The self-archived postprint version of this journal article is available at Linköping University Institutional Repository (DiVA): http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-143647 N.B.: When citing this work, cite the original publication. This is an electronic version of an article published in: Bredlöv, E., (2017), Constructing a professional: gendered knowledge in the (self-)positioning of skin and spa therapy students, Gender and Education, 29(7), 890-906. Abstract This study outlines

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... the self-positioning of skin and spa therapy students. More specifically, it focuses how they position themselves as professionals in terms of knowledge, and how gender is at play throughout this process. Drawing on a poststructural approach, inspired by Foucault and feminist theory, regularities of description and self-description were analyzed. This approach provides analytical tools for analyzing how people engage with discourse in this micro-context of education and training, and feminist theory enables an understanding of how gender relations of power emerge. The material consists of interview transcripts derived from interviews with twenty skin and spa therapy students. The study shows how a scientific and caring professional emerges, producing gender relations as effects of power. Furthermore, a caring discourse is ultimately mobilized and a stereotyped image of the beauty industry is shown to govern students' self-positioning, reproducing norms of gender and consumption.