Author: Andre Coleman

I will look in particular at the works of Max Weber regarding his “Protestant Ethic Theory” and Karl Marx alternative theories to explain how capitalism came about in Europe.

I will first look at the historical background of both theorists and the actual historical events which influenced central Europe during the 19th century. These events such as the industrial revolution are important to understand how capitalistic modes of economic and societal arrangements developed and what were the contributing factors to this development.

It is important to also look at the present “Modern Capitalism” of contemporary society, and compare it to the past to see how capitalism actually developed and expanded, touching the important, often interlinked concept of “Globalisation”.

Modern capitalist society is described as: “The expansion of international commerce on a large scale, also the flowering of a large scale industry, the triumph of machinery, and the growing power of the great financial houses. In a word, it is the present day union of all these phenomena which really constitutes modern capitalism.”

Capitalism is the rational development of capital, commodities and means of production in a network of an interconnected markets.

Both Weber and Marx offer valid explanations for how capitalism came about, they base their works on historical references and suggest different theories to explain this phenomena.

To create a more clear picture I will also compare the works of other theorists such as Emile Durkheim and Simmel. These will be useful as they will offer alternative approaches and different points of view which can help to understand the main mechanisms which lead to capitalism development.

I will conclude by giving my own opinion based on the constructed evidence from various theorists on how Capitalism came about in Europe. I will try to asses what have been the most influential factors that brought to this development in this specific part of the world.

Weber

Max Weber was a sociologist, he offered a theory which basically seeks to describe Capitalism. This theory is based on the process of Rationalization which Weber believes to be at the roots of Capitalism development.

In order to understand Weber’s “Protestant Ethic Theory”, it is useful to have a quick look at his family background: Weber was born in a middle class family, his father was a business man and embraced liberal values, described as “a man who enjoyed earthly pleasures”.

On the other hand, Weber’s Mother appeared to have contrasting ideologies with the husband. She was a strong Calvinist who embraced puritan values and absolutist ideas.

While Weber’s father was the typical image of the capitalist entrepreneur which invested and indulged in the luxuries of life, Weber’s mother reflected the conservative, minimalist puritan Calvinist spirit.

It is no doubt that Weber was thorn between these to views and much of his work is influenced by the discrepancies between his parents.

Weber was also interested in how religion influenced identities and values in central Europe. This interest could be linked to his mother strong religious values and how Weber saw a connection between Protestantism and Capitalism.

Weber constructed his idea of the Protestant ethic to explain how capitalism came about. He bases his work on the question :”Why did Capitalism begin in Western Europe rather than Asia?”.

He argued that the Protestant religion, among with it’s branches such as Calvinism, created the perfect ideals and behaviours which helped spread and promote capitalism. And suggested that the existence and development of Protestantism in Western Europe, together with the development of Capitalism in Western Europe were two interlinked events.

Webers’s therefore describes religion as the core process which brought to capitalism development in Western Europe. Weber used his rationalization theory to compare religions around the world and found that the most rational religious system was “Calvinism”. He believed other world religions such as Hinduism, Confucianism and Taoism were more irrational and therefore inhibited capitalism development.

The nature of Protestantism and Calvinism does actually reflect possible rational behaviours; this is shown in the ideal of predestination which is embedded in Protestants, this means that one’s position in society has been decided by a higher authority (God) and therefore individuals should not complain for their position in society. This merged very well with the development of capitalism as the process of industrial revolution in capitalist development involved large amount of property-less labourers which worked for the few rich property owners.

While the concept of predestination helped to suggest an explaination for one’s position in society, rationalization was manifested in Protestantism by the puritan minimalist ideology. Most protestants were afraid of divine judgement, unable to be forgiven by the priest like catholic’s, protestants searched for an answer in their behaviour. Many protestants lived minimalist lives to escape from life’s luxuries and therefore behaved in a rational manner by accumulating, working hard and creating wealth to prove to themselves and others that they were predestined to have success and go to heaven.

A difficulty in using Weber’s works to understand capitalism is that his expalinations are very specific to the historical periods that he studied. Because of this it becomes more difficult to compare and place the protestant ethic theory into context with the capitalism of future periods. While the protestant ethic theory might serve an explanation for capitalism development at the time, it is harder to believe of Protestantism development as the driving factor for capitalism. Weber’s theory acknowledges that culture is therefore the driving factor for economic development and not vice versa.

In my opinion Weber’s explanations are highly specific to particular historical periods and cannot be used to compare and describe capitalism at a later period in time. This is because ethical values and ideas are under constant change and evolve to fit with the contemporary society.

More criticism on Weber’s theory is that capitalism began much earlier in history and that Calvinism alone did not serve in developing economic growth and capitalistic modes of production and consumption.

Joseph Schumpeter argues that capitalism began much before the industrial revolution. Italy in the 14th century was composed of many small independent city states like Florence, Milan and Venice and these were the first forms of capitalistic societies which appeared; Through trade and high accumulation of capital these Italian city states represent the first capitalistic modes of economic organisation.

Other empirical evidence shows how countries with a relative popular Calvinist religion did not always score high economically and in developing capitalism. For example Scotland and the Netherlands although predominantly Calvinist states, did not develop at the same speed of England or the mainly Catholic state of Belgium.

Recent works have shown how Protestantism influenced capitalism not because of the protestant ethics and values, but more so because of the promotion of education and literacy that Protestantism brought in Europe.

As capitalism was a process which had already begun before the religious “Reformation”, it is difficult to imagine that capitalism would not have developed under a Catholic religion. Contemporary empirical evidence shows how capitalism modes can be applied to almost any country disregarding religious differences.

The spread of capitalism throughout the world does not need the protestant values in order to be ethically tolerable for people, therefore it is hard to believe that Protestant culture influenced the economy. Rather more plausible is Karl Marx’s approach which describes how economical development and growth shapes cultures and values in society.

Marx

Karl Marx offers us a different approach than Weber’s which is useful in understanding capitalistic development in Western Europe.

Marx was born in a middle class family, he was strongly influenced by Hegel. Unlike Weber, Marx sought to influence the masses rather than the elites of power. His ideas offer a theory of a capitalist society based on the simplistic nature of human beings.

He believed that it is in the nature of human beings to be productive in order to survive, provide for themselves and live life.

Marx argues that it is only in capitalistic society where the breakdown of human actions becomes so acute and rational that it creates negative effects.

Marx’s describes the process of “Alienation” as the crux of the problems with capitalist society. By Alienation he means the process where the worker feels alienated/foreign to his labour. He contrasts how previously workers were in close contact with their costumers and to a fuller part of business experience which supplied more gratifying incentives and values for the worker.

Capitalism brought the alienation of the worked as with the industrial revolution masses of people became employed in jobs where producers do not have contact with consumers, therefore creating a dehumanising effect.

Marx in “the fetishism of commodities” describes how the worker is alienated from his product because he no longer owns that product. This shift in ownership from the individual producer to a single individual (boss) who controls the production creates the alienation of the worker.

Marx focus was directed more at the individual rather than to culture in understanding capitalism. He believed that economic development shaped culture and that religion was merely an epiphenomenon.

The general Marxist view is that of a capitalistic boss which is lazy, tyrannical and demanding. This had a negative influence on the workers which were abused and largely exploited by capitalistic owners which benefited from this mode of production.

This can be interpreted as a process of rationalization, this is shown in the way that it is more rational to have mass production instead of individual production. Worker’s required abilities were reduced and their tasks became more and more simple, repetitive and uniform, leaving most of the benefits of rationalization to the property owners, while negatively affecting the low class workers which were alienated from their labour and society.

Simmel

Simmel in his works touches what Marx had achieved with his works on alienation. Providing a micro point of view Simmel suggests that the Urbanization of society ( movement of masses from countryside to cities) which began with the industrial revolution, created capitalistic centres for finance, business and trade. This offers a theory which is based on the topic of migration.

In my opinion it offers a more plausible explanation than Weber as it analyses broader events such as the industrial revolution and population density shifts which more strongly than religion influenced economy’s need for rationalization and more efficient modes of production in order to provide for all.

The focus of Simmel on individual interactions rather than Weber and Marx preoccupation with large scale issues such as Capitalist Development and Rationalization of society, helped to actually create a broader point of view which stems from the individual to represent the reality of an entire society which is becoming more Blase. This means that individuals, overwhelmed by the large amounts of commodities and stimuli present in urban environments are becoming more unaffected by society and the world around us. Basically it describes a process of increased individualisation where everything has become commoditised and capital is used in almost every relation in our life, making society blase.

This blase theory finds similarities with Marx theory of alienation. Both describe a problem of individuals relations in a capitalist society where feelings and ethics are given up for greater rationality, calculability and uniformity.

These are the negatives of the process of capitalism which is growing more and more in contemporary society.

Emile Durkheim

Born from a high class background, Durkheim theories of

Durkheim developed a theory of individual behaviour. He divided social facts in material and non material facts.

Durkheim described non-material social facts such as institutions and culture and material social facts such as bureaucracy and law.

In his work “the division of labour in society

Conclusion

Looking at the four theorists which seek to understand capitalism development in Western Europe I have came up with critiques and praises for various theories.

I find it hard to support Weber’s protestant ethic theory as it assumes that cultural development shapes economic development. There is a lot of empirical evidence which suggest that economic development was already running in West Europe under a capitalistic mode of production prior to the religious reformation which brought the rise of Protestantism, Calvinism and other branches.

Weber fails to address the importance of migration, urbanization and the increase of rationalization as the main factors for capitalistic development, instead he seeks to find the origins of capitalism in a set of values and ethics belonging only to a section of society. Evidence shows that not always Protestant states dominated economically compared to Catholic states. The origins of capitalism date back to much earlier historical periods and can be explained by Weber’s theory of rationalization, but the empirical importance on religion in capitalism development is overstated and perhaps a broader view taking into account religion, economic development and rationalization is perhaps more useful.

Marx theory of alienation is also useful in understanding capitalism development, indeed the increased rationalization brought by capitalism had a strong influence in workers alienation and in a increase of productivity in exchange for a loss in creativity and lead to the development of a mass production mass consumption system which laid out the foundations for a labour-capital intensive economic system that we call capitalism. Marx focuses on universal ethical values that clash with capitalism, these are Justice, Liberty and Equality, and sees capitalism as the process that undermines these ethical values.

Marx solution involves the eventual rebellion of the masses against their capitalist employers, this phenomenon has not happened in most of the capitalist world and it seems that capitalism as we know today is the most Just system that is available today.

