New book about masculinity, football and educational choices

A new book titled Playing the game: on masculinity, football and educational choices, in which young AIK players are ed about their views on masculinity and educational choices, has just been published by Karolinska Institutet and AIK football club. The results of the survey show that a male-only context where masculine norms are strong can influence views on educational options and other aspects of young men's lives. "We want our education programmes to be attractive to girls and boys alike," says Sari Ponzer, Dean of Education at Karolinska Institutet. "The work that's been done on this with AIK has given us insight into how young men look upon education in the healthcare field. We'll now do what we can to increase the proportion of men on our study programmes." Few young men apply to study on Karolinska Institutet's bachelor programmes, all of which have a gender imbalance; in some cases, only one per cent of the students on a particular programme are male. Karolinska Institutet now intends to change this by using the results presented in this book. A desire not to stick out or be seen us "unmanly" are important factors for the young AIK boys ed, as they believe that their team mates think they have to live up to the norms of masculinity.