capacity to implement their gender policies. Much also indicate on how a still old-fashioned gender discourse is produced, and reproduced, in gender policy formulations and among the fieldworkers. In conclusion, it seems like a gap occur between the initial intention of a policy, its formulation, interpretation and the final intervention result. / Mer än ett decennium har passerat sedan begreppet "gender mainstreaming " och genus policys först dök upp på den internationella dagordningen. Trots detta visar utvärderingar att genomförandet av dessa policyer varit långsamt inom humanitärt- och katastrofbistånd. Som verkställande arbetare har personalen inom humanitär verksamhet i flera policydokument identifierats som viktiga aktörer för arbetet mot att implementera genus policys, dock har ingen tidigare forskning utvärderat deras faktiska utförande i fält. Studien undersöker huruvida svenska humanitära biståndsorganisationer- och myndigheters formulerade genuspolicys implementeras och omsätts till handling i fält. Detta görs genom att granska svenska humanitära fältarbetares genusmedvetenhet och erfarenheter av att arbeta med ett genusperspektiv i sina uppdrag. Det empiriska materialet samlades in från kvalitativa djupintervjuer med tio fältarbetare från fyra olika svenska organisationer/myndigheter. Materialet analyserades med hjälp av ett teoretiskt ramverk baserat på Genusteori, Postkolonial feministisk teori och teori kring policyimplementering. Resultaten visar att även om de flesta av de intervjuade fältarbetarna säger sig vara medvetna om begreppet genus, och vikten av att använda ett genusperspektiv i fält, har de en låg förståelse för innebörden av konceptet. Ett dilemma mellan ”kulturell känslighet” och ”implementering av genuspolicys” uppkom, där organisationernas/myndigheternas utbildningsmetod av ett genustänk möjligtvis har en förstärkande inverkan. Tydligt var att fältarbetarna verkar underskattar sitt eget ansvar i att använda ett genusperspektiv i fält, samtidigt som organisationerna/myndigheterna överskattar sina anställdas förmåga att arbeta efter de formulerade policyerna. Mycket tyder också på att en fortfarande ganska otidsenlig könsdiskurs produceras och reproduceras både i formulerade genuspolicys, och bland fältarbetarna. Sammanfattningsvis verkar det som att det uppstår en klyfta mellan den initiala intentionen av en policy, dess utformning, tolkningen av denna och interventionens slutresultat.

This thesis examines the persistent widespread discrimination against widows in Uganda and Nigeria that results from mandatory observance of harmful widowhood rituals, interpersonal violence, disinheritance, and forceful deprivation of property in marriage, in violation of and contrary to the provisions of international and regional human rights conventions and domestic laws. The thesis argues that international, regional, and domestic laws have not been effective to address the violation of widows’ rights because the terms in which these laws are expressed are not meaningful at the grassroots level. The thesis proposes social, cultural, economic, and legal measures to address the use of widows as cultural tools. In this thesis, I use the term ‘cultural tools’ to refer to the use of widows in Uganda and Nigeria, as in many other sub-Saharan African countries, as embodiments of cultural identity, especially in most parts of rural areas. Widows are used as tools to perpetuate traditional cultural customs such as widowhood rituals, levirate marriages, disinheritance, and widow cleansing. Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. This provision is complemented by various international and regional instruments on discrimination and gender equality. Using the Igbo tribe of the Eastern part of Nigeria and the Baganda tribe of Uganda as case studies, my thesis examines to what extent widowhood rites amount to an infringement of the human rights of the widows in most part of the sub-Saharan African countries. The thesis examines the various international, regional, and domestic laws as they apply to or affect Nigerian and Ugandan widows either as a consequence of their status as widows or as members of the community. Thus, in light of the gap between international and state laws, on the one hand, and cultures and customary law on the other hand, this thesis draws insights from the concept of “vernacularization”. This approach combines the views espoused in Sally Engle Merry’s work and argues that to change the cultures and practices of customary law on the ground, initiatives must be taken at the grassroots level.

