Monday, September 30, 2019

Historical Investigation Essay

â€Å"Assess the impact of the period from 1969 – 1982 on the IRA/Sinn Fein and their development into a significant political force in Northern Ireland† â€Å"Assess the impact of the period from 1969 – 1982 on the IRA/Sinn Fein and their development into a significant political force in Northern Ireland† During the period from 1969-1982 both the IRA and Sinn Fein underwent significant change. Sinn Fein moved from a fringe role, in the nationalist movement of Northern Ireland, to a dominant political position. During a time of intense violence in the region an internal discussion was taking place, deliberating on the value of armed resistance versus political engagement. The ideals that rose out of this transformed the movement and laid the basis for the central role it would play in the eventual Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The re-emergence of the nationalist movement led to the rise and resurrection of groups such as the IRA. Naturally this caused much tension, and incidences of violence began to rise. Acts of exceptional protest showed the incomparable power of politics over violence and led to international recognition of the issue. Ultimately Sinn Fein developed into one of the most powerful political forces in Northern Ireland. After years in the dark the nationalist movement began to rapidly gain momentum when the Belfast Troubles began in 1969. The IRA had been deeply divided since 1921 when Dail Eireann chose to ratify the Anglo- Irish treaty. The treaty established the autonomous Irish Free State whilst the province of Ulster remained under the direct control of the United Kingdom. Despite the fact that IRA member Michael Collins had played a role in writing the treaty there was still a major difference of opinion between members of the IRA.1 They were divided between those who were for the establishment of the Free State and those who believed it was illegitimate and illegal. The Split over the treaty led to the Irish Civil War from 1922-3. Many of the opposing leaders had been close friends and comrades during the Irish War of Independence. The civil war split the IRA and this rift would continue to haunt Irish politics for many years to come. In the 1960’s the IRA was further marginalised as it came under the influence of left wing thinkers. This caused a split between the factions of the IRA based in Dublin and Belfast.2 In 1969 the wounds of old were once stirred again when Northern Ireland was rocked by bloody sectarian rioting. The bloodiest rioting was in Belfast where seven people were killed and hundreds injured.3 Violence escalated sharply after these events and new paramilitary groups came into existence on either side of the conflict. The Provisional IRA received an upsurge in membership. It was from here that ‘The Troubles,’ one of the most infamous periods in Irish history began. The violence was characterised by armed campaigns of paramilitary groups. Conflict hit the streets and many innocent people were often attacked. Alongside the violence there was deadlock between the major political parties of Northern Ireland over how the province would be administered and governed. 1972 saw an explosion of political violence in Northern Ireland in which many people lost their lives. The nationalist community saw the Provisional IRA as their defenders, who began an armed campaign in reaction to loyalist provoked violence. During this period the party Sinn Fein had no interest in electoral politics.4 They voiced the need for military opposition to British rule in Northern Ireland. They gained control of the Republican movement and began to focus on flooding nationalist propaganda throughout Northern Ireland. Membership began to skyrocket as anti-British sentiment ran rife. The Republican political party Sinn Fein built the foundations for a movement which in ten years would expand to have branches in every town in Ireland. Atrocities by loyalists and British forces themselves were used to justify the IRA as a movement and inspired many to stand up and fight for the cause they all believed in. On 30 January 19725 in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland border, perhaps one of the largest single atrocities of the ‘Troubles’ period occurred. During a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the bogside area of the city members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute regiment opened fire on many unarmed protestors. Twenty seven people are known to have been shot and fourteen of those were killed with at least five of the latter confirmed as being shot in the back. 6 Witnesses, including bystanders and British journalists, testify that all those shot appeared to be unarmed. Many individual atrocities occurred that day witnessed by hundreds of people. Eye witness Michael McCallion testified that â€Å"A fellow came out with a white flag, no sooner had he done this when the middle of three British soldiers pulled the trigger and shot him through the head†¦.I have witnessed this as God is my judge and I say that it was cold blooded murder.†7 Testimonies such as this confirm the extreme acts of violence the British committed unnecessarily on that day. One paratrooper who gave evidence testified that they were told by an officer to expect a gunfight and â€Å"we want some kills.†8 The reason for the uproar over such killings was the British soldiers were essentially not an occupying force but a measure of peace between nationalist and loyalist paramilitary groups. As Catholic Bishop of Derry Edward Daly commented â€Å"What really made Bloody Sunday so obscene was the fact that afterwards at the highest level British justice justified it.†9 Acts such as this by official British forces reaffirmed the belief of many that the British Government was still the real enemy and behind the problems that continued in Northern Ireland. This justified the cause of the nationalist movement and subsequently the IRA and Sinn Fein as well. Both organisations had now developed a strong following throughout the Republic and Northern Ireland. Whilst such occurrences did cause much suffering and pain they proved useful to both the IRA and Sinn Fein in acquiring widespread support for the movement. Sinn Fein and the IRA were not officially linked but both strived for the same goal. The Provisional Irish Republican Army was a paramilitary organisation that considered itself a direct continuation of the IRA that had fought in the Irish war of Independence.10 Its stated objective was to end British rule in Ireland and withdraw Northern Irelands status as part of the United Kingdom. The Provisionals advocated for armed defence of Catholic communities in the north and an offensive campaign to end British rule. As the violence in Northern Ireland steadily increased the IRA began to call for a more aggressive campaign against British loyalists. Sinn Fein was a political party of the Republican movement. It was formed in 1970 but has traces back to the original party founded in 1905.11 The party is believed to be directly associated with the IRA. Both Sinn Fein and the IRA played different but converging roles in the war for liberation. Whilst the movements were not officially linked it was widely thought that they were different faces of the same movement. In 2005 the British Government stated â€Å"We had always said all the way through that we believed the IRA and Sinn Fein were inextricably linked and that had obvious implications at leadership level.†12 Throughout the early seventies there was much internal argument between factions of the IRA and Sinn Fein over whether their movement’s primary role should chiefly military or political, although both groups viewed Britain as a colonial occupier and therefore viewed the political process as illegal. Until 1973 Sinn Fein had little interest in politics as the party was still deemed illegal by the British Government. Political activity began in 1973 when Sinn Fein opened the Republican press centre on Falls Road. In 1973 the first attempt at negotiations to resolve the situation led to the Sunningdale Agreement, which devised a power sharing system in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Although this did no include Sinn Fein and quickly collapsed under pressure from loyalist strikes.13 In May 1974 British secretary of State Merlyn Rees legalised Sinn Fein as a political party.14 This was perhaps the beginning of tacit recognition by the British Government that negotiations were only meaningful if they were directly with the IRA. Whilst local politicians such as John Hume, of the Nationalist Party, were respected they did not command enough power to have any effect. Secret meetings between Provisional IRA leaders Ruairi O’Bradaigh and Billy McKee with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees resulted in a ceasefire which began in February 1975.15 The truce proved to be disastrous for the IRA; leading to infiltration by many British informers into their ranks. After a build up of tensions and a series of sectarian killings the ceasefire broke down in January 1976.16 It was clear that the original aims of the IRA leadership for a quick military victory were receding. It was acts of violence by British authorities that justified the military side of the movement and ensured tensions would continue for years to come. As Sinn Fein began to move into the political process so did many former revolutionaries and IRA members. One such person was Gerry Adams; after being in prison for alleged IRA membership17 he turned himself in a new direction a moved towards the political process. In 1978 he was elected as the vice president of Sinn Fein. This most likely came as a result of the realisation by many senior figures that it was becoming more and more unlikely that a military victory could be achieved. Whilst significant events such as Bloody Sunday lead to anti-British sentiment to sky rocket many turned away from violence and embraced the political system. Protests by a number of imprisoned IRA members in Long Kesh gaol showed the power of political tactics, leading to the dominance of Sinn Fein as a political force. The 1981 hunger strike was the climax of a five year protest by Republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest originally began in 197618 when the British Government removed its special category status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. This status had provided them with Prisoner of War privileges as specified in the Geneva Convention.19 Prisoners did not have to wear prison uniforms, do prison work and were allowed to be housed within their own paramilitary factions. They were also entitled to receive extra food parcels and have extra visits. When these rights were removed by the British Government, as recommended by the Gardiner Committee20, the prisoners began a protest to gain them back. It started with a blanket protest in which prisoners refused to wear uniforms but instead wrapped themselves in prison blan kets; they stated that