The aim of this thesis is to describe the institutional and financial security of the gender equality policy from 1998 to the present in the background of the interactions and relationships between its key actors - Gender Equality Unit (Office of the Government of the Czech Republic), Gender Equality Advisory bodies (Office of the Government of the Czech Republic), Department of Family and Ageing Policy (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs), Division of Gender Equality Projects (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) and Gender Equality Nonprofit Organizations (Gender Equality NGO). Theoretical support of this thesis is the state/market feminism theory and theoretical concepts policy and governance. The outcomes of the analysis and expert interviews show the institutional and financial security of the gender equality policy is continual, horizontal and fragmented process created by internally and externally different actors. These actors implement their gender equality policies differently and their work is parallel. However, at the same time they are mutually dependent through different sources thereby different interactions (both cooperation and coaction) and relationships (both formal and informal) as well as tension and problems arise. Negotiations about funding of the policy measures and...

This thesis has analysed the relations among the women’s movement, the state and the labour market policy during and shortly after the Second World War and to what extent this period can be characterised as a formative phase as regards gender relations. The aim has been to study women’s strategic actions in order to influence the Swedish Government’s labour market policy in the period from 1939 to 1947. The thesis shows the conflicts of interest that manifested themselves between Statens arbetsmarknadskommission (SAK, ‘the National Swedish Labour Market Commission’) and its advisory women’s group, experts on women’s issues, concerning the planning and utilisation of female labour. SAK thought that the work of the experts on female issues should only focus on the short-term labour problems caused by the national crisis situation, while the experts on women’s issues were of the opinion that they should also work with long-term labour-market issues for women. These different ways of thinking and understanding the problem originated in different views on women’s work. The experts on women’s issues wanted to strengthen women’s position on the labour market by abolishing the wage differences between the genders, breaking the gender segregation in education, and broadening the occupational choices of girls. They had three strategies for achieving this: a strategy of professionalisation, a strategy of change, and a strategy of state feminism. The strategy of professionalisation was aimed at raising the value of traditional female work, in terms of both status and wages. The strategy of change was aimed at creating new opportunities for women to leave typical low-wage jobs and gain access to better paid jobs in male-dominated areas. The strategy of state feminism was aimed at paving the way for women in new and expanding occupational areas beside the traditional male occupations. Can the period during and shortly after the war be characterised as a formative phase of the issue of gender relations? It is evident that this period did not involve a revolution of the societal gender order. The idea of women as reserve labour did not disappear. The post-war planners considered that, in the transition to peace, the women who had replaced men who were called up should be redeployed or retrained for employment in household work, in hotels, restaurants and cafés, in shops and in health care. In spite of the great shortage of labour in the post-war period, leading politicians and economists stuck to old ways of thinking. A clear indication on the part of the Government was that the women’s movement’s demand for long-term planning in order to utilise female labour was turned down. One important difference from the First World War was that the Government produced peace plans for women’s work during the Second World War. The period also led to ideological and institutional consequences that could be the beginning of a change of the societal gender order. From her central position in Kommissionen för ekonomisk efterkrigsplanering (‘the Commission for economic post-war planning’), Karin Kock could see to it that women’s demands for greater occupational mobility and a loosening up of the gender division of labour had an impact on the post-war planning of the war years. The experiences of women in male industries in the Second World War, both in Sweden and abroad, showed to some extent that it was possible to change the gender division of labour. The modern welfare state also came to correspond to a great extent to the state feminist strategy of the experts on women’s issues. With the historical formation of the welfare state a new type of occupational groups developed, the so-called welfare state professionals.

This thesis explores constructions of gendered and gender political positions and practices of men identifying as ‘feminist’. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 28 men aged 20-34. At issue is how seemingly contradictory positions for men as feminists are made comprehensible in theory and practice. An introduction showcase theoretical discussions on gendered experiences and the possibilities of men being feminist, mainly from standpoint, radical feminist and poststructuralist radical constructionist perspectives. Men doing feminism emerge as an unresolved complex matter. This is followed by a critical discussion of state feminism, double emancipation and research on men and masculinities in the welfare state. The support for men’s participation, predominantly as white heterosexual fathers, in the Swedish gender equality project has consequences for the construction of men as potentially ‘new’, ‘good’ gender equal feminist subjects. In the construction of profeminist positions in interview performances, interviewees are located in-between the radical feminist, poststructuralist and gender equality perspectives on men, masculinity and feminism. Two themes involve an implementation of the concept of passing and introduce the analytical concept of co-fielding. Passing consists of the microsociological process of making radical and deconstructive profeminist positions authentic and yet being able to manage masculinity in homosocial contexts. Co-fielding refers to the conjoint interlacing of experiences, knowledge and meaning-making in interview interaction where relations of researcher-researched are characterized by discursive closeness and overlapping positions. Co-fielding practices affect the outcomes of co-construction of interview performances, the negotiation of gender and power relations and the reflexive use of (in this case feminist) knowledge in qualitative interviews. In analyzing the presentations of self, ambiguous meanings of profeminist positions emerge and the doing, undoing and redoing of feminism and masculinity appear multi-faceted. Radical feminism and radical constructionism seem intersected in making men’s feminist positions comprehensible. Such rebellious positions emerge as oxymoronic and, when critically brought into the gender equality context, located in a no man’s land out of place. In all, the thesis seeks to bring together theoretical, national and empirical locations of profeminist men, and in a concluding chapter also explore issues of ethics in feminist research and cross-gender interviewing.

