Workplace Discrimination Against Women

Workplace discrimination happens when a worker is subjected to unfavorable or unfair treatment based on nationality, caste, religion, gender and race. This means that discrimination against women at the workplace is gender based. It is inclusive of the workers who suffer retaliation due to their refusal to accept work place discrimination. The federal law is against workplace discrimination is all areas i. e. recruitment, training, promotion, demotion and disciplinary actions. The laws that protect people against unfair treatment do so based on the protected characteristics rather than the personality or the performance of the worker.Discrimination can therefore end up being subjective to a large extent and this means that what one person may consider discriminatory, another person might not (Bartos & Wehr, 2002). Forms of workplace discrimination against women Women have a right not to be discriminated against in the workplace as dictated by the international laws. However, the real ity on the ground is that people do not necessarily comply with the law and this means that women are still discriminated against. They are discriminated against in several ways. One, they lack access to the labor market.Studies claim that the rate of unemployment is higher among women compared to men (Gilliland, Steiner & Skarlicki, 2007). It also indicates that women have a lower participation in labor force when compared to men. There are also more women working at part time jobs than men although this might not be their choice. They further indicate that compared to men, there are more women who work for jobs they are overqualified. Statistics continue to show that among the discouraged workers i. e. the unemployed people who have stopped looking for jobs due to the unavailability of work, there are more women than men.These people are usually shut out of employment due to cultural, social, structural barriers or basically discrimination (Chirwa, 1999). Secondly, there is a big wage gap between employed men and women doing the same kind of work. Women get 15-30% less for work of same value done by men. Studies show that women are not safeguarded by higher educational achievements especially where high positions count. In several countries, the more educated a woman is, the bigger the wage gap (Gilliland, Steiner & Skarlicki, 2007). Despite the fact that women live longer than men, in a lifetime, they earn less.This makes them to be less advantaged when it comes to conditions for pension insurance. They also get lesser pensions on retirement. This kind of discrimination is global affecting even the first world nations despite the existence of laws protecting women against discrimination. Thirdly, we have the issue of glass ceiling. This is the practice where women are least considered when promotions are being done. Most companies have 90% and above of men in their executive positions and the same kind of percentage of women in the lowest positions. In most cases, the higher a post is, the lesser the chance of a woman occupying it.This is irrespective of the educational level of the woman. In fact, women who manage to be at the executive positions are usually an exception to the rule. Even in the companies which are female dominated, you still find more men in the executive positions (Gregory, 2003). The major reasons for such problems are as a result of discrimination against women. The society makes women to compensate or pay a gender penalty as mothers. Most employers do not want to handle the hassles which come with motherhood and therefore, they solve the problem by employing more men than women.However, studies indicate that employers incur an increased cost of 1% or less of gross income of women workers when they hire a woman than when they employ a man. Other than the economic reasons, women are also discriminated against as a result of misguided preconceptions and stereotyping about women’s abilities and roles, leaders hip style and commitment (Landrine & Klonoff, 1997). Sociological perspectives Workplace discrimination against women can be looked at through three sociological perspectives.The first perspective of functionalism which is built upon two emphases: a) use of similarity between society and individuals and b) applying scientific methods to the social world. The first emphasis on the society’s unity makes functionalists to hypothesize about people’s needs which have to be met in order for a social system to be there. It also makes them to consider the ways through which those needs are met by social institutions. The similarity between individuals and society is focused on the homeostatic features of social systems i. e. social systems are there to maintain balance when it is disturbed by external shocks.This is basically achieved through socializing society members to certain common norms and values which enable consensus to be achieved. In the cases where socialization i s not fully sufficient to achieve so, some social control mechanisms are used to either reinstate conformity or isolate the people who can not be conventional from the society. These include gossip, sneering and sanctions (Gilliland, Steiner & Skarlicki, 2007). The second emphasis asserts that the social world can be studied just like a physical world. Functionalists