they were not criminals but political prisoners. In 197821 the dispute escalated into a dirty protest in which prisoners refused to wash and covered their cell walls with excrement. In 1980 the first hunger strike took place but to no avail ending after 53 days.22 The second strike in 1981 is perhaps one of the best know instances of protest throughout the campaign. The strike was lead by former IRA Officer Commanding in the prison, Bobby Sands.23 At the beginning of the strike there was little progress and it didn’t receive much outside support. But after five days the strike received a much needed boost; the Independent Republican MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone died and a by-election was called to appoint his replacement. It was decided that Bobby Sands would stand against the Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West.24 On 9 April 1981 Sands won a narrow victory and was elected to the British House of Commons.25 The victory attracted worldwide attention and thousands of media personnel descended on Belfast. On the six ty sixth day of the hunger strikes, May 5, Sands died causing riots across Northern Ireland. One hundred thousand people lined the route of his funeral a few days later.26 In the weeks after Sands death three more hunger strikers died,27 and another by-election had to be held for the seat of Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Due to the fact that the British Government had rushed through the Representation of the People Act,28 which meant prisoners serving more than one year could not run for parliament, so Sands’ election agent Owen Carron had to run instead. He claimed a similar victory gaining a larger percentage of the votes. The success of hunger strike created a firm platform for Irish republicanism and paved the way for the formal entry of Sinn Fein into electoral politics the following year. It was also around this period that the British Government began reforming its policies in relation to the IRA and Sinn Fein. They now viewed Sinn Fein as a legitimate political movement who would be included in official negotiations. The achievements of the hunger strikers proved the power of political activism as opposed to violence; they also exposed the falseness of the British Governments claim that the Republican movement had no support. The events of 1969-82 transformed the Republican movement from a violence orientated force to a significant political force. As Sinn Fein began to grow as a political force the IRA slowly, and with considerable internal difficulties, changed its ways. This eventually paved the way for an official ceasefire in 1994. Their agreement to decommission their weapons meant that Sinn Fein was allowed to come to the negotiation table and play a significant role in the Good Friday agreement of 1998. That agreement resulted in a devolved power sharing structure of self government for Northern Ireland, whilst it still remained within the United Kingdom.29 In 2007 Martin McGuiness of Sinn Fein was appointed deputy first minister and held equal power alongside Ian Paisely of the DUP in the Northern Ireland Assembly Government.30 From the split in the nationalist movement in 1969 to its reemergence throughout the seventies, alongside the IRA, there was much change. Events such as Bloody Sunday increased the military overtone of the movement but ultimately peaceful political power prevailed. Acts such as the 1981 hunger strike proved the power of political protest as compared to violence. Ultimately Sinn Fein grew into a legitimate political party and as of 2009 they became the largest party in Northern Ireland following European Parliamentary elections.31 _______________________________________________________ Bibliography Literary Sources English, Richard (2003), Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, Pan Books, Stuttgart, Germany ________________________________________________________________________ Geraghty, Tony (2000), The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Maryland, USA ________________________________________________________________________ Hastings, Max (1970), Ulster 1969 – The Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland, Victor Gollancz LTD, London, United Kingdom ________________________________________________________________________ McEvoy, Kieran (2001), Paramilitary Imprisonment in Northern Ireland: Resistance, Management, and Release, Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom ________________________________________________________________________ Moloney, Ed (2002), A Secret History of the IRA, Penguin Books, New Jersey, USA ________________________________________________________________________ Mullan, Don (1997), Eyewitness Bloody Sunday – The Truth, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, Ireland ________________________________________________________________________ O’Brien, Brendan (1995), the Long War, the IRA and Sinn Fein, Syracuse University Press, New York, USA ________________________________________________________________________ Electronic Sources BBC (2009), on this day – 9 Decmeber1973 (online), BBC, London, United Kingdom. Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/9/newsid_2536000/2536767.stm (Accessed 26 July 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ BBC (2009), Profile: Martin McGuinness (online), BBC, London, United Kingdom. Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/1303355.stm (Accessed 29 July 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ CAIN Web Service (2009), A chronology of the conflict (online), University of Ulster, Belfast, United Kingdom. Available from http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch76.htm (Accessed 27 July 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ Lord Gardiner (1975), Report of a Committee to consider, in the context of civil liberties and human rights, measures to deal with terrorism in Northern Ireland – Extract (online), University of Ulster, Belfast, United Kingdom. Available from http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/gardiner.htm#1 (Accessed July 28 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ McClean, Raymond, The Road to Bloody Sunday – Extracts (online), University of Ulster, Belfast, United Kingdom. Available from http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/mcclean.htm (Accessed 28 July 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ National Archives of Ireland (no date), Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Series: text of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (online), Irish Government, Dublin, Ireland, Available from http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html (Accessed 1 August 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ Prime Ministers Office (2005), Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Anti Terror Law, President Bush/EU, Foreign Doctors in NHS, Hunting and Northern Ireland (online), British Government, London, United Kingdom, Available from http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page7148 (Accessed 29 July 20090 ________________________________________________________________________ Sinn Fein Official Website (2009), History made – Sinn Fein is now the largest party in the six counties (online), Belfast, United Kingdom, Available from http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/16580 (Accessed 29 July 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ University College Cork (2009), Multitext project in Irish History – Movements for Political and Social Reform, 1870 – 1914 (online), University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, Available from http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_politics__administration_1870-1914#12TheFirstSinnFeacuteinParty> (Accessed 25 July 2009) ________________________________________________________________________ 1 National Archives of Ireland, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Series: text of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, n.d, (1 August 2009) 2 Moloney, Ed (2002), A Secret History of the IRA, Penguin Books. p. 246 3 English, Richard (2003), Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, Pan Books. p. 136 4 O’Brien, Brendan, the Long War, the IRA and Sinn Fein (1995) 5 Moloney, Ed, A Secret History of the IRA. p. 80 6 McClean, Raymond, The Road to Bloody Sunday – Extracts, 1997, < http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/bsunday/mcclean.htm> (28 July 2009) 7 Mullan, Don, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday – The Truth, Wolfhound Press 8 Geraghty, Tony, The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence, unknown p. 65 9 Mullan, Don, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday – The Truth 10 Moloney, Ed, A Secret History of the IRA. p. 432 11 University College Cork, Multitext project in Irish History – Movements for Political and Social Reform, 1870 – 1914, 2009, < http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Ireland_politics__administration_1870-1914#12TheFirstSinnFeacuteinParty> (25 July 2009) 12 Prime Ministers Office, Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Anti Terror Law, President Bush/EU, Foreign Doctors in NHS, Hunting and Northern Ireland, 21 February 2005, < http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page7148> 13 BBC, On this day – 9 Decmeber1973, 2009, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/9/newsid_2536000/2536767.stm> (26 July 2009) 14 Moloney, Ed, A Secret History of the IRA 15 Moloney, Ed, A Secret History of the IRA 16 English, Richard, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, p. 136 17 Moloney, Ed, A Secret History of the IRA p. 140. 18 McClean, Raymond, The Road to Bloody Sunday – Extracts 19 McEvoy, Kieran, Paramilitary Imprisonment in Northern Ireland: Resistance, Management, and Release, Oxford University Press 20 Lord Gardiner, Report of a Committee to consider, in the context of civil liberties and human rights, measures to deal with terrorism in Northern Ireland – Extract, 1975, < http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/gardiner.htm#1> (July 28 2009) 21 CAIN Web Service, A chronology of the conflict, 2009, < http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch76.htm> (27 July 2009) 22 CAIN Web Service, A chronology of the conflict 23 English, Richard, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA p. 196 24 Moloney, Ed, A Secret History of the IRA p. 211 25 CAIN Web Service, A chronology of the conflict 26 CAIN Web Service, A chronology of the conflict 27 CAIN Web Service, A chronology of the conflict 28 CAIN Web Service, A chronology of the conflict 29 CAIN Web Service, A chronology of the conflict 30 BBC, Profile: Martin McGuinness, 2009, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/1303355.stm> (29 July 2009) 31 Sinn Fein Online, History made – Sinn Fein is now the largest party in the six counties, 2009, < http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/16580> (29 July 2009)

