The question of what is at stake in the notion of the corporeal integrity of human beings is one that contemporary somatechnics must increasingly face. The reassuring image of the Cartesian body as the unified, unchanging material base of continuing existence has been radically contested not simply by postconventional modes of theoretical enquiry, but more pragmatically and disturbingly by contemporary bioscientific developments. In one influential response, the explanatory model offered by phenomenology has begun to engage with the affective significance of prostheses, whether conventionally external as with ‘replacements’ for missing limbs, or internal as with donated organs. In uncovering the inherent plasticity of the body and its multiple possibilities of intercorporeality, in incorporating both organic and inorganic non-self matter, such modes of corporeal transformation can comprehensively undo the conventional limits of the embodied self. Calling on my own substantive research into the use of prostheses in the arena of physical disabilities and more specifically in organ transplantation, I offer a rethinking of the problematic through a reading of both Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. In their respective work, the infinitely deferred possibility, and the dis-organisation, of bodily integrity suggest a celebratory re-imaging of the multiple possibilities of corporeal extensiveness.

My chapter traces the development and implications of re/membering the body, following on from the somatophobia of early 2nd wave feminist scholarship that saw attention to bodily matters as a potential point of hostile ambush. Where the conventional tropes of modernism insist on a conceptual split between mind and body, and recognize only one form of ‘proper’ embodiment, postmodernist thought has supported a reinstatement of the corporeal. The turn away from the rigid binaries of dominant ways of thinking – whether in the humanities or sciences – has mobilised not simply the emergence of a feminist phenomenology of embodiment, but a growing appreciation of the place of the sciences in understanding the materiality of the body. At the same time, the extension of challenging bioscientific technologies directed to the body and its practices indicates that the recovery of fleshiness is not a final step. More radically, contemporary bioscience demands a reconsideration of what it means to be human. My approach relies on the concept of leaky bodies and stresses that instability and fluidity are the catalyst for alternative, more productive ways of thinking about corporeality and embodied subjectivity. As the boundaries of the body and of the human are ever more contested, it becomes clearer why the resulting sense of exposure to otherness in all its forms, and the inherent vulnerability of the contingent self, necessitate a new configuration of bioethics. The encounter with otherness –those unlike myself in terms of morphology or putative origin; prosthetic supplementarity; or the intracorporeality of the microbiome - speak to a corporeal ethics that understands risk and vulnerability as the very possibility of becoming.

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Beyond Citizenship? Feminism and the Transformation of Belonging pushes debates about citizenship and feminist politics in new directions, challenging us to think 'beyond citizenship', and to engage in feminist re-theorizations of the experience and politics of belonging.

This textbook brings together a wide range of expert voices from the field of disability studies and the disabled people's movement to tackle the essential topics relevant to this area of study. From the outset disability is discussed from a social model perspective, demonstrating how future practice and discourse could break down barriers and lead to more equal relationships for disabled people in everyday life.

An interdisciplinary and broad-ranging text, the book includes 50 chapters on topics relevant across health and social care. Reflective questions and suggestions for further reading throughout will help readers gain a critical appreciation of the subject and expand their knowledge.

This will be valuable reading for students and professionals across disability studies, health, nursing, social work, social care, social policy and sociology.

The field of human organ transplantation, and most particularly that of heart transplantation where the donor is always deceased, is one in which the rhetoric of hope leaves little room for any exploration or understanding of the more negative emotions and affects that recipients may experience. Where a donated heart is commonly referred to as the ‘gift of life’ both in lay discourse and by those engaged in transplantation procedures, how does this imbricate with the alternative clinical term of a ‘graft’? For recipients of donor organs, the experience of living on in the face of otherwise certain death is fraught with complex emotions not only about the self and the now dead other, but the persistence of the other within the self. In contrast to our expectations of the feel-good narrative of the gift of life, recipients are often significantly troubled by the aftermath of the procedure, which may fundamentally challenge notions of personal identity, as well as having deep implications for our understanding of the relation between death and 'staying alive'. Drawing on recent research into heart transplantation, I theorise the field through a reflection – drawing on both Mauss and Derrida - on the meaning the gift, before moving on to consider whether a Deleuzian approach to both the assemblage and the ‘event’ of death might offer a more productive framework.