Marxism perhaps gives too much importance to economic development failing to broaden itself to include cultural development and transformation in society during capitalism development, this cultural development is linked to increased rationalism which is embedded in human nature and the increased individualization of the individual which is a process which greatly influenced the development of capitalism together with economic development and profit maximisation.

At the outset itself, this quotation describes the position of women in practically most society. Women are there to make children, are mothers and wives, act as the ‘house-maid’, take care of their husbands and families, bear male authority, being deprived of high status jobs and position of power. So, there is this element of discrimination which has prevailed through time.

2.1.1 Definition of Family

According to Sociologists, the family is an intimate domestic group of people related to one another by bonds of blood, sexual mating, or legal ties. It has been a very resilient social unit that has survived and adapted through time. So, the element of time referred to above, is again present here.

The family acts as a primary socialization of children whereby the child first learns the basic values and norms of the culture they will grow up in. a child needs to be carefully nurtured, cherished and molded into responsible individuals with good values and strong ethics. Therefore, it is important to provide them the best childcare so that they grow up to be physically, mentally and emotionally strong individuals.

Similarly, The United States Census Bureau (2007) defines the family as a relatively permanent group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage or adoption and who live under the same roof.

Stephen (1999) defines the family as a social arrangement based on marriage including recognition of rights and duties of parenthood, common residence for husband, wife and children are reciprocal economic obligations between husband and wife.

The family is seen as the main pillar block of a community; family structure and upbringing influence the social character and personality of any given society. Family is where everybody learns to love, to care, to be compassionate, to be ethical, to be honest, to be fair, to have common sense, to use reasoning etc., values which are essential for living in a community. Yet, there are ongoing debates that families’ values are in decline. Moreover the same family is viewed as an ‘oppressive and bankrupt institution’.

George Peter Murdock (1949) defines the family as a universal institution. According to him, the family is a ‘social group characterised by common residence, economic corporation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children owned or adopted of the sexually cohabiting adults’. However, K. Gough (1959) criticises Murdock definition and argues that the family is not universal. The critics were founded in the Nayar society.

2.1.2 Women and the Family

The main role of women according to John Bowlby (1953) is particularly to act as mothers and as such their places are at home to take care of their children in their tender age. He states that juvenile delinquencies among young children are the result of psychological separation from mothers. The mental stability of children rests solely on their mothers. Therefore there is a need for a close and intimate mother and child relationship.

However, Oakley (1974) uses the example of Alor, an island in Indonesia to refute Bowlby statement. In ‘small-scale horticultural societies, women are not tied to their offspring’, and there is no apparent side effect to it’. Moreover, she does not see the ‘intimate and close relationship’ necessary. Research has proved that mothers return to work after childbirth and that the children of working mothers are ‘less likely to be delinquent’ than non-working mothers.

Crouch (1999) describes the benefits gained by wives and mothers as the ‘mid century social compromise’. Duncan et al. (year) argue that women who define themselves as ‘primarily mothers’ are located at all points on the social spectrum.

Patricia Day Hookoomsing (2002) states that, plans and projects are designed and implemented by men. It is assumed that if men as heads of the family will reap the benefit from projects designed, automatically women and children will benefit.

2.1.3 The Darker Side of the Family / Erosion of Family Life

Earlier in this review of literature, it is shown that the family is warm and supportive. However, many writers have questioned the ‘darker side of the family’. The fact that women spend most of their time either at work or doing household chores can lead to emotional stress in the family. The twentieth century family is mostly nucleus and thus children at times feel isolated and lacking the support of their extended kins: grandparents, aunts, cousins etc. They become introvert and their stress level rise to such an extent that when ‘explosion’ occurs, it can have dramatic results. This may lead to violence, psychological damage, mental illness, drug intake, crime etc.

The breakdown of children may lead to quarrel between parents. In the long run, marriages may fail and consequently lead to divorce. Incidence that may appear trivial can blow out of proportions and cause drastic consequence within the family. The mass media is increasingly bringing to people attention the sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children through neglect. Similarly, The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (2000) parts that around 10% of children suffering from serious abuse or neglect at home by natural parents.

Domestic violence is very prevalent in any society. It is estimated that one in four women are victim of domestic violence.

2.1.4 Conception about Family and Work

Families and work have often been illustrated as separate entities, with women being linked to the home and men to the workplace. This separation unfortunately emanated by the sociology of the family being carried out as a separate domain from the sociology of work and occupations. However this assumption does not stand good in view of the increased participation of married women in the workplace.

Early work by Rhona Raraport and Robert N. Raraport (1969) on dual-career families has talked about the benefits and strains of families with dual-earners. There are, however, many questions still to be answered concerning the interaction of family and work.

Harkness and Waldfogel (1999) advocate that the formation of a family touches mostly female rather than male labour force behaviour. The withdrawal from labour after childbirth may lead to a ‘depreciation of human capital’. This may affect career commitment to employers and affect career progression.

There are changes in family arrangements which prompt changes in production arrangements (Zaretsky 1976). Consumption was favoured to production within the household. ‘Market relation became overruled by a capitalist market society and instead of economy being embedded in social relations, social relations are embedded in the economic system’ (Polanyi 1957). Dapne Johnson (1982) relates that the hours of work and schooling are organized at such time that it has become difficult to single-parent and dual-worker family. Moreover, school holidays add up to the problems of who will look after the child.

Full-time married or cohabiting women generally have less time for leisure, as they are often expected to do two jobs – their paid work and unpaid housework inside the family, Ken Brown (2008).

2.2.0 WOMEN AND WORK

For most of us, work occupies a larger part of our lives than other single type of activity. In our modern societies having a job is important for maintaining self-esteem and to live in better conditions. According to Ken Brown (2008), work is the production of goods and services that usually earns a wage or salary or provides other rewards. The work may be effected in the formal or informal economy. He argues that work is an ‘important element in occupying, directing and structuring the individual’s time – the demands of working life involve a high degree of self discipline if jobs are to be kept. It is, for most people, the single biggest commitment of time in any week, and it is perhaps one of the most important experiences affecting people’s entire lives.’ Work affects the amount of time and money available for family life.

Work and family life have always been interdependent, but the increased employment of mothers just like nowadays the number of women working has risen from 66.2 million in 2009 compared to 1950 where it was 18.4 million.

Pauline Wilson and Allan Kidd (1998) refer to work as a distinctive and clear cut activity. Work refers to the job or occupation undertaken. Work is both the place where one goes in order to do one’s job and the activity that one’s does.

Sociologies increasingly recognize however that it is not easy to define work. The definitions concentrate solely on paid employment and are too narrow. Keith Grint (1991) also states the same thing and even presents a number of definitions to prove what he says:-

Work can be seen as ‘that which ensures individual and societal survival by engaging in nature’. The problem is that many activities which cannot be seen are often regarded as work.

Work cannot be defined simply as employment. Activities in which people are employed are also performed by people who are not employed. Examples include washing, ironing, etc.,

Work cannot be defined as ‘something which can be done’ whether it is liked or not.

Work can finally not be seen as non-leisure activities. Activities may be leisure for some but work for others. Work and leisure would be hard to separate if it goes together.

2.2.1 Reasons for working in paid employment

Women work in paid employment for a number of reasons. These are as follows:

Job satisfaction

Money

Company and friendship

Status and identity

To get out of the home and feel free

To be independent

2.2.2 Functionalist Perspectives on Work and family

Functionalist has given their views on the link between work and family and they argues that family meets the need of the workplace. The family adapts itself in the requirement of the society. They are living in a post modern way of living which is very good for the society as they prefer not to have children because of their career and some prefer to stay single and they are going according to the needs of the society. Functionalist like Talcott Parsons (1981) argues that women are proving the love care and affection to the family and men are maintaining order and security within the family. He also argues that it strengthens the conjugal bond between husband and wife and they complement each other. Young & Willmott (1973) lay emphasis on how family evolved with the requirement of the society. Hence, both men and women are equal and they share the household work like for example man help in the kitchen when a woman is taking care of the child. P and B Berger argues that the bourgeois family already teach the child what the society want that is strict moral values and value economic success. Hence, how far does it apply in our modern society is highly debatable.

On the other hand the functionalists have been criticized by E.Leach (1966) where he argued that the nuclear family is stressed. They are exploited by the capitalist and alienated; they work because they have no choice. Laing on the other hand argued that they are privatized they do not want people to know what is happening in their yard or house and they do not want people to come at their place without informing. Parents inculcate fear and suspicious in children so that they fear to revolt.

2.2.3 Feminist Perspectives on the work and family

However, the Marxist feminists like Margaret Benston (1969) argue that capitalist pay women for their work at minimum wage scale. At present, the support of the family is a hidden tax on the wage earner that is his wage buys the labour power of two people. Thus, at work place women get jobs in the primary labour markets which are insecure, low wage income easily hired or fired. Even if women work they still have to act as a safety valve for the husband and men are still like a boss in the house. Hence, this lead to the work-family role conflict and tension are aroused by conflicting role pressures. Fran Ansley (1972) on the other hand wife still act as a “safety valve” and men are like boss at home.

2.3.0 WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT
2.3.1 Defining work-family conflict

Howard (2008) in summarizing the definitions put forth by prior scholars (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985; Boyar, Maertz, Pearson, & Keough, 2003) conceptualized work-family conflict as a type of inter-role conflict where both work and family issues exert pressures on an individual, creating a conflict where compliance with some set of pressures (family matters) increases the difficulty of complying with the other set of pressures (work matters). Work-family conflict has been shown to be related to negative work outcomes such as job dissatisfaction, job burnout, and turnover (Greenhaus, Parasuraman & Collins 2001, Howard, Donofrio & Boles 2004), as well as to outcomes related to psychological distress, and life and marital dissatisfaction (Kinnunen & Mauno 1998, Aryee et al., 1999).

Conflict occurs when the demands from one of these domains (home, work, personal, family etc…) interferes with the other and causes imbalance (Frone et al., 1992, 1997). In today’s hectic society, home and work are two colliding forces (Greenhaus and Powell, 2003) that has often lead to an imbalance, where women, lives to achieve fulfillment and satisfaction (Auster, 2001, Chalofsky, 2003). On the other hand, (Zedeck, 1992) suggests that a person’s work experience influence his or her behaviour at home, influencing basic behaviors towards self and family members.

