Socialstyrelsen (2021) reports that 8300 children and young people in Sweden were placed on a so called HVB during 2020. HVB stands for hem för vård eller boende which in english terms is equal to a home for care or housing. HVB was during 2020 the second most common form of placement for children and adolescents. Socialstyrelsen (2018) reports that social workers working within HVB are responsible for meeting young people's care needs in the form of various treatments. Research done by Mattson (2010) suggests that HVB is a closed environment, which can result in social workers that are active in these care homes become identification objects for the young people who are placed in these care homes. 

 Treatment staff in HVB homes work with adolescents who are in need of support and help. Social workers are expected to work gender-consciously to meet the individual needs of adolescents. Previous research shows that HVB is a complex environment that requires flexibility on the part of treatment staff and that interventions do not always lead to the best results. Newly graduated social workers are expected to possess knowledge as critical awareness of how gender affects treatment work.

We have chosen to investigate how newly graduated social workers who are active in HVB homes reflect about the fact that gender is done in treatment work and how they act with adolescents as gender awareness is part of the newly graduated social workers' education. The results of the study showed that the reflections of newly graduated social workers confirm previous research's explanation that gender is made in the treatment work with adolescents and which in turn affects how the staff's treatment work is designed. The result highlights that norms, stereotypes and gender perceptions that society produces affect the treatment work despite the social workers' gender awareness through education. Through the study, we also see the desire to counteract these gender notions and its ability to influence treatment work but that it is difficult.

The Gender-in-Media Landscape Study (Vietnam) aims to inform the activities of the Southeast Asia Media Training Network by exploring gender equity in the media workplace. Towards this end, data was gathered through a broad survey and multiple focus group discussions.The survey found:

More women worked in the media than men, including in recent years increasing numbers in management positions. Balancing work demands with family pressures – which by far fall dispro- portionately upon women – was a significant challenge to many careers.Women and men worked across a wide range of roles and beats within the industry, with the main exception being relative dominance of male journalists in sport and science and technology reporting.

Media institutions followed legally-mandated leave requirements, including maternity leave. However, any further policies and operations in support of gender equity – such as some flexibili- ty in hours, or carer’s leave – were inconsistent, and generally ad-hoc or dependent on personal arrangements where they exist. They often don’t adequately meet staffing needs.

The great majority of respondents received at least some training in the past two years which was valued; the main complaint was the limited number of training sessions. Men had greater general access, although majorities of both genders received training. 

This report aims to provide Fojo and its project partners with data and perspectives on gender in the media workplace, which can help ensure gender is integrated throughout project activities. in Cambodia project partners are the Cambodian Centre for Independent Media (CCIM) and the Cambodia Communications Institute (CCI). 

The report includes a brief overview of Cambodia’s current political situation, national-level gender issues, and media industry, including the industry’s scale and levels of media freedom. This provides context to interpret the findings on gender dynamics within the media sector itself.

As described under ‘Methodology’ below, the data are both qualitative and quantitative, combining focus group discussions and an extended survey. The researchers hope the data can meet the goal of informing and supporting curriculum design and delivery, whether in ‘technical’ skills or in broader gender awareness and policy; and in supporting the gender policies of both partners and Fojo. 

Äktenskapet står starkt som juridiskt skydd i Sverige, samtidigt som man fokuserar på jämställdhet och allas lika värde. Kungahuset ordnar bröllop med jämlik aura. Har kritiken av äktenskapet glömts bort?

Den här avhandlingen undersöker frågan om äktenskapsmotstånd i dagens svenska samhälle, media och kultur. Boken belyser olika sätt att uttrycka äktenskapsmotstånd och vad det betyder att formulera feministisk kritik av normerande familjevärderingar.

Undersökningen baseras på etnografi och kritisk kulturanalys och granskar synen på äktenskap, relationer och familj som ett kulturellt imaginärt fält. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer med kvinnor som inte har velat gifta sig, liksom ett brett material från tv, webbsidor, dagstidningar, skvallerpress och bloggar.

I avhandlingen genomförs och presenteras en feministisk metodologisk process, grundat i akademiskt kreativt och självreflexivt skrivande. Detta innebär att skrivprocessen, textformatet, liksom minnesarbete, olika intervjutekniker och andra kreativa analytiska praktiker är en del av det metodologiska ramverket.