性別平等是指在公平的機會，責任和報銷提供給男性和女性的分佈。性別平等擁抱平等的待遇在教育，衛生和政治機會的男女，對於家庭，社區內獲得資源和服務，以及整個社會。 當婦女賦權，發展時，整個受益的社區和國家。在過去的十年中，性別平等已經成為在全球發展項目的執行中央的方面。無數的努力和策略，以滿足世界上最貧窮的婦女的需求已經實施。儘管國際組織的興趣和投資在肯定婦女的平等機會，還有幾個婦女不平等的惡果，尤其是在發展中國家。在洪都拉斯的婦女，特別是貧困和邊緣化的背景，暴露於無情的困難和更少的資源只為出生婦女。 本研究旨在分析在洪都拉斯性別平等在2009年政變後，外國援助的影響，側重於三個特定變量的教育，以小學和中學入學率，衛生檢測，以明確重點孕產婦死亡率和賦權外援的衝擊，由婦女在國家議會中所佔席位的比例測量。為了實現這一目標，特別是探究的方法主要是定性的基礎上，文獻分析和對國際的報告和數據的連續依賴。 關鍵詞：性別平等，洪都拉斯，教育，衛生，賦權，外援。 / Gender equality refers to justice in the distribution of opportunities, responsibilities, and reimbursements available to men and women. Gender equality embraces equal treatment of women and men in education, health and political opportunities, regarding access to resources and services within families, communities, and society at large. When women are empowered, development occurs, benefiting entire communities and nations. In the past decade, gender equality has become a central aspect in the execution of development projects around the globe. Countless efforts and strategies have been implemented in order to meet the needs of the world’s poorest women. Despite the international organizations ́ interest and investment in affirming women’s equal opportunities, there are still several women suffering from the consequences of inequality, especially in developing countries. In Honduras women, specifically from poor and marginalized backgrounds, are exposed to relentless hardship and fewer resources just for being born as women. This study seeks to analyze the impact foreign aid has on gender equality in Honduras after the coup d’etat in 2009, focusing on three specific variables education, measured by primary and secondary enrollment rates, health, with a clear focus on maternal mortality ratios and the impact of foreign aid on empowerment, measured by the proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament. To achieve this particular objective the method of inquiry is primarily qualitative, based on documental analysis and continuous reliance on international reports and data. Key words: Gender Equality, Honduras, education, health, empowerment, foreign aid.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to describe, critically analyse and provide information about gender equality in Swedish preschools, in relation to policy and practice. The main focus is on pedagogues’ gender equality work with children. The study includes a comparison between state gender equality policy in Scottish and Swedish preschools. The theoretical starting point for the analysis is a policy and gender perspective. Based on Bacchis’ (1999) and Marshalls’ (1997) work suggesting that gender equality policy issues and problems are socially constructed, a contrasting analytical framework is devised and used in the analysis. The main emphasis in the analysis of gender equality constructions is on underlying assumptions, competing constructions and “areas of silence”, relating to what is missing from a gender perspective. There is also some consideration of the agreement between constructions and concrete measures. The time-period studied was from the end of the 1960s onwards; emphasis was placed on the last fifteen years. The main empirical data consists of: Swedish and Scottish state official policy documents and interviews with Scottish researchers; Swedish local authority official documents and interviews with local authority officials from four municipalities; and interviews with pedagogues from three work-teams in three preschools. This information is complemented with documentation about the preschools’ gender equality work. In state preschool policy, pedagogues are depicted both as part of the solution to the gender equality problem but also part of the problem because there are “too few men”. Local authorities consider that pedagogues need more knowledge about gender equality. The pedagogues themselves make a distinction between the past, when their treatment of children was founded on gender-based stereotypes, and the present, in which they are aware but need to keep up the work. In both Swedish preschool policy and practice, gender equality has mainly focused on treating girls and boys similarly, based on assumptions that this is desirable; and this is still the approach. This similarity discourse has been quite constant in Swedish state policy since the 1960s. One exception, however, was the attention to biological differences which gained influence in the mid 1990s in policies mainly relating to compulsory schooling. Gender equality is, with respect to both policy and practice, largely constructed as a pedagogical preschool issue. Discussions about wider society mainly concern the public sphere and the labour market, whilst the private sphere is seldom considered. Children are mainly positioned as “girls” or “boys” and as recipients of pedagogues’ gender equality measures. In general, little consideration is given to hierarchies and variations among groups of girls or boys, or about intersections between gender and other socially constructed categories. Intersections were most clearly visible in practice, especially in one preschool studied; they concern gender equality, age and space. Issues concerning power and gender order are usually missing, and there seems to be a clear influence of gender role theories. Even though there is clear current emphasis on increased similarities, there is a tension concerning whether gender equality is about treating everybody exactly the same, treating everybody in quite similar ways or treating children as unique individuals. This also involves a tension relating to whether gender equality concerns girls and boys as individuals, or as groups, or both. The study demonstrated that the emphasis on gender equality is stronger in the constructions than in concrete measures. In practice, work-teams’ discussions about gender equality were more nuanced than the somewhat compensatory methods that these practitioners applied during their work with the children.

