  The vacuum manifold of the standard electroweak model is a three-sphere when
one considers homogeneous Higgs field configurations. For inhomogeneous
configurations we argue that the vacuum manifold is the Hopf fibered three
sphere and that this viewpoint leads to general criteria to detect electroweak
monopoles and Z-strings. We extend the Kibble mechanism to study the formation
of electroweak monopoles and strings during electroweak symmetry breaking. The
distribution of magnetic monopoles produces magnetic fields that have a
spectrum $B_\lambda \propto \lambda^{-2}$, where $\lambda$ is a smearing length
scale. Even as the magnetic monopoles annihilate due to the confining
Z-strings, the magnetic field evolves with the turbulent plasma and may be
relevant for cosmological observations.