De teoretiska perspektiven som ligger till grund för denna studie består av flera feministiska strömningar: radikalfeminism, queerfeminism, liberealfeminism, anarkafeminism och ett socialt rättviseperspektiv. De belyser, på olika sätt, intersektioner mellan äktenskap, genus, sexualitet, nationalitet, klass och makt. En gemensam utgångspunkt är att identitetskategorier, möjligheter att agera liksom vår plats i världen är konstruerade av maktrelationer och normativa föreställningar om genus. Dessa perspektiv tillhandahåller analytiska verktyg för att diskutera och dekonstruera kulturella föreställningar om äktenskap och äktenskapsmotstånd.

Feminism in Sweden as well as in the other Scandinavian countries was largely formulated as state feminism. The women's movement has cooperated with feminists in the state, resulting in societies that count as the most gender equal in the world. The Scandinavian countries are consistently ranked in the top position on international gender equality indices. The state has provided a large publicly financed welfare sector that both employs many women, and makes it possible to combine work and family through family friendly policies. The last decade has seen a politica l change influenced by neoliberal thought, in which politicians hand over welfare state responsibilities to the market, and instead encourage entrepreneurship, not least among women. The Swedish government has since 20 years back programs and policies to promote women's entrepreneurship. The Swedish state has during the same period shrunk the pub lic sector and privatized many operations in services and care, which traditionally employ many women. Instead, women are encouraged to start businesses in former public sectors. Empirica l studies suggest however, that all of the increase of women 's entrepreneurs hip in these sectors is within low-paid, micro service businesses, typically child minding.

Traditional state feminism has also changed character. Instead of public regulations, market solutions are advocated. In this paper we ask how to theorize this change from a feminist theory perspective; we ask what the implications for feminist action are, and we ask what consequences for women's position in society are. We use research literature and policy texts as our empirical material and conduct a critical literature analysis. We conclude that the entrepreneurship discourse challenges, and possibly weakens state feminism and feminist action as we have known it in the Scandinavian countries, but may also offer new forms of feminist resistance, on market terms.

The last two decades have seen major welfare state retrenchment in Sweden. The public sector, which used to be a large and stable employer for women, was downsized. Public schools and public health and care services were privatized. Customer choice models were introduced. The rhetoric connected to privatization stressed the unique opportunities for women formerly employed by the state to start their own businesses in this sector, now open for competition and private initiatives. In this paper we ask what the results were. We discuss the results from a feminist perspective, i.e we ask if privatization and business ownership has improved women’s situation on the labor market, or not. The paper draws together the research findings from our own empirical research (about fifteen different studies) as well as from research done by other Nordic scholars in the field.

The last decades have seen major welfare state retrenchment in Europe, not least in Sweden with public sector downsizing, including privatization of schools, care, and health care. The rhetoric connected to privatization stressed the unique opportunities for formerly publicly employed women to start their own businesses in sectors now open for enterprise. Did this materialize? Analyzing twenty years of empirical research on women's entrepreneurship in Sweden we find that privatization resulted in oligopolization and masculinization of the market(s), and that gendered public sector practices were reproduced in the private sector – women turned from low-wage labor to low-profit entrepreneurship. In addition, divisions among women along lines of ethnicity resulted.

In this paper we explore annual earnings as well as full-time monthlyearnings differentials resulting from sexual orientation. We observe that gay malesare at an earnings disadvantage compared to male heterosexuals regardless of whichearnings measure we use. This earnings disadvantage is found to be larger when wecompare gay and heterosexual males who are working full-time. In addition, thedisadvantage is larger in the private than in the public sector. Lesbians, however,earn more than heterosexual females. This earnings advantage is considerablysmaller when we study full-time monthly rather than annual earnings but an earningsadvantage for lesbians at the top of the earnings distribution is documentedregardless of which earnings measure we use. In addition, lesbians are doing betterthan female heterosexuals in the public sector. To sum up, the results indicate thatgay males face obstacles on the labor market that hinder them from reaching toplevelpositions and high earnings. The earnings advantage observed for lesbians islikely to stem from the fact that lesbians devote more time to market work thanheterosexual females.

This paper presents an experimental study of perceptions about gay, lesbian, and heterosexual domestic violence in Sweden. More than 1,000 participants were asked to read one out of eight possible fictitious scenarios of domestic violence in married couple relationships and subsequently respond to a questionnaire. Sexual orientation, victims’ and batterers’ gender, and severity of the violence varied across the different scenarios. The clearest result of this study was that participants perceived domestic violence to be significantly more serious when a man battered his wife than in any other case (i.e., when a woman battered her husband, when a gay man battered his husband, or when a lesbian woman battered her wife). In all types of relationships, participants matched their perceptions of domestic violence to the level of severity of the violence and participants with more negative attitudes toward women perceived domestic violence as less serious. Female participants were more concerned about lesbian domestic violence than male participants. Attitudes toward gays and lesbians mattered little for the perceptions of domestic violence.