Balancing the demands of work and the responsibilities of the family is an ongoing concern in organizational leadership. Today we are busier than ever. Gone are the days of the 40-hour work week, the two-hour lunch, leaving the office on time, and forgetting about office demands until the next business day. With today’s advanced technology, such as cell phones with paging and instant messaging, wireless Internet access, and the mobile office following us wherever we go, it is easier to take the office on the road when we travel, even when the road leads home. Once at home, office responsibilities easily impose on family time with a quick call here and an email reply there limiting the amount of quality time available for the family. This incompatibility between the pressures of work and family concerns generates role conflict and stress on the follower.

Researchers define the incompatibility between the domain of work and the domain of family as work-family conflict. Conflict between these domains occurs when participation in one role is more difficult due to participation in the other role. Today, work-family conflict (work interfering with family) is more prevalent than family-work conflict (family interfering with work) though both can occur. However, regardless of the direction of causation, when one domain is discordant with another domain, the result is conflict and increased stress on the individual. Current research focuses on the causes of work-family conflict, balance of time, involvement and satisfaction, quality of life, and the outcomes between the two domains.

2.3.2 Types of work-family conflict

Greenhaus and Beuthell (1985) identified three major types of work-family conflict:

(a) Time-based,

(b) Strain-based and

(c) Behaviour- based conflict.

Time-based conflict occurs when time devoted to one role makes it difficult to participate in another for example, when mothers have to do overtime at work with little notice might make it difficult for them to meet family obligations, like picking up children from school. Time-based conflict, is the most common types of work-family conflict when multiple roles reduce the time and energy available to meet all role demands, thus, creating strain (Goode, 1960) and work-family conflict (Marks, 1977).

Strain-based conflicts suggests that strain experienced in one role intrudes into and interferes with participation in another role; for example, mother who is anxious about their child’s illness might not be fully concentrate on her job and this can cause mistakes in her work.

Behaviour-based conflicts occur when specific behaviors required in one role are incompatible with behaviour expectation in another role. That is, when work roles cause problems at home or when home role causes problems at work.

All these three forms are formulated based on the role theory, which conceptualize conflicts as reflecting incompatible demands on the person, either within a single or between multiple roles occupied by the individual (Kahn et al., 1964).

(Carlson et al., 2000) also argue that another form of work/ family conflict is the Worry-based conflict in modern industrial society. On the other hand, increasing living cost, marital distress and parental stress may erode the stability of the family life (Lu, in press), causing worries which interfere with work. (Carlson et al., 2000) thus, defined worry-based conflict in terms of pervasive and generalized worries experienced in one role into and interfering with participation in another role.

In a study, Fu and Shaffer (2001) identified several family and work specific determinants of FWC and WFC conflict, respectively. Testing these across the three forms of conflict-time, strain, behaviour-based they found that the family- specific variables were only effective in predicting time-based FWC conflict. As a group, the work-specific variables had much stronger effects and role conflict, role overload and hours spent on paid work were especially influential in explaining both time-based and strain-based forms of WFC conflict. Family conflicts was to be strong risk factor for the onset of elevated need for necessary need for recovery from work and fatigue.

2.3.3 Theoretical explanation of work-family conflict

Two of the theoretical explanations of work-family conflict are:

Attribution theory,

Compensation theory.

Attribution theory states that there are internal and external explanations for work-family and family-work conflict. An internal explanation is the desire to be successful in multiple roles such as mother or father, brother or sister, leader or follower, and peer or subordinate. Internally, work-family conflict occurs when what needs to be accomplished at work interferes with personal values. Personal values may include spending daily quality time with family or simply rejuvenating after a hard day of work. Internally-generated conflict can also occur when family responsibilities such as attending a school function or taking care of a sick child spills over into the responsibilities of work and increases the time spent away from the job. External causes of work-family conflict may occur when your work assignment takes more time to complete than what you have to give or when your spouse is unwilling to support your endeavors both at home and at work. Conflict between these domains also occurs when the amount of control followers have over their job is limited and flexibility is minimal.

Compensation theory suggests that people add more to one domain than the other in order to balance what lacks in either. In other words, life balance is a direct result of the amount of time and psychological resources an individual decides to commit to both domains. If the individual commits more time or psychological resources to work, then work-family conflict may increase. If an individual decides to commit more resources to family than work, but work requirements increase, then family-work conflict also increases.

While the conflict between work and family may be inevitable, researchers such as Friedman and Greenhaus (2000) suggest alternative methods for reducing the stress. For example, more autonomy in the workplace and networking with peers can increase the quality of work life. Their studies show that individuals who work for organizations that allow individuals to spend more time at home, work in virtual employment, and make flexible time arrangements, tend to perform better as a parent than those who do not have these opportunities. Maintaining satisfaction on both fronts is important for reducing the feelings of conflict.

2.3.4 Concept of childcare

The concept of childcare does not refer to supervision and responsibility of feeding, clothing and other aspects of daily care for a child for a certain period of time. Infact, childcare includes the responsibility of maintain a healthy balance of love, affection and discipline, to help all-round development of the child.

Child care is one of the biggest challenges for working families. Due to their work responsibilities, parents are not always able to stay with their children and take care of them, as they would like to. Parents would like to leave their children in care of such individuals whom they can entrust their precious kids without any worries or misgivings.

“For a long time, childcare was the responsibility of the extended family. With industrialization and modernization of the family has created rather serious childcare problems. As the extended family weakens, help from relatives before more difficult for women who cannot afford childcare services, may have no choice than to opt out of the labour market”. (Situation analysis of women and children in The Republic of Mauritius October 2003).

When childcare arrangements break down, employed parents are more likely to be absent, late, report being unable to concentrate on the job, to have higher levels of stress and more stress-related health problems and to report lower parental and marital satisfaction (Galinsky & Hugues, 1987; NCJW, 1987; Shin et al; 1987).

Whenever a child is sick, very often it is the mother who has to take leave to take care of the child. “Women spend more hours per week on household and on childcare than men do. And motherhood is a career liability for women while for men, being married and having children are both associated with higher earnings and being in upper level positions.” (Friedman and Greenhaus, 2000).

For many women parents stress starts as school ends. Most mothers cope with their child-care needs by taking children with them to work; leaving children with relatives, neighbors or older siblings and for short period of time leaving them alone. Children who are too old for day-care must stay in an empty home for several hours after school before the parents return from work. Such children are sometimes called “latchkey children” because they are usually given a key of the house or apartment so that they can let themselves in when they get home.

Although the recent practice of women working brings financial independence, it also exalts difficulties and stresses to the working women’s lives. This stress damages not only the quality of life and health of those who are victims (Parasuraman and Greenhaus 1992; rice et al; 1992). It can drive to unsatisfactory behaviors at jobs: delays, absenteeism, lack of motivation, reduced output (Beuthell et al., 1991) and in more difficult relation within the family (Duxbury and Higgins 1991; Parasuraman et al., 1992; Frone et al., 1992)

This increased participation of women in the labour force has changed the traditional roles of men and women within the two-parent family resulting in the phenomenon of the dual-career couples (Kirrane and Monks, 2004). Balancing work, housework, and child-care responsibilities can become strenuous which can result in work-family conflict. This can be very costly to both organizations and employees within them (Posig and Kickul, 2004). As highlighted by Allen, Herst, Bruck, and Sutton (2000), the increase of dual-career couples with young children and changes in the traditional family structural configurations have resulted in changes in home and family responsibilities for both men and women.

Even for today’s dual-career couples, the transition to parenthood tends to mark a reversion to a more traditional division role, with women doing the lion’s share of the household maintenance and child care planning (Carler, 1996; Hoschchild, 1989)

Childcare is a conceptually distinct and especially burdensome aspect of household labour (Berk, 1985; Rexroat & Shehan, 1987). Floge (1986) points out that one major problem facing dual-earner couples are arranging for child care. As the number of dual earner couples with children increases, responsibility for child care arrangements becomes an increasingly important aspects of household labour.

In addition to bearing the responsibility of proving adequate child care to their children, women may also experience feelings of guilt if they do not at least devote some of their free time to this task. Some women may therefore reduce their amount of sleep of free time resulting in the accumulation of strain and stress (Sterwart D.Friedman, Jeffrey H.Greenhaus, 2000).

In addition to globalization the other key that has affected dual-income working families is the dramatic change in the characteristics of labour force. We all know that that due to globalization there has been a change in the nature of work and this has resulted from long hours of working. We cannot just blame families especially women for not being able to provide enough care for their children we must also know why the situation is like this. Hence, families has no other choice because may be they fear from being unemployed and nowadays being unemployed is not a pleasant thing due to the high standard of living. Families may no choice except from working because of being a single parent who has to take up all the responsibilities alone or because of being poor.

However, we do agree with the fact that parents are working for the benefit of the family but how far is it really benefitting the family? When both parent work especially for long hours of work it become impossible to take care of the house and children because of exhaustion, stress and sometimes office work is being continued at home. This usually creates conflicts at home like domestic violence, long disputes where it affects not only parents but children as well. Sometimes everything end up by a divorce, the child will not be able to say anything but it affect him mentally and are unable to cope at school.

Moreover, even if children are grown up they still need care and affection of parents which parents are unable to provide them due to their work overload. In a recent research “women’s work burden and human development in Mauritius (Feb 2006), Miriam Blin found that most women from EPZ felt they could not give their children care and attention they needed. Many could not provide care their children required. This, is why sometime children does not work well at school just like (see, for example, Behrman et al., 1999 Lack of parental support and involvement, as well as the absence of early stimulation, together with the breakdown of the family structure have been found to be important factors affecting children’s performances. Therefore, parents should find time to know what children are doing at school. Nowadays, children spend most of their time on “Facebook” and due to the fact that there is no parental control they have access to other site like “pornography”. Children are sometimes influence by peer group and may be this is why there is juvenile delinquency, like school truancy, smoking. There is lack of communication at home and children are unable to communicate with parents. Parents take children for granted where they think that their values and way of thinking do not differ. In a way parent should be involve with children so that they know what their children are doing and build a close relationship between both of them because it is not money that count, love, care and affection are more important and we should not forget that today’s children are future adults citizen whom lies the responsibility to ensure the social and cultural harmony. Seeing all this we can say that we cannot apply the functionalist view in our society but we should also know that all society and all family differ.

In the last chapter, the researcher introduced the research background, stated the research aims and described the research problem. This chapter starts with the definition of community development, general concepts of community development and explores the community development framework. It also discusses community development in Belfast, Northern Ireland and links it to the basis of the study, which is the perception of residents on community development in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Definition of community development, general concepts of community and community development

Community as a unit of action can play the lead in development of Belfast communities. The basic process of planning community development is to identify needs of communities in Belfast, establish mutually agreeable goals and objectives, and implement plans by mobilizing accessible resources and community coalitions for community betterment. Accordingly, a variety of community planning strategies and actions can be created and actively implemented with the involvement of Belfast residents.