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Comparison between cat and human skeleton Essay

At first glance, it might look as if there are very few similarities between a human skeleton and a cat skeleton, However, when you look a little deeper, you find many similarities in shape, structure and function. Evolution has shaped the cat as a hunter and predator. Everything about a cat has been formed to shape a leathal, agile fighting animal. In contrast, the skeletons of humans have formed to provide strength and stability. There are many similarities between the modern-day cats and humans. Like nearly every land mammal, both cats and humans have a well-formed skull and jaw, a vertebral column and four appendages. The most obvious difference between a cat and human skeleton is the size. At nearly 20 times the size of the average domestic cat, a human is a lot larger and way more powerful. Humans are built to walk on two legs. Therefore, their hips and backbone are shaped much differently and are much more solid than those of the four legged feline. Although humans are much larger, a cat has roughly 250 bones in its skeleton, compared to the 206 bones of the human skeleton. The extra bones in the cat’s skeleton are found mainly in the backbone, which gives the cat its extra flexibility and agility. A cat has 52 or 53 vertebrae; humans have 32 to 34. These extra bones are spaced out and have more padding, giving the cat flexibility and the ability to twist, turn and spring. Humans have collarbones, while cats do not. However, cats do have a free-floating set of bones in their shoulders that allow them to squeeze into tight spaces. In both cats and humans, the skeleton provides the same basic set of functions. Because of the density and hardness of bone, the skeleton provides the rigid framework to which other body systems attach. The skeleton determines the basic shape of a body. The skeleton also serves as protection for vital organs, such as the brain, heart and lungs. Because of the structure of the skeleton, it is the basis of all movement. Functioning as an attachment point for all muscles, the skeleton serves as a series of levers and pulleys to push and pull the body into place. Far from being dead, the skeleton houses tons of things that help with production. Human bone marrow produces millions of red blood cells a second, and forms the  basis of the immune system. The skeleton of both cats and humans acts as a storage facility for minerals, such as calcium and phosphate. In the end, cats and humans may seem different but we have more in common than you might think. Stem cells are cells that can grow to become almost any type of cell in your body. They can be taken from different parts of your body and put to use wherever they’re needed. Since they are your own cells there is no chance of rejection. There are two types of stem cells, Adult Stem Cells (somatic stem cells) and Embryonic Stem Cells. Adult Stem Cells can come from the umbilical cord or cells found in bone marrow. Embryonic Stem Cells come from undifferentiated inner mass cells of a blastocyst. These cells are pluripotent, which means they can grow into any cell in your body. Stem cells are able to repair nerve fiber. Tests on rats have been proved successful. Scientists are trying to figure out how to make stem cells more potent. Experimental surgery has helped thousands on their quest to better health. Umbilical cord blood can be used just the same as regular stem cells. Stem cells can also be used to repair cardiac tissue after a major heart attack. Stem cells have endless potential with very low risk. I think you should be able to receive stem cells if you want. Anyone who needs it should have them readily available. There is basically zero risk and tons of benefit. Stem cells should be used by everyone.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Tom Robinson was the honest, helpful and most trustworthy person I have ever known

