Sweden has gained a worldwide reputation for its family friendly policies and the high share of women in paid employment. This book discusses the particular importance of early activation policies in the increase of women's paid employment and in changing gender and family relations. It explores how the integration of women into paid work was actually accomplished: on what ideational grounds, and using what concrete measures, were the conditions created for increasing the employment ratio of women? A number of activation measures are analyzed in more detail: vocational training, opinion-shaping, persuading activities and the work done by activating inspectors, specially installed to initiate housewives into paid labor. The book showcases how early activation policies contributed to the transformation of gender and family relations and thus to a farewell to male breadwinning. The book will appeal to undergraduates as well as graduate students, lecturers and researchers in gender studies, social and public policy and across the fields of politics, European studies, and contemporary history.

From first month nausea through to wedded bliss, fish fingers and smooching in the kitchen, here is everything that men have never known about women and women have always known, but never admitted about men.

A new kind of manifesto for the working woman, with practical guidance on building wealth as well as inspiration for harnessing the freedom and power that comes from a breadwinning mindset. Women are now the main breadwinner in one-in-four households in the UK. Yet the majority of women still aren't being brought up to think like breadwinners. In fact, they're actively discouraged - by institutional bias and subconscious beliefs - from building their own wealth, pursuing their full earning potential, and providing for themselves and others financially. The result is that women earn less, owe more, and have significantly less money saved and invested for the future than men do. And if women do end up as the main breadwinner, they've been conditioned to feel reluctant and unprepared to manage the role. In Think Like a Breadwinner, financial expert Jennifer Barrett reframes what it really means to be a breadwinner by dismantling the narrative that women don't - and shouldn't - take full financial responsibility to create the lives they want. Featuring a wide variety of case studies from women at all stages of their careers and financial lives, Barrett shares the secrets of women who already think like breadwinners. Barrett reveals not only the importance of women building their own wealth, but also the freedom and power that comes with it. 'Barrett's manifesto is a must read for any woman at any stage of her career.' - Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play

The superhero permeates popular culture from comic books to film and television to internet memes, merchandise, and street art. Toxic Masculinity asks what kind of men these heroes are and if they are worthy of the unbalanced amount of attention. Contributors to the volume investigate how the (super)hero in popular culture conveys messages about heroism and masculinity, considering the social implications of this narrative within a cultural (re)production of dominant, hegemonic values and the possibility of subaltern ideas, norms, and values to be imagined within that (re)production. Divided into three sections, the volume takes an interdisciplinary approach, positioning the impact of hypermasculinity on toxic masculinity and the vilification of "other" identities through such mediums as film, TV, and print comic book literature. The first part, "Understanding Super Men", analyzes hegemonic masculinity and the spectrum of hypermasculinity through comics, television, and film, while the second part, "The Monstrous Other", focuses on queer identity and femininity in these same mediums. The final section, "Strategies of Resistance", offers criticism and solutions to the existing lack of diversity through targeted studies on the performance of gender. Ultimately, the volume identifies the ways in which superhero narratives have promulgated and glorified toxic masculinity and offers alternative strategies to consider how characters can resist the hegemonic model and productively demonstrate new masculinities. With contributions by Daniel J. Connell, Esther De Dauw, Craig Haslop, Drew Murphy, Richard Reynolds, Janne Salminen, Karen Sugrue, and James C. Taylor.