view social world as real and as one which can be observed through interviews and social surveys.It also assumes that the values of the investigator’s do not have to interfere with search for laws which govern social system’s behavior. This perspective tries to show that people’s behavior is usually molded by the forces in the society. Individuals are treated as puppets whose behavior is as a result of the internalized expectations and the social structure of where they were brought up or live. In relation to workplace discrimination against women, functionalists would argue that men discriminate ag ainst women because that is the way the society is (Landrine & Klonoff, 1997).Conventionally, women were treated as home makers and children bearers and men as the bread winners. Although the world has evolved and women have become educated, the society still feels that men should provide and women should take care of their families. Working and earning are only seen as additional benefits of women in the society but they have to fulfill their roles as mothers and homemakers. It is not a wonder then when men do not find women competitive enough to handle the roles which men have always thought that they are theirs. At the same time, men may not feel that women should get better positions in a men’s world.The issue of maternity leaves and sick offs for pregnant women make men view them as incompetent. This explains why men are against women climbing up the ladder. Functionalists claim that is the way the social structure dictates (Chirwa, 1999). The second perspective is symbo lic interactionism. This is a sociological perspective about the society and self which was founded by pragmatists. It dictates that people’s lives are lived in the symbolic field. People derive symbols from social objects which have shared meanings which they create and maintain during social interactions.Symbols usually give provision to the ways through which reality is constructed through communication and language. Reality then becomes product of the society and people’s culture, society, minds and self are based on such symbols. These are the ones which determine human conduct (Gilliland, Steiner & Skarlicki, 2007). In relation to workplace discrimination against women, the society has created symbols which guide its thinking regarding how things should operate. For example, the society looks at men as leaders, heroes, heads and people who show others the way forward.The symbol that the society has created regarding women is that of submission, weakness and peopl e who follow instructions which have already been made by men. When a woman becomes a leader, she goes against the symbols that the society has already established. This is expressed in almost all aspects of life. In movies, the heroes are always men and when we have women, they are created as people who can not make decisions. On the other hand, men who are led by women are seen as weak. This can therefore explain why men do not want to give women leadership positions because that is a symbol of weakness.When women are subjected to this kind of life, they also accept their position as followers and the ones in leadership positions are seen as exceptions to the symbols in a society (Gregory, 2003). Finally, we have the conflict theory as the third perspective of looking at discrimination against women at the workplace. This theory argues that individuals and social classes or groups in a society have different quantities of resources, both non-material and material and that the grou ps which have more usually make use of their power to take advantage of the ones with less power.Its believed that the people in power make use of it in order to keep their favorable positions. They use it to keep the less powerful from gaining as this would only jeopardize their position. This can then explain why women are discriminated against at the workplace. Men have had power for a long time which they gained from the favorable position that the society places them in. However, women have catch up and they also have power in terms of money and education and this threatens the men’s position in the society.Men in leadership use their power to act as barriers towards women’s progression because they do not want them taking their favorable positions. When women are discriminated against in terms of less payments and lack of career advancement, they lose their leverage to gain the power which is to the advantage of men (Bartos & Wehr, 2002). Conclusion Discriminatio n against women makes them to be offered employment which is not gratifying. They get jobs which may not allow career advancement, jobs paying less and work which is precarious.They are also subjected to mobbing, bullying, sexual and moral harassment as well as unfriendly corporate culture. All these contribute to lower labor force participation among women which translates to economic loss in terms of higher social security and unemployment benefits, reduced tax income and lowered economic growth. This means that if men could appreciate the changes in the world and embrace the idea of career women who have equal opportunities as men, this would not only promote sound economic goals but also, it would improve social cohesion in America.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly Essay

