”Pappa har ingen direkt åsikt.” : - En kvalitativ tematisk analys av barnavårdutredningar ur ett genusperspektiv

This study examines how the social service construct a gendered parenthood in child welfare investigations. The aim is to describe in which way maternity and paternity is described by gender and what differences are found in these descriptions based in normative constructions. As well as the way in which social services investigations reproduce society´s family norms. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of 9 child welfare investigations from a social office in a small municipality in Sweden, five themes were found. These themes have been analysed from a social constructivist gender perspective. The main outcome of the study shows that maternity is reproduced as a norm within parenting. Because of this the mother´s parental ability, regardless of what the family´s problems consist of, is being investigated. As the investigations focus on maternity, the consequence of this is that paternity is reproduced as absent but at the same time sufficiently good in its mere existence. Another of the conclusions of the study is that the social service has the task to educate the individual towards a social ideology, and when they do that the consequence of the family is that they are being fostered against the heteronormative traditional familyideal