The definition of “community” has been discussed in a variety of ways for many decades. Hillery (1955); Kaufman (1959); Bell and Newby (1972); Wilkinson (1972) agreed that the three general components of a community include a shared territory, a local society, and a process of locality-oriented collective actions. Belfast as a city or community is made up of inner communities or neighbourhoods.

A shared territory refers to a geographic location, such as a neighbourhood, town, city, county, region, country, and so forth. A local society is an integrated union in which the daily activities of people and a complement of social structures embody all aspects of a common life. A process of locality-oriented collective actions can be understood as the local residents exerting effort collectively on behalf of their common interests. In this research, I specifically focus on the town/city community levels in Belfast to better understand whether this level of community forms a strong sense of belonging, thereby binding its residents together and joining their inner effort in response to external social and economic changes, as well as the demands of community development in general.

Fawcett et al. (1984) emphasized on local residents’ self-motivation to establish their development agendas for the community. The last element mentioned here is the opportunity of community members to participate in public discussion. It is important for community development to involve many individuals, segments, classes, and groups within the community, and that each member has an equal chance to speak up and take part in the public forum. In addition, democracy, rationality, and the orientation toward accomplishment of community development agendas in which Belfast residents participate are key factors.

Communication and power structure within the community are also important aspects. Since a community is understood to be a living place manifesting the physical characteristics of a setting and a social and historical context, community development should be considered in terms of the meaning of locality through personal activities, experiences, shared values, and the common historical memory. As a result, the concepts of community and community development adopted in this study consist of a shared territory, a local society, and the process of community autonomy and empowerment for a general purpose of community betterment.

2.3 Community Development Frameworks

The main focus of community development has been the normal concept of solving problems and betterment of quality of life in rural communities. The way to improve rural life and life in Belfast is to identify problems and then solve them by enhancing community empowerment and advancement.

Sanders (1958) considers the importance of social organizations in Community development, which are in charge of certain missions within communities. Sanders identified the role of hierarchical structure in communities in terms of detecting problems, setting agendas, and implementing plans. His view of development emphasizes social channels through which community programs can be carried out. The social channels refer to a well-developed organization with a clear division of labour, resource accessibility, and members sharing common values and pursuing the same objectives. Social organizations are the primary agents participating in community process and mobilizing resources to implement plans for their common goal.

Community development, according to Sanders, is equivalent to development of organizations in Belfast that effectively implement “subject-matter specialties such as health, welfare, agriculture, industry, recreation, etc” across all levels from groups and associations to communities and regions (Sanders 1958:5).

*Rothman (1979) identified the social planning approach as one of the ways to understand community development. He argued that the social planning approach is a technical process with regard to a certain community problem and emphasized “rational, deliberately planned, and controlled change” within communities (Rothman 1979:27).

The rationality approach helps to manipulate the process of community development into standard phases of identifying problems, mobilizing resources, and setting agendas to implement programs for the goal of social betterment.

There must be a constant interaction between identifying a problem, making a decision, and taking action to share and express concerns or community problems for communities in Belfast to experience change.

Community development provides a good opportunity to explore issues of poverty in Belfast. The emphasis is on the opportunity for creating jobs, thereby raising the real incomes of residents. Hence, Belfast as a community is seen as a collection of micro units, and these units, their interactions, and their relationships with external units comprise the community economic system.

Since communities in Belfast have increasingly engaged in their economic development, there are at least two different strategies adopted: community-oriented self-development and exogenous industrial recruitment (Summers and Branch 1984). Exogenous industrial recruitment refers to a form of development that encourages outside investors and firms to locate their businesses in the rural communities where local residents might expect to have the power to set substantial management strategies to promote the community’s common benefit.

Self-development has come with the awakening of community empowerment because the strategy of industrial recruitment for facilitating development has been criticized. The main factors that spur self-development were the exodus of factories and the stagnating economy in communities. Still, the effect of the flourishing grassroots movement cannot be ignored.

For many communities in Belfast, self-development strategies offer potential benefits for maintaining or improving their economic activities. According to Flora et al., community-oriented self-development strategies “involve cooperation between the public and private sectors to create locally-controlled jobs and new sources of income” (1991:20). These authors also identified three characteristics of the self-development model: (1) involvement by a local government, (2) investment of substantial local resources, and (3) the control of enterprises or activities locally (Flora et al. 1991). As such, broad community involvement revitalizes local economic activities by financing and organizational effort. At the same time, local residents can choose businesses according to characteristics that fit their demand closely and that will not damage their natural resources permanently, alter their landscape irrevocably, or change their lifestyle dramatically. For example, Flora et al. (1991) categorized community-oriented self-development projects based on major activities and found that the most popular projects involve tourism, arts and crafts fairs, and recreational or cultural activity. Following that, existing business retention and expansion and downtown revitalization are also seen as important projects (Flora et al. 1991). In other words, by developing clean/hospitality industry and revitalizing/individualizing their hometown, communities in Belfast can re-launch local economic activities with the goal of sustainably utilizing their natural resources and community assets.

Since economic considerations that are dominant in modern societies have also been prevalent in community development studies, Belfast residents’ demand for a certain level of economic expansion to improve their economic conditions that reflects the core theme of this economic development approach. Since areas that depend on a single source of income are vulnerable to economic restructuring, the key is to provide them with diverse sources of economic sufficiency.

Studies of community economic development illustrate how the structural disadvantages of community economic development influence the ways community members respond to local development paths and what strategies they adopt to solve problems. For example, according to Blakely (1994), communities have faced difficult and overwhelming circumstances in local economic development, and must be aware of the problems affecting the local economy and its consequences; local economic development and employment generation should be initiated at the community level to deal more effectively with these local problems facing the community (Blakely 1994:27).

2.4 Community as a field for development

The community should be seen as a whole, rather than as the sum of its parts, wherein the interconnections among individuals, groups, associations, and organizations form concrete social forces to cope with external and internal changes facing the community (Fawcett et al. 1995).

Kaufman (1959) argued that development must go beyond planned economic programs and place more priority on improving and increasing community residents’ identification with the locality in order to get them involved in the process of local development. This process empowers the local community. To carry out such identification with the locality, collaborative action and mutual identity are emphasized prominently in this theoretical orientation.

Elaborating extensively on Kaufman’s interactional perspective on community, Wilkinson (1970) tied social structure in to the context of community development. He claimed that social structure is defined in an interactional context as observable relationships built up through an action process by members. The role and position of members in a given interactional network are identified and classified to evaluate the pattern of the structure, which determines the continuity of social processes and the direction of social change. It is a network structure-building orientation of community development that focuses on integrative and generalizing networks in the local society (Wilkinson 1970, 1972). This interactional orientation of community development argued that the instrumental orientation of development sees project achievement as the ultimate goal of community development, but, in fact, development should be seen as a dynamic, ongoing process. There are inherent problems behind material demands and physical construction, and there are no substantial, permanent solutions for them. Planned programs for community development are only one of many solutions to achieve social betterment and should focus on building the community field in which the collaborative capacity to pursue locality-oriented common interests is more crucial to the process of community development than solving the immediate physical problems.

Wilkinson (1986) argued that empowered collective-oriented community action is the fundamental basis for community development and that community attachment plays an important role in fostering such processes of empowerment. Therefore, exploring the determinants of local residents’ attachment to their communities becomes an essential step to building up local capacity to deal with community development issues.

It is not urbanization or industrialization that directly changes the relationships among local residents or their sense of community.

It is the different opportunities and contexts for social interaction leading to different social dynamics that alter the connections between individuals and the society. Beggs et al. (1996) used a name generator method to gather information on respondents’ social networks and analyzed how closely the respondents interacted in daily life, as well as the strength and duration of their social ties in order to define community attachment. Others, like Brehm, Eisenhauer, and Krannich (2004), adopted multi-dimensional methods to measure community attachment via collective action indicators (including land-based production and conservation involvement, social involvement, and economic/development involvement) and natural environment attachment indicators. By considering two dimensions of community attachment, they found the concept of community attachment cannot be seen as simple social interaction, but as well-developed community cohesion through the linkage between individuals, organizations and their locality.

Rothman (1979:26) contended that locality development should focus on “the broad participation of a wide spectrum of people at the local community level in goal determination and action.” According to Rothman’s (1979) argument, such broad citizen participation is not only instrumental in solving specific community problems, but also for more general activities, such as democratic procedures, voluntary cooperation, community empowerment, and development of indigenous leadership. This locality development approach emphasized the whole local system’s capacity for building and maintaining in which a fundamental network structure should be built up by establishing cooperative relationships among groups by creating a self-help community problem solving system and stimulating residents’ interest and participation in community affairs.

These goals of locality development emphasized community organizations and the harmonious interrelationships among them.

To integrate the arguments of community development as a process of interaction, community fields where the community capacity for collective action can be created for the common good and social betterment. Forms of interaction include formal and informal social contact within organized and unorganized social activities. Through such purposeful and non-purposeful interactions, social forces are raised to respond to local issues. Specifically, a community field is manifested in the interactional structure among local residents, groups, and organizations contributing together to the accomplishment of specific objectives of community projects. The central focus of community field theory is on structurally oriented interactions through which communication occurs and fosters positive and cohesive relationships among community members.

In addition, Sharp (2001) analyzed community by for examining the concept of community field perspectives in the relationships between network structure and development. He found that these network structures can help community members to cooperate with local organizations, to access resources, to get information flowing among them, and to identify attributes of the community that enhance general capacity for local action. Pavey et al. (2007) contends that the ultimate goal of community development is to build the community’s capacity to manage its own world based on members’ own meaning systems. They focused on exploring whether sound social relationships were a driving force to stimulate community capacity and strengthen self-governance on community issues. In their findings, interactional field theory was confirmed by the positive relationship between the community field and economic development through horizontal linkages among community members.

The changes of social distance and degrees of community attachment among local residents influence the potential community cohesion and collaborative action that can be taken to approach the community common good. Some empirical studies have examined this argument. Sharp (2001) focused on selected features of small-town social structure and its relationship to the community capacity for local action. Drawing on the interactional perspective, community network analysis, and community power research, he proposed an approach to measuring and evaluating the community field to understand more clearly the relationship between community structure and the capacity for local action. His findings complement the thinking on community social capital and social infrastructure and reveal that social relationships and local residents’ interaction structure are importantly associated with the community capacity for local action.