Introduction Lifecycle refers to the stages of growth and development of a living thing. All living things go through different stages of development throughout their lives. Change in actions and behaviors are deeply associated with the changes in the stages of life. Butterfly is such an insect, which has a complete lifecycle consisting of four separate stages. In this paper, we will discuss the lifecycle of a butterfly in order to get an understanding of all stages of growth and development of a butterfly. Stages of Development A butterfly’s growth and development process is known as metamorphosis. There are four stages of development in the life of a butterfly. Each stage is unique and represents a different life structure of a butterfly. The four stages of development that a butterfly goes through include Egg, Larva, Pupa, and Adult butterfly. Egg is the very first stage of a butterfly’s life. A female butterfly lays 10 to 100 tiny eggs at a time on the leaves of the plants. Butterflies select the leaves for eggs based on the food choice of the caterpillars. A butterfly lays her eggs only on the leave, which caterpillars like to eat. Each type of butterfly has a different choice of leaves, which it uses to lay down the eggs. â€Å"The food source needed in a butterfly habitat varies among species† (Barrett, 2011). It takes nearly five to ten days for a caterpillar to emerge from an egg. The second stage of a butterfly’s lifecycle is one in which an egg hatches into a caterpillar. A butterfly, in the form of a larva or a caterpillar, eats the maximum amount of food in this stage. The stage of caterpillar is the primary growth stage of a butterfly. A caterpillar is a work-like form of butterfly with a pattern of beautiful stripes on its skin. Caterpillars have just one aim, which is to eat more and more food. It even eats the shell of the egg from which it comes out. â€Å"The caterpillar hatches from the egg and usually the first thing it does is eat the egg shell† (Ballard, 2009). There is no specific food, which a caterpillar eats. Different types of caterpillars eat different kinds of food. Each species of butterfly has a specific family of host plants from which caterpillars take their food (Ballard, 2009). Some caterpillars like to eat fresh leaves whereas some types of caterpillars prefer old leaves. There is a species of caterpillars known as Harvester butterfly’s caterpillars. Harvester caterpillars like to eat aphids that are present on different kinds of plants. The Harvester butterflies lay their eggs near aphid colony in order to provide a good amount of food to their caterpillars. This stage of a butterfly’s lifecycle lasts for two to five weeks depending on the living conditions and type of the caterpillar. Pupa is the third stage of a butterfly’s lifecycle. In this stage of life, the butterfly in the form of a pupa, hangs itself in an upside-down position to a twig. Another change, which occurs in this stage, is the growth of a tough flexible shell outside the body of the pupa. The structures of a caterpillar are deformed and a new adult butterfly’s structure is formed. This stage is also known as the resting stage of butterfly’s life. The habit of continuous eating goes away in this stage. A pupa appears to be dead but inside the shell, the process of transformation continues. â€Å"It is generally incapable of movement but is able to move certain body parts† (Kumar, 2011). This stage of a butterfly’s lifecycle lasts for one to two weeks. Adult butterfly is the last stage of a butterfly’s life. In this stage, a fully developed adult butterfly comes out of the shell. The head, thorax, legs, swollen abdomen, and wings come out of the shell one by one. A butterfly rests for a while in order to let its structures become dry and hard. Once the structures of a newly emerged butterfly become hard, it becomes ready to fly. A butterfly usually lives for two to three weeks. However, there exist some types of butterfly, which can live for months. Conclusion Summing it up, all living things go through different stages of development, which represent their lifecycles. A butterfly has four stages of life, which include egg stage, caterpillar stage, pupa stage, and the adult butterfly stage. A butterfly shows different nature and habits in each stage of life. An adult butterfly represents the last stage of a butterfly’s lifecycle in which a butterfly becomes ready to fly. References Ballard, K. (2009). Butterfly Life Cycle – The Caterpillar. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Butterfly-Life-Cycle—The-Caterpillar&id=2005048 Ballard, K. (2009). What Do Caterpillars Eat?. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Do-Caterpillars-Eat?&id=2133512 Barrett, M. (2011). What Is in a Butterfly’s Habitat?. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-in-a-butterfly-habitat.htm Kumar, M. (2011). Things To Know About Butterfly Life Cycle. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Things-To-Know-About-Butterfly-Life-Cycle&id=6096961

