<p>This essay is a qualitative study about Swedish fire-fighters´ ideas of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds than Swedish. The problem in focus is why there are difficulties for those groups of people to be employed in the Swedish fire service. Can there be ideas of these groups which are not favourable for them? And if this is the case, can those ideas be explained by gender theory about construction of masculinity? The purpose is to investigate whether the absence of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds can be explained by the fire-fighters´ ideas of those groups. The study consisted of a one day observation and four one hour long interviews with fire-fighters from different positions within the Swedish fire service. Analysis has shown that there are ideas of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds which can make it harder for those groups to be employed in this organization. Ideas of women are for example that women have both weaker physical and mental conditions and that this can cause problems in serious rescue operations. Ideas of people from other ethnic backgrounds than Swedish are for example that those have a different view of the Swedish fire service and that this view can be hard to match with the Swedish one.</p>

This essay is a qualitative study about Swedish fire-fighters´ ideas of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds than Swedish. The problem in focus is why there are difficulties for those groups of people to be employed in the Swedish fire service. Can there be ideas of these groups which are not favourable for them? And if this is the case, can those ideas be explained by gender theory about construction of masculinity? The purpose is to investigate whether the absence of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds can be explained by the fire-fighters´ ideas of those groups. The study consisted of a one day observation and four one hour long interviews with fire-fighters from different positions within the Swedish fire service. Analysis has shown that there are ideas of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds which can make it harder for those groups to be employed in this organization. Ideas of women are for example that women have both weaker physical and mental conditions and that this can cause problems in serious rescue operations. Ideas of people from other ethnic backgrounds than Swedish are for example that those have a different view of the Swedish fire service and that this view can be hard to match with the Swedish one.