Development should be focused on the community itself, rather than relying solely on neo-classical economics’ individualism and political-economics’ macro structuralism. Community development is as a means to an end, a process of guiding for a particular purpose that is eventually helpful to the local community.

Furthermore, community development has been realized as a social movement, a process of empowering community that tends to build up its own organizational structure, accepted procedures, and active practitioners within its territory. It stresses and promotes the idea of community development as interpreted by its local residents. In response to such an argument, we might ask that, in the process of building horizontal network ties, hierarchical inequality of power within class, gender, or other social structures could be minimized in order to pursue empowerment of each individual. Traditional community researchers simplify community development as the process of community empowerment in which community capacity is crucial for a better life in the community.

2.5 Research focus from the framework

Community development obviously has a variety of meanings to local residents and their personal attitudes toward the vision of their community future are influenced by their attitudes and opinions on issues facing the local community.

This research primarily focuses on individuals’ attitudes toward their local community development through the five models. By examining the research hypotheses, this study analyzes rural residents’ experiences in local community life to determine preferences for community development alternatives as guided by the five elements of the model.

In order to examine the research hypotheses in terms of the relationship between local residents’ general attitudes toward the current conditions and local community attitudes toward development alternatives, as well as individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics logistic regression modelling is applied. In five logistic regressions, individuals’ major concerns with regard to community development issues are used as the dependent variable. Independent variables are used to examine the dependent models through five research hypotheses.

Resident attitudes towards community development preferences form the core theme in this research. Therefore, the significance of research is to examine observable changes that shape towards local community circumstances in response to developments their own expectations and attitudes toward future community development alternatives.

In this essay I shall begin by defining what social class is as illustrated in the collins social work dictionary. I will look at the way class can influence the life chances of a person in Britain today. I will look at how the power and powerlessness of each class can affect the ability of someone to control their lives and access the resources within our society. I will discus the different ideologies surrounding class and highlight the differences between the life chances enjoyed or not by members of the different social classes. I will argue that class has a significant affect on a persons life chances and try to support that argument with evidence and data.

“Social class is commonly defined either as a stratum within society based upon a classification of occupations or as a system based upon the distribution and ownership of property in society” (Collins Internet Linked Dictionary of Social Work 2006)

Social class can be defined as a hierarchical order of people (A tiered system with one class above another) within a society, based on their economic, cultural norms or employment status. Social class is often discussed in the terms of social stratification, this refers to the different levels that groups of people consider themselves to be part of or where society in its general term considers the individual to be. Stratification is a term borrowed from geology ( the study of rocks) that describes the process where layers of rocks are formed one above the other, these are referred to as strata. In todays society strata are the classes.

In the middle ages there was what was called the estate system ( also known as the feudalism) the kings being at the top of the system, then there were the noble lords and below the lords were the knights.The majority of the population were known as the peasants and the serfs. Each of these were known as a estate.

Estates were different from classes meaning that people were born into an estate that they would remain. There was no social mobility( no way of moving up or down) Their

Position was ascribed (born into) to them following their birth.

In other cultures different social systems developed for example in India a caste system. This is where people believed in reincarnation (born again) the ones at the bottom of the caste system accepted this. Their religion and belief made them think that they deserved to be there and it was ok for others to look them up and down. In hope they would be reborn into a higher caste when they were reincarnated, they would try to lead better lives.

A stronger form of stratification was slavery. Slavery totally subjugated one group to the will and whim of another even to the power of life or death. A slave owner killing a slave would not be thought to have committed murder. This divided the slaves and the slave owners into very different groups in terms of power. The owners of the slaves treated the slaves very badly.Slaves were bought and sold all the time. Sadly slavery still exists in some parts of the world.

All societies have some form of system that describes its social structure. In Britain today this structure is based on class. The way that system is defined has been under discussion for many years. Karl Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) a German philosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, Sociologist, communist, and revolutionary) described class as being divided into two main groups; The aristocracy or bourgeoisie and the workers or proletariat. The bourgeoisie controlled the means of production, factories natural resources or owned the land. Whilst the workers or proletariat only had their labour which they sold to earn money. Max Weber(1864-1920) A German classical sociologist, described a four tier social class system, though he agreed with Marx that the main division was between the Capitalist class who owned the means of production and the working class who sold their labour to the Capitalist class.

Britain’s social structure is most commonly described as a three layer system, which is; the upper, middle and lower class, although many would refine this model further by describing themselves as either upper or lower within each class. The middle class are made up of professionals and educated or highly skilled people, whilst the upper class would be the aristocracy and those with power and influence.

Sociologists also describe an underclass that sits below the working class and is made up of the longterm unemployed or those with little chance of accessing the labour market and who require benefits from the state to survive.

The Office for National Statistics who are a government body responsible for the central collection of all relevant national data use an eight layer system of socioeconomic classification ranging from NS-SEC1(National Statistics Socio Economic Classification) Higher managerial/professional occupations to NS-SEC8 Never worked/long term unemployed. Effectively NS-SEC8 are the underclass.

All the classes have a wide range of social customs and norms that further identify their members and to which people feel kinship with, such as the types of entertainment they enjoy, their views and beliefs or their mode of speech. Assumptions about a persons class can be made by the way they talk or dress.

“An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.” (Cited in Kingdom J Pg 184 2008)

Class background has many affects on almost all areas of peoples lives and influences their life chances. life chances can be described as the benefits available within a society, or the resources that can enhance our experiences, these can be a longer life expectancy, better health, lower child mortality, healthier diet, higher job status, better housing, more frequent and varied holidays, access to private or high quality education and from that a greater likelihood of educational achievement. As well as class, ethnicity and gender affect life chances too.

Sociologists have described a move In recent years from working class into the middle classes this has been due to a rising standard of living and an increase in home ownership.

“Due to rising living standards among the working class, it was argued, increasing numbers of this group were effectively joining the middle class.”
( Haralambos and Holborn 2004, p.51).

Power is a feature of the class divisions and as such has influence on the life chances of those within each class. Anthony Giddens (18th Jan 1938) a British sociologist wrote that power is used to oppress and exploit and gives access to scarce resources. This is the view of Marxists who feel that the ruling or upper classes use their power to oppress the working class and exploit their labour.

“Power is the ability to achieve your aims against opposition”

(Harris S, Study Guide Sociology Pg120)

Power is a necessary component in any society, otherwise pandemonium would break lose: leaders must be established.

Max Weber (1864-1920) A German classical sociologist distinguished three types of legitimate power that exist in society these are;

Rational-legal authority, this is based on rules and procedures which are usually written down. Obedience is therefore not to an individual but to the rules. The government holds this type of power and uses a bureaucracy to control the application of those rules for example, through taxation via the Inland Revenue.

Charismatic authority is derived from the personal qualities a person possesses that give them the ability to charm, lead, persuade, inspire and influence others. Adolf Hitler used his charisma and oratorical skills to influence others into following and believing in his ideology of National Socialism.

The third type described by Weber is Traditional authority; this is based on historical precedent. Monarchies are examples of the people that have traditional authority.

“Power” needs to be seen as the property of various forms of social organization and relationships, rather than as a “thing” in its own right. (Cited in Power and Politics Unit P2: Theories of The State www.sociology.org.uk)

The influences of class on the life chances of a person are dependent upon the power that person or class has, to access the limited resources available. The working class with their limited financial power and dependance on the labour market are restricted in the power they can muster to assist them in acquiring the resources of the society. Whilst the upper class have influence and wealth that they can use to gain themselves all that they might need.

In our society social workers have power that Webber would describe as rational legal authority granted to them by the rules of our society. Following government legislation they use their power to assist and protect the more vulnerable members of society. In their work they should always apply AOP/ADP Anti discrimination Practice and Anti Oppressive Practice both of which aim to improve the quality of life or well being of individual groups and communities. These practices have been developed to fight the inequalities inherent in a hierarchical society and ensure a more inclusive approach is used. When working with parents of looked after children (LAC) the social worker must always ensure they have given the parents all information and guidance they need to access their rights.

Ideology

Depending on your political viewpoint class differences are something that is a natural result of any human society falling into a hierarchical order or a system of oppression maintained to exploit the working class.

It has been suggested that social inequality is a feature of all human societies.

(Haralambos and Holborn 2004, p.1; Bilton et al 1994, p.34)

The right wing political viewpoint would agree with the quote seeing in it a vindication of the natural order of things. Whereas a Marxist would argue that such inequality should be seen as unacceptable and the product of exploitation by the ruling class.

Capitalism and right wing politics believe in a free market where those who can, succeed and have the opportunity for self improvement. They believe that if some one has the “right stuff” then they will be able to rise to the top regardless of the position from which they start.

“The particular features British conservatives see as their tradition tend to include social hierarchy, the monarchy, the House of Lords, the patriarchal family, property and a natural ruling class. Inequality is natural and socially necessary: it cannot be eradicated. Consequently poverty is nothing to be ashamed of.”

(Kingdom J Pg 39. 2008)

Marxists or Socialists would argue that the gulf between the ruling class and the oppressed working classes was so great that it was impossible for them to compete on an equal footing. Socialists view society as a whole and feel a moral responsibility to one another. This collectivism fosters values of fraternity and altruism towards all members of society and consequently they see inequality and something to overcome.

The political ideology around class is focussed around whether a hierarchical system with a social elite controlling the majority of power and resources and with an underprivileged working class providing a source of cheap labour is acceptable as a natural consequence of human societies or whether a more equal system which shares the resources of the society based on need is something which a developed society should strive for. Debate on this will continue.

Life Chances the differences

‘Based on Weber’s tradition, social groups are stratified according to their lifestyles, in the sense of consumption patterns, understanding that the lifestyle is as much a choice as a result of people’s chances. According to Cockerham and colleges, Weber’s overall thesis states that ‘chance is socially determined, and social structure is an arrangement of chances. Hence, lifestyles are not random behaviours unrelated to structure but are typically deliberate choices influenced by life chances’ (Cockerham et al., 1997: 32

A serious affect of social class on life chances is the rate of deaths in children. Mortality rates for death from injury in children have been dropping over the last century and though they have more than halved in the last twenty years it has been identified that there are wide variations in the mortality rate by socioeconomic class. The table below taken from the British Medical Journal is part of a study into death from injury in children under 15 by socio economic group.

