Women’s contemporary work

In the United States the labor market is strongly segregated according to sex: there are distinctive men's and women's occupations, jobs, and work tasks. Examples of women's gender-non-traditional occupations are: engineer, manager of a private business, technician, police officer, auto mechanic. This work reveals some of these hidden aspects of women's work. In different ways, the studies reported here point to the pervasiveness of gender as an organizing principle in the world of employment. The first goal of this paper is to identify the systematic and institutionally created and reinforced dimensions of women's work experience. The paper shows how gender affects the ways in which women are included in the labor force, the impact of work technologies, the threat of sexual harassment, government policy toward workers, the accessibility of labor organizations, the ability to protest collectively, and employed mothers' attitudes toward their work lives as related to the division of labor at home. Today the majority of working-age women (18-64) are in the labor force. Single and divorced women tend to have higher labor force participation rates than married or older widowed women, but marital status is having a decreasing effect on women's chances of working for pay. Although giving birth has traditionally been a reason for women to drop out of paid work and begin full-time homemaking, as the labor force participation rate for women has increased, the rate for mothers of young children has increased even faster. By 1983, half of all mothers of two-year-olds were in the labor force, and the proportion of women working increased with the age of the youngest child (Waldman 1983). Over their lifetimes, virtually all women will spend more years in the labor force than as child rearers. Most women, like most men, work as individuals for large or small companies and agencies; the family enterprise has virtually disappeared. The last holdout, the family farm, has largely gone under in the 1980s farm crisis. In 1983, 93 percent of employed women were wage and salary workers, working neither for themselves nor in family businesses, but for companies and businesses. Women workers are important to all industrial sectors. Women are more than 50 percent of the workers in retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services, particularly entertainment, health, hospitals, elementary and secondary education, welfare, and religion. Only in agriculture, mining, and construction are women less than 20 percent of the workers. Fox and Hess-Biber (1984) have summarized the extensive body of research on women workers: The occupations held by women are concentrated in the secondary labor market – jobs characterized by low wages, poor working conditions, little chance for advancement, lack of stability, and personalized employer/employee relations conducive to arbitrary and capricious work discipline. Although there has been some limited decline in sex segregation since 1970, the work world remains basically segregated into men's jobs and women's jobs. Even the slight decline appears less positive when examined closely: women tend to be able to enter previously male work when those occupations are declining in power and status and males are able to find better jobs elsewhere. On the whole, women have been able to increase their numbers in the labor force because the occupations and industries into which they are segregated have been expanding their need for labor. The barriers to occupational change are extensive, and involve both public and private patriarchy: childhood socialization of boys and girls to want different work, discriminatory practices of career counselors and employment firms, corporate personnel practices, harassment by male coworkers, failure of government to require affirmative action, reluctance of women to face the battles and hostilities that would result from their entering nontraditional work, child care responsibilities, and the refusal or inability of husbands to share housework and child care equally. Women's wages tend to be lower than men's even within the same occupational groupings, whether these are professional subspecialties or blue-collar work. On the whole, women and men do not work in the same occupations. The expansion of women's paid work since World War II has been less in professional or highly paid technical work, and more in service occupations characterized by low pay and lack of promotion opportunities. In some cases the hierarchical relationship of men and women is built directly into the work structure of individuals. The relation of an executive secretary to an executive is that of an â€Å"office wife†. In other cases the hierarchy is occupational. Staff doctors, predominantly male, leave orders for hospital nurses (predominantly female) to carry out. Management of the labor force is a white male prerogative. Although low-level management positions may be filled by women, 96. 5 percent of persons making $50,000 or more in executive, administrative, or managerial positions in the 1980 census were males; 94. 9 percent were white males. Among members of professional specialties making $50,000 or more, 96 percent were male and 90 percent were white males (U. S. Census Bureau 1980). The higher-level managers not only manage the labor force, they also set and carry out the policies and programs of business, public administration, education, medicine, and other fields. Nor does government offer an antidote to disproportionate male power. In 1982, women were only 12 percent of state legislators and 6 percent of mayors; in 1983 they were only 4 percent of the U. S. Congress (U. S. Census Bureau 1985). Promotion tracks tend to require a flow of family work mothers generally lack. Promotion in skilled and semiskilled blue-collar jobs typically depends not on outside schooling but on on-the-job training. Skilled workers such as electricians and plumbers are trained through apprenticeships, many of which require nighttime classes for several years. This may contribute to the fact that women were only 7 percent of registered apprentices in 1991. Semiskilled workers learn their jobs often in training programs that take place in overtime. This means that women are excluded from such training because they are less likely to have a family member available to care for their children (Kemp 247). An increasing amount of control over women's daily labor is held by employers, not husbands. Husbands may willingly accept, even urge, wives to engage in less homemaking and child care in recognition that what women can buy with the money they earn working may be more valuable than what they can produce through their unpaid labor at home. What they can buy depends on what goods and services companies offer; in other words, what employees are paid to do. The goods and services that are produced, the conditions of the work that produces them, and the market relations under which they are offered to clients and customers are all hierarchically ordered. American society is capitalist. The increase of public patriarchy is an increase in the power of corporate managers and the upper