Four Challenges of Sustainability

â€Å"Four Challenges of Sustainability† by David W. Orr confronts the problems of sustainability and proposes a path to get there. The concept of sustainability is the primary topic and goal in regards to the future of humans. The entire idea that humans and civilization as we know it may cease to exist, is a relatively new idea. This very real idea has spawned acknowledgement and pursuit of avoiding it through sustainability. Militarization, the increasing number of incredibly poor, and the increasing amount of frivolous consumption are some of the many current practices that simply cannot be sustained. Major industrial industries like agriculture, energy production, and health care have begun to exhibit diminishing returns. The move to sustainability requires major changes and improvements in government, specifically democratic governments and the relationship between them and their citizens. Fair distribution of wealth, cradle to cradle material policy, and building ecologically sound cities are only possible through ethical governments that have their citizen’s best interests at heart. Orr more succinctly puts this as, â€Å"Sustainability, in short, constitutes a series of public choices that require effective institutions of governance and a well-informed democratically engaged citizenry. † Education and curriculums must be improved to include ideas that are essential to sustainability. These ideas should promote more windmills, more farmers’ markets, and more small businesses. Orr feels that the public must be educated about sustainability and then taught how to implement it. It is then their responsibility to pass this knowledge on to future generations. The transition to sustainability requires more than education and critical problem solving skills. In the quest for sustainability, Orr says we need â€Å"a higher level of spiritual awareness† and references Schumacher in saying that we require, â€Å"wisdom, love, compassion, understanding, and empathy. † These spiritual tools will enable us to stop the self destructive behaviors that we continually perpetuate. If not for any other reason than preserving humanity we must stop killing the planet.

Data Mining Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Data Mining - Essay Example The second stage is Predictive Modeling, whereby patterns discovered in the earlier stage are used to make predictions about the future. The third stage is Forensic Analysis, where the patterns extracted are used to find unusual data elements. 3. One of the pitfalls of data mining is the vast quantities of data that are generated(Khabaza, 2005). When the volume of data is too high, mining becomes sluggish, hence the way to avoid this is by using sampling. Another is the generation of irrelevant data, so that the amount of relevant data mined may be less. Thirdly, if data mining is disorganized, it takes place in an ad hoc manner and will not generate useful results. Avoiding this requires clear definition of goals. When there is incompatibility in data mining tools, this causes interference in exploratory capability and high overhead costs. 4. The data mining program was used to identify hidden trends in the data. The airline company can use the data to identify the specific characteristics of those customers who are frequent users of the airline. The mined data can also be used to find a relationship among different sectors based upon customer behavior. 5. Two specific industries where data mining is likely to be very useful are banking and the retail industry. With the increase in electronic banking, transactional data can be easily captured and data mining helps analyze it. Data mining in the banking industry can help banks to analyze trends and patterns and to predict how customers may react to change sin interest rates. In the retail industry, data is collected when orders are placed and data mining of such information can unearth demographic trends in the data and can help direct marketing efforts. * Khabaza, Tom, 2005. â€Å"Hard hats for data miners: Myths and pitfalls of Data Mining†, DM Review

Critical Thinking and Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Critical Thinking and Language - Essay Example This discussion stresses that the term ‘language’ encompasses a world of concepts.   The very way that humans communicate depends on their language.   The way that humans think depends on their language.   Since different languages can have vastly different terms, one’s critical thinking skills can be limited by a lack of knowledge when translating or attempting to think across two or more languages.   Thinking in terms of the English language, for instance, there is a vast array of words available to describe pretty much anything a person could think, feel, describe, or want to express.  According to the report findings languages are full of vocabulary terms that can allow an individual to express thoughts, desires, or feelings.   The particular language in question will determine what terms are available to express these thoughts or emotions.   That said, the number of terms available in a particular language will determine whether that particular language empowers or limits the ability of an individual to express his or her thoughts or feelings effectively.  In the English language, for example, there are many adjectives and adverbs that allow an individual to express his or her thoughts effectively.   A person’s vocabulary knowledge can either help or hinder how that individual is able to express his or her thoughts, feelings, or desires.  Persuading an individual takes skill.   It takes thinking skills; specifically, critical thinking skills.