This piece of writing is a joint initiative by the participants in the Gender, Work and Organization writing workshop organized in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2019. This is a particular form of writing differently. We engage in collective writing and embody what it means to write resistance to established academic practices and conventions together. This is a form of emancipatory initiative where we care for each other as writers and as human beings. There are many author voices and we aim to keep the text open and dialogical. As such, this piece of writing is about suppressed thoughts and feelings that our collective picket line allows us to express. In order to maintain the open-ended nature of the text, and perhaps also to retain some 'dirtiness' that is essential to writing, the article has not been language checked throughout by a native speaker of English.

The work for female empowerment is prominent on the Unguja island of Zanzibar. Governmental support and local and international organizations are investing in women to achieve gender equality. The government of Tanzania has added changes to the law to protect women and prevent gender-based violence, as well as strategic measures to assist the stakeholders of the Zanzibarian society. Simultaneously, the reports of gender-based violence (GBV) are increasing on the islands according to the Zanzibar Female Lawyer Association. The study explores the measures taken by the government to eliminate violence against women with a focus on the role of the man in these structural social and legal changes. The study also shows the challenges that the added laws have faced in practice, and the balance between culture and legal system in a society, when a change is to take place.

THE PATTERNS OF gendered experiences that have led to barriers of entryand progression for respondents of the study in Rwanda, when compared to an earlier study1 conducted by Fojo and AWiM across 17 African countries, further demonstrates how many of these experiences are shared irrespective of the country. In the case of Rwanda, a country that scores highly in the shares of seats in parliament and labour force participation within the global gender equality indices, the results are perhaps more surprising for that reason. The situation in Rwanda when compared with data from the sub-Saharan Africa shows a similarity in barriers faced by women journalists, namely poor salaries, sexual harassment, and gendered roles at the workplace. Therefore, these findings, in some respects, highlight that the existence of written and well-defined gender policies does not result in their successful implementation because Rwanda is still a long way from gender equality.

The results of this study, on the one hand, speak for themselves; training and education on gender equality would go a long way in successfully addressing many of the experiences shared by participants of the study. On the other hand, socio-cultural tensions surrounding the role of women in society further com- plicates how male colleagues perceive women rights and its importance. These tensions also highlight women’s rights and the ways in which society treat women journalists. Finally, this study outlines the extent to which women journalists in Rwanda themselves recognise gender discrimination and harassment when they experience them, because the data shows that whilst most women can identify when sexual harassment happens to them, there are few women who are unable to identify certain forms of sexual harassment.

This study, therefore, offers a clear starting point for organisations tasked with motivating and implementing change. It helps to identify the pain points from the perspective of the women journalists they seek to support. The recommendations presented by the study stems from their lived experiences, and it is through the conscious and reflective interrogation of this, that we can truly set the path towards change.

This article is based on the life histories of two immigrant women of Turkish origin living in Sweden. Fictive names are used in the article. The women are given in marriage at a very young age to attach them to men who will take over the function of their control from their fathers. By analyzing the life histories with the help of Delaney and Bourdieu's theoretical approaches, I try to explain the implicit idea in the honour/shame complex whereby protection of women is maintained through control on their sexuality. The control is accelerated to the extent that women live in “immigrant enclaves”. The function of women as carriers and bearers of group identity gains importance in case of the “immigrant situation” where ethnic identity becomes an issue to consider. Women are abused when they violate the boundaries of the definition of acceptable femininity by their ethnic community.

Gender analysis of the narratives of low-income divorcées in big cities of Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir shows that their lives are under patriarchal domination. Women are subjected to all kinds of violence in their marriage and escape it by getting a divorce. Their lives are vulnerable as the increasing numbers of lone mothers are neither morally nor socially accepted in Turkish society. The patriarchal family ideal exacerbates the situation of lone mothers who become stigmatized as divorcées. Divorce is considered a 'shame' for women, and the ideology of family is used as a poitical tool where persistent conservative bias ignores wife battering, rape and other types of abuse in society.

The aim of the presentation is to discuss whether or not a methodological approach can promote a process of making visible gender equality within the health and medical care.