class. It is an increase in the power of higher-level men at the expense of the erstwhile privileges of lower-level men. Upper-level men continue to have stay-at-home wives and in addition have women employees, whereas lower-level men have either no wives or working wives and are themselves employees. They obtain goods and services to the extent that the decision-making elite considers the provision of such goods and services to be in the interest of the elite, and to the extent that the men's wage levels or other statuses permit. Although the benefit is largely to the upper-level men, it is not only to them. The jobs of many working women are oriented to giving â€Å"service with a smile,† making life nicer for men at all levels (Hochschild 1983). Examples range from television entertainers, provided free by advertisers to everyone with access to a television set, to airline flight attendants, provided by airlines to those who can afford to fly. It could be said that under public patriarchy, women are provided as a public good for all men. Poorer men who could never afford homemaker wives may now receive the services of working women, albeit at a much lower level. For example, men in some public chronic care hospitals have their beds made and rooms cleaned by women workers. Women's benefit from public patriarchy depends on their economic class and their family status. Although women's wages are well below men's, professional women's wages are higher than unskilled women's wages. Clearly, what can be bought can be bought better by those with more income. The career woman combines freedom and income to a greater extent than other women except those with clear title to inherited wealth. Those who perceive themselves as powerless and fit mainly for motherhood will reject policies and practices connected with public patriarchy. These particulars may be less matters of income and more matters of education and class background. Low-income women may be better off under the programs of the welfare state than under the power of lowincome husbands. Women may get both jobs in the public sector and services from the public sector. Services to low-income people are provided to women as well as men (such as free television or Medicaid hospital beds). Married women at most levels of the class system may enter the welfare system when they become divorced. Compared with husbands, public agencies may be more reliable, more amenable to negotiation, and less likely to become violent while drunk. The increase in working women and the increasing importance of public patriarchy have various implications for men and women. Lower wages and job segregation for women assure the continuation of male domination. Speaking of the relation between women's low wages in public and their subordination in the family, Heidi Hartmann ( 1981b) says, â€Å"The lower pay women receive in the labor market both perpetuates men's material advantage over women and encourages women to choose wifery as a career. Second, then, women do housework, childcare, and perform other services at home which benefit men directly. Women's home responsibilities in turn reinforce their inferior labor market position† (p. 22). Thus public patriarchy continues to uphold private patriarchy even as it undercuts and changes it. Just as women differ from each other, so they share a number of common features almost irrespective of their race, class, and family responsibilities. All women's wages are lower than those of equivalently skilled and qualified men; all women are vulnerable to stereotypical assumptions about their aptitudes and their commitment to work, in particular, about the potential impact of their current or future children upon their work; all women are vulnerable to sexual harassment. Despite the factors which distinguish women from each other, it is still possible to discuss the disadvantages that women suffer as a group. Minority women are differentially affected by the change. Black men and women have always been subject to a patriarchy originating outside of, and destructive to, their family structure. In the early stages of the women's movement some feminists seemed to envy black women their freedom from the private patriarchy of black husbands, without recognizing the oppression they suffered from the public patriarchy of white, male-dominated society. For black women and for other minorities, the family can be both a source of oppression and a protection against the worst excesses of capitalism. It has been suggested that there are very likely to be increased opportunities – in terms of both recruitment and promotion – for women in the field of computing as a consequence of its internal organisational shifts. Commentators are divided as to whether the kinds of social and communication skills which are now seen as critical for such work are attributable to nature or nurture, but are united in thinking that we are more likely to find them in women than in men. Women, typically, are seen as more empathetic, creators of harmony as opposed to hostility, of co-operation. The new technologies associated with computers are being hailed or decried as the basis of a new revolution for women. Women's labor force participation remains high for all ages and marital statuses. But past experience has made it clear that employment in occupations may expand or contract with economic change. There is evidence that the high-tech economy will automate some of the services and clerical work that have been the mainstay of women's employment. One possibility is that decreased employment will send women back into the home. Housewife† has often been a euphemism for â€Å"unemployed,† and may become so to a greater extent. It is not clear, however, that unemployed women will in fact become housewives supported entirely by their husbands (Bose 90). Private patriarchy declined in part because many men did not see a benefit to themselves in supporting a wife. Perhaps unemployed women will become divorced unemployed women. Perhaps they will become welfare mothe rs subject to a particularly important part of the public patriarchy. Perhaps they will find jobs in newly developing industries. All of these changes have taken place within a relatively short space of time. There is no denying that women's employment rights have radically increased in that time. But for all of this, women still earn a great deal less than men (if full-time and part-time women workers are considered together, about 70 per cent of men's hourly wages). Occupational segregation has remained almost constant to date and women are still concentrated, for the most part, at the bottom of the wage hierarchy. A few women have broken through one or more layers of glass ceiling, but the majority remains in jobs which, however demanding and skilled, pay less than those jobs in which men work. The social division of labor is maintained. Women do women's work and men do men's work, both in the home and in the paid work place. Women's work is low paid or unpaid; men's work is higher-paid, enabling men on the whole to buy women's work both at home and in the market. Control over social policies remains in the hands of men.