Situated at the intersection of phenomenology of medicine and feminist phenomenology, this volume provides insights into medical practices such as surgical operations, organ transplants, dentistry, midwifery, and psychiatry. The contributors make clear the relevance of feminist phenomenology to the fields of medicine and health by highlighting difference, vulnerability, and volatility as central dimensions of human experience rather than deviations. It also further vitalizes the field of phenomenology by bringing it into conversation with a range of different materials including case studies, fiction, and other forms of narrative and shedding new light on issues like bodily self-experience, normality and deviance, self-alienation, and objectification. The volume s focus on concrete experience develops and sharpens the methodological tools and conceptual framework of phenomenology and makes it an excellent resource for scholars, students, and medical practitioners alike.

Donna Haraways enduring question-" Why should our bodies end at the skin?" (Haraway 1990, 220)-is ever more relevant in the postmodern era, where issues of bodies, boundaries, and technologies increasingly challenge not only the normative performance of the human subject, but also the very understanding of what counts as human. Critical Disability Studies has taken up the problematic of technology, particularly in relation to the deployment of prostheses by people with disabilities. Yet rehabilitation to normative practice or appearance is no longer the point; instead, the lived experience of disability generates its own specific possibilities that both limit and extend the performativity of the embodied self. I look at what is at stake in the challenge to the Western logos that comes specifically from the capacities of the disabled body, understood not as a less than perfect form of the normative, but as figuring difference in a nonbinary sense. Feminist theory has long contested the isomorphism of the logos, but I go beyond simply setting out the grounds for revaluing multiple variant forms. The feminist turn to Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze opens up the problematic to a celebratory positioning of difference and transcorporeality as the very conditions of life.

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The paper engages with a variety of data around a supposedly single biomedical event, that of heart transplantation. In conventional discourse, organ transplantation constitutes an unproblematised form of spare part surgery in which failing biological components are replaced by more efficient and enduring ones, but once that simple picture is complicated by employing a radically interdisciplinary approach, any biomedical certainty is profoundly disrupted. Our aim, as a cross-sectorial partnership, has been to explore the complexities of heart transplantation by explicitly entangling research from the arts, biosciences and humanities without privileging any one discourse. It has been no easy enterprise yet it has been highly productive of new insights. We draw on our own ongoing funded research with both heart donor families and recipients to explore our different perceptions of what constitutes data and to demonstrate how the dynamic entangling of multiple data produces a constitutive assemblage of elements in which no one can claim priority. Our claim is that the use of such research assemblages and the collaborations that we bring to our project breaks through disciplinary silos to enable a fuller comprehension of the significance and experience of heart transplantation in both theory and practice.

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This introductory article provides a contextual and theoretical overview to this special issue of Body & Society. The special issue presents five selected case studies – focusing on the contexts of transplantation, psychiatry, amputation and war, and a transvalued media ecology of cancer – to offer meditations on a number of interlinked questions. The first of these is the entanglement of biomedical governance – political/economic as well as self-disciplinary – with the nexus of estrangement, which can denote both the distancing of otherness and self-division. Second is the realm of feeling, of phantasmatic projection and of the ways in which the biopolitical becomes reciprocally, discursively, enmeshed in a wider cultural imaginary. Third is the shifting terrain of gender and feminist politics, a key dimension of which is the necessary reworking of feminist thought in the wake of a radically altered biomedical and biotechnological landscape. Under the rubric of Estranged Bodies, the collection considers themes of dissolution and the fragility of the body/subject read through bodily catastrophe, radical body modification and extreme medical intervention. Also considered is the notion of assemblage – the provisional coming together of disparate parts – which encourages a rethinking of questions of reconstituted, displaced and re-placed bodies.