Tom Robinson was the honest, helpful and most trustworthy person I have ever known. As long as I remember, Tom has never meant to harm anyone. As a respectful person and a good neighbor he was always first to help someone in need. Right now the person who was supposed to be sitting beside me, with his child in his lap is sleeping in god's lap. Not only me but also everyone else in Maycomb knows that Tom was innocent man and has never done anything to Mayella, but still he was sentenced to jail just because his skin was black. I was always inspired by his habit of helping out other people and giving them respect, but now I feel sorry for his help. All the things that happened to Tom makes me think that in this world now its crime to help a helpless girl. Tom was the only support for his wife and children, which is also taken away from them. Even though whites blamed him for something he wouldn't do he would want us to have respectful behavior with them. Well now it doesn't matter that he was innocent or not, because he is now dead. I grew up with Tom in same community and experienced as same prejudice as him, but I never controlled my self as much as Tom. Tom was very strong-hearted person, but he wasn't strong enough to fight prejudice. Tom always respected other person even though they insulted him. Right now in heaven he would be thinking good of Mayella and would be praying if someone can help her out. In conclusion I will pray that it wouldn't happen to anyone else what happened to Tom.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Politics of Ancient Greece Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Politics of Ancient Greece - Term Paper Example Such situation was highly untypical for the rest of contemporary societies that mostly relied on the tribal principle. The core factor that could be held responsible for the fragmentation of ancient Greece into numerous city-states was the country's geography, namely numerous mountains, hills and rivers that served as natural barriers between the regions. Despite self-identification as 'one people' the poleis fiercely defended their independent status and almost never considered the option of unification. Therefore, the political system of Ancient Greece had at least two specific characteristics that distinguished it from the rest of contemporary political systems: Furthermore, even small city-states that could not compete with their larger neighbors were rarely conquered or ruled directly another polis. Instead the common practice in Ancient Greece was grouping of poleis into confederations or leagues, members of which constantly changed. In the Classical Period (5th and 4th centuries BC), these leagues became larger and fewer with one powerful polis being the dominant member. Athens, Sparta and Thebes were the three poleis that played the key roles in respective leagues. Prior to the birth of democracy in Athens, the poleis we... Rapid development of trade followed by the emergence of a middle class by the 6th century BC led to transformation of the traditional aristocratic rule. In some poleis such as Corinth the middle class revolted, overthrew the rule of aristocracy and replaced it with the dictators (tyrants). However, the rule of the tyrants was highly unstable because the aristocracy desperately wanted to regain control and used any methods in doing so (Rhodes, 2006, p.256-257). In other poleis, the process of transformation was more peaceful because the ruling class reasonably admitted the power of middle classes and included their representatives into the ruling council. This type of government successfully existed in Sparta and became known as oligarchy, or 'rule by the few'. Athens also fell under a tyranny in the second half of the 6th century, but already in the 5th century BC the polis managed to establish the first democratic system or 'rule by the people'. Athens was described as having the most innovative and sophisticated democracy among all political structures that existed at that time and had democratic features (Dahl, 1989). Political ideals and aims of the classical Athenian democracy were expressed by the outstanding Greek philosopher Aristotle in The Politics dated between 335 and 323 BC. Aristotle identified liberty as one of the founding principles of the classical democratic constitution. The philosopher argues that liberty has two major aspects, namely: 1) ruling and being ruled in turn; 2) living as one chooses (Aristotle, 1984) The ideals of Athenian democracy - equality among citizens, liberty, and respect for the law and justice - have had great influence in the Western political thought, "although there are some central ideas, for

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Identify knowledge & skills of PHC Nurses related health educatio Literature review

Identify knowledge & skills of PHC Nurses related health educatio - Literature review Example To describe precisely the skills, knowledge and attitudes that PHC nurses should posses with reference to healthcare education to the patients and the public. To measure the nurse’s level of scientific knowledge, required for health education at the PHC centres. The following sections presents a literature review of studies focused on different areas inside and outside Saudi Arabia. As the proposed research need to redefine the variables involved giving due attention to existing findings, these studies provide valuable information to start with, to describe precisely the skills, knowledge and attitudes that PHC nurses should posses with reference to healthcare education. Review of Literature Rasheed, and Al-Sowielem (2003) have examined the level of health awareness related to pregnancy and the sources of information among women visiting the Primary Health Centers in Al- Khobar, Saudi Arabia. This study is important to the context of this research because it has pointed to the fact that PHC nurses are poor sources of health information (p.37-38). This study has used a questionnaire to survey 581 women in child bearing age and this huge sample size lends great credibility to the findings that this study endorses. The study has explored whether information on food, rest, exercise, breast care, rubella, smoking, safe maternal age, spacing between pregnancies, and antenatal care, were available to the members of the sample and if so, what were the sources of this health information for them (Rasheed, and Al-Sowielem, 2003). The results showed that there was inadequate information given to the pregnant women from the PHC staff (Rasheed, and Al-Sowielem, 2003). Also, the authors mentioned that educational intervention during antenatal period is highly effective in improving the knowledge and health habits of pregnant women, an intervention that PHC nurses alone get the opportunity to impart with maximum effectiveness. Therefore, from this study it is necessary that nurses have knowledge on information about food, breast cancer among other factors significant for health education of pregnant women. Similarly, Al-Amoud (2003) showed from a study that there is need for PHC nurses to be equipped with knowledge or information about breast feeding so that they can assist breast feeding mothers with appropriate information during health education. The study examined the breastfeeding practice among women attending primary health centres in Riyadh that there is a clear decline of breastfeeding in Saudi Arabia. This study (Al-Amoud, 2003) has indirectly pointed to the need for improving training of PHC professionals including nurses so that they can give better education to the mothers on the importance of breastfeeding. These results of this study have been obtained through examining variables such as, number of children alive, marital status, occupation, and the level of education (Al-Amoud, 2003). Almalki, FitzGerald, and Clark (2012) in their investigation of nursing education in PHC setting have also stressed the important of the furthering nursing education in PHC setting. This is one of the main findings of the study carried out to assess the quality of work life among PHC Nurses in Jazan, south of Saudi Arabia (Almalki,

Communication-Public Relation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Communication-Public Relation - Assignment Example oach would not necessarily work in the event that a boss requires that his employees exhibit strong independent character traits, that allow for them to take the initiative and effectively address issues without constantly trying to come across as likable (Scheer, 2009). This position is further supported by research conducted by career edge which on a sample size of 1,118 Ontarians that found that 82 percent of individuals aged between 18 and 29 years actually preferred to being in workplace environments that offered them a balance between independence and teamwork (Taylor 2010). In a further demonstration of the research dubbed 5 myths established that 34% of individuals in this age category preferred that cubicle styled office structures that offered more independence and privacy to employees as opposed to using the open-concept of the more hyper-casual offices that offered less independence and privacy. I agree with the results of the survey that also established that this generation –Y ers are quite keen to understand the given corporate culture, however they do not what a boss whose acts like a best friend and instead prefer having bosses who act like mentors and provide them with a lot of feedback on their work (Taylor, 2010). Concepts such as employees going well above and beyond what their employees require of them, striving to establish good networks, and always ensuring that they display enthusiasm and energy are valuable tips that are not only useful during the internship period, but are also critical work ethics that should be observed by those wishing to be good employees (Internweb, 2014). Taylor, L. (2010). Career Edge Study: What twentysomethings want from their jobs. Retrieved on 27, May 2014,

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin Essay

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin - Essay Example The sense of originality has lost by use of pictures as compared to paintings. According to Benjamin, the reproducible film represents a historical shift that many audiences might fail to notice. Benjamin noted that the work of art reproduced mechanically has intervened to fill the void left by loss of aura. For instance, the loss of authority by the original work of art has been compensated by the use of a camera. Cameraman can direct the viewers eyes towards specific places and stories, as a result of being radical, revolutionary and totalitarian. Mechanical reproduction has introduced distraction as a new way of reception. There is a shift in the location of work of art that can be referred to as an aura to the mythological space. People are now capable of visiting places like museums, theaters, galleries and cinemas to see the work of art. Benjamin, however, complements the loss of aura. He notes that the loss has opened up politicization of the work of art put into use in different ways. He observes that a mechanical reproduction has managed to change contemplation regarding the screen as well as the films