Problem of Good and Evil

How can a God who is both omnipotent and good allow evil in the world? 12/2/09 For Christians, evil can be a problem because non-believers can use it as a way to attack Christianity. The first thing they might say is if there is evil, then God must not be good or omnipotent because he is allowing it. Yes, God allows evil in the world, but evil does not come from God. Evil comes directly from Satan. We see this in the book of Matthew, vs. 1-11, where Satan tries to tempt Jesus.Another way an non-believer ay discredit Christianity is saying that because there is evil, God doesn't exist. This is definitely false. God does exist and we know because the Bible says so. We also can see the results of his power. Some examples of that are when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and God parted the waters of the red sea so they could get through, but he closed them over the Egyptians and they were wiped out. Another example is the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, in M ark 5: 5-34, and with one touch of Jesus' robe, was healed.This is Just a little taste of God's power over evil. Finally, non-believers could say that God is no better than pagan gods, but he is real and here to save us. God hates evil, but Adam sinned which caused evil in mankind, and he had to bear the consequences of his disobedience against God. The Bible shows us that God is both omnipotent and good. God is omnipotent which means all-powerful. In Luke 1 :37, it says â€Å"For nothing is impossible with God. There isn't anything that God can't do.Also in Rev. 19:6, it states â€Å"Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Omnipotent reigns'. In that verse, we see God directly described using that word. Now on the other hand, God is good. How can we define good? That is difficult to do. My definition of good is: â€Å"Having desirable or positive qualities. â⠂¬  God is good to his people, and everything he has created.Psalm 136:1, a passage about God's goodness, says, â€Å"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. † Another passage is from Psalm 34:8, which says â€Å"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him. † This verse is saying that if you let God in your life, you will see that he can provide only good things for you. He will not bring evil your way. God may cause trials in your life, but that is only because he wants to produce perseverance, as said in James.

