Skenbar objektivitet : Om jämställdhetsidealens väg in i den medicinska diskursen

The aim of this study is to show how the ideas of gender equality in the late 1970 ́s and early 80 ́s were expressed in Swedish medical discourse. The questions asked are primarily how the ideas came to matter in medical discourse as well as the resistance against these ideas. The primary method used is a modified form of discourse analysis, to suit the aim of this study. The study draws upon three Official Reports of the Swedish Government. Prior research has found that ideas of female submission were a dominant part of the medical discourse, as well as the image of the caring mother. Research has also found that the traditional image of male and female as different species were in a profound reform process, due to, for example, the feminist revolutions, in which gender equality became a prioritized part of the international political agenda. This study shows that the resistance to the ideas of gender equality within the medical discourse was still hard to break trough in the early 1980 ́s. The women that were represented in medical studies, as scientists or as a target for research, were minimal or not represented at all – but they who did illustrates how the androcentric ideals of the medical discourse dominated the selection of objects to research, as well as the research itself. This study also shows that, even though the ideas of gender equality were politically accepted, and academic expressions of the opposite opinion were not, the expectations of men and women were still rooted in older ideas of the rational working man and the emotional house wife. Keywords: Gender, Medicine, Androcentrism, Discourse, Official Reports of the Swedish Governmen