The study found that whilst the overall mortality rate for children under 15 for death from injury fell from 11.1 deaths per 100,000 in 1981 to 4.0 deaths per 100,000, In 2001. There was a distinct difference between the socioeconomic class groups. The chances of death from injury for children from NS-SEC8 who’s parents had either never worked or were longterm unemployed was over 13 times higher than for children from the highest social group NS-SEC8

It can also been seen clearly from the table that the mortality rate per 100.000 rises steadily as the social class moves downward with the exception of the top two classes which are reversed, though the difference between then is only 0.3 per 100,000. It is clear from this that a child’s life chances in terms of survival are directly linked to the social class they are born into. The inequality between the social groupings is stark, especially when you look at undetermined deaths: those deaths were 32.6 times higher for children from the lowest social class. This study only looked at death from injury and does not include those deaths due to poor health or hygiene.

Table 1

Deaths from injury and poisoning and rates per year per 100 000 children aged 0-15 years by eight class NS-SEC, 2001-3

NS-SEC

Deaths 2001-3aˆ

Rate (95% CI) per year per 100 000 children

1: Higher managerial/professional occupations

85

1.9 (1.6 to 2.4)

2: Lower managerial/professional occupations

111

1.6 (1.3 to 1.9)

3: Intermediate occupations

59

2.9 (2.2 to 3.7)

4: Small employers/own account workers

105

2.9 (2.4 to 3.5)

5: Lower supervisory/technical occupations

91

2.7 (2.2 to 3.3)

6: Semi-routine occupations

148

4.0 (3.4 to 4.7)

7: Routine occupations

180

5.0 (4.3 to 5.8)

8: Never worked/long term unemployed

383

25.4 (22.9 to 28.1)

Total

1162

4.0 (3.8 to 4.2)

NS-SEC=National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification.

aˆ Excludes one child for whom NS-SEC was missing

BMJ. 2006 July 15; 333(7559): 119.

doi: 10.1136/bmj.38875.757488.4F.

Copyright © 2006, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

One of the greatest factors still causing a difference between the classes with regards to life chances is education, despite the best attempts of the state system and years of work to close the gap between the educational experience of the upper and lower classes, their is a gulf that is almost insurmountable.Children from working class families do less well against all educational bench marks, from GCSE results to university entrance. One group that suffer more than most are children in the care system. LAC (looked after children) are affected by: Poverty, housing, unhealthy diets and poor education success. Considering these effects on LAC they can play an enormous part of their individual, social and functioning throughout their life. It is understood and evidenced that children who are brought up in the care system previously had a lack of opportunity, therefore making these individuals less likely to be motivated to achieve any academic qualifications and lead to a large number of young people leaving the care system without any opportunities available to them to reach their full potential. This reinforced the class system, creating a group of individuals who would be more likely to remain dependent on the state system, therefore creating a cycle of individuals within their own class system. ” The cycle of deprivation is bad for everyone. But is particular unfair for children who miss out on opportunities because they inherit the disadvantage faced by their parents, so their life chances are determined by where they come from rather than who they are” ( cited in Cunningham. J and cunningham. S 2008 page 45)

Looked after children are more likely to be excluded from school, leave with less than five GCSE passes and tend not to go onto further education. Before even starting school they will often have suffered from attachment disorders making it difficult for them to connect with or trust others, they may have suffered from poor nutrition, they will possibly have missed medical appointments for health problems and immunisations, or suffer from low self esteem which will seriously affect their ability to learn and develop the confidence to believe they can succeed. They move school more frequently than average and have more time off school. In some cases they are the main carer for younger siblings due to the lack of care given by parents. “Every Child Matters” is an initiative brought in following the Laming inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbe that aimed to address these issues by making all agencies involved with children work more effectively together to eliminate the inequalities that children from poor or underprivileged backgrounds face.

Conclusion

Concluding this essay I believe that there is clear evidence that class has an influence on life chances. We have seen how children’s mortality rate are vastly higher in the lowest class compared with all other classes and in particular those in the highest two classes. Access to private education gives the upper classes a route into the most powerful positions in society and financial rewards which allows them to perpetuate the system. Children from the working class and underclass or those in care are at greater risk of harm and social isolation, where they enter a vicious circle locking them into a cycle of depravation. It is my belief that Victoria Climbe was an example of class distinction. Her Aunt and Uncle were able to use their power in relation to their knowledge of the bureaucracy of the care system within different countries to hide the abuse and harm they were causing the child prior to her death. The Laming enquiry found that Victoria had suffered deprivation, lack of nourishment, physical abuse and poverty. The Laming inquiry found it intolerable that so many agencies could be involved with a child and yet she was still able to be killed by her carers. The recommendations of the inquiry aimed to ensure that the services provided to children were seamless and ensured that “every child matters”. That they should be encouraged, supported and have the opportunity to reach their individual potential, thus giving them the best life chances possible.

This legislation was aimed to ensure that children from deprived backgrounds or looked after children had a chance to attain the goals children from others classes considered normal and that failings in bureaucracy and the integration of services were no longer a loophole that abusers could use to evade detection.

Debate on nature versus nurture focuses on individuals innate attributes also known as innatism as compared to personal experiences, also called empiricism, in influencing or determining personal differences in behavior and physical traits. Nature relies on the biological/genetical composition of individuals in determining behavioral as well as physical attributes on an individual. Genes originate from the parents and are unique between persons. The nurture orientation in shaping an individual focuses on the influence on a contextual environment of an individual in determining the attributes and character to be developed (Cummings, 2008).

Introduction

In context of homosexuality, the nature concept determines the possibility that a certain genetical combination during fusion of sex chromosomes naturally predisposes an individual to homosexuality. The implication is that a homosexual is born so and as such, any form of discrimination directed towards the homosexual is an issue of civil right since one did not choose to be so. On the other hand, the nurture concept displays homosexuality as a behavior instilled by the environment within which a person grows or interacts with. As such the parental, peer and other social environment, may contribute to homosexual attributes exhibited by an individual (Bozett, 1989). It can be easily understood that the physical characteristics are inherent from the parents, but it’s practically hard to comprehend that the behavior of an individual depends fully on the behavior of the parents such that it is genetically inherited. Studies indicate that a nature-given talent, ability or attribute can be enhanced or inhibited by the environment in which a person grows in. As such both aspects of nature and nurture are in play in shaping an individual.

Discussion

Nature’s influence on homosexuality

According to Shaffer (2008), siblings do inherit various physical characteristics directly from the biological parents. The traits may include eye color, height as well as predisposition ailments that are physical. Drawing from this later statement, human beings can as well inherit certain mental traits and attributes from biological parents. Mental characteristics may include susceptibility to attacks by certain mental disorders. Homosexuality, a personality attribute, is a mental state within a person that urges the person to have intimate relationship with individuals of the same sex/gender. As such, the mind of a homosexual houses an acquired composition or an orientation. The orientation to homosexuality may be coined in the autonomy or the divergent thinking characteristics all of which can be inherited from the parents. Indeed what society inculcates to people deprives people of their possible autonomy and divergence in thinking that would have developed them to completely different people. According to Nardi & Schneider (1998), there is a biological relationship between personality of resultant sibling and the parents. For example, extroversion, which is the social and outgoing character in a person and neuroticism, which is the moody and over sensitivity behavior in a person.

Furthermore, researches indicate that schizophrenia which is a psychological disorder characterized by confusion, delusions and scattered thoughts is genetically inherited. In fact, if a family member has the disorder, there is a possibility of there being others in the lineage. In addition, major depressions and alcoholism, which are psychological disorders has also been found to be hereditary whether the social environment is changed or not, (Soble, 2002). There is therefore a possibility of a gene that is independent of the larger society and defies the society to manifest itself in homosexuality. It is however important to note that from the Minnesota registry and Australian Registry twin studies, only thirty eight and thirty percent gay and lesbians respectively resulted from their twin brother/ sister being gay or lesbian (Brewer, 1999). From the studies, it can be deduced that the correlation is not perfect since it is not a hundred percent. As such, it may be suggested that genes influence indirectly, though on average do not account for homosexuality sexual orientation. The aforementioned discussion leads to a conclusion that though the genetical passing over of human attributes contribute to homosexual habits; still there is/are other aspects in play to homosexuality. As such, while dwarfs, supermen and superwomen can blame their physical characteristic wholly on genetical combination, homosexuals cannot. The indication is that homosexuality is partly contributed by a decision and choice for it. Choice and decision comes to play with environment exposure which depicts the larger perspective of nurture.

Nurture’s influence on homosexuality

The environment within which an individual grows and develops in has an influence on the resulting personality of such individuals (Mathew et al, 2003). Indeed, the development of language to be spoken is learnt from the interaction with the environment of an individual. The environment will include the physical as well as the social aspects of an individual. For example, a research conducted by Robinson in fiscal 1982 on the influence of nurture to homosexuality had the following details.

Methodology

The participants included two hundred and eighty five gay and forty seven lesbians from DIGNITY association, a homosexual association in USA. Each participant received a questionnaire via mail, responded to it and mailed it back to the researchers. The questionnaire assessed the couple status, past family life, demographic information as well as parental relationship with the individual respondents. The respondents were from diverse faith including Catholic, Protestant and atheism whose level of education was between high school and doctorate levels.

Findings and discussion

Seventy six percent of all respondents expressed their early life as full of care and love from their parents compared to twenty four percent who felt that their early life was unbearable. In addition, more than eighty percent expressed their parents’ approval of their behavior as they grew up as well as the current behavior as homosexuals. The findings reveal individuals whose family setups availed the care that children require while growing up. Socially, their parents supported them by offering approval of their conduct as they grew up. The implication is that homosexuality does not result from a neglected and unsociably individuals but from people who fit in the societal context. Furthermore, the participants expressed their parents’ satisfaction on the life and behavior of homosexuality that they had adopted. This further implies that homosexuality’s acceptability was evident. The homosexuals who participated in this research indicate that the urge to homosexuality was not as a result of a mental force beyond their control but as a choice that they had made. Their level of education indicates that they would have changed their sexual orientation if they wanted but their energy was directed to making their relationship with homosexual partners stronger (Jones & Yarhouse, 2000).).

The deduction is that since homosexuality is a mental state in an individual and not a physical attribute, learned individuals, if they wish, can change if they suspect the behavior is a vice. The role of the environment comes to play in the sense the homosexuals gain acceptance by the parents and numbers. Moreover the religious faiths that represent a stronghold in many societies upheld homosexuality. Indeed, the support from the parents and the church accounts for a society’s support. The aspects that the environment avails to human beings provide experiences for adoption in life (Schein & Bernstein, 2008). These experiences shape the behavior of individuals. If the contextual society do not support expression of some behavior, the only possibility that such behaviour would sprout is if the behavior is genetically inherited or if the individuals displaying it are strong enough to accept the ‘deviant’ labeling from the society.