The Global Financial Crisis in Late 2008 Article - 2

The Global Financial Crisis in Late 2008 - Article Example He is committed to seeking peaceful solutions to world problems. The number 3 world event of 2009 is the protests about the election in Iran. This is important because the cruelty of this regime was captured for the world to see. The young woman named Nela died while the world watched on the Internet. This will show everyone that Iran should never have nuclear weapons. The number 4 world event is the peaceful elections in the country of Kosovo. Serbia and Russia will not recognize this country and were counting on the first election to be rife with protests and violence. This was not the case so the people of Kosovo will have fairly elected local officials. This will be a great step towards the recognition of Kosovo as an independent nation by the international community. The number 5 world event was the death of Michael Jackson. The self-proclaimed â€Å"King of Pop† had lived the last few years of his life under allegations of child molestation. Now that he is dead, everyone around the world feels free to enjoy his music again. The number 6 world event in 2009 is the world climate meeting in Copenhagen. Some are hoping that some sort of international treaty will be signed at this conference so we can reverse global climate change. Other people feel that major countries such as the United States will not sign a treaty. The number 7 world event in 2009 is battling the Swine Flu. Many governments and other organizations are scrambling to get vaccinations to people most likely to be affected by this epidemic. This flu is especially frightening because it has shown that it is capable of making healthy people very sick very quickly. The number 8 world event is a series of doping allegations in the sport. Sports from cycling to baseball to tennis have been rocked in 2009 by athletes testing positive for steroids and other recreational and performance-enhancing drugs.

The Concept of Branding in Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Concept of Branding in Marketing - Essay Example The activities they perform in the process of making themselves and their products known are referred to as branding (Hawkins & Coney 2004, 21). Overall, branding is defined as the processes and activities done by a business in the development of a unique image or name for their products and services. Branding is an important process that ensures company products and services stick in the minds of consumers to influence their purchase decisions and preference for company goods and services in place of those of their rivals (Belk 2010, 67). The process of branding in businesses focuses on the establishment of an imperative and differentiated physical and mental presence in the particular market in order to attract and sustain the loyalty of their customers (Hartmann & Apaolaza, 2007, 65).It is important to note that in as much as marketers in business organizations do their best in the production of brands with positive image for their institutions, they often do not decide on the ult imate meaning to the branding itself. In this case, it is imperative to note that the process of branding is not about getting your preferred and target audience to choose your products over those of your rivals; instead, it is about making them see what you can provide as a solution to their various needs. A good branding process in business and its products has to fulfill a number of key goals and objectives.  

The Impact of Leadership Servants on the Attitude of Managers and Essay

The Impact of Leadership Servants on the Attitude of Managers and Employees in Five Star Hotels in Oakland California, the USA - Essay Example Servant-Leadership is a practical philosophy which supports people who decide to serve first, and then lead as a way of rising service to individuals and institutions. Servant-leaders may or may not hold formal leadership positions. Servant-leadership encourages teamwork, trust, forethought, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment (Associated Newspapers, 2000, Pg. 37). No doubt the Oakland California hotels, suites & resorts journey information index page is helpful for tourist. This research has been build up by means of the wherewithal of more than a dozen reservation services so that can determine the premium deals on Oakland hotels. Some of these reservation systems proffer exacting accessibility, great negotiate rates, deals and discounts these are noticeable with a colored star (Graham, J.W. 2001, 105-119). No doubt, Influx of latest residents clamoring for amenities and sign of restaurant, edifying venue and night club breach are breathing latest life into downtown Oakland (Bass, B. M., 2001, 231-272). Eager to exploit on this impetus and attract summer revelers, the city of Oakland has developed, a many-sided marketing movement intended to bring more patrons into downtown otels and previous key sharing points all through Oakland, the direct is also "downloadable" from the city's new interactive, searchable. Beginning this month, the guide will also be present at two high-traffic San Francisco locations (B. M. 2005). 1.3 Leadership Servants On The Attitude Of Managers And Employees According to the expert analysis Servant leadership is all about the people who actually make a disparity in the real world. If one is to give a declared idea as to what it is servant leadership is in lots of ways is the uppermost spiritual path. A good leader serves somewhat beyond him, and cannot only provide sense to his own life, but to those of others (Bass, Bernard 2005). A surveillance of the columns offers us with the information that servant leadership does not go hand in hand with the behaviors of the academic inspiration grid. Whereas a study of the rows shows that servant leadership has less importance on leader behaviors connected with the significance of individuals at a moving level and less spotlight on learning from others (Bass, B. M. 2004). Servant leadership and originality argue that servant leadership tends to exploit the diversification of previously within reach form of creativity (Beazley, H., 2002). A distinction in leadership focus" mentions that the only distinction in these two leadership style is the focal point of the leader whereas if we are too look at the matrix, servant leadershi