La crise qui sévit actuellement au sein du leadership supérieur des Forces armées canadiennes (FAC) ramène au premier plan certaines lacunes structurelles profondes de la culture militaire canadienne. Le peu de représentation féminine parmi les postes clés fait resurgir les questionnements quant aux barrières limitant leur accès. L’objectif de ce mémoire sera d’abord de raconter les parcours de carrières de femmes militaires actives au sein de la Force régulière et d’en cerner les obstacles vécus en fonction du genre. Le matériel empirique puisé à partir des récits de vie permettra ensuite de déterminer l’existence de barrières structurelles pour identifier leur nature, leur construit et leur reproduction. Cette recherche est le produit de 15 entretiens semi-dirigés réalisés auprès de femmes militaires actives de la Force régulière. Elles évoluent distinctement dans les trois éléments des FAC (Marine royale canadienne, Armée canadienne et Aviation royale du Canada) et font carrière dans plus d’une dizaine de métiers différents. Le matériel empirique recueilli a permis de cibler des moments clés de la carrière et d’ensuite procéder à une analyse de croisement des données. Au niveau des parcours de carrière individuels, ce mémoire démontre que la culture normative dominante est issue d’une masculinité hégémonique. Ainsi, les métiers des armes de combat demeurent toujours les plus valorisés de l’organisation, étant ceux par lesquels passe l’ascension vers les rangs supérieurs. Structurellement, les allers-retours entre empirie et théorie ainsi que les interactions entre structure et individualité confirment l’existence de rapports de pouvoir multilatéraux, allant au-delà de la logique top-down de la hiérarchie. Ce multilatéralisme est vécu horizontalement en raison de la culture normative puis verticalement dans la hiérarchisation des rôles de genre et des échanges entre leaders et subordonné·e·s. Combiné aux exigences institutionnelles des FAC, il exacerbe les défis invisibles auxquels les femmes militaires se heurtent dans l’ascension des rangs, notamment en rapport avec la crédibilité minée, la conciliation travail-famille, la posture maternelle et le tokénisme d’être « première femme ». En donnant la parole aux récits de vie et aux parcours de carrières de femmes actuellement en service, ce mémoire contribue à briser l’invisibilité des réalités vécues et d’identifier les barrières structurelles de genre intrinsèque aux FAC. Au niveau empirique, la méthode utilisée contribue à l’avancement des recherches sur les parcours de carrière des femmes militaires des Forces armées canadiennes. Au niveau théorique, la méthode amène de nouvelles perspectives d’analyse complémentaires au féminisme d’État en l’appliquant à une bureaucratie atypique. Les théories mobilisées soulèvent des pistes de solution dans l’élaboration de politiques qui assureraient une meilleure rétention des femmes militaires déjà en poste. La recherche contribue également à la littérature francophone qui traite du leadership militaire féminin et des enjeux de genre dans les FAC. / The current crisis amongst the senior leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) brings to the forefront structural gaps within Canadian military culture more broadly. The paltry representation of women within key posts has resurfaced questions surrounding barriers to entry. The objective of this thesis is primarily to present the career trajectories of Regular Force female members of the military and to highlight the obstacles they face because of their gender. The empirical data taken from these narratives allows for identifying structural barriers, their nature, their construction, and their reproduction. This research is the result of 15 semi-directed in-depth interviews conducted with female members of the military in the Regular Force. These women develop differently according to the three distinct elements of the CAF (Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force) and bear witness to careers lived across more than ten different trades. The empirical data allows for the triangulation of key moments within each woman’s career and to then proceed to crossreferencing. On an individual career level, this thesis shows that the dominant normative culture derives from hegemonic masculinity. Furthermore, trades belonging to the combat arms are still the most valued within the organisation and represent the path to the highest attainable ranks. Structurally, the liaison between theory and empirical practice, and those between structures and individuality confirm the existence of multilateral relationships of power. These relationships go beyond the topdown logic of hierarchy. This multilateralism is lived horizontally because of the normative culture, vertically based on the hierarchization of gender roles, and also amidst the exchanges between leaders and subordinates. Combined with the CAF’s institutional requirements, this exacerbates the invisible challenges which confront women as they climb the ranks, notably with regard to credibility, worklife balance, motherhood, and the tokenism of being the “first woman.” By giving a platform to these narratives from currently serving women, this thesis serves to break invisible lived realities and identify the gendered structural barriers intrinsic to the CAF. On an empirical level, the method used contributes to the advancement of research on the career trajectories of woman in the Canadian Armed Forces. On a theoretical level, the method used applies new analytical perspectives related to state feminism and directs them toward an atypical bureaucracy. The theories discussed within this project upend the current policies which seek to promote retention amongst women already serving. This research also contributes to the body of francophone literature which deals with female military leadership and with gender issues in the CAF.