Conclusion

In exploring the classification of factors that shape the behavior, many contemporary researches appreciate the role of both nature expressed in inherited genes as well as the nurture expressed as environmental experiences. Inherited mental characteristic need to be exercised and enhanced in the environment for it to be successfully propagated to the future generations. The culture which is the framework within which nurture takes effect definitely has a role to play in shaping up an individuals’ behavior. It is important for individuals to evaluate themselves and as independent entities compare their behavioral attributes to determine their compatibility with the environment. There may be instances when individuals display behaviour that is ideally unacceptable and hence such individuals would need to conform to the environment. In some other instances, individuals may need to explicitly explain their traits if they are ideally acceptable to fit them into the contextual environment. Either way, the influence of the environment display natural ways of eliminating expression of behaviour that is harmful in the environment. The genesis of homosexuality and indeed its acceptability remains both a nature and nurture contribution until other studies find it different (Boswell, 1981).

This paper proposes to look at dalit women’s movement (DWM) in India. The dalit women’s movement should be analyzed in a relational framework for which we will have to look at the specific history and nature of the Indian nation-state. The other two major movements which have a bearing on DWM are the dalit movement and the women’s movement in India. This paper focuses on the DWM particularly the National Federation of dalit women (NFDW). There are a host of regional, state level and national level movements led and participated by dalit women, it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss all these, so I undertake a study of the NFDW, its politics, strategy, ideology, scope and the theoretical perspectives through which it has been analysed.

The NFDW is chronologically a post 1980’s phenomena and has been active in a transnational arena with its particular presence in Durban 2001, it has been analysed by social scientists in a transnational framework. I have not overlooked the transnational significance of the movement, but, looked at it in a historical context of India’s history and modernity, the place of dalit women and men within this history and how has ‘the history’ been challenged by dalit women.

The main argument put forward by dalit feminists is that dalit women are a different category in their own right and they should not be subsumed within the category of dalits or women as a whole. Dalit feminists have asked both the dalit movements and women’s movements in India for an internal critique because both these movements have neither been able to represent dalit women nor paid attention to their specific structural, social and cultural location within Indian society. Indian society is ridden with multiple and overlapping inequalities which affect women in general and dalit women in particular, in different ways.

Dalit feminists have also argued for an analysis of patriarchy within dalit communities because of external and internal factors. “Dalit women justify the case for talking differently on the basis of external factors (non-dalit forces homogenizing the issue of dalit women) and internal factors (the patriarchal domination within the dalits).” (Guru: 1995:2548)

The dalit women’s movement has a crucial role to play in the analysis of dalit feminist approach because as Chaudhuri points out it is “almost impossible to separate the history of action from the history of ideas. In other words the conceptual debates themselves embodied the history of doing, and vice versa.” (Chaudhuri: 2004: xi-xii) therefore what “constitutes conceptual history”, arises “in the context of history of doing” (Chaudhuri: 2004: xii)

The first part explores the historicity of woman’s question in India, dalit women’s participation in early anti-caste movements is established now but they do not figure in the women’s movement led by the AIWC as the women’s movement started with a group of bourgeois women who believed in homogeneous womanhood. The second part looks at the question of difference and the articulation of this difference by dalit women through what Rege has called the dalit feminist standpoint (DFS), and the further debate around the DFS. The third part looks at the NFDW in particular.

The fourth part tries to locate the DWM in different theoretical frameworks which have been put forward to explain the movement locating it in the present national and international scenario.

The questions this paper will explore are:

Why is it important to see the dalit women’s movement as separate from the Indian women’s movement and dalit movement in general? What are the main features of dalit women’s movement, particularly the NFDW? How the revolving and overlapping axis of caste, class and gender have affected dalit women in particular?

The related concepts are:

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is defined as “Literally, ‘rule of the father’ the term was originally used to describe social systems based on authority of male heads of household.” (A dictionary of sociology 2009/1994:551)

The nature of control and subjugation of women varies from one society to the other as it differs due to the differences in class, caste, religion, region, ethnicity and the socio-cultural practices. Thus in the context of India, brahmanical patriarchy, tribal patriarchy and dalit patriarchy are different from each other. Patriarchy within a particular caste or class also differs in terms of their religious and regional variations. (Ray: 2006)

Mary E. John argues that there are not separate, multiple patriarchies but “multiple patriarchies, the products of social discrimination along class, caste and communal lines, are much more shared and overlapping than diverseaˆ¦the growing disparitiesaˆ¦would tell a different story, one of unequal patriarchies and disparate genders.(John:2004: 66).

Gender

According to Ann Oakley ” ‘sex’ is a biological term: ‘gender’ a psychological and cultural one” further she says “if the proper terms for sex are ‘male’ and ‘female’, the corresponding terms for gender are ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’; these latter may be quite independent of (biological) sex.” (Oakley: 1972:159)

Dalit

Romila Thapar traces the roots of ‘Dalit’ in Pali literature in which Dalit means “the oppressed”. (Quoted in Guru and Geetha: 2000) “Dalit is not a caste; it is a constructed identityaˆ¦ Dalit (oppressed or broken) is not a new word. Apparently, it was used in the 1930s as a Hindi and Marathi translation of ‘depressed classes’, a term the British used for what are now called the scheduled castesaˆ¦The word was also used by B R Ambedkar in his Marathi speeches. The ‘Dalit Panthers’ revived the term in their 1973 manifestoaˆ¦” (Bharati: 2002)

However there is a huge and raging debate over the word ‘Dalit’ among intellectuals. The issues of terminology are complex and cannot be handled in this space, the study proposes to use dalits for the communities also at times called ‘ex-untouchables’, ‘ati-shudras’, ‘untouchables’, ‘scheduled castes’, ‘low castes’, ‘harijans’ etc.

Dalit women

It has been pointed by dalit activists and intellectuals that dalit women suffer the triple burden of caste, class, and gender (Rao:2006), (Rege:1998), (Dietrich:2006), (Omvedt: 2004),(Malik:1999) they have been called the “dalits of the dalits” , the “downtrodden amongst the downtrodden” and the “the slaves of the slaves”.( Manorama quoted in Hardtmann: 2009:217) However such a construction has been challenged by Shirman as “fetishising of dalit women’s suffering which tend to reify the living social relationships that constitute dalit women’s lives, and to locate dalit women as objects of pity.” (Shirman: 2004)

Social movement

A social movement can be thought of as an informal set of individuals and/ or groups that are “involved in confliction relations with clearly identified opponents; are linked by dense informal networks; [and] share a distinct collective identity” (della Porta & Diani, 2006, p. 20). (Christiansen:2011:4)

Feminism

Kumari Jayawardena defines feminism as “embracing movements for equality within the current system and significant struggles that have attempted to change the system”. She asserts that these movements arose in the context of i) the formulation and consolidation of national identities which modernized anti-imperialist movements during the independence struggle and ii) the remaking of pre-capitalist religion and feudal structures in attempt to

modernize third world societies (Jayawardena, 1986: 2)” ( Quoted in Chaudhuri, 2004: xvi).

Nation-State

“”Nation,” it is clear, is not the same as “state.” The latter refers to an independent and autonomous political structure over a specific territory, with a comprehensive legal system and a sufficient concentration of power to maintain law and order. “State,” in other words, is primarily a political-legal concept, whereas “nation” is primarily psycho-cultural. Nation and state may exist independently of one another: a nation may exist without a state; a state may exist without a nation. When the two coincide, when the boundaries of the state are approximately coterminous with those of the nation, the result is a nation-state. A nation-state, in other words, is a nation that possesses political sovereignty. It is socially cohesive as well as politically organized and independent.” (Enloe and Rejai: 1969:143)

The space of dalit women in the women’s movement and the dalit movement in India.

Chaudhuri has observed that the early women’s movement comprised of the women from upper caste and class strata who distanced themselves from party politics and confrontational mode of assertion. The theme of “woman as an individual in her own right” did not crop up till very late. The theme that emerges is “the naturally non-antagonistic relationship of the sexes in India as compared to the westaˆ¦” (Chaudhuri: 2004:119)

Chaudhuri discusses that the All India Women’s Congress (AIWC) were in favour of joint electorates and rejected the communal award, “women” the leading members continued to argue, were all “sisters under the sari” and the institutions and ideals that governed their lives were similar. (Chaudhuri: 2004:130) Chaudhuri also observes the “propensity of gender issues to be dispensable while larger political battles are being fought has been a constant of sorts in the history of modern India.” (Chaudhuri: 2011: xv)

“Throughout the nineteenth century different versions of female emancipation came to be tied to the idea of national liberation and regeneration. The early colonial constellation of the arya woman is a sternly elitist concept in class and caste terms, and finds its nationalist shape in social and political thought, literature and a dominant historiographic model of Indiaaˆ¦ the recovery of tradition throughout the proto-nationalist and nationalist period was the recovery of the ‘traditional’ womanaˆ¦the vedic woman, both in her own time, and after her appropriation by upper castes and classes in the nineteenth century, is built upon the labour of lower social groups and is also a mark of distinction from them.”(Sangari and Vaid: 1989:10)

Following these historical developments there has been an ambivalence in india towards feminism, Chaudhuri argues that we cannot exclude women who were pushing feminist agendas without calling them feminists because we cannot impose current notions of feminism on the past thereby assuming an ideal notion of the ‘correct’ kind of feminism. (Chaudhuri: 2004: xvi-xvii)

Another question that Chaudhuri points out is the westernnes of feminism and its subsequent perception by feminists in India. She claims that “there is no turning away from the westaˆ¦questions regarding the ‘westerness’ of feminism has been a constant theme. In a hierarchical society often gender oppression is linked with oppressions based on caste, class, community, tribe and religion, and in such multiple patriarchies “men as the principal oppressors” is not easily accepted (Chaudhuri, 2004: xxii-xxiii).”

Manuela Ciotti in a field study done with BSP and Hindu right women activists in UP has drawn attention to the role played by “women’s husbands or other male family members, who are often not only responsible for women’s ‘release’ into public life, but also act as a source of advice, experience, encouragement and financial support for their political activities.” (Ciotti: 2007)

The history to which the dalit women’s movement traces itself is of Ambedkar and Phule (both men) whose approach however was (unlike that of the early Indian women’s movement) confrontationalist as well as pronouncedly antagonist to brahmanic patriarchy. To Phule and Ambedkar, gender issues were not dispensable.

This history also brings to light the fact that dalit women were not historically absent from movements but their history has been neglected until recently. They worked side by side dalit men but they have started to organize separately from dalit men with different movements only post the 1970s.