Personal statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 23

Personal Statement Example Further, I would like to educate people on classical music so that people can appreciate it more. It is a rich and informative genre of music that has a lot of significance1. I also believe that the masters in music will empower me to teach more people how to compose music. Composition can be a mentally and financial enriching activity that more young people need to indulge in. I am convinced that your masters program is the best option to facilitate this ambition. In addition, I believe that the facilities at institution are one of the best in the country and it would be an honor to acquire my masters in music from your institution. I would like to be a master pianist who plays for big crowds. In recent times, I developed a keen eye for charity. I want to be able to play at huge concerts and give the proceeds to charity. I can use my skills and expertise acquired at your institution to help millions of people out there. I am particularly interested in charitable initiatives for safe drinking water, social amenities and health services. I started playing piano when I was 4 years old. I have wanted to become famous pianist and professor. When I was young I took part in a piano contest and won a prize in the piano competition several times. I got into Yewon Art Middle School which is most famous art school in Korea. I wanted to go there so I could have many opportunities to enjoy and listen to beautiful musical performances. I entered Walnut Hill School for the Arts on the recommendation of my teacher, Have-Sun Paik. At the school I was a student of a Russian teacher. While studying with her, I came to realize how much I love music, how deeply I understand a composers feeling and his historical background and what I want to show and express to the audience when they listen to my music. I held a mini concert with my teacher as a volunteer at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston every Sunday morning for the elderly who kept coughing

The Effects of Digital Technologies on Cinema Assignment - 1

The Effects of Digital Technologies on Cinema - Assignment Example Development of color component allowed the color to be photographically recorded directly from nature instead of artificial/manual addition of black and white colors to prints (Ceram, 1965). Digital cinema is defined as the use of digital technology to project and distribute motion pictures.   The process of doing this is called digital cinematography. Therefore cinematography is defined as the use of digital technologies to capture motion pictures in the form of digital images instead of capturing them on a film. The images are captured on hard disks, tapes, flash memory and other media capable of recording digital data. Examples of such digital film-making technologies are Phantom HD High-Speed camera, Thomson Viper, Red Digital camera, Genesis, Aeroflex D-20 and now 2K d-cinema and digital projectors. The introduction of such technologies has ushered in yet another new era of digital cinematography (Barda, 2002).   Digital imagery existed as from the 1980s as evidenced by Disney’s Tron produced in 1982. This was the first movie to contain high-resolution. However, the first film in digital format was marketed in 1997. From that time henceforth, cinema has experienced technical and social changes as a result of digital technology. The visual components of digital cinema are an important source of its worldwide attraction.   Some of the effects of digital technologies on cinema are positive while others are negative. For example, the new technology has diluted the real meaning of cinema by creating increasing levels of artificialism. Even as we consider the effects of digital technology on cinema, we cannot ignore the persistent relevance that pre-digital filming methods and practices still hold for the current digital cinema (Kotian, 2005). The arrival of the digital technologies brought a sharp division between the old and new media.  

