| 1. |
- Carstensen, Gunilla, 1964-, et al.
(author)
-
Before evening falls : Perspectives of a good old age and healthy ageing among oldest-old Swedish men
- 2019
-
In: Archives of gerontology and geriatrics (Print). - : ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD. - 0167-4943 .- 1872-6976. ; 82, s. 35-44
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The late life experiences of men in the oldest-old age group have been under-researched, and their perspectives on ageing successfully neglected. This study explored the perspectives of oldest-old Swedish men on what a 'good old age' and ageing successfully meant to them. A purposive sample of 17 men, aged 85-90 years, was drawn from the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men. An interview guide explored participants' perspectives on their ageing experiences and how they viewed ageing successfully. Participants were interviewed twice, with 1-2 weeks between interviews, and both interviews were recorded and transcribed. Content analysis identified four themes: i) Adaptation, concerning the ability to adapt to growing old with increasing limitations; ii) Sustaining Independence, related to financial resources and good health as the foundation for independence; iii) Belongingness, representing close relationships, established friendships, and the significance of the spouse; and iv) Perspectives of Time, also a common thread in all themes, in which past life experiences create an existential link between the past, the present and the future, establishing continuity of the self and enhancing life satisfaction. The participants presented themselves as active agents involved in maintaining meaning and achieving life satisfaction; a process related to the ability to manage changes in life. Our findings have resonance with models of healthy or successful ageing, but also diverge in important ways, since such models do not consider the significance of an individual's life history for their present well-being, and primarily conceptualise health as an outcome, rather than as a resource.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
- Carstensen, Gunilla, 1964-
(author)
-
Initiation into engineering : stability and change in gender orders
- 2013
-
In: International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology. - 2040-0748. ; 5:2, s. 127-148
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article examines processes of doing gender during the initiation of students into engineering programs at university level in Sweden. The article draws on interviews with students, focusing on their understandings of gender. The aim is to explore difficulties with and challenges to traditional gender roles in an academic male dominated arena, by using theories of doing and undoing gender. The empirical material reveals the initiation period or ‘reception’ as a phenomenon both reinforcing and challenging traditional orders. The attempts to challenge norms meet resistance, revealing two paradoxes and one dilemma. In the first paradox the formal purpose of the reception (inclusion) is partly at odds with its informal consequence (exclusion of deviations). The second paradox concerns the contradictory effects of the reception. Even though the reception ensures participation of women, it reinforces existing hierarchies including gender inequality. This results in a dilemma, since in order to protect individual safety, there is a taboo on harassing women which then reproduces stable gender stereotypes. So while harassment taints the respect senior students must earn during the reception, the fact that female students exist in the engineering field challenges the established order and opens the way for change.
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
- Carstensen, Gunilla, 1964-
(author)
-
Sexuella trakasserier finns nog i en annan värld : Konstruktioner av ett (o)giltigt problem
- 2004
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The focus of this dissertation is how gender, heterosexuality and sexual harassment are constructed in an academic setting, based on in-depth interviews with 15 female PhD-students on how they talk about, understand and interpret experiences of gender and sexual harassment in academia. In the first part of the analysis, the informants’ own descriptions of their academic contexts are studied. The second part of the analysis addresses the question of how gender is produced, constructed, created through meanings of being a researcher. The analysis shows that an individualising perspective reproduces two sets of assumptions simultaneously: the assumption of equality between women and men, and the assumption of gender difference. The third part of the analysis focuses on sexual harassment. At a level of principle, sexual harassment is constructed as both defined by subjective standards, and on the other hand objective standards, just like the Swedish official definition on sexual harassment. When the women are talking about their own experiences of sexualization in academia, sexual harassment as a frame of reference is made invalid through following frames of interpretation: for example, notions of the female harassed victim, notions of the male harasser, alcohol, the level of violence/coercion, frequency and notions of the legitimate victim. When all these frames for interpretation are considered together, the space for drawing a boundary and naming something as sexual harassment seems to be minimal. The informants’ use of sexual harassment as a concept is partly informed by the assumed gender neutrality of the professional order and partly by what are culturally expected interactions between women and men. Finally, the contextual analysis shows that due to a double meaning of the Swedish gender equality discourse, sexual harassment tends to become “everything” and “nothing” at the same time. This opens up for invalidations of sexual harassment as a valid problem in the academic setting.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
