Browsing by Subject "feministinen tutkimus"
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(2020)Based on previous studies, decision making concerning parental leave is affected by both economic issues and preconditions relating to labor market structures and gendered practices, but also by people’s views about what the appropriate age range for children to be cared for at home by a parent is and which parent is seen as primarily responsible for this care. The discussion surrounding this topic also entails the notion of what is considered “right”, i.e. what is regarded as good parenting or a good childhood. This thesis will examine the way good parenting is defined in argumentations for childcare choices and what kind of subject-positions are formed for parents in the discourse of good parenting. My research data consists of interviews in which four heterosexual couples (mother and father) talk about their own childcare solutions and, from their own perspective and generally, about taking parental leave from work. I use a discursive approach in analyzing the data. Instead of a coherent idea of good parenting, I found many discourses of good parenting, which “activated” in different situations and in which parents sometimes positioned themselves differently based on their sex. The discussion surrounding parenting was also defined by the hectic quality of working life and, among other things, wage structures and pay gaps. Choices were made in negotiating with multiple conflicting discourses and therefore the thesis questioned the issue of the families’ “freedom of choice”. Following the spirit of neoliberalism, the family was conceived as an enterprise that needs to assess risks and maximize profit. In this thesis the relationship between work and parenting was examined from the point of view of parents that represent the heteronormative nuclear family, but in future research the scope should be broadened to involve diverse families.
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(2018)Goals. The aim of this study was to better understand the ways in which young people make sense of sexual and gender-based harassment. Harassment is recognized as a problem both in public discussion and at the institutional level. However, previous studies have shown that harassment can be difficult to recognize as it intertwines with other phenomena in everyday life, such as humour. In this study harassment was viewed from a feminist post-structural perspective as a phenomenon which is understood through different discourses and categories, and is linked to social differences. This study focuses on how young people make sense of sexual and gender-based harassment in their everyday lives and how the categories of gender, age, and ethnicity, which are connected to perpetrators and targets of sexual harassment, affect the sense making. Methods. The data consisted of theme interviews with 15 ninth graders and a 5-day observation period in a secondary school located in the southern Finland. Discourse analysis was used in analysing the data, and analytical tools from membership categorization analysis were also used. Findings. Harassment and its meanings were constantly negotiated and normalized. Harassment was understood through different discourses that gave it different meanings: on the one hand harassment was interpreted as distressing and on the other hand as ordinary phenomena. Many situations, such as name-calling in schools were often interpret not as harassment, but as common humour. One’s own experience was considered important when defining harassment, but also situations that were not necessarily seen as fun, could be normalized as humour. Harassment was also actively located away from one’s own everyday life. Categories of gender, age, and ethnicity were used to describe and explain both the perpetrators and the targets of harassment. The categories were first and foremost used to make sense of sexual harassment done by strangers. The categories were also used to highlight differences between the perpetrator and the target and some of the used categories strengthened stereotypes. The assumption of humour was constructed mainly on the friend-category. The findings show that the different meanings of harassment are constructed in local interactions which are embedded in broader social culture. The findings can be utilized in the preventive work done by schools, as the study increases our understanding of the ways in which harassment is entangled with school culture and everyday life.
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(2016)In this thesis I examined meanings of gender articulated by children, on the basis of video art pieces. I am interested in the meanings of gender the children would bring up and how this would be related to the wider thematic of gender. Based on earlier research, children have been noted to express normative interpretations of feminist fairy tales which challenge traditional gender positions. This has been seen as a wish to localize in a gender position that is perceived as correct. Children have been noted to challenge the norms in addition to maintaining them. In my thesis I reflect on how the children I interviewed position themselves and the video art pieces related to my research based on gender. My research was supported by post-structural feminist thought and feminist film theory. The essential concepts were gender, discourse, subjectivity and subject position. For my research I interviewed ten children between the ages of 7 and 10. I examined their views on gender thematic on the basis of the video art pieces Punahilkka ja susi (2012), Lasso (2000) and Masa (1999). I applied discourse analysis as a research method. I read material with my focus on gender thematic and, for instance, searched for gender related distinctions and different gender related positions mentioned by the interviewees. I aimed for gender sensitivity while doing research. In my research, gender appeared as a complex discourse. The children expressed many dualistic and normative views on gender. On the other hand, gender related dualisms and norms were also subverted. The children could be seen to simultaneously describe normative discourses and still position themselves or others outside of these discourses. They can be noted to both repeat and resist gender related cultural ways of thinking. The meanings of gender were shown to be persistent but also something containing possibilities for change. Views on gender could be subverted and the concept of gender could be deconstructed during the research process. On the basis of my research, I propose that critical examination of gender with children can contribute to, for example, the deconstruction of normative views on gender. This kind of examination is important because it contributes to the actualization of gender sensitivity, equality and diverse possibilities for being human. Video art pieces can offer a rich conversational basis for thinking about gender.
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(2021)Gender appears in our lives as an obvious way that permeates all levels of society and culture. Perceptions of perceived differences between women and men and gender roles are formed in early childhood. Children are guided to gender-specific behavior in many ways, both consciously and unconsciously. Early childhood education is one institution that repeats and renews the values that prevail in society. Previous studies examining the daily life and practices of daycares from a gender perspective have shown that children's sex is assumed to reflect the interests of girls and boys and girls and boys are subjected to gendered expectations. In this thesis, I look at the construction of gender in the daily life of daycare. I am interested in what kind of perceptions daycare educators have about gender and what kind of possibilities of being and acting these perceptions enable for different way gendered children in their in everyday life. The theoretical and methodological starting points of my theses are based on feminist, poststructuralist theorizations, in which language is not thought to reflect an already existing reality but to create and produce it. The research material has been produced in one daycare in Keski-Uusimaa using ethnographic methods. I followed the activities of one group for six days observing and with recording. The adults of the group also participated in two group interviews. The research material has been analyzed by discursive methods. My research revealed that gender articulations were intertwined around sex/gender distinction through differentiating. Gender is produced in daycare in the gendered order of action and by attaching different characteristics and assumptions to girls and boys. The biological dichotomy of gender and the consequent normative expectations and assumptions about girls and boys allow girls and boys to have gender-differentiated opportunities for action.
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