Although Sweden has come a long way in making sure that women and men are treated equally in the workplace there are few countries with so obvious gender based occupational segregation. Within Swedish health- and medical care for example 81 per cent of the employees are women. The majority of these work in a hierarchical structure where the lower and intermediate levels primarily are comprised of women. With this point of departure we have studied the construction of gender equality in every day meetings between women and men working in health- and medical care.

Aim

The overarching purpose of the study was to describe and problematize the perspective of gender equality within the health- and medical care. Two main questions were posed:

• How is the aspect of gender equality expressed in work related meetings between women and men working in health care?
• Which opportunities and hindrances exist for creating sustainable gender equality within the health- and medical care?

Method

The empirical material comprised 23 women and men studying health care or public health at Blekinge Institute of Technology. The informants were also working as professional nurses. The study was carried through in two steps. Firstly four introductory lectures were conducted. Two of them were about qualitative methods with a particular emphasis on focus groups as an interview technique. The other two focused on current gender equality research. The informants also deepened their knowledge by reading articles about gender equality. In the second step qualitative interviews in focus groups were conducted. Before these occasions the interviewees had prepared themselves by reading a research report which made it possible to relate the text to personal experiences from working life.

Result

The empirical material showed that the knowledge about gender equality differed within the studied group. Most informants considered the problem area of vital importance and stressed the necessity of continual discussions in the workplace. However some of the interviewed had never thought of the issue as they regarded gender equality being a question without any interest. All our informants were aware of the plan of action for equality which is required at the workplace but only few of them had read it or worked actively with the implementation. When the interviewees reflected upon the hierarchical structure in their workplaces a common view was that an obvious difference between women’s and men’s opportunities to influence and exercise domination could be seen.

The purpose of this paper is to add to the broader field of feminist organization and entrepreneurship scholarship by introducing and theorizing girlhood as a distinct enterprising femininity. More specifically, we investigate how girlhood, now enjoying a prominent role in commercial culture, impacts the relationship between enterprising self and femininity due to girlhood's many non-entrepreneurial features. We draw on the scholarship from the field of cultural studies to present the core politico-aesthetical categories, used to express girlhood as a distinct form of femininity. Empirically, we present and analyze an illustrative case of two large women-only professional networks that use girlhood and enterprising as their core message to their audiences. Our contributions render visible and provide a theoretical framework for studying girlhood as enterprising femininity, and add to the theorization of gendered and intersectional tensions and struggles between the market pressures to conform to the prevailing ideals of individualized success and the political ambition to challenge the status quo. More so, our theorization of girlhood as enterprising femininity allows us to raise question of what facets of femininity remain excluded - and thus in need of further theorization and critical feminist interventions - within the economic domain.

While we know that most male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) do not have access to care, little attention has been devoted to a systematic analysis of why this is so. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with staff of service providers and male survivors of sexual violence, as well as from focus group discussions with community members in eastern DRC, this article sets out to explore challenges and barriers related to meeting the needs of male survivors of sexual violence with respect to their medical, psychological, socioeconomic and legal needs. Our findings suggest that local framings of masculinity can both negatively and positively influence support-seeking behaviour depending on how survivors themselves engage with masculinity ideals. Based on these findings, a conceptual framework including seven levels of barriers to care for male survivors has been developed. Although service providers strive to provide high-quality care to male survivors, we show that existing responses to sexual violence have mainly been designed to address sexual violence against women and need to be re-adapted to male survivors. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Increasingly, corporations are championing the cause of gender equality and women's empowerment in the Global South. Tapping into notions about women's role as caregivers, empowerment promotion is simultaneously meant to lead to family and community development, profitability for those who invest in women and girls and economic growth. While emerging feminist scholarship on this kind of 'transnational business feminism' (TBF) (Roberts, 2012, 2015) has largely scrutinised gender governance based on visual and textual materials produced by corporations themselves, this article expands the methodological engagement with TBF by reflecting on how we translated the concept into two distinct field-based research projects. The article compares and contrasts our situated fieldwork experiences, focusing in particular on accessing corporate elites and development partners and the epistemological rifts that emerged in conversations with them. It documents how our experiences of blockages, hostile relations and miscommunications have shaped our critical feminist research, and points to some of the power relations at work within TBF.