Doing feminist work from within patriarchal institutions comes with unique challenges. We invited two activists and feminist studies professors, Rosi Braidotti and Nina Lykke, to reflect on feminists’ long march through patriarchal university institutions. Concretely, we asked them to reflect upon three themes. Firstly, we asked them to situate themselves and their work – and reflect upon what it takes to do feminist work which troubles mainstream epistemologies. Secondly, we asked them to explore how the conditions for feminist research have changed over time – and what the current neoliberal and right-wing backlash does to feminist research. And finally, we asked how coming of age might have influenced them, and how they looked upon intergenerational exchanges in the feminist movement. The aim of the dialogue was to look back at how the feminist studies movement in academia emerged, while at the same time looking forward to explore which new political and ideological conditions have arisen and how these might affect future possibilities for conducting feminist research within academia.

Men with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations are at increased risk of developing breast cancer and may have an indication for breast cancer screening using mammography. Since breast cancer is often viewed as a womans disease, visibilizing and understanding mens experience of having a BRCA mutation and specifically, of screening for breast cancer through mammography, were the objectives of this research study. The theoretical framework of interpretive phenomenology guided the process of data collection, coding, and analysis. Phenomenology is both a philosophy and research method which focuses on understanding the nature of experience from the perspectives of people experiencing a phenomenon, the essence of and commonalities among peoples experiences, and the ways in which people experience the world through their bodies. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 15 male participants recruited from the Male Oncology Research and Education (MORE) Program. This article reports findings about participants use of gender-specific language to describe their breasts, awareness of the ways in which their bodies changed overtime, and experiences of undergoing mammograms. This study is the first to describe men with BRCAs perceptions of their breasts and experiences of mammography in a high-risk cancer screening clinic. This study sheds light on an under-researched areabreasts and masculinitiesand could potentially lead to improved clinical understanding of mens embodied experiences of BRCA, as well as suggestions for improving the delivery of male breast cancer screening services.

Purpose

This article explores the analytical gains of what we refer to as “awkward ethnography.” How might our understanding of organizational phenomena benefit from those unexpected moments when our observations are laughed at, when our questions cause discomfort, or when we feel like a failure? While such instances seem to be an inherent aspect of organizational ethnography, they are often silenced or camouflaged by claims of intentionality. This article takes the opposite approach, arguing for the analytical value of awkwardness.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on their respective ethnographic fieldwork in the Danish and Swedish armed forces. Based on observations, participation and interviews in two military units, the analysis focuses on situations that rarely find their way into final research publications. These will be explored as analytically productive material that can provide crucial insights into the organizational context studied.

Findings

The authors’ analysis demonstrates that awkward situations that arise during ethnographic work not only bring about unforeseen insights; they also enable vital analytical opportunities for discovering silent knowledge in the organization which researchers might otherwise not have considered to inquire about or understood the gravity of.

Research limitations/implications

Implied in the suggested methodological approach for ethnographers is an acceptance of awkward situations as productive encounters. This means doing away with ideals for (ethnographic) knowledge production steered by notions of objectivity, instead embracing the affective dimensions of fieldwork.

Originality/value

This research addresses a key, and often silenced, aspect of ethnographic fieldwork, and stresses the unique value of the unintended and unexpected when doing ethnography.

The inclusion of women into military ranks, combat units and special operation forces has proven controversial for decades. Should women be allowed to train as conscripts, to carry weapons in wartime, or to command military units? And if so, would they automatically be considered members of the military profession? In this chapter, we explore arguments about the inclusion of women in military work, unfolding how the military profession and its boundaries are, and have been, negotiated, protected and challenged in relation to gender.

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Background: Swedish Health and Medical Services act states that good care should be given to the entire population on equal terms. Still studies show that access to care in Sweden differ related to for example gender and socioeconomic variables. One of the areas in Swedish health care that has attracted attention for potential inequity in access is Cataract Extraction (CE). Previous studies of access to CE in Sweden show that female patients have in general poorer vision before they are operated and longer waiting times for CE than male patients. The aim of the study was to describe the waiting times in different patient groups with regards to visual acuity, gender, age, native country, educational level, annual income and whether the patient was retired or still working. Methods: The study was designed as a register study of 102 532 patients who have had CE performed in Sweden 2010-2011. Linear regression was used to analyse the association between patient characteristics and waiting times. Mean waiting times for women and men were calculated for all groups. Results: At significance level p < 0.05 longer waiting times corresponded to patients having good visual acuity, being of female gender, high age, retired, born outside the Nordic countries and having low income and education. Calculations of mean waiting times for all groups showed that women had longer waiting times than men. Conclusions: The differences between groups defined, for example, by gender, age, native country, income, education and retirement are statistically significant. We do not consider them as clinically significant, but we consider the consistent pattern that we have found noteworthy in relation to the principle of equity in health care.

