Konstruktionen av genus inom socialt arbete : - en kvalitativ studie utifrån vårdnads-, boende- och umgängesutredningar

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to make visible how social workers in family law construct gender in their custody investigations and whether there are gender differences in the assessment of mothers and fathers. This is to achieve a deeper understanding of how gender constructions can affect the investigative process and possible differentiation based on the parents´gender. Previous researches shows that social workers tend to reproduce a traditional view of family and gender, which means that women and men are assigned certain tasks and roles. Since statistics show that the district courts follow recommendations of social workers, it is important to understand how mothers and fathers are constructed in custody investigations. This was done using a qualitative content analysis of 12 custody investigations. The material was analyzed based on a constructionist gender theory and a social constructivist theory. Our study shows that social workers construct gender by identifying the mother and father based on gender stereotypes. Social workers are also more forgiving of the mother than the father when their shortcomings are presented. In the study, it was also possible to establish that there are more expectations of the mother and that social workers highlight more circumstances surrounding the mother. This meant that they focused differently depending on which of the parents was to be investigated. The study partly refuted previous research, for example by the father taking his responsibility.