Recruitment is one of the Swedish Armed Forces' (SAF) main challenges today. Recruiting more women into the organization is one of the organization's aims, as well as providing them with more opportunities for career development. The purpose of this article is to gain a deeper understanding of how female military officers perceive barriers and advantages on their way to higher leadership positions. A total of 10 women from a variety of backgrounds and positions in the armed forces were interviewed. Their ranks ranged from Captain to Colonel and they represented army, naval units and air force. The interviews were analysed using a Grounded Theory approach. The qualitative analysis resulted in two main themes: Supporting visibility of women as leaders and differentiation of women as leaders. The former concerns positive strategies on an individual and organizational level that support an increase in the number of female leaders in the SAF, and is a way of responding to political incitements and the SAF's fundamental values. The second concerns ways how women are portrayed as different and divergent from the male standard. The suggested model may be valuable in recruitment, educational settings and leader development of high-level military officers from a gender perspective.

This study explores the experiences of Iranian women who have traveled alone, examining the ways in which their narratives reflect and contribute to their sense of social justice and empowerment. Through semi-structured interviews and netnographic analysis, this study found that solo travel is a complex process that involves resisting traditional expectations and asserting autonomy. The findings highlight the significance of empowerment in achieving gender equality and women's rights and demonstrate the importance of acknowledging and amplifying women's voices to create a more inclusive and just society. The study suggests that increased economic independence, education, and career independence are crucial factors in enabling women to make their own decisions about solo travel and that social justice can be achieved by challenging traditional norms and expectations. The results also emphasize the transformative power of solo travel for personal growth and self-discovery and highlight the importance of personal autonomy and decision-making in achieving social justice.

The aim of this thesis is to examine and analyze what discourses about women can be found in three Swedish textbooks in social studies, and to identify the different social roles that are being attributed to the woman in these textbooks. The theoretical and methodological background used is Discourse Theory by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Additional theory used is post strucutral feminism, intersectionality, and critical discourse theory as described by Norman Fairclough. Three questions are asked: Which subject positions are assigned to the women in the material examined? What discourse/s can be found in the textbooks? Do the results change over time? Five subject positions are identified: woman as mother and wife, the teenage girl, woman as a public actor, the vulnerable woman and the other woman. Hence – five different discourses are identified: the caring woman, the teenage girl, the active woman, the vulnerable woman and the other woman. The analysis shows that the discourse about the caring women is reproduced over time. Women are attributed characteristics such as caring whose primary focus is to attend to the needs of others. Particularly noticeable is the fact that the language does not rest solely on a heterosexual binary, but also on ethnocentric beliefs where the ‘other women’ is used to strengthen the community of the Western group – a group in which the other woman can never participate.

Rösterna i denna antologi ger ett kraftfullt och dystert budskap om Mediesverige Om någon för tio år sedan sagt till mig att 2020 skulle Sverige ha en särskild utredare för att värna det demokratiska samtalet. Då hade jag skrattat och sagt att det vore väl lite överdrivet. Nog kan vi samtala med varandra utan att det ska behöva utredas hur. Om någon för sju år sedan hade sagt till mig att Fojo i slutet av decenniet börjat undervisa yrkesverksamma jour- nalister i att känna igen informa- tionspåverkan, hur de ska skydda sig själva och inte bara sina källor. Då hade jag undrat vilket land vi pratar om. Ryssland?!

Om någon för fem år sedan sagt att 2020 skulle SVT:s kostnaderför redaktionens säkerhet vara fyra gånger så stora som då. Då hade jag sagt att det låter orimligt.

Om någon för tre år sedan sagtatt de kommande två åren kommer Sverige att sjunka i placering på Reportrar utan gränsers pressfrihets- index på grund av hatet och hoten mot svenska journalister. Då hade jag inte velat tro på det.

Men där är vi i dag. Hur hamnade vi här?

I ett unikt material har Medieinstitutet Fojo samlat in vittnesmål från reportrar och ansvariga utgivare. Från utredare och frilansskribenter. Det är chefer som berättar om arbetsgivar- ansvaret, utsatta reportrar om att leva under hot och med hatet innanför skinnet. Och det är nyhetschefen vars pappa dog för sina ord.

Deras historier blir tillsammans ett kraftfullt budskap om var vi befinner oss i Mediesverige i dag. Bilden de ger är dyster men också kraftfull. Det räcker nu. Populisterna och de auktoritära rösterna som kallar journalister för nationens fiender måste överröstas.

Tystna inte. Mobilisera. Höj din röst. Journalistiken behövs för att bygga ett hållbart samhälle: socialt, ekonomiskt och miljömässigt. Det är vår demokrati det handlar om.