Early years in the uk context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Early years in the uk context - Essay Example care provider for one’s own children seems to be a complicated decision for anyone who understands the importance of wellbeing of children in their early years. The article seems to be divided into two sections. The first section deals with the comparisons being drawn between the ways in which middle and working class parents engage with child care in exploring their interactions with local markets. The second half of the article deals with working class parents’ choices of schools; it illustrates the importance of local connections for parents in their identification of a primary school. Both the researches are located in the inner areas of London where middle and working class was easily found. First a population was selected on which research was carried out. The families chosen were middle and working class families who had primary school going children; the primary focus was the second project that was the identification of engagement of working- class families with childcare. Interviews with the parents were used for the data collection. Interviews were taken, recorded, transcribed and then analyzed respectively. In all the cases the parents were given the choices of setting whether it was their workplace or home. The data collected was analyzed in two ways. Firstly through Nnivo, for data management and search purposes and secondly through hand-coding to identify and examine key themes and issues. Drawing out on the research data, this study shows that families of different positions comprehend and practice child care markets in very different ways. In London, the child care Affordability Programme offers subsidy in a form of help to the lower- income parents in order to assist them to access chilcare. During the research many of the working- class respondents commented that the tax in the form of subsidy was making it financially worth to return to the work. The research made it analyze that the financial resources was an expected difference

How important is it for China to train a substantial number of Essay

How important is it for China to train a substantial number of accountants in the near future - Essay Example The need to train more would continue because China would be relentless in pursuing economic reforms. The pursuit would attract more foreign investments and encourage more Chinese companies to expand overseas. China President Hu Jintao indicated that there will be no turnabout from the economic reforms and opening - up in the past three decades that made China achieve "the historic transformation from a highly-centralized planned economy to a robust socialist market economy and from a closed and semi-closed society to one that fully embraces the world." President Jintao spoke before the 13th economic leaders meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Peru in November 2008. "We are keenly aware that China remains the largest developing country in the world," Jintao said, "and the difficulties and problems we face in the course of development are rarely seen elsewhere in terms of both their scale and complexity." (Xinhua, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90785/6538647.htm, accessed December 6, 2008) Rapid economic growth would require companies to hire external auditors, financial consultants, tax experts and their own internal accounting staff. Training more accountancy manpower would be part of the financial infrastructures of corporations, said Cui Jianmin, president of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (2004). "As China adopts a more pro-active approach to attracting foreign investment, there will be a need for auditing, asset valuation and financial advisory services. As China adopts international practice in the field of banking, securities and insurance, it will lead to an increase in demand for accounting firms with a competitive edge. And as China's capital market and bank loans market for small- and medium-sized enterprises also develops, there will be a need for more auditing, capital verification, asset valuation and consulting services. " (Cui Jianmin, interviewed, April - June 2004, Australian CPA Network, , http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/cps/rde/xbcr/SID-3F57FECB-A56CA432/cpa/network_cui.pdf, p. 18 - 19, accessed December 6, 2008) The importance of training more accountants is illustrated in China's stock exchanges. Listed companies need accountants who can render credible financial information and disclosures for the use of investors and not for taxation authorities. Until 2007 when government mandated new accounting rules, accountants were influenced by tax regulations designed to make sure corporate taxpayers would not minimize their tax payables. Consequently, according to the International Finance Corp. in a study, incomes were overstated and allowable deductions were disallowed. "This explains the apparent paradox that despite a rigid accounting system, enterprises have strong incentives to use loopholes in the system to meet profit targets," the IFC reported. (IFC, Role of Stock Markets and Information Disclosure in the Corporate Governance of Listed Companies http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/publications.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/CorpGovernanceinChinaChp5/$FILE/CGinChina_Chp.5.pdf, p. 14, accessed December 6, 20 08) A broker, interviewed by the Financial Times, complained about the low quality of financial information available to investors. "The level of disclosure is not good," said