This thesis conducts a cultural analysis examining the claim of metal music being gendered as masculine. An autophenomenographical approach is taken and carried out through an affective analysis combined with a feminist analysis of sound. By studying the author’s own perception of industrial metal, this research looks at the effect and affect that this genre of music can have on a woman, as well as inquires whether it is necessary to label the genre with binary gender terms such as masculine or feminine. The presented conclusions also encourage the question to be posed in relation to a broader spectrum of music.

The European Commission unveiled in February 2021 its updated policy regarding international trade. One of the key pillars of this strategy is the inclusion of gender equality within the EU trade policies. This inclusion is in line with the Gender Equality Strategy for 2020-2025. The latter sets that the Union must promote gender equality and women’s empowerment within its external relationship, notably in its free-trade agreements, which are international agreements aiming at reducing trade barriers and facilitating exchanges.

This thesis provides an insight into the gender-explicit provisions that exist within European Union’s free trade agreements since 1958. It uses computational science coupled with text analysis to explore the general context in which they were concluded, but as well explores their wordings and their content. It provides then an analysis of the gender responsiveness of these gender-explicit provisions. Finally, this thesis provides recommendations on how to improve EU free trade agreements’ gender responsiveness.

This article contributes empirical knowledge about the shifting ways in which the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) has articulated and addressed ‘the uniform issue’, that is, matters concerning servicewomen’s access to adequate uniforms and other equipment, since the 1980s. Drawing on analytical tools employed within post-structural policy analysis, we demonstrate how ‘the uniform issue’ has gone from being articulated as a problem for servicewomen, and to be solved by servicewomen, to a problem for the SAF in its pursuit to become an attractive employer and a legitimate public authority. By shedding light on how ‘the uniform issue’ has been problematized in shifting ways since Swedish women first were allowed to serve in all military positions, this article also contributes important insights into broader scholarly debates about workplace discrimination, gender equality, and gendered occupational identities in military work.

Trans Cinema and its Exit Scapes är en kritisk och kreativ intervention med fokus på kulturella representationer av kroppar som bryter mot en könsbinär ordning i samtida film. Studien argumenterar för möjligheten att hitta utrymmen för “disidentification”, så kallade “exit scapes” inom filmerna. Exit scapes stör den dominanta filmiska ordning som skapats för transkaraktären, en ordning som är förbunden med berättelser om diskriminering, förödmjukelse och våld. Inom Trans Cinema, i filmer som exempelvis Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Transamerica (2005), Romeos (2011) and Laurence Anyways (2012), öppnar scener med sång, dans och drömmar upp för andra former av engagemang med filmerna. Som det argumenteras för i avhandlingen tillåter dessa ett kritiskt omformulerande av, och ett nytt affirmativt sätt att föreställa sig, transkroppslighet. Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka den utopiska och hoppfulla potential som finns inom transfilm utifrån ett kritiskt transfeministiskt perspektiv. Även om studien främst riktar sig till trans entrants som “åskådare” eller läsare, så har den en bred teoretisk bas hämtad från verk av en lång rad feministiska forskare inom kulturfältet, såsom Sara Ahmed, Susan Stryker, José Esteban Muñoz, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Karen Barad och Donna Haraway.

Denna avhandling skissar filmiska spatiotemporaliteter, vilka öppnar för möjligheter av utopiska värdsliga och transsubjektiva tillblivelser genom utvecklandet av olika teoretiska begrepp. Genom ett kritiskt förhållningssätt till audiovisualitet och feministisk filmteori, revideras och omformuleras haptisk åskådarskapsteori och dess kritik i en västerländsk okularcentrism genom olika teoretiska innovationer. De metodologiska verktygen som utvecklas i avhandlingen, såsom “the entrant”, “the exit scape” samt “sensible cinematic intra-activity” utgör här funktionen som multisensorisk metodologi för transdisciplinära transstudier, feministisk filmteori samt för visuell kultur i stort.