Kersti Forsberg,

Verksamhetschef Medieinstitutet Fojo.

Sammanfattning

I denna studie har vi undersökt hur barnen bemöts av pedagogerna i den fria leken på förskolan ur ett jämställt perspektiv. Vi har valt att fokusera på pedagogernas agerande gentemot barnen ur ett genusperspektiv, detta därför att det är ett aktuellt ämne som ofta debatteras i media och vi har ett stort intresse av ämnet. Könsroller är något som vi alla tidigt i livet ”tar på oss”. Barnen i vår omgivning blir påverkade av oss vuxna som finns i deras närhet.

Den metod vi använt oss av i studien har varit av kvalitativ sort. Vi har använt oss av intervjuer med pedagoger samt observationer av barn, där vi har koncentrerat oss på hur pedagogen bemöter barnen olika om de är flickor eller pojkar.

I arbetet har vi bland annat kommit fram till att när det kommer till hur pedagogerna bemöter barnen i den fria leken, måste de bli mer medvetna om att deras bemötande av barnens kön påverkar hur jämställt ett samhälle blir i framtiden. Undersökningen har också visat att pedagogerna gärna vill tro att de redan arbetar jämställt och inte gör någon större skillnad mellan barnen, utan att de i första hand ser till individen. Vilket inte alltid har visat sig stämma med verkligheten.

This article analyses self-portrayals and gender constructions among Swedish male bodybuilders who are engaged in fitness doping. The empirical material comes from a larger ethnographic investigation into gym culture. The results show that there is a strong propensity to conform with particular gender fantasies that rests heavily on a binary understanding of gendered, doped bodies. However, this storyline does not apprehend the entire self-presentation of the analysed drug users. Negotiations and inclusive subversions of traditional gender norms are also expressed. For example, the narratives show how the use of performance-enhancing substances makes it possible for (heterosexual) men to approach, touch and express feelings of desire towards other men and their bodies. As such, this practice can be viewed as a contestation of hegemonic gender values, in which masculinity and fitness doping are detached from a quite heterosexist understanding, and turned into a symbolic world of homoerotic pleasure.

Through hegemonic ideas about muscles and extraordinary performances, image- and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) and their use have been traditionally connected to hypersexualized masculinities. This link has resulted in spectacular ideas and fantasies about what IPEDs can do to/with men regarding their bodies and sexual performance. However, these ideas do not always manifest or correspond with daily life. Using a qualitative and case-study-based approach, this article investigates the relationship between doped and spectacular masculinities as they are presented and constructed in and through an online doping community, and users’ experiences of side effects of the doped body and its social consequences. Analytically, the article draws on Guy Debord’s work on the relationship between the spectacle and the real, and the ongoing theoretical debate on different reconfigurations and redefinitions of doped masculinities. It argues that anticipations of and effects from IPEDs can bring alternative ways of enacting doping masculinity and sexuality in the context of online communication while also blurring the lines between fantasy and lived experience.

Men have increasingly been dedicating time and effort to childcare. Consequently, the idea of the ‘new’ emotionally involved father has been discussed in the literature. This article focuses on narratives of divorced Swedish fathers with joint physical custody of their children. This arrangement, a new model of post-divorce parenting, has become increasingly popular in several Nordic countries. The article aims to analyse the experiences attached to and emanating from this particular form of post-divorce agreement, and how it is understood in relation to the Swedish childcare system. The fathers interviewed had a strong ambition to share things equally, as well as to carry on family practices in gender-equal ways. This desire was, however, balanced with a number of obstacles, such as work requirements, living conditions and conceptions of gender differences. In this way, the fathers’ subjective aspirations and strivings were filtered through structural and cultural conditions in society, with clear connections to Swedish family and gender politics.

Förenklade föreställningar om manlighet och mäns kroppar är vanligt förekommande i såväl den offentliga debatten som i forskningssammanhang. Män beskrivs som dominerande, disciplinerande och våldsamma. 

De sägs också ha svårt att söka hjälp för psykiska och somatiska problem, att tala om känslor och att fullt ut eftersträva jämställdhet. De vill inte dela ansvar för hemmet eller vara fysiskt nära sina barn. Men stämmer dessa stereotypa bilder in på den samtida vardagsmannen?

