”… dom ska vaska fram några få, men riktigt bra” : En intervjustudie om hur blivande företagsekonomer förhåller sig till diskriminerande strukturer

The objective of the master thesis is to analyze how future business administrators relate to discriminatory structures during their period of studies. Eight students studying business administration have been interviewed. The empirical material is analyzed with theories from the field of research of Critical Whiteness Studies and Feminist Organization Theory. The theories are chosen from a Situated Knowledge perspective. It turns out that the interviewed students have a conception of an ideal student who studies business administration. This ideal is associated with white skin, male sexual expression, the Swedish language, young age and outgoing social behavior. All students interviewed relate to this ideal in different ways. The positioning towards the ideal is a negotiation between the students and their surroundings. I arrive to the conclusion that the students interviewed do not understand their closeness to the ideal as a result of discriminatory structures. The students who are close to the ideal are unable to understand their privileged position. The students that are far away from the ideal interpret their situation as an outcome of their own lack of individual strength. All students interviewed have difficulties to see discriminatory structures because acknowledging discrimination is according to them a sign of failure and further that you are falsely placing the guilt on external factors. Another finding is that the students believe that what they call “social suitability” is the most important quality when they in the future will look for a job. The criterion of “social suitability” does not only imply an outgoing person. The criteria conceals an understanding of a person close to the ideal. The idea of “social suitability” creates a context where some of the interviewed students, rather than others, will have bigger chances to reach high positions on the labor market because of their closeness to the ideal