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Children appear capable of using lexical information to resolve Essay

Children appear capable of using lexical information to resolve syntactic ambiguities, but their ability to use referential information is questionable. Discuss - Essay Example gely thought to have acquired the linguistic facts of their language, the focus of adult psycholinguistic research has been on how they process language as they hear or use it. On the other hand, the focus of child language research has been on the documentation of children’s knowledge states at various points in development; with very little emphasis on how they process their language. This appears to be an area needing further investigation as, logically, children need also apply a meaningful analysis to their inputs in order to learn language. That is, acquisition necessarily implies that parser. This paper examines the aspect of difficulties and limitations encountered by children in using referential information while they deploy with ease lexical information to resolve syntactic ambiguities. 5 The main emphasis of the Psycholinguistic research has been on comprehending as to how adults interpret language in real time. Several authors (Trueswell & Tanenhaus, 1991; Tanenhaus, Spivey-Knowlton, Eberhard & Sedivy, 1995;Altmann & Steedman, 1988; Britt, 1994) have uncovered ,within this domain of examination a complex and interactive language 6 processing system capable of swift and almost instantaneous coordination of linguistic characteristics of the message with contextual or scene specific information. Trueswell et al (1999) investigated the moment by moment language learning process in children using a technique that involved recording eye movements, done deploying a head-mounted eye-tracking system to monitor eye movements, as participants responded to spoken instructions. This research found that,† systematic differences in how children and adults process spoken language: Five Year Olds did not take into account relevant discourse/pragmatic principles when resolving temporary syntactic ambiguities, and showed little or no ability to revise initial parsing commitments. Adults showed sensitivity to these discourse constraints at the earliest

Monday, September 23, 2019

SS310 unit 6 Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SS310 unit 6 Assignment - Research Paper Example the single most potent and important step on the part of the women to win for themselves equal political, social, civil and moral rights (Dunlop, 1998, p. 246). The very fact that this convention was actually held, imbued the hitherto scattered women’s rights groups in the United States with the faith and the confidence that women were not only capable of politically organizing themselves, but were also capable of articulating their rational in an organized and forceful manner (Dunlop, 1998). The reverberations of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention could well be felt in the drafting and ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, representing the fructification of the political and social momentum unleashed by the Seneca Falls Convention. Hence, there is no denying the fact that the first Women’s Rights Convention of 1848 in a way constitutes the chronological and ideological epicenter of the Women’s Rights Movement right from its dawn to the present day. It repres ents a first socially and politically organized and symbolic dissent on the part of the women, against the hitherto existing system that denied to them the very basic civil, political and economic rights. It was the 1848 Convention that initiated a debate on the issue of women’s right and other related issues. This also needs to be mentioned that many of the women activists being actively engaged in the abolition movement, were for the first time able to unequivocally express their disenchantment with a society that extended to them less than equal rights and that too with a grudge. Hence, the First National Women’s Rights convention at Worcester in 1850, tends to be a worthy follower to the 1848 Convention, which intended to be a litmus test on the part of its organizers, to test if Women’s Rights Movement could accrue support from varied sections of the American society and whether the time was right for initiating and organizing this struggle. In that sense, the First Women’s Rights

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay Essay Example for Free

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay Essay Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/ To mould thee man? Did I solicit thee/ From darkness to promote me? Adams words appear in 1818 edition of FR. What light do they cast on the Creature? Does Shelley present him as monster or victim? By using the above quote from Paradise Lost (printed in the epigraph on the title page of Frankenstein) Shelley has shown that she does see some parallels with Gods creation of man and Frankensteins creation. However through the novel Shelley expresses many opinions and criticisms of society which were influenced by her own family circumstances and her vast reading. She makes constant reference to family and the concept of alienation and by examining how the creature is treated we can form a better view on whether he is a monster or a victim. Shelley quickly gets the reader involved in the story by enabling us to read the letters Walton writes to his sister. This epistolary style gives a sense of realism to the whole story and thus prepares us to hear Frankenstein and the creatures accounts later on through Waltons journal, which forms a frame for their versions of the story. Because we are hearing Frankensteins version through the eyes of Walton, a romantic character, who bitterly feel(s) the want of a friend and quickly identifies Frankenstein as the sort of person who could satisfy this want, we may be hearing a biased version of the events. We also see the Creatures version told to Frankenstein and then recorded in Waltons journal. However, the eloquent rhetoric used by the creature give the impression that we are not reading an entirely prejudiced report of the creatures account who may otherwise have appeared less articulate and more like a babbling monster. However, first of all I will examine Frankensteins narrative where we can see that there is regular emphasis put on the benevolence of the characters. His father passed his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of his country and his parents benevolent dispositions often made them enter the cottages of the poor. His mother is described as having a soft and benevolent mind and his own early childhood memories are of his mothers soft caresses and his fathers smile of benevolent pleasure. This emphasis on the importance of benevolence can be traced to Shelleys father, William Godwin a radical thinker who believed that universal benevolence would create a just and virtuous society and that a true solitaire could not be considered a moral being. Shelley by dedicating her book to her father would seem to be showing that she believed and shared in some of his philosophy and this would appear to be the case here. Before we hear the creatures story we see the use of both Romantic and Gothic imagery setting the scene. Frankenstein is enjoying the beauty of nature when a noble war in the sky takes place. This is a description of a storm which is taking place and Shelley frequently uses the weather and sublime scenery before the entry of the creature or when something unpleasant is about to take place. If we then start to look at the creatures narrative reported by Frankenstein to Walton (thus showing how Shelley has used a set of enclosing narratives Waltons narrative being the framing narrative with Frankensteins story enclosed in this and the creatures enclosed within that. ) we see that his story is totally the opposite to Frankenstein. When we do see the entry of the creature we see that his first memories are the opposite to Frankensteins, they are not of benevolence he is rejected by his creator, followed by the repulsion and horror of the shepherd, followed by the villagers chasing him off and the DeLaceys and finally after saving the life of a young girl he is shot by a man. Accordingly, in his own words: I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. The idea of the unfallen state of innocence possessed before the creatures corruption, brought about from his contact with society, is something Shelley had come into contact with from her reading of Rousseaus books. The creature claims to have read Paradise Lost (believing it to be factual) and other books such as Plutarchs Lives and through these and listening to the DeLaceys he starts to build up a picture of the philosophy of society. He sees himself as the lowest of the low when he learns about the class system and when he sees his own reflection. The latter he describes as miserable deformity. Consequently the solitary and abhorred creature who believes himself to be miserably alone compares himself to Adam. However he realises that Adam had not been alone and his creator had not turned from him in disgust and abandoned him. Because no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts he sees that his only hope of happiness is to have a female version of himself created. Thus we see again parallels being drawn with the Paradise Lost story. Using eloquent and persuasive language Frankenstein is persuaded to create a second creature. Of course, he later decides against this and we see the creature once again facing a life alone, miserably alone and it is in this state we see him once again causing death and destruction. Some readers see that the book is a rejection of the excess of romanticism, perhaps Shelley saw this excess in her husband Percy and felt the need to voice an objection. If a person becomes obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge then things can go wrong and this could be seen to be the case with Frankenstein. Others believe that Frankenstein represents a man who sees himself in the place of God who does not need a woman to have a child and if this is the case once again we can see that Shelley has shown how things can go wrong and instead of No father should claim the gratitude of his child as completely as I should deserve theirs we see a creature alone, miserably alone who sees the only way forwards is the annihilation of one of (them) Consequently, it is my opinion the creature was a victim and that this is the way that Shelley intended us to judge him. She wished the readers to see that society has a responsibility for everyone. We should not judge people by their appearance and we should take responsibility for the less fortunate people in our society. She was writing at the time of the industrial revolution and when many new scientific theories were being advanced and perhaps saw the danger of what could happen if people failed to take responsibility for their actions and perhaps even believed that it would one day be possible to create beings and wanted to ensure that scientists would see that they had a responsibility for anything that they did create. The creature had no loving family or friends and no one to guide him and therefore it is inevitable that he would turn into a monster but a monster because of the way he had been treated and therefore a victim. Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Emotional Labour and Employees in a Face-to-Face Service Environment