Housing market in China Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Housing market in China - Case Study Example The method that was adapted in this study to accomplish the aim involved the discussion of the characteristics of globalization and how it leads to economic growth. A background on the property market and its dynamics is also provided. The period under study were divided into two: 1999-2000 and 2001 up to now. The topics were divided into the commercial and residential sector. This was done to provide for points of comparison. An extensive search of primary and secondary literature was conducted on all available resources such as peer-reviewed journals, magazines, newspaper, other scholarly articles and finally, the Internet. Business information providers from the public sector such as China's Statistics Center and private venture such as the GoldmanSachs provided many historical and statistical data and were subsequently used. Results of the study indicates that there were many factors that led to the boom in the property market industry which includes government reforms, flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), worldwide events sponsored by China and other market reforms. With regards to the commercial sector, the supply was mainly fuelled by the demand generated by people belonging to multinational companies. In the residential sector, the supply was fuelled by people migrating from rural areas to work in the urban areas which was developed with the influx of investments of both Chinese and foreign businessmen. All of these developments were argued to be largely a result of China globalizing itself. In the end, it was concluded that globalization did indeed fuelled the rise in the property market sector. Chapter 1. Introduction China went under Communist control with the victory of Mao Zedong over the Nationalist Chiang Kai Shek. In spite of the spirit that animated the country, it was only due to the efforts of President Deng Xiaoping to reform and the open-up China that the country has undergone a profound transformation never seen in the country before. His efforts would prove to be a step toward China embracing the globalization concept. Chinese President Hu Jintao (2005) relates that China has benefited from globalization because in a short span of 26 years from 1978 to 2004, China's GDP increased from $147.3 billion to $1.6494 trillion registering an average annual growth rate of 9.4% while foreign trade rose from $20.6 billion to $1.1548 trillion with an average annual growth rate of over 16%. China's foreign exchange reserve increased from $167 million to $609.9 billion while the number of rural poor has decreased significantly from 250 million to 26 million. Jintao (2005) further notes that by the end of 2004, China had attracted a total of $562.1 billion in FDI, approved the establishment in China of more than 500,000 foreign-funded enterprises and created a huge import market of some $560 billion annually. At present, most countries and regions have had enterprises with investment in China, and over 400 firms out of the Fortune 500 have invested in China. The number of R&D centers set up by foreign investors i n China has exceeded 700. The overall national strength of China has remarkably increased while the quality of life of its

Case study 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case study 1 - Assignment Example odd was not expecting such swift response from the client, therefore asked them that she’ll review the organizational history first; in this way she kept herself from embarrassment and also saved firm’s reputation. Todd discussed this matter with the President but got a message indirectly that whether do this task or leave the firm. Todd had to now implement CQI and other essential organizational development changes in client’s firm. Kindred Todd is basically facing three kinds of dilemmas. The first dilemma lies within herself; Todd is taking circumstances very seriously and is in a conflict within .The second dilemma is that she is not confident enough. She has recently graduated from the university and her first assigned client for organizational development needs proficient systems invasion. Todd feels that she is not the right person for the job. The third dilemma is that Todd feels that she lacks competency. She had no previous experience in continuous quality improvement so she believes that she needs guidance, assistance and proficiency in CQI first. I would have accepted this task gladly as this could be the first career jump. Continuous quality improvement cannot be implemented without examining firm’s organizational behaviour and previous practices. I would have undergone the organization’s current systems and previous track record. In depth study of total quality management and CQI is necessary in this regard, so I would have deeply studied the concepts first. I would use my contacts in the industry; senior college fellows and teacher’s assistance. Assistance of CQI experts would give a competitive edge and by understanding the concepts and its practical implementation; I would have implemented CQI in the firm. I would have never left the consulting firm as they have given me the opportunity to make my first major career move. I would regard President’s decision for assigning this task to me and make sure to bring success and triumph