The main purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to analyse the expression of ideas in four different projects involving libraries. The projects all intend to improve literacy and/or encourage reading in boys under the age of 18.
Studies such as PISA have shown boys to perform worse in literacy than girls. Various studies have also indicated that boys read less and tend to display more negative attitudes towards reading in comparison to girls. The underlying causes of these differences may be explained in different ways; according to some theories it is the outcome of biological differences between the sexes. Other theories emphasise the impact of gender roles and intersectional factors such as class. This study examines the ideas expressed regarding these issues within documents such as reports and evaluations of projects carried out by Swedish school- and public libraries. The purpose of the examination is to determine which of the aforementioned theories the ideas may be linked to.
The results of this study show that all projects contain ideas that may be linked to gender theory. Two projects contain ideas that may be linked to intersectionality.