Emotional Labour and Employees in a Face-to-Face Service Environment ABSTRACT In many organizations there is an increase in the requirement to carry on emotional labour. Hochschild (1983) argues that these emotional demands have negative effects physically and psychologically. Management evaluations in the Bahamas focus on job satisfaction and not encompassing the employees psychological well being. This study measured emotional labour under the parameters of surface acting, deep acting and burnout via socio-demographics with the method of questionnaire survey. The results showed 1) significance in one of the social demographics for surface acting, 2) no significance for deep acting, and 3) all social demographics showed significance towards burnout. Key words: Surface Acting, Deep Acting, Burnout Emotional Labour and Employees in a Face-to-Face Service Environment Introduction The strength of the hospitality industry is not only getting a job done, but also involves getting the work done with the correct attitude, with the correct degree of authenticity, and with the correct amount of concern for guests. Every organization in the hospitality industry expects that their employees, while interacting with customers, to exhibit certain types of emotions such as friendliness, cheerfulness, warmth, enthusiasm, or confidence. Tourism together with tourism-driven construction and manufacturing accounts for approximately 60% of The Bahamas Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and directly or indirectly employs half of the archipelagos labour force. Prior to 2006, a steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences led to solid GDP growth but since the tourism receipts have begun to drop off. The global recession in 2009 took a sizeable toll on The Bahamas, resulting in a contraction in GP and a widening budget deficit. Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector (CIA-The World Factbook, 2011, para. 5). In light of this, it is essential that the service rendered by the Bahamian people continues and remains exceptional. Because the interaction between the service provider and customer is the central part of a service experience that affects a customers perception of service quality, it is essential for managers or employers to control or manage employees behavior or emotional expressions to guarantee service quality. Being able to exercise self-control is a key component. However, it cannot be assumed that the employee is always going to be in a good mood. Situations will arise that will bring about negative emotions such as annoyance, anger etc. Imagine being told that one of your colleagues has just passed away. Immediately after learning this information, a guest needs some assistance specifically from you. Or even more so a guest has a bad attitude for whatever reason and decides to spit on you. What should you do? What reaction should you have? An employees emotional reaction is no longer a private experience, but a public act that is controlled by his or her employer. Rules for emotional display are developed, and training programs are mandatory. Hochschild (1983), who was the first to hone in on the effects of emotional work on flight attendants, describes this type of conflict to be emotional labour emotional job demands and emotional strategies necessary to control these demands. It was discovered that emotional labour weight could be classified into five requirements and one stressor. These would be the display of positive emotions, negative emotions, neutrality, sensitivity, and sympathy. The stressor, emotional dissonance, is then what is demanded when these particular emotional requirements are not met. Hochschild (1983) used the description of a drama-where work setting is an act from a movie or play, the customers/guests are the audience, and the individual employees are actors with rules governing how to interact with the customers/guests. At first glance, it may seem that this task should not be a difficult one to perform. It has been argued that displaying positive emotions have a positive effect on the individual. There are three acting techniques researchers have recommended that service employees carry out emotional labor using (Hochschild, 1983; Ashforth Humphrey, 1993). The first is -surface acting- described as the altering of ones external facade to suggest the appropriate or desired emotion-not necessarily personally felt. The second technique is -deep acting- described as a change of not only the external persona, but also the inner mind-set; done through utilizing empathy or sympathy. The final acting technique is -genuine acting- that happens when the employees felt emotions are harmonious with spoken emotions. In many organizations there is an increase in the requirement to carry on emotional labour. The service industry is one where participants are expected to provide exceptional and flawless behaviour. The expectancy to compartmentalize ones personal feelings and serve seems easy enough. Management expects that a service employees first and upmost responsibility is to the client and anything that comes in-between is secondary. Hochschild (1983) argues that these emotional demands have negative effects physically and psychologically. Management evaluations in the Bahamas focus on job satisfaction and not encompassing the employees psychological well being. The existing research conducted on emotional conflict and dissonance; adds vital information to the general body of knowledge. Notably, as the Bahamas number one industry is tourism, indicating a large portion of the population engages in the provision of service. There has been no study has been conducted in the Bahamas in this area. The purpose of this study is to measure employees attitudes towards emotional labour. The essential assumption is that employees attitudes are critical factors in the formation of the professed positive or negative consequence of performing emotional labor. Particularly, at what levels are emotional labour conducted via surface acting, deep acting, and the effect that it has on service workers, and its associated burnout consequence? The hypothesis is that employees attitudes are vital factors in determining the apparent positive or negative outcome of performing emotional labor. It is expected that the findings of this study can contribute not only to the existing body of literature on emotional labor, but also assist managers and others in the service industry to better understand the impact of job demands on employees. It could also assist them with employing ways to assist their employees when coping with certain conflicting situations. The research objective will be addressed by the following hypotheses: H1a: There is no relationship between gender and surface acting. H1b: There is no relationship between gender and deep acting. H1c: There is a relationship between gender and burnout. H2a: There is a relationship between age and surface acting. H2b: There is a relationship between age and deep acting. H2c: There is a relationship between age and burnout. H3a: There is a relationship between industry experience and surface acting. H3b: There is no relationship between industry experience and deep acting. H3c: There is a relationship between industry experience and burnout. H4a: There is a relationship between department and surface acting. H4b: There is no relationship between department and deep acting. H4c: There is a relationship between department and burnout. Previous studies on emotional labour placed emphasis on the service industry employees attitudes towards emotional labour as a collective, not specifically by this demographical assessment. The return rate on the surveys was lower than would have been preferred; however, the assessment was conducive for this study. Review of Literature Todays business environment can be described as turbulent; one that has scarce resources where you are expected to do more with less (Karatepe and Aleshinoye (2008). There is intense competitive pressure and rapid rates of technological changes. One central part of the service industry is the social interaction with customers or guests. Due to the enlargement of the service industry and growing competition, the demand on emotional labour and self control is high. As with any social contact, the obligation to control ones emotions plays a vital role (Zapf and Holz, 2006). In times past the behaviour of employees, the way they responded to employers, fellow employees and customers was not taken into account in a serious way as the work environment was a place where their personal feelings were to be left outside the workplace (Grandey, 2000). Many researchers have praised Hochschilds 1983 study investigating the work of flight attendants, showing that a substantial part of the job was dealing with the passengers and their emotions, to which the term emotional labor is attributed to (Aleshinoye and Karatepe, 2008; Diestel and Schmidt, 2006; Lewig and Dollard, 2003; Tracy, 2005; Zapf and Holz, 2006). Emotional labour involves diverse emotions; whether it is enhancing, faking or suppressing emotions to modify the emotional expression. Conjointly, emotions are governed in response to the display rules for the organization. The notion of emotional labour which is considered a prospective force of customers emotional position and subsequent valuation of service interactions, refers to the effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions (Morris Fieldman, 1996; Karatepe and Aleshinoye, 2008; Brotheridge (2002)). The differentiating requirements of emotional labour are (Zapf, Vogt, Seifert, Mertini, and Isic, 1999): (1) the necessity to exude positive emotions (PE), (2) the necessity to exude and handle negative emotions (NE), (3) the necessity to exude sensitivity emotions (SE), and (4) the emotional dissonance felt (ED). The literature on service work highlights the increasing importance of image so that service work ers must be in-perceptively conceptualized as cultural sign vehicles. In recent years, there has been enlarged dialogue of emotions in an organizational context (Sturdy, 2003), enabled by a rising view of emotions as evaluative judgments. An example of this can be seen in the tourism industry of the Bahamas. In the tourism industry, the hospitality product is one of service. One must be friendly, courteous and helpful. The success of this industry depends on customer satisfaction. It is unlike other industries as it is unpredictable (Kusluvan, 2003). The creation of a successful tourism product is based on a duel partnership between the country catering to the tourism and the tourist who visits that country (Dijk and Kirk, 2007). To achieve this unblemished service, employees who are in everyday face-to-face interactions with clients are required to do emotional labour. Schneider (2010) describes it to be ones ability to adapt to change in ones demeanor in order to achieve the best results whether success is achieved or not. It was felt that depending on the cliental, those who work in customer service should be able to adapt to the emotion that would be most effective to meet the needs of the organization (Grandey, 2 000). The emotional labour offered by employees is of vital importance when the aim and goal of the employer is to provide such an experience where both the visitor and the customer would develop an appreciation not only to share with others but would have them returning again and again (Dijk and Kirk, 2007). The appearance of the suitable emotion during face-to-face exchanges is a job requirement for many employees in the service industry. Ruz and Tudela (2010) states that ones state of mind is an essential component in how we relate to each other. We know that if we present ourselves in a positive way we will experience positive results. However, we should be careful as there are persons who can pretend to be positive at times but in truth can display negative actions from time to time causing conflict. It is a strange phenomenon but it has been observed that the behaviour of some persons differ in the job environment as oppose to their private lives (Kusluvan, 2003). At the interaction level, the emotional labour can be seen as a gauge of either positive or negative social relations with customers, while the conceptual level relates to the mechanisms that process the emotional work notion. The latter is more controllable and in some cases becomes an amusing experience for employees who structure emotional labour as a strategic exchange. Dis-identification can seemingly aid emotional labour. This usually occurs in conjunction with accomplishment of ones work when it is ambiguous (Tracy, 2005). According to Karatepe and Aleshinoye (2008) there are three modes of acting, surface acting, active deep acting and passive deep acting. Surface acting occurs when employees falsify their emotions by altering their outer conduct/performance to match the organizational display rules while private feelings continue to be unchanged. Active deep acting occurs when employees have to put forth effort to control emotions by regulating their expressive behaviors and inner feelings. Passive deep acting occurs when employees may involuntarily feel emotions needed for a particular situation. The processes of surface acting (managed observed expressions) and deep acting (managing feelings) coincides with the working definitions of emotional labor as a process of emotional regulation, and they provide a useful way of engaging emotional labor. Ideally, employers would prefer that employees leave their problems outside the workplace. However, as human beings this is not always achieved. If there are differences in how these two processes of emotion management relate to the outcomes, suggestions can be made for organizational training and stress management programs. For the most part, employers, have in place various programs, counseling, fund raising for example, to assist employees to cope with stress. In doing so, it is hoped that employees are more likely to be efficient. Showing compassion in the workplace can be a win-win situation (Frost, Dutton, Worline and Wilson, 2000). In spite of the fact that some customers may be insolent, employers expectation of their employee s is that they display professionalism by displaying tolerance and offering help under all circumstances (Schneider, 2010). Grandey (2000) supports this, stating that when organizational desired results are not achieved, various training programs are conducted by employers in order to destabilize those negative behavioral responses associated with various negative emotions. However, training is only one aspect to enhance behaviour in the workplace. It is important that employees respond to customers in a courteous and pleasant way no matter what the employee may be experiencing on a given day. Again, this response is not always suitable as there are some jobs where employees are expected to demonstrate a more aggressive type of response in order to achieve the desired effect (Nunan and Knox, (2005). Yang and Chang (2008) found that emotional labour should be measured using five dimensions emotional display rule (EDR), surface acting (SA), deep acting (DA), variety of emotions required (VER), frequency and duration of interactions (FDI). Emotional labour was measured with a slightly modified scale utilizing a 7-point Likert Scale. Particularly, the EDR was the level at which employees reported that their emotional