“Gud va duktig du är”. En intervjustudie om kvinnors erfarenheter av jämställdhet i heterosexuella relationer

Abstract

The essay examines women's experiences of gender equality and how it is defined and done in heterosexual relationships, putting equality in a private, intimate and personal context. The essay was done through semi-structured qualitative interviews, where women told stories of their own experiences in romantic heterosexual relationships. The analysis is based on the women’s stories and partially through a discourse analysis and is, among others, theorized by patriarchy, defined by Sylvia Walby, as well as emotion work through Arlie Russell Hochschild. All the women did to some extent share having had a much larger role of work and responsibility in most discussed aspects of their relationships. Through the analysis of these women’s stories the essay finds a pattern of women’s work being both assumed and simultaneously unnoticed.