Efter andra världskriget kom ett stort antal tyska kvinnor till Sverige för att arbeta. Trots en stigande arbetskraftsbrist under efterkrigstiden blev utomnordiska kvinnor anvisade till hembiträdesarbete under två år innan de kunde söka andra arbeten. ArbetskraftSinvandringen till Sverige bestod fram till mitten av 19so-talet av 55 procent kvinnor, men ändå är den kvinnliga arbetskraftsinvandringen ett outforskat område. I avhandlingen utforskas dessa händelser med utgångspunkt i några av dessa kvinnors berättelser. Det övergripande syftet är att både synliggöra och kontextualisera berättelserna om migration och tiden som hembiträde ur ett tvärvetenskapligt och intersektionelIt perspektiv. Hur förhandlar kvinnorna kring sina erfarenheter idag, femtio år senare? Hur var det an vara tysk i efterkrigstidens Sverige? Avhandlingen har därmed även en metodologisk ansats: att studera såväl erfarenhet som olika makthierarkier med utgångspunkt i falten muntlig historia och narrativ analys. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer med 19 kvinnor. Analysen är uppdelad i två delar med olika kontextuella nivåer. Den första delen är kronologiskt upplagd och fokuserar på vad som berättas. Den andra delen har fokus på berättelsernas narrativ, hur kvinnorna berättar, och hur de positionerar sig i förhållande till frågor som den tyska skulden och diskurser om modernitet och framsteg. Mot bakgrund av denna multidimensionella analys visar avhandlingen hur den svenska staten bidrog till en uppdelning av arbetskraften utifrån kön, nationalitet och klass och hur kvinnornas val villkorades genom anvisningen till det husliga arbetet. Men analysen pekar även på kvinnornas motståndsnarrativ och hur migrationen också innebar möjligheter att utmana rådande normer.

This article focuses on waged domestic work in a Swedish, historical perspective. The aim is to look at how conceptions about gender, class and “race”/ethnicity have been reproduced in legislation and in the debate on domestic work and how this might have led to reproducing unequal divisions on the market for domestic services. An intersectional approach is used in order to discuss the consequences of the gendered, racialised and classed nature of domestic work. From this perspective the article focuses firstly on the actions taken by the Swedish state when a shortage of domestic workers occurred in the 1930’s. The second and main focus is on what has been called the “maid debate” which started in 1993. Here, the article focuses on discourses on gender, class and “race”/ethnicity in the Swedish parliament debate. With examples taken from the debate it is argued that the debate on paid domestic services mirrors unproblematized intersecting hierarchies of sex, class and “race”/ethnicity. Despite the fact that gender equality has been one of the most common arguments in the debate on tax reductions for domestic work it is shown that these intersecting power relations are still are being reproduced. Even though Sweden has a pioneer status when it comes to gender equality, one can see that when it comes to domestic work – there isn’t much that have changed in the view on who it is that should be cleaning for whom.

Emerging evidence suggests that Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) risk factors may differentially contribute to disease trajectory in women than men. Determining the effect of AD risk factors on brain aging in women, compared to men, is critical for understanding whether there are sex differences in the pathways towards AD in cognitively intact but at-risk adults. Brain Age Gap (BAG) is a concept used increasingly as a measure of brain health; BAG is defined as the difference between predicted age (based on structural MRI) and chronological age, with negative values reflecting preserved brain health with age. Using BAG, we investigated whether there were sex differences in the brain effects of AD risk factors (i.e., family history of AD, and carrying an apolipoprotein E ε4 allele [+APOE4]) in cognitively intact adults, and if this relationship was moderated by modifiable factors (i.e. body mass index [BMI], blood pressure and physical activity). We undertook a cross-sectional study of structural MRIs from 1067 cognitively normal adults across four neuroimaging datasets. An elastic net regression model found that women with a family history of AD and +APOE4 genotype had more advanced brain aging than their male counterparts. In a sub-cohort of women with those risk factors, higher BMI was associated with less brain aging whereas lower BMI was not. In a sub-cohort of women and men with +APOE4, engaging in physical activity was more beneficial to men’s brain aging than women’s. Our results demonstrate that AD risk factors are associated with greater brain aging in women than men, although there may be more unexplored modifiable factors that influence this relationship. These findings suggest that the complex interplay between unmodifiable and modifiable AD risk factors can potentially protect against brain aging in women and men.