This thesis investigates cultural associations and values connected to women in Swedish society, with regard to action space, autonomy and social position. This is done through a discourse analysis of the media debate about public breastfeeding between the years 1980-2016, especially putting focus on the female body, motherhood, and women's access to public space. Main theories are Sara Ahmed’s various works on feelings and public comfort, as well as theories about taboo, mainly Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas. In line with early feminist anthropology on women’s subordinated position, this study finds liminality between opposing binaries to be important for the discourse, placing breastfeeding women in a position of taboo and inconvenience. In the discourses I studied, the two most important binaries are the nature-culture dichotomy, and the separation between private and public space. The discourses concerning public breastfeeding are also connected to notions of Swedish Exceptionalism and gender equality, mostly in contrast to beliefs about prudish influences from the U.S. In the thesis is discussed how the media debate about public breastfeeding seems to have intensified from the 1990s onwards, which correlates with increased neoliberalization of the Swedish welfare system, causing changes in women’s life circumstances. In the concluding chapter is brought forth how public breastfeeding is a focal point for several contradictory expectations on breastfeeding women, placing them in a double bind and making women responsible for everyone else’s comfort. It is also illuminated how the binary oppositions mainly contribute to disadvantaging categorizations of women, as well as how neoliberal reforms seem to have a damaging effect on gender equality in Sweden.

Bakgrund: Sexualitet är viktigt i en människas liv. I samhället finns normer och förväntningar som vi alla förväntas anpassa oss till, dessa kan påverka sexualiteten och den sexuella hälsan. Genom att beskriva hur kvinnor förhåller sig till sin sexualitet, självbild och kropp utifrån ett heteronormativt samhälle kan barnmorskor få en djupare förståelse för kvinnors livsvillkor. Syfte: Att beskriva hur kvinnor förhåller sig till sin sexualitet, självbild och kropp utifrån samhällsnormer. Metod: Metasyntes baserat på 25 artiklar med kvalitativa data inkluderades i resultatet. Analysen gjordes genom metaetnografi. Resultat: Kvinnorna anpassade sig och var flexibla utifrån rådande samhällsnormer genom att de omfördelar makt i relationen, hanterar bristande utbildning och tabun, anpassar sig efter rådande könsroller samt strävar efter att uppfylla ideal. Dessa presenteras som de fyra huvudkategorierna i resultatet. Slutsats: Kvinnor formar sin sexualitet, självbild och kropp utifrån samhällsnormer och rådande maktstrukturer. De anpassar sig och är flexibla vilket påverkar deras självbild och sexuella hälsa. Självbilden och den sexuella hälsan utmärks av en begränsad makt att forma sitt eget liv. Kvinnor behöver medvetandegöras om denna situation för att få handlingskraft att värna om jämställdhet i sina egna liv och för att kunna verka för jämställdhet i samhället. Klinisk tillämpbarhet: Barnmorskor som yrkesgrupp kan stödja kvinnor i alla åldrar att bejaka sin sexualitet och se det fina i sina kroppar. Att inkludera barnmorskan och hens kompetens i skolans sexualundervisning; i samtal om lust, kroppsacceptans och samtycke, skulle kunna bidra till en förbättrad sexuell hälsa för unga kvinnor. Då barnmorskan i sitt arbete dagligen möter kvinnor som på olika sätt försöker förhålla sig till samhällsnormer och förväntningar kan denna metasyntes vara till hjälp i reflektion över barnmorskans värderingar kring jämställdhet och bemötande av kvinnor i olika livssituationer. / Background: Sexuality is important in a person's life. In our society there are norms and expectations that we all are expected to adapt to; these can affect sexuality and sexual health. To describe how women relate to their sexuality, self-image and body from a heteronormative society can give midwives a deeper understanding of women´s living conditions. Aim: To describe how women relate to their sexuality, self-image and body based on norms of society. Method: Meta-synthesis including qualitative data from 25 articles were included in the result. The analysis was done by meta-ethnography. Result: The women adapted and were flexible based on prevailing norms of society by redistributing power in the relationship, coping with lack of education and taboos, adapting to existing gender roles, and striving to fulfill ideals. These are presented as the four main categories in the result. Conclusion: Women shape their sexuality, self-image and body based on social norms and prevailing power structures. They adapt and are flexible, which affect their self-image and sexual health. The self-image and sexual health are characterized by a limited power to shape their own lives. Women need awareness of this situation in order to have the power to protect equality in their own lives and to promote equality in society. Clinical implication: Midwives as a professional group can support women of all ages to embrace their sexuality and see the beauty of their bodies. Inclusion of midwives in school sexual education; In conversation about lust, body acceptance and consent, could help improve sexual health for young women. When the midwife in her daily work meets women, who try to comply with social norms and expectations in different ways, this meta-synthesis can help in reflection on the midwifery's values about gender equality and the treatment of women in different life situations.