displays were restricted by their jobs. The study also took under consideration the socio-demographic variables examined, including age, gender, employment and marital status. Grandey (2003) states that when considering ratings it is felt that the higher ratings should be accredited to the deep acting which is the display of genuine emotions as oppose to surface acting. Dijk and Kirk (2007) describe emotional display rules as rules that require employees to manipulate their emotions in order to achieve goal for a promised award such as an increment. On the other hand w hen they fail to meet the required goal of the organization they can very well encounter disciplinary action. Hochschild (1983) claimed that the way persons conduct emotional labor is predisposed by an assortment of individual and situational characteristics. Seldom is emotional labor formulated as having an interior source of inconsistency, one that is thoughtful of the continuing condition of the person as opposed to being a creation of the circumstances. The individual difference approach to emotional labor involves the measurement of individual dispositions and the supposition that these measures can assist in explaining individual attitudes and performance (Staw Ross, 1985). It can then be understood that persons can be characterized into certain proportions, that these proportions have some constancy over time, and that these dimensions are useful in predicting individual behavior across situations (Staw Ross, 1985). It is proposed that individual characteristics influence the individuals performance of emotional labor through different acting mechanisms, and result in different outc omes. The basic assumption is that, persons with different dispositions evaluate the same emotional display rules differently. A complication in providing emotional labour is increased in employees with restricted backing for power (Tracy, 2005). Zapf and Holz (2006) make reference to Hochschilds argument that conducting emotional labour for long periods of time would overburden the service providers capability to show the preferred emotions. The employee would continue to smile, but the feeling would not be in it. This inconsistency is what is labeled as emotional dissonance. The kind of circumstances that end up in emotional dissonance can easily occur in service interactions. This is because the inconsistent temperament of service delivery as much depends on the situational factors involved such as the employees feelings on that particular day or stressful interactions with demanding or difficult customers. It is difficult, in many instances, to determine that the behaviour of individuals in terms of whether their actions are natural or programmed (Kusluvan, 2003). Lewig and Dollard (2003), states that emotional dissonance subsequently results in depression, low self-worth, despondency and withdrawal from the job. There are times when employees are placed in situations where their emotions are tested and tried by those in administration. These experiences can be taxing on ones health and as a result, leave them drained. In addition, employees become demoralized to the point where those they are expected to service suffer as they are unable to perform their duties in a satisfactory manner (Grandey, 2000). Karatepe and Aleshinoye (2008) noted that employees who are in frontline service jobs are vulnerable to emotional dissonance. They noted that the incongruence between felt and displayed emotions captures two modes of surface acting and passive deep acting which are at the opposite ends of a scale. It also pointed out that emotional dissonance and/or emotional exhaustion may give increase to negative job outcomes such as job performance or job d issatisfaction. Zapf and Holz (2006) further state that the reaction to emotional demands in service work is described as burnout: a syndrome that consists of depersonalization, exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. Because surface acting consists of faking ones expressions; pretending to have certain feelings that do not exist. This alone is stressful and can prove to cause one to become detached from ones true feelings and those of others. In addition it can also bring about lack of ones personal achievement especially if the customers were not impressed (Brotheridge, 2002). The long-run effect would lead to psychological ill heath brought about by alienating personal feelings. Lewig and Dollard (2003) further express that the felt emotions and displayed emotions experienced within dissonance can lead to dysfunctional emotional labour for a worker. Tracy (2005) describes the declaration of an elected identity elucidated emotional labour. This identity is constantly reconditioning but it is not real. Kusluvan (2003) expresses that one has to have a keen insight into the behaviour of persons as they are not always authentic. Grandey (2003) discovered that there are ways in which one can determine whether ones emotional display is genuine or not. For example, a smile also known as a Duchenne smile by looking at which muscle around the eye is being used. However it is not clear whether this is so with a faked smile and whether they influence observers in a negative way. Depersonalization is said to be the tendency to treat clients like objects and too change into an unsympathetic behaviour with regard to clients. Because deep acting is closer to actual genuine feelings the chances are that the expectation is that there would be a lower level of depersonalization and that one would experience more personal achievement (Brotheridge, 2002). Exhaustion measures the feeling of the burnout. While personal accomplishment includes the position of having the capability to carry out functions and skills to meet personal goals on the job. Emotional exhaustion is preempted by emotional dissonance. It has been debated that the role conflict is identical with emotional dissonance and proceeds emotional exhaustion. Emotional dissonance as a result leading to unhappiness with a job is foreseen through individuals (Ludwig and Dollard, 2003). Zapf and Holz (2006) make it clear that the need to display negative emotions should not be misconstrued as letting out ones personal negative emotions. Instead, the restrained expression of anger may be used to make plain that one is critically affected by something or one is taking something seriously. Lewig and Dollard (2003) found that while the display of positive or negative emotions as well as sensitivity requirements, are not necessarily stressful. However, they may become so, through emotional dissonance. Zapf and Holz (2006) state, that the explanation for the positive and negative effects of emotional labour on burnout can be divided into two levels: interaction and conceptual. Karatepe and Aleshinoye (2008) found that negative affectivity is positively related to emotional dissonance and exhaustion and that these were consistent with the perception mechanism. They concluded that the face-to-face service providers emotional exhaustion, as they hypothesized, was positively related to emotional dissonance. Yang and Chang (2008) found that EDR was significantly correlated with all job satisfactions subscales as well as the organizational commitments subscale; and interestingly they found no significant relationship between VER and job satisfaction. Lewig and Dollard (2003) discovered that when service workers are given the means by which he or she can manage effective and developing interaction, thereby providing them with a greater sense of self worth, emotional labour becomes functional. Interactions with customers are favorable due to optimism and emotional stability by introducing a barrier between them and the associated emotion. In contrast, it was pointed out that employees experiencing emotional dissonance on a continuous basis lose their scanty resource reservoir and are faced with emotional exhaustion, which gives rise to substantial costs for organizations. This was in spite of the fact that service with a smile was seen as an established job requirement during the selection of new employees in service (Karatepe and Aleshinoye, 2008). Their results also confirmed that emotional dissonance partially mediates the effect of built-in motivation on emotional exhaustion. But consistent with the COR (Conservation of Resourc es) theory where persons seek to acquire, maintain and preserve certain resources, employees with built-in motivation may cope with emotional dissonance, and, as a result protect themselves from emotional exhaustion. Ruz and Tudela (2010) found that persons made more errors and took a longer time completing tasks when the emotions displayed by a customer did not agree with their natural feelings. Karatepe and Aleshinoye (2008) also found in their study that there are employees who are vulnerable to high emotional dissonance. These employees try to concentrate more on their job-related duties and responsibilities in order to protect themselves from experiencing further emotional dissonance to ensure that they perform effectively in the organization. The school of thought here is that emotional dissonance does not have any bearing on job performance. In order to maximize the skills and abilities of employees, it is imperative that employers evaluate those skills and abilities with the view of assigning employees appropriately (Bailey and McClough, 2000). Pugh (2001) emphasizes that organizations would do well to recognize and appreciate the importance of the emotions of their employees because their emotions can make or break their business. Dijk and Kirk (2007), further states that employees must be mindful of the type of environment they provide not only for the tourist that visit their establishment, but also for the persons they employ to perform as there are times when stress can get out of hand. Methodology This study is quantitative in nature, seeking to measure service employees attitudes towards emotional labour, specifically, surface acting, deep acting and the consequence of burnout. The parameter of this study is limited to the hospitality industry; this section describes the sample and sample selection, instrument, procedure and analysis. Sample Sample Selection A sample size calculator publically serviced by Creative Research Systems online was used to produce the sample size. The population: one hundred and sixty-five (165) employees who work at a timeshare resort, using a confidence level of 95% generated the sample size of one hundred and sixteen (116). The sampling parameters focus only on those guest-contact (face-to-face or voice-to-voice) employees who perform emotional labor on a daily basis. The guest-contact employees included in this purposed study are those who work in the Front Office, Concierge, Housekeeping, Engineering and Sales departments. Entry-level employees and middle managers were included in the sample, senior management was not. Criteria for being a participant: Participants must be full-time employees Participants have to be guest-contact employees (face-to-face or voice-to-voice) Procedure A meeting was held with the General Manager (GM) of the timeshare resort to initially introduce and seek permission to conduct this study. After which, the GM was formally presented with a copy of the research proposal and a formal letter requesting permission for the administration of the survey. Permission was granted and the managers of the various departments were notified and advised to inform their respective departments about the administration of the surveys. The surveys were personally distributed and monitored over a three (3) day period. Potential participants were approached and asked to partake in the study; consent was gained from each participant. Each employee was briefed that they could withdraw from the survey at any time. The participants details were anonymous and were only identifiable by gender, age, industry experience and departments. Employees attitudes are critical factors in the formation of the professed positive or negative consequence of performing emotional labor. Particularly, at what levels are emotional labour conducted via surface acting, deep acting, and the effect that it has on service workers, and its associated burnout consequence? This question was addressed by the following hypotheses: H1a: There is no relationship between gender and surface acting. H1b: There is no relationship between gender and deep acting. H1c: There is a relationship between gender and burnout. H2a: There is a relationship between age and surface acting. H2b: There is a relationship between age and deep acting. H2c: There is a relationship between age and burnout. H3a: There is a relationship between industry experience and surface acting. H3b: There is no relationship between industry experience and deep acting. H3c: There is a relationship between industry experience and burnout. H4a: There is a relationship between department and surface acting. H4b: There is no relationship between department and deep acting. H4c: There is a relationship between department and burnout Instrument. A self administered survey was used to collect the data. The overall design was a survey constructed with the influence of the extensive literature review. A five point Likert scale was used with the options of Always (5) to Never (1) accompanied each question. There were no verbal labels for scale points 2 through 4; this indicated the equal interval of one between them within the range 5 and 1. Emotional labour was measured by Q6, Q7, and Q11; surface acting was measured by Q8, Q9, Q11 and Q12. Deep acting was measured by Q13, Q14 and Q15, and burnout was measured by Q16, Q17 and Q18.  [1]   With the use of a convenient employee sample approach to collect data, there were some constraints in terms of this studys sample requirements as 116 surveys were attempted, only 64 surveys were adequately completed and admissible for analysis. The data was then analyzed was carried out in each socio demographic (gender, age, industry experience and department) using the t-test and single factor ANOVA analysis. The t-test was carried out to compare the means of each participant for either questionnaire to check the questionnaire was reliable over time. When multiple t-tests are conducted a significance problem develops and reduces validity. The ANOVA analysis overcomes this problem by detecting the differences as a whole. Findings and Analysis The demographics of the study sample indicated that 45.31% of the respondents were female and 54.69% were male. All of the respondents had industry experience of at least 1 year, and most of them had more than ten years experience (39.06%). Table 1 shows the descriptive analysis means, standard deviations, variances and skewedness of variables used in this study. Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations, Variances, Skewedness M SD V Emotional Labor 3.99 1.35 1.84 Surface Acting 3.61 1.55 2.40 Deep Acting 3.50 1.40 1.97 Burnout 2.90 1.53 2.34 The total sample (n=64) averaged the experienced of emotional labour at 3.99 (SD=1.35), surface acting at 3.61 (SD=1.55), deep acting at 3.50 (SD=1.40) and burnout at 2.90 (SD=1.53); each mean out of a possible 5. This shows that the majority of the responses were close to the respective means. Individual T tests were used to analyze the differences of surface acting, deep acting and burnout amongst the demographics. The means from the total sample for SA=3.17, DA=3.3