Women represent (2)/(3) of the cases of Alzheimers disease (AD). Current research has focused on differential risks to explain higher rates of AD in women. However, factors that reduce risk for AD, like cognitive/brain reserve, are less well explored. We asked: what is known about sex and gender differences in how reserve mitigates risk for AD? We conducted a narrative review of the literature, with keywords: "sex/gender differences", "cognitive/brain reserve", "Alzheimers Disease", and the following cognitive reserve contributors: "education", "IQ", "occupation", "cognitive stimulation", "bilingualism", "socioeconomic status", "physical activity", "social support". Sixteen papers disaggregated their data by sex. Those papers observed sex and gender differences in reserve contributors. There is also evidence that greater reserve may be more beneficial in lowering AD risk in women, although more research is needed. We discuss how traditional reserve contributors are gendered and may not capture factors that support cognition in aging women.

Research policies aiming to integrate sex and gender in scientific studies are receiving increased attention in academia. Incorporating these policies into health research is essential for improving targeted and equitable healthcare outcomes, by considering both disparities and similarities between individuals relating to sex and gender. Although these efforts are both urgent and critical, only an intersectional approach, which considers broad and multidimensional aspects of an individual's identity, can provide a complete understanding of the factors that impact health. In this commentary, we emphasize that in order to approach health equity, it is crucial to examine how sex and gender intersect with factors such as culture, ethnicity, minority status, and socioeconomic conditions to influence health outcomes. To facilitate evidence-based health interventions with tangible impact, we must consider disparities linked to both biological and environmental factors.

This article contributes to the growing field of research on military LGBT policy development by exploring the case of Sweden, a non-NATO-member nation regarded as one of the most progressive in terms of the inclusion of LGBT personnel. Drawing on extensive archival work, the article shows that the story of LGBT policy development in the Swedish Armed Forces from 1944 to 2014 is one of long periods of status quo and relative silence, interrupted by leaps of rapid change, occasionally followed by the re-appearance of discriminatory policy. The analysis brings out two periods of significant change, 1971–1979 and 2000–2009, here described as turns in LGBT policy. During the first turn, the military medical regulation protocol’s recommendation to exempt gay men from military service was the key issue. During these years, homosexuality was classified as mental illness, but in the military context it was largely framed in terms of security threats, both on a national level (due to the risk of blackmail) and for the individual homosexual (due to the homophobic military environment). In the second turn, the focus was increasingly shifted from the LGBT individual to the structures, targeting the military organization itself. Furthermore, the analysis shows that there was no ban against LGBT people serving in the Swedish Armed Forces, but that ways of understanding and regulating sexual orientation and gender identity have nonetheless shaped the military organization in fundamental ways, and continue to do so.

My aim with this thesis is to use a combination of posthumanist and feminist materialist perspectives in analysing the anime film Spirited Away (2001).

The analysis is organised as follows: the first chapter of the analysis deals with the notions of agency and magic. Magic is an omnipresent force in the bathhouse depicted in the film; a force that creates connections between different bodies and that also bridges the language-matter divide. By making inanimate matter come alive, magic points to a conception of life as relations rather than as possession. However, magic also reveals the hierarchies at work, as not all animate(d) beings have the capacity or the right to use it.

The first chapter is followed by three chapters focused on eating, understood as a kind of intra-action between different kinds of matter. Food is, as I will show, important in the negotiations of boundaries and agency. The question of who is eating who also reveals some of the power relationships that govern the posthuman world depicted in the film.

