Etiskt tänkande bland manliga och kvinnliga socionomstudenter - En kvantitativ jämförande studie av manliga och kvinnliga socionomstudenters etiska prioriteringar i samband med socialt arbete

Sammanfattning: Author: Emil Stahl Title: Ethical reasoning among male and female social work students - A quantitative comparative study of male and female social work students' ethical priorities in the context of social work [translated title] Supervisor: Lars B Ohlsson Assessor: Malinda Andersson Gilligan (2001) claimed general gender differences in ethical reasoning. She stated that men tend to focus on justice, rights and the law, while women attach importance to care, interpersonal relationships and relational responsibility. The aim of this study was to investigate whether such gender differences exist among Swedish social work students, and how they would affect the way in which these students look upon ethical priorities relevant to social work. To examine this matter, a web questionnaire was sent to 504 students enrolled at the first and last (seventh) semester of the Bachelor of Science Programs in Social Work at seven different Swedish institutions of higher education. 106 replied and their answers were statistically and theoretically analysed. On the whole, the results only to a small extent indicated the kind of gender differences in ethical reasoning mentioned above. Few statistically significant results were found. Thus, and due to the small number of respondents, the generalizability of this study is limited.