Management Evolution Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Management Evolution - Research Paper Example One cannot possibly stick to a single strategy and move about using it in all organisations thus it is very necessary to be flexible within the context of managing people. It has been observed that the styles for managing people have evolved and changed within years. In the past a more traditional approach was usually undertaken; however, as extensive changes in technology took place a more flexible approach was adapted toward managing people. Managing people is a very important phenomenon from what I observed within my own studying environment. If teachers do not put in extra effort towards the behavioural approach of the students they do not intend to attain successful results. Teachers who tend to be more dominating whilst not encouraging much of the feedback usually encounter students that are highly pressurized, under stress or carefree students who don’t give importance to their education since their ideas are not given importance to by their teachers. On the other hand those teachers who tend to be more involved with their students also tend to have extremely good results with their students. But then again one more thing that I noticed was that involving students is not necessarily the best way since sometimes student do take advantage of this benefit. Personally what I feel is that it gives the student the impression that the teacher will not really mind if he does not do his homework or submit in his assignment since he/she is extremely friendly thus there is no chance of being punished. This only implies the fact that within our studying environments we do have different teachers with different styles of handling students. I guess the best way is to be involved with students but then in the end the final decision should be that of a teacher. But again I believe that it is not at all necessary that this same tactic is applied in every class at my school. Instead, one should undertake handling approaches using the contingency theory which means handling students in accordance with their behaviour. For example, in a class of non serious students one should use a democratic approach since they need to be shown that there is somebody who does care about them and their ideas. On the other hand in a class where there is a mix of naughty and studious students a teacher should adapt the paternalistic approach which means taking their feedback but in the end the final decision is that of the teacher. Thus, my studying environment, if I observe, is a combination of all leadership styles and I believe this is extremely effective since every class has students with different attitudes and therefore it is very necessary for a teacher to adapt to the class according to the particular culture associated with those students. The approach towards managing people was first laid down by Robert Owen. He laid down the theory for improvement towards human relations. Therefore he was the one who believed in improving the living of works. Charle s Babbage, on the other hand, was the father of modern computing who laid down the theory of specialization which involves giving various tasks to different individuals according to their expertise. Specialization basically implies that a person will feel motivated because he has been given the job he/she is best at. Thus gaining an expertise will allow him to increase the productivity of the organisation. The problem, however, with specialization is that it tends to

Conciseness homework Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Conciseness homework - Assignment Example The samples were then stored in coolers on site for transportation to the chemical analytical laboratory. c. Based on the geotechnical data obtained from the sub- surface exploration program, the results of the percolation testing, and the planned plumbing fixtures, the feasibility of installing a leachfield-type on-site sewage- disposal system was evaluated. Answer: The feasibility of installing a leachfield-type on-site sewage- disposal system was based on data obtained from several reports. The data considered include the sub- surface exploration program, the results of the percolation testing, and the planned plumbing fixtures. Revise the following sentences by applying all the guidelines mentioned in this chapter. When you change passive verbs to active, it may be necessary to make some assumptions about the agent of the action, because the sentences are taken out of context. a. Based on our review of the available records, conversations with the various agencies involved, including the Fire Department and the Police Department, and a thorough survey of the site where the spill occurred, it was determined that the site contained chemicals that were hazardous to human health. Based on review of reports and inputs from different agencies like the Fire Department and the Police Department, it was determined that the oil spill has left the site chemically contaminated and was hazardous to human health. b. After seven hours at the negotiation table, the union representatives and management decided that the issues they were discussing could not be resolved that evening, so they met the next day at the hotel complex, at which point they agreed on a new contract that would increase job security and

Riordan Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Riordan Company - Essay Example For example, faster transportation helps the supply chain to be more responsive while the same time reduces the efficiency within the supply chain. Therefore, transportation has a great impact as it controls the speed of response. The modes of transportation that are available within the organization include air transport which makes it easier for the organization in that being a global company the materials needs to get to their suppliers within the stipulated time. Secondly, transport, by sea is also another option for the organization in case the goods are not urgently needed (Shah, 2009). Transport by road can also be effective in case the goods are being transported within the country of manufacture or production. Transportation influences the supply chain in the sense that in case the goods are not transported within the right time then it means that some other orders will have to be delayed in order to get the others moving. For that reason, it is always important for the organizations to have the right mode of transportation to ensure that the supply chain is not affected