Sex/gender is an interesting phenomenon in biological and social sciences. It is characterised by constant redefinitions and conflicts as knowledge increases and social norms change. To understand the change in sex/gender representations in biology education, we analysed Finnish secondary school human biology textbooks from the 1990s until the…

This paper explores the leadership styles of fourteen elected female politicians in executive government positions, as communicated through the official Instagram accounts that were in use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven of them are, or were, heads of government, six are or were mayors, and one is the president of an autonomous region in…

Information Systems education has been concerned with student recruitment and diversity. We asked 123 students in an introductory course why they had chosen the Information Technology field. The course provided an opportunity to inquire the motivation of a diverse set of students as the course is open to anyone. We wanted to learn about our…

In this study, Finnish ninth graders' and their school guidance counselors' views concerning ninth graders' perceptions of gender-appropriateness of occupations were examined. Special interest was placed on evaluating if ninth graders bring out any gender stereotypical perceptions regarding science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM)…

Efforts to reach gender equality in education in Finland have been extensive. Both teacher education and policy documents for schools have focused on gender equality and gender-neutral treatment of students. The aim of this study is to explore if and how these efforts are manifested in upper secondary school teachers' and study counsellors'…

This study examines change and the conditions of change in the masculinity of Olli, a working-class Finnish school boy. It explores "respect" as a status bound to masculine reputation, resources for obtaining respect in gendered identity work, and the negotiation of power in peer relations. I discuss how a "banal balancer"…

In the course of their child's school years, a group of parents were asked to assess their child's mathematical competence and indicate whether they endorsed the gender stereotype pertaining to it. Once the child had entered upper primary school, the consistent stereotypic parents tended to rate their boys' mathematical competence higher than the…

Research material from ethnographic studies of vocational upper secondary educational programmes in Finland and Sweden presented here indicates that the discourse of schoolwork as being either theoretical or practical is firmly fixed. However, the students on the researched programmes were aware of recent changes in the labour market that raise a…

This article examines the overall strength, the qualitative pattern, and the evolution over time of gender segregation in higher education across eight European countries. Although previous studies have focused primarily on the divide between humanistic and scientific fields, this work indicates that this divide accounts for no more than half of…

The INCLUD-ED project's case studies of successful schools in Europe reveal that there are advantages involved in opening schools to all kinds of women as far as educational and social inclusion is concerned. "Other Women"--those whose voices have traditionally been silenced in academic settings--help in crucial ways to improve education…

Using data from 17,636 respondents in 28 nations, this research uses multilevel modeling to compare the reported division of household labor and factors affecting it for currently married and currently cohabiting couples. Cohabiting men report performing more household labor than do married men, and cohabiting women report performing less…

Several recent reports on the status of women in US academic institutions have recommended more generous family policies to encourage and retain more women among academic staffs. Many of the policies suggested are modelled on those that have been in effect in Nordic countries for decades. The status of women among Finnish and Swedish academic…

This study explored girls' and boys' (aged 10-11) attitudes towards reading and writing. Girls enjoyed reading significantly more than boys. Boys liked mostly comics and humorous books; adventure books were girls' favourites. Poetry did not appeal to pupils. Many boys did not enjoy typical school texts. Most pupils, especially boys, did not like…

Investigated Finnish parents' explanations of their young children's reading and mathematics achievement, noting whether child gender influenced parent assessment. Parent surveys indicated that parents of boys assessed their children's mathematical competence to be higher than did parents of girls. The opposite was true for reading. For boys, the…

This study examined the conceptions of Finnish child care personnel about girls' and boys' work, as well as fathers' and mothers' work education, based on a mail survey of 317 female preschool teachers chosen from the register of the Kindergarten Teacher Association. The subjects were asked to write an essay about the subject "a girl doing…