I denna bok erbjuds en nyanserad, men också kritisk bild av manlighetens olika ansikten. Genom att analysera manlighet utifrån dels kritisk forskning om män och maskuliniteter, dels kroppsstudier, närmar sig författarna denna komplexa fråga. Boken diskuterar mäns relation till muskler, våld, faderskap, kroppslig estetisering, åldrande och sjukdom liksom en rad andra frågor.

Den perfekta mannen? utgör ett bidrag till den akademiska forskningen om män, maskulinitet och manlighetens förkroppsligande – men riktar sig också till alla som är intresserade av genus- och identitetsfrågor.

This article analyzes self-portrayals and gender constructions among female personal trainers within an Internet-mediated framework of fitness culture. The empirical material comes from a close examination of three strategically selected blogs. The result shows that some of the blogs clearly build upon what Connell calls emphasized femininity, as a means of legitimizing and constructing appropriate female fitness. In addition, there are also tendencies of sexualization in text and imagery present. As such, these self-representations are framed within a cultural history of body fitness dominated by stereotypical ways of perceiving masculinity and femininity. However, this does not capture the entire presentation of the self among the analyzed fitness bloggers. The blogs also point in the direction of ongoing negotiations and subversions of traditional gender norms. Among other things, they show how irony and humor are used as a means of questioning normative gender constructions while empowering female fitness and bodyliness.

This article is based on written accounts posted on an online forum called Flashback.The purpose of the study was to explore how participants in this community negotiated themeanings of fitness doping and how such negotiations could be understood in terms of masculinity.The findings indicate that the Internet community studied in this article can be read as an example ofa transformational process in which ordinary rules are questioned and partly put out of play. In theworld of the bodybuilder, the marginal masculinity is, in certain senses, dominant. On the one hand,achieving a muscular and well-trained body is regarded as a core aspect of manhood within thecommunity. Marginal masculinity is thus momentarily transformed into dominant and hegemonicmasculinity. On the other hand, however, the findings also indicate that a drug-using, muscularmasculinity is constructed in negotiation with other central masculine ideals, such as the employableman and the responsible father. Found within the community is a complex and dynamic interplaybetween intersecting discourses of manhood.

There is currently an increasing amount of research on online fatherhood. In this article, we have used international blogs as our empirical data, in order to investigate and create an in-depth picture of fatherhood as it is expressed in various men’s stories about their everyday lives. Three distinct conceptions of fatherhood and masculinity emerge. The first of these positions could be described as a nostalgic position in relation to hegemonic masculinity. The second position is referred to here as complicity. This position indicates a changing landscape of fatherhood and family politics, moving towards gender-equal conditions. Thirdly, we have an inclusive position that reflects a gender-neutral position, and are understood less in terms of masculinity, heteronormativity and gender-divided responsibilities.

This article investigates how Swedish gay men pursue and understand fatherhood, using a qualitative, semi-structured methodological approach. We are interested in how practical issues and different fatherhood arrangements are understood and handled by the fathers; how the construction of “rainbow families” is understood in relation to legal issues; parental responsibilities; and thoughts regarding gender-equal and gender-neutral relationships within Swedish society and culture. The results show that the trajectory of gay men toward fatherhood is shaped by a variety of mediating factors such as interactions with agencies, clinics, attorneys, and the state. There are some significant legal, social, financial, and cultural obstacles to realizing gay parenthood. There are also cases where study participants talked about a sense of intolerance expressed toward gay parents within a gay community. Although there are still strong normative dimensions involved in the construction of modern parenthood, the grip of heteronormative views on family life and sexuality is changing; the narratives presented also represent a questioning of the hegemonic image of fatherhood in Sweden. Consequently, it is possible to discern different attempts at transgressing and changing the cultural landscape of fatherhood and the ways people build families today.

Both by participating in the everyday life of fitness professionals, gym-goers and bodybuilders, and by analyzing fitness blogs and other sources, The Global Gym explores fitness centres as sites of learning. The authors examine the kind of learning processes that take place within the gym and the wider fitness industry, and investigate how knowledge is acquired, negotiated and embodied by different agents operating within this context. Beyond this, the book also addresses the construction of gender within fitness culture. Many images of the body beautiful and perfect body ideals are manufactured and sold on a global commercial market. Jesper Andreasson and Thomas Johansson illustrate various extant modes of learning by asking how physical, psychological and cultural knowledge about health and the body is incorporated into people's (gender) identity in a local, national and global gym and fitness context.

