In Sweden, male pedagogues in preschools make up only 3,5% of the employees. Since they are a minority, do they experience themselves as being positioned peculiarly by the female staff? The preschool curriculum says that the adults should be role models for gender equality and neutralize traditional gender roles, but if a shelf needs to be hung up or heavy items need to be lifted, who will be asked to do those tasks?

The purpose of this thesis was to examine how male pedagogues in the study are being positioned in a female-dominated occupation. Which subject positions appear, and how do they appear, from the informants’ descriptions of their occupation? We wanted to find out how male pedagogues describe their work practice according to which masculinity norms appear. The study was made through interviews with seven male pedagogues working in three different preschools.

The theories we used to analyze the material was Raewyn Connell and Rebecca Pearse’s perspective on gender and Connell’s masculinities and Marianne Winther Jörgensen and Louise Phillips interpretation on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory.

The result of the study was that depending on how men are being positioned we can find different answers. When they position themselves as “preschool pedagogues” they claim that men and women work equally, whilst when they position themselves as “men” they describe how they are being expected to do tasks that are masculinely coded. Some informants are being expected to perform like a supply father and role model. Thus, some of the male pedagogues perceive the preschool as a practice where traditional gender roles are being reproduced.