This thesis examines how teachers in physical education work with gender and gender roles in two religious schools in Stockholm. My main research questions were how the teachers relate to gender roles, if they think of gender when planning the lessons and do the boys or the girls get more attention from the teacher, if so, how do they get it?

This study is based on interviews and observations, which makes it a qualitative study. The P. E. teachers in my study work in two religious schools. Two of them work at a Muslim school where segregated education exists, which means that boys and girls don’t have physical education classes together. The third teacher works at a Christian school that has co-education.

The main theory in my study is that gender is socially created by humans. Masculinity and femininity are created when people are in integration with each other.

The conclusions in my study are that the teachers relate to gender roles in different ways. All teachers find it difficult to work with gender in an active way, which means that this is something that’s not given priority during the lesson. By my analysis, I have also found that teachers to some extent follow the curriculum requirements for overcoming gender roles, but the lack of awareness from the teachers can actually lead to the reinforcement of gender roles. All the teachers in my study would like to have some form of training or practical exercises that they can improve their skills in becoming more aware of working with gender. The teachers therefore share awareness that they could be better. I can also say from my empirical evidence that teachers in my study did not prioritize gender in their planning of the lesson. During my observations in the Muslim school I found it a bit difficult to see whether the girls or the boys got more attention from the teacher. I noticed, however, that girls more often received more praise from both teachers B and C, than boys did in teacher A and C’s lessons. I felt, however, in teacher C’s lessons in the Christian school, girls received more praise from the teacher and more attention by the way he spoke to them.