Through a close study of blogs, where male fitness experts share their expertise, this article analyses how masculinity are framed within the Internet-mediated context of the fitness culture. This is done against the background of Connell's theory of masculinity, and recent critiques of the concept of hegemony. Through an in-depth analysis of three blogs, we get a complex and contradictory image of the different forms of masculinity portrayed in these blogs and in fitness culture at large. The texts and imagery on the blogs clearly exceeds the criteria/limits of traits and norms traditionally considered male or female. In doing so, the may contribute to an increased acceptance for, for example, gay identities and other submissive masculinities.

Using a minor case study of the local fitness culture scene in Tokyo, Japan, this exploratory and qualitative article aims to discuss and analyse the consequences of globalisation of fitness culture. The article focuses particularly on how fitness culture is negotiated in Japanese society – at a national, local and subjective level, and in relation to attempts to uniformly rationalise and standardise gym and fitness culture. The results indicate that the fitness geography is changing, and through the establishment of a globalised fitness culture, Japanese youth are following in the footsteps of many other countries. However, this does not mean that we are witnessing a homogenisation process, or a completely McDonaldised version of fitness culture in Japan. Instead, this cultural phenomenon is shaped and formed in particular ways, pointing towards certain strong national sentiments concerning body ideals, views on gender and exercise and relaxation. For example, the cuteness ideal has a strong influence on the way young women talk about and perceive body ideals and corporeal performances in Japan.

This article conceptualises how masculinity and masculine ideals are played out in relation to prostate cancer treatment and its side-effects, offering a heuristic and theoretical perspective with which to make sense of the complex interrelationship between lived gendered bodies and social structures. With the support of three case studies of older men treated for prostate cancer, the article explores how the concept of hegemonic masculinity can be used to analyse the ill and ageing body. A phenomenologically informed approach to the body, which illustrates how masculinity is lived and experienced through certain body schemas, is used. The three case studies show variation in how masculinity is enacted and embodied, illustrating actions to (1) restore and maintain masculinity through phallic experience; (2) reconstruct masculinity by connecting bodily experience to notions of the ageing and a less potent body; and (3) to counter narrowly defined notions of masculinity by dissociating or decoupling masculinity from ideals of potency and performance. With the help of the case studies, the strategies identified, and the fluidity and dynamism of the concept of hegemonic masculinity, findings reveal how inequalities between men and women are produced and maintained, in and through bodily experience, and diverse body schemas.

This article aims to explore the connections between bodybuilding, (hyper)masculinity, sexuality, and the construction of subcultural and sexual spaces among Swedish male fitness dopers. Analytically, the article employs the perspectives of hardcore masculinities—and the potential harms to relationships and health involved in the use of doping—as well as more legitimate and hegemonic masculinity configurations. The results show that there is a delicate balance between masculinity-connoted sexual and other bodily urges and desires, on the one hand, and the loss of control, on the other. Living in a pornographic imaginary can also result in a loss of reasonable contact with the world outside the subculture of bodybuilding. Upholding this lifestyle thus involves an ambivalent construction of masculinity found at the intersection between marginality and hegemony, which sometimes leads to loneliness and a lack of intimate relationships.

The aim of this study was to investigate how Swedish men diagnosed with prostate cancer understand the effects of their treatment in relation to sexual health and masculinity. Utilising a phenomenological and sociologically informed approach, the study involved interviews with 21 Swedish men who experienced problems following treatment. The results showed that participants’ initial response post-treatment, involved the development of new bodily understandings and socially informed strategies to handle incontinence and sexual dysfunction. Due to impotence and the loss of ejaculatory ability following treatments such as surgery, participants re-articulated the meaning of intimacy, as well as their understanding of masculinity and themselves as ageing men. Unlike in previous research, such a re-articulation of masculinity and sexual health is understood as taking place within rather than in opposition to hegemonic masculinity.

This article builds on data gathered through focus group interviews with Swedish mentreated for prostate cancer. First, we aim to analyse how the participants talk about andhandle sensitive issues and common side effects. Second, we investigate how theparticipants’ feelings about their disease affect or interfere with their understanding ofmasculinity. The findings illustrate how participants partly break with historical ex-pectations of men as emotionally inexpressive. Instead, in the groups they talk openlyabout incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and other sensitive issues. At the same time,these discussions can be positioned within certain discursive coping strategies. Usingjokes and intellectualizing their health narratives, combined with a problematizationand partial redefinition of gender and masculinity, most of the men adapt to their newlife situation. The men’s ways of handling their emotions can be situated in the interfacebetween discursive and gendered emotion ideologies, and lived experiences ofmasculinity.