In the two last chapters of the analysis I will, so to speak, push the food plate aside in favour of other matters. The fifth chapter will focus on the physical transformations taking place in the film and how these can be interpreted from a posthumanist and materialist perspective. I will look at embodiments, using a narratologically influenced perspective that allows for corporeal ambiguities and shuns notions of bodies as fixed and clearly separate from other bodies. The discussion will continue in the final chapter where I use 'monster theory' to further examine the leakages between categories. The monstrous corresponds not necessarily to widely-spread images of monsters (known from various cultural masterplots) or to bodies that distinctly disobey the norms. The morphological diversity exhibited by the characters in the film reveals the impossibility of clearly demarcating categories and boundaries between Self and Other.

This thesis explores the experiences of foreign-born women entering the Swedish labor market. A lot of the existing research clusters foreign-born women as a homogeneous group, missing various factors that impact their ability to access the labor market. Current initiatives and strategies therefore risk overlooking the importance of personalized support, which can result in inadequate responses to the unique needs and challenges each woman faces. 

The study aims to explore foreign-born women’s experiences to better understand the obstacles the women face when trying to enter the Swedish labor market. The thesis investigates previous research that raises the significance of networks, language proficiency, and support and guidance and five interviews are conducted to understand the women’s experiences better. 

The findings of this study show that discrimination, the discourse surrounding foreign-born women and, lack of adequate individualized support hinder women from establishing themselves on the labor market. Hence, the results highlight the need for more tailored support and new ways to learn the language. To achieve this, an intersectional approach is important to grasp the complex challenges that foreign-born women face in entering the Swedish labor market. 

Overall, the thesis underscores the need for individualized support initiatives that consider the unique challenges and experiences of foreign-born women. By centering the women’s experiences, this study provides a valuable contribution to the ongoing efforts to improve the support for foreign-born women in the Swedish labor market.

Offentliga organisationer har en skyldighet att arbeta för jämställdhet både i sin verksamhet och för att påverka samhället i stort. Men vad är fruktbara strategier för ett hållbart utvecklingsarbete – hur går man till väga?

I centrum för denna bok står olika dilemman i jämställdhetsarbetet. Det gäller både hur ett jämställdhetsarbete kan organiseras och vad det kan innehålla, exempelvis vilken roll utbildningar kan spela för utvecklingen och olika sätt att hantera motstånd. Boken är baserad på ett omfattande arbete med jämställdhetsintegrering i offentlig sektor - inom bland annat skola, socialtjänst, räddningstjänst samt hälso- och sjukvård.

Jämställdhet i verksamhetsutveckling kan användas som kurslitteratur inom högskoleutbildningar i t.ex. genusvetenskap, statsvetenskap, företagsekonomi och sociologi samt som fördjupningslitteratur i anslutning till ledarskaps- och personal-utbildningar. Den vänder sig också till praktiskt verksamma med intresse för förändringsprocesser i organisationer, verksamhetsutveckling, utvärdering och jämställdhet.

Boken finns även översatt till engelska, Gender Mainstreaming in Public Sector Organisations.

Offentliga organisationer har en skyldighet att arbeta för jämställdhet både i sin verksamhet och för att påverka samhället i stort. Men vad är fruktbara strategier för ett hållbart utvecklingsarbete – hur går man till väga?

I centrum för denna bok står olika dilemman i jämställdhetsarbetet. Det gäller både hur ett jämställdhetsarbete kan organiseras och vad det kan innehålla, exempelvis vilken roll utbildningar kan spela för utvecklingen och olika sätt att hantera motstånd. Boken är baserad på ett omfattande arbete med jämställdhetsintegrering i offentlig sektor - inom bland annat skola, socialtjänst, räddningstjänst samt hälso- och sjukvård.

Jämställdhet i verksamhetsutveckling kan användas som kurslitteratur inom högskoleutbildningar i t.ex. genusvetenskap, statsvetenskap, företagsekonomi och sociologi samt som fördjupningslitteratur i anslutning till ledarskaps- och personal-utbildningar. Den vänder sig också till praktiskt verksamma med intresse för förändringsprocesser i organisationer, verksamhetsutveckling, utvärdering och jämställdhet.

Boken finns även översatt till engelska, Gender Mainstreaming in Public Sector Organisations.