Friday, September 20, 2019

The Changing Role Of Women

The Changing Role Of Women Gender inequality is one of the enormous puzzles of contemporary society. In last several decades, a significant alteration has happened in higher education throughout much of the industrialized world. For the first time in history, females are completing their educational studies more than males are. However, the university majors are still highly gender separated. Nonetheless, the creation of womens studies programs at university level helps women to reach the gender equality. Also women have to overcome many restrictions connected with the business issues. Despite the fact, that in general, women participation in the Fortune 500 board seats has grown, on the average, the rate of increase is quite slow. Moreover the wage gap and the glass ceiling issues are still exist. Furthermore gender disparity in family remains an issue, despite the fact that the inequality has shifted and became less pronounced in the family life. Keywords: gender inequality in education, college majors, womens studies, sex disparity in business, Fortune 500, wage gap, glass ceiling, gender inequality in family, households, childrens gender, child custody. Gender Inequality: The Changing Role of Women throughout the Last 30 Years in U.S. Gender inequality is one of the enormous puzzles of contemporary society. Gender inequality refers to the unequal perceptions of individuals according to their gender. Males and females are unequal in every possible way in infinite circs, both immediate and enduring, by both objective aspect and subjective practice. Thus, what we can count as gender inequality? Can we describe it in methods that let us surely and fairly assess when there is more or less of it? Gender disparity occurs in the all areas of modern world. Education, business and family evoke the enormous amount of controversy in terms of gender disparity. Gender inequality in education has received significant consideration during recent years from researchers and educators. There are three main points that describe the gender inequality in education: preponderance of women who graduate from university compared to number of men, gender gap in terms of college majors and creation of womens studies. Although women overcame many restrictions connected with the business issues, however the gender gap in the managing positions, wage gap and glass ceiling are still exist. Moreover, gender disparity within the family remains an issue. Despite the fact, that women and men try to share all households, eventually females still doing more than males. Also the sex disparity appears in the perception of childs gender. In addition, the decision-making that refers to childrens custody after d ivorce shows the changing tendency that connected with gender inequality. Gender roles: are they really changing? Gender inequality in education In last several decades, a significant alteration has happened in higher education throughout much of the industrialized world. For the first time in history, females are completing their educational studies more than males are. Up until the 1990s, men have surpassed women in the number of undergraduate and graduate degrees that were completed in US. Since the 1990s, women have begun to attain greater equality with men and, in many cases, have exceeded men in regards to their educational achievement. According to a recent study by the U.S. Congress, females are now prospering as well as, or better than, males on many of the indicators of educational achievement. Interestingly, the huge gaps in educational achievement between males and females that once prevailed have been generally eradicated. In the United States, women currently earn 67 percent of all bachelors degrees. In a recent study McDaniel(2010) found that the demographics were that 61 percent Hispanics, 61 percent Native Am ericans, 54 percent Asians, and 57 percent White females attained college. Changing educational achievement rates for men and women could reinforce gender gaps in salary, the involvement of women in the labor force, and a huge variety of other labor market issues. The increasing ratio of college-educated women compared to men could change social tendencies in marriage: more women delay marriage, divorce or completely deny marriage. As we can see now, the traditional roles of woman are being altered because of the impact of educational access for women. The tendency for increasing numbers of women in higher education should explain not only how females have caught up to males in graduating from college, but also why the female percentage of the population surpassed and continues to increase as compared to the male rate for college graduation. Researchers have looked at sociological and economic ways that the study of educational achievement has evolved. The significance of women increasing their educational opportunities shows in changes in the labor market, where women need to have a higher degree than men to have an equal wage, or the goal to develop their special skills and talents. The second determinant of educational achievement is access to resources. The numerous studies confirmed that family-based financial, social, and cultural resources all play an important role in educational attainment (McDaniel, 2010). Research has begun to concentrate on a females advantage in education in the United States, but it is necessary to emphasize that womens rising tendency of graduation does not mean that the parity in the area of education has finally been reached. University majors are still highly gender separated. In most cases, women choose fields of study which usually bring in less money. The fields that are predominated by men are engineering, law, medicine, natural science and mathematics. The majors that are predominated by women are nursing, social science, teaching, and the humanities. The variety in choices of university majors between males and females is highly striking. In 2007-2009, among recipients of bachelors degrees in the United States, 13% of women majored in education compared to 4% of men, and only 4% of women majored in engineering compared to 14% of men (Evertsson et al., 2009). Unfortunately, in different mens majors women face the problem of gender inequality that connected with the gender perception. The sex differences in choice of major have recently been at the top of disputes on the reasons behind womens under-representation in science and engineering (Evertsson et al., 2009). Females are still considered as being less capable in succeeding in mathematics and natural sciences than males. However, the gender gap in math and science achievement tests is quite insignificant. It is also known that the gender gap has been declining over the past 20 years. One more important change that is connected to gender inequality in education is the creation of womens studies programs at university level. Since the first womens studies program was founded in the 1969-1970 academic year, over 600 schools have established programs (Carell, Page, West, 2010). Undoubtedly, the number of womens studies courses has continued to increase, from 449 in 1984, to 626 in 1994. Colleges and universities now offer about 2,000 womens studies programs (Carell et al., 2010). Today, womens studies are offered in many countries, though the extension of its institutionalization varies widely. The researchers state that the rise in high rate of womens studies has occurred due to the fact that women were always treated as a minority in the society, whose rights have been violated. So now it is considered as a great opportunity to learn about women. An appraisal of the disciplinary impact of womens studies will necessarily be continuous process, as womens studies and associated academic fields further develop. The researchers state that womens studies majors help females to enhance their feminist consciousness and personal self-esteem. Some researchers also point out that females who take part into womens studies changed their attitude towards the perception of men. Women became more likely to compete with men, despite the existing gender disparity. Its important to expand end develop womens studies in order to displace the harsh oppression often made regarding women and reduce the gender inequality. Gender disparity in business One substantial indicator that a society has achieved gender equality would be the existence of approximately equal number of males and females in executive positions. Despite the fact that in Western countries females have far more access to management positions than at any other period in history, equal picture is surely not present. Nonetheless, in recent decades the number of women entering the executive, managerial, or professional ranks in the U.S. has increased. However, these females are concentrated at lower levels of management. Across all economic areas, compared to males, females rarely occupy positions conferring major decision-making authority and the ability to affect others salary or preferment (Duehr Bono, 2006). During the last fifteen years, progression wasnt fast for females in the boards of the largest 500 US firms. The Fortune 500 is the rating of the top 500 United States publicly traded companies as measured by their gross incomes and is complied per annum by Fortune magazine. Women held 9.6 per cent of the Fortune boards seats in 1995, though by 2011 women held 19 per cent seats (Van Der Lippe, De Ruijter, Raub, 2011). Despite the fact that in general, women participation in the Fortune 500 board seats has grown, on the average, the rate of increase is quite slow. According to this rate of increase, it may need at least 70 years for women to attain equity with men on Fortune 500 boards. Females actions can encounter with greater examinations and their performance may be more sharply judged as long as women are not well represented on the board. In spite of the progression women have made, gender pay parity in the workplace is still a problem. In 1990 women earned only 60 cents for every dollar that men earned, implying a gender pay gap of 40 cents (or 40 percent). Although the gender pay gap had stood at roughly that level for decades, the 1995 a striking thing happened: the raw pay gap shrunk rapidly, and it has continued to shrink to this day ( Dey Hill, 2007). Economists analyze the gender wage gap using wage regressions-that is, statistical analyses specifying the relationship between wages and productivity- related characteristics for men and women (Hoque, DuBois, Fox- Cardamone, 2010). The survey concludes that some of the raw wage gap is due to varieties in the measured characteristics of males and females. The gender pay gap has become an essential attribute of the U.S. workstation and is so wide spread that many people believe that it is normal. In most fields college-educated females still earn less than their male co-workers earn, despite the equal working conditions that connected with hours, occupation, parenthood, and other factors that are normally associated with payment system. Women tend to work in the nonprofit and local government areas, where salaries are statistically lower than those in the for-profit and federal government areas (Hoque et al., 2010). The pay parity is particularly a question of fairness. Women dont have enough resources to provide themselves and feed their families, when they are paid less compared to men for equal work. A lot of women experience deficiency is terms of savings as a result of the wage gap, especially when they reti re (Van Der Lippe et al., 2011). The pay inequality is an obstacle for females opportunity to negotiate in the workstation. Most couples tend to prioritize the higher-earning husbands well-being in child care, selection of residence, and other household decisions, because women earn less. The term glass ceiling was used in 1984 by the author of the Corporate Woman column in The Wall Street Journal to describe the process in the work area in USA and other countries. This author reported that an invisible obstacle serves to prevent all but a disproportionately few females from reaching the highest levels of the corporate hierarchy, oblivious of their achievement and merits ( KepHeart Schumacher, 2005). Researchers state that the glass ceiling in corporate America shows a few cracks now, but it is still firmly in place. The point is that the glass ceiling is not a hurdle for a person based on an individuals failure to cope with a higher-level job. It refers to females as a group who are kept from promoting because they are women. Unfortunately, many women who plan their promotion and expect high work positions may not be promoted not because they cant handle the higher-level job, but because they are women. This refers to a special kind of gender discrimination connecte d with the working area. Many researchers also report that despite the glass ceiling there is one more hurdle for female leaders today. That is the peculiar wall that exists at the top, in other words when women succeed in the process of the destruction of strong glass ceiling, then she face another barrier, which is the brick wall between their success and the traditional male hierarchies on the other side. Sometimes as a result, women are choosing to leave the workplace on their own consent, to participate only in family matters, or because they do not want the burden of the leader positions. Actually, women choose to leave corporate America, not so much because of the obvious obstacles previously outlined, but because they choose to establish their own businesses. In fact, the foundation of the owning a business is a very prosperous way of avoiding the glass ceiling concepts. Researchers state that 23% of the women interviewed providing disillusionment with the glass ceiling as the incentive for establishing their own businesses, also between 1997 and 2008, the number of women-owned companies increased by 19 % nationally, in addition, since 1999 there has been a 190 % increase in construction businesses and a 130 % increase in manufacturing businesses started by women ( Terjesen, Sealy, Sinqh, 2009). Moreover, over 2.46 trillion dollars in commerce are generated from female owned businesses. Females are also owners of 12.6 million privately held and majority owned corporations (Terjesen et al., 2009). Its impressive that women serve as employers to 19.5 million employee s; it means that the quarter of all employees work for a woman entrepreneur. These indexes prove the tremendous shift in direction of women entrepreneurism as the chosen approach to crack through the glass ceiling. Sex inequality within family During the last decades womens responsibilities within the family have changed a lot. Therefore, gender inequality acquired a new form due to participation of women in the labor force. The researchers claim that womens employment leads to more equal participation regarding households. Presently, females dont have enough free time to participate in a household as before. Thus, gender inequality has shifted and became less pronounced in the family life. Actually, it took a lot of efforts for women to acquire the same status as men have today. There are two aspects that underlie this change. The first aspect is connected to the womens position of power that she reached as a result of getting independent income. Women now have access to money resources, the opportunity to negotiate the allocation of responsibilities and tasks and became an important and reputable participant in the process of the decision making within the household (Minques, 2012). The second one refers to the females limitation of free time that led to the increase of mens participation in child care and other activities connected with the household. However, researchers state that the disproportional share of the burden of household still exists. Females are assigned more labor-intensive and time-consuming chores. Despite the increase of males participation in a household, men tend to be responsible for familial obligations that take less time and concentration (Mi nques,2012). It means that in spite of the fact that men share the households with their spouses, women still spend a lot of time doing their domestic duties. Another factor that shows the gender inequality within the family is connected to the gender of children. In spite of the statement that the contemporary families are less concerned about gender of their children and tend to have one child of each sex parents still have some preferences. Dahl and Moretti (as sited in Raley and Bianchi, 2006) argues that a number of pieces of evidences suggests that there continues to be a preference for sons, at least among fathers in the United States. For instance, they investigated that couples with two daughters proceed to a third birth than those with two sons. The researchers consider this finding as consistent with a preference for boys over girls. Whether or not parents have a preference in terms of gender of their child, they subconsciously set more hopes on boys than girls. Given past gender differences in adulà Ã‚ µ economic achievements, parents may assume that one gender, most often sons, will have higher economic achievement in adulthood (Raley Bianchi, 2006). In spite of the fact that a lot of couples emphasize that girls will be caregivers for them in the future, parents also suppose that their sons will help them financially, while daughters will spend most of the time in their own families doing households and taking care of children. The presumption that girls will devote the life to their own families as caregivers leads to another area in which couples seem to differentiate the involvement in house-work activities by sex ( Raley Bianchi, 2006). Although parents state that they allocate chores equally, girls do more household work overall. Because girls do more feminine households like cooking and cleaning and boys do more masculine chores as household repairs and outdoor works, its obvious that daughters will do more chores, because cleaning and cooking is a kind of everyday activity, what we cant say about repair. It is an obvious fact that during the long time in US gender inequality in terms of custody of children after parents divorce was in favor of women. However, that tendency has endured a huge surge of changes 25 years ago. National estimates in the 1970s and 80s indicated that women had sole custody of the children approximately 85% of the time, and men retained sole custody 10% of the time, with the remaining 5% spread over a variety of custody arrangements, including grandparent, split or joint custody ( Kalmijn, 2007). The rights of males in this issue has increased and changed for the better over time. Affected by fathers complaints of gender discrimination in custody decisions, constitutional concerns for parity protection, the feminist movement, and the entry of large numbers of females into the labor market, most states had replaced the standards that were based on the gender. Women lost one of their few benefits that refer to gender inequality. The researchers state that the fact that women became more independent and anxious about their career played not a good role for child custody decision-making. In 1980, 2.9 million mothers got sole custody of their children; by 1995 that situation had almost tripled. Nevertheless, by 2007 the number of fathers with sole custody increased by 4 times, while the number of mothers who got the sole custody decreased (DeGermo, Patras, Eap, 2008). Although the number of mothers who have the sole custody substantially prevails, the number of fathers who get the sole custody of children unceasingly grows. Despite all the changes and reforms, gender inequality still exists. Women are trying to avoid many obstacles that they face on their way to success and power. Unfortunately, women need to prove their capabilities in all areas much harder than men do and it does not matter if it is an education, or business, or family scope. Today women still face the gender inequality in terms of leadership positions, pay gap and glass ceiling. They also are unequal with men in area of different college majors and family responsibilities. Nevertheless, due to tremendous efforts, the gender disparity gave a crack in point of womens attendance to college and establishment of womens studies programs. It is well known that the modernity is a time of change and it is obvious that change in gender inequality will continue. But the question is how much time and efforts it will take and will we be satisfied with the results that we will finally receive?