Ambedkar not only spoke for and agitated for the rights of Dalits but also Dalit women. He argued that “practices of sati, enforced widowhood and child marriage come to be prescribed by Brahmanism in order to regulate and control any transgression of boundaries, i.e., to say he underlines the fact that the caste system can be maintained only through the controls on women’s sexuality and in this sense women are the gateways to the caste system [Ambedkar 1992:90]” (Rege: 1998)

Meenakshi Moon and Urmila Pawar have recorded the participation of dalit women in the early 20th century movements against caste exclusion and oppression, “in the following decades women’s activities developed from mere participation as beneficiaries or as an audience, to the shouldering of significant responsibility in various fields of activity in the Ambedkar movement.” (Moon and Pawar: 2003:49)

Moon and Pawar’s research has thrown light on the unknown facts of the dalit women’s participation in the early anti-caste movements, Dr. Ambedkar ” saw to it that women’s conferences were held simultaneously with those of men. By 1930 women had become so conscious that they started conducting their own meetings and conferences independently.” (Moon and Pawar: 2003:50)

In the Mahad satyagraha of 1927 “women not only participated in the procession with Dr. Ambedkar but also participated in the deliberations of the subject committee meetings in passing resolutions about the claim for equal human rights.” (Moon and Pawar: 2003:50)

Their research also reveals the “experiences they (dalit women) had in the field as well as in the family as mother, wife, daughter; what was the effect on their life of Ambedkar’s movement and speechesaˆ¦” (Moon and Pawar: 2003:53)

Even the women who were illiterate subscribed to Ambedkar’s journals to keep the publications alive. They paid four annas to eight annas when their daily wages were hardly a rupee daily. Some women courted arrest with the men in the satayagrahas. Some had to face beatings from their husbands for participating in the movement. At such times they took their infant babies to jail, some carried all their belongings, even chickens. Taking in consideration the extremely backward social atmosphere the achievements of these women were most commendable. (Moon and Pawar: 2003:54-55)

The analyses of dalit women’s presence in anti caste struggle has brought out the sharp contrast between their participation in movements and their visibility as leaders and decision makers in political parties or dalit movement itself. “Dalit women do not play any important role in the political leadership of maharastra” (Zelliot:2006:209)

Vimal Thorat laments that “Dalit identity politics articulates caste identity sharply but resists, deliberately, understanding and articulating the gender dimensions of caste itself (that sees all women not just Dalit women) in a certain lightaˆ¦The Dalit movement has thrown up so many women but articulate women are not invited by Dalit forums, especially the political parties.” (Thorat: 2001) The question she asks is “Forty years after the Dalit movement, where is the women’s share? (Hamari bhagyadari kahan hai?)” (Thorat: 2001)

Ruth Manorama is of the view that dalit women have to challenge dalit men to reah the leading posts within their own movement. She explains that dalit men have been discriminated throughout their lives by high caste men as well as high caste women. The dalit men now are scared of dalit women and think that they are the same as the high caste women. Now when they have finally grasped the leadership positions they will not part from them. You have to understand them. (Hardtmann: 2009:219)

Dietrich argues that while women’s movements downplay the caste factor and emphasize unity among women as victims of violence, dalit movements see such violence only from a caste angle and subsume the dalit women within dalits in general.( Dietrich:2006:57)

Many Dalit intellectuals deny the persistence of brahmanic patriarchy among the dalits, Kancha Ilaiah admits that patriarchy exists among the dalits, but he compares it to Brahmin patriarchy and contends that it is less oppressive “the man woman relations among the dalitBahujan are far more democratic.” (Ilaiah: 2006:88)

Dalit women’s assertion of difference

Gopal Guru in ‘dalit women talk differently’ has posed faith in the new “politics of difference” that the dalit women have expressed through the formation of the National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW). Guru brings out the facts that such difference is necessary if dalit women want to fight patriarchy which is external and internal. Other factors that he points out are “caste factor does not get adequate recognition in the analysis done by non-dalit, middle-class, urbanised women activists.” (Guru: 1995:2548) And the “claim for women’s solidarity at both national and global levels subsumes contradictions that exist between high caste and dalit women.” (Guru: 1995:2548)

Rege also points to the trend of the left party-based women’s organizations collapsing caste into class, and the autonomous women’s groups collapsing caste into sisterhood, both leaving Brahmanism unchallenged. (Rege: 1998)

The social and material conditions of dalit women are different and they cannot uncritically ally themselves with larger feminist politics because of the same, so feminists like Rege have called it the dalit feminist standpoint (DFS). (Rege: 1998)

The DFS according to Rege analyses what divides women, what unites them but does not unite them easily. “As a standpoint located in the material practices of dalit women’s lives it rejects a dichotomisation of the material and cultural which equates the material to environmental degradation and brahmanism to the cultural. Brahmanical patriarchies and caste-specific patriarchies are material in their determination of the access to resources, the division of labour the sexual division of labour and division of sexual labour.” (Rege: 2000)

Criticizing Rege, Chaya Datar argues that Rege has ignored ecofeminism which actually talks about the position of dalit women in society and the exploitation of women as well as the environment and natural degradation. In Datar’s view “the dalit women’s movement may not be part of narrow identity politics, insofar as it does not talk of the materiality of the majority of dalit, marginalised women who lose their livelihoods because of environmental degradation but focuses its struggle mainly against brahminical symbols, it cannot aspire to revisioning of society. It cannot become more emancipatory than the present women’s movement.” (Datar: 1999)

According to Anupama Rao “dalitbahujan feminists have gone further than merely arguing that Indian feminism is incomplete and exclusive. Rather, they are suggesting that we rethink the genealogy of Indian feminism in order to engage meaningfully with dalit women’s “difference” from the ideal subjects of feminist politics.” (Rao: 2006:2-3)

Bela Malik argues that “a purely dalit or a purely feminist movement cannot adequately help dalit women. (Malik: 1999) she further states that those who have been actively involved with organizing women encounter difficulties that are nowhere addressed in a theoretical literature whose foundational principles are derived from a smattering of normative theories of rights, liberal political theory, an ill-formulated left politics and more recently, occasionally, even a well-intentioned doctrine of ‘entitlements’.

“Kannabiran and Kannabiran(1991) have pointed to how the deadlock between kshatriya and dalit men caused by dalit agricultural labourer women “dressing well” could be solved only by a decision taken by men of both the communities. It was decided that women of either community would not be allowed to step into each other’s locations. The sexual assault on dalit women has been used as a common practice for under-mining the manhood of the caste. Some dalit male activists did argue that in passing derogatory remarks about upper caste girls (in incidents such as Chanduru) dalit men were only getting their own back. The emancipatory agenda of the dalit and women’s movements will have to be sensitive to these issues and underline the complex interphase between caste and gender as structuring hierarchies in society.” (Rege: 1998)

The notion of the dalit women as more free and mobile has been taken up by feminists, the arguments have been that although dalit women are vocal and fight their husbands back, “they are not under the ideology of husband worship” but “they face collective threat of physical harm from upper caste forces all the time.” (Dietrich: 2006:58), also (Rege: 1998).

Kumkum Sangari opines that patriarchies function and persist not only because they are “embedded in the social stratification, division of labour, political structure, cultural practices” but also because of consent by women. (Sangari: 1996:17)

T.P-Vetschera in his study of Dalit women in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra points out to the element of consent by quoting the Dalit women themselves “‘our men don’t treat us as badly as animals, this means that they are good’”. Women feel that “suffering (is) an essential part of a woman’s life and nothing could be done about it.” (P-Vetschera: 1996:246)

T.P-Vetschera’s study points out that the Mahars have experienced social mobility and in the region caste repression is “not so bad”. However the lives of Mahar women are full of daily struggles with burgeoning amount of work within and outside home. Their husbands don’t help them and they have to cope with cliches which configure them as lazy and having loose morals. (P-Vetschera: 1996:238)

They are frequent victims of violence at the hands of their husbands. Some of them are victims of rape and sexual exploitation by high caste men. (P-Vetschera: 1996:239)

Sanskritisation or reference group behavior has reined havoc on the freedom and position earlier enjoyed by dalit women in dalit community. (P-Vetschera: 1996:257). A dangerous mixture of tradition and modernity combines not to stop or minimize the exploitation of dalit women but only gives it a new avatar.

The National Federation of dalit women (NFDW)

Tracing the issues at stake in the post Mandal-Masjid phase of the women’s movement, Rege has argued that the assertion of dalit women’s voices in the 1990s brings up significant issues for the revisioning of feminist politics. (Rege: 1998).

“The revival of the women’s movement in india came with the ‘new women’s movement’ in the 1970s.Dalit women’s activists however, see this movement as a continuation of aˆ¦the Hindu caste reform tradition.”(Hardtmann: 2009:215)

“They consider the feminist theory developed by non-dalit women as unauthentic since it does not capture their reality. This comprehension gets clearly reflected in the 12- point agenda adopted by the NFDW and in several papers presented by the dalit women at the Maharashtra Dalit Women’s Conference held in Pune in May 1995. Dalit women define the concept of dalit strictly in caste terms, refuting the claim of upper caste women to dalithood. Dalit women activists quote Phule and Ambedkar to invalidate the attempt to a non-dalit woman to don dalit identity.” (Guru: 1995:2549)

“In the second half of the 1980’s, dalit women came to express a need for a separate platform within the broader women’s movement. In the 1987 the first dalit women’s national meeting, dalit women’s struggles and aspirations, was held in Bangalore. About 200 women from the south of India, but also from Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and west Bengal are said to have attended. This was the beginning of a national network of dalit women which on the 11 august 1995 formed the NFDW. (Guru: 1995:2548-9)” (Hardtmann: 2009:215)

Three years later some women from NFDW took part in the formation of the national campaign on dalit human rights (NCDHR). (Hardtmann: 2009:216) “It is important to note, however, that even if they have organized separately from dalit men, they tried to work in collaboration with them in the NCDHR. ” NCDHR was officially launched on World Human Rights Day, 10 December 1998; it links dozens of formerly isolated Dalit civil society organizations in fourteen Indian states.” (Bob: 2007:179)

The NFDW was instrumental in organizing dalit women for the world conference against racism held in Durban in 2001. Dalit activists argued that caste oppression was like race oppression because both were discriminations based on work and descent. This has been a matter of debate in India as well as globally now and the NFDW supported this claim.

“The World Conference against Racism held at Durban in 2001 and the process that led to the WCAR in India witnessed the ‘freeing’ of caste from the confines of India into a larger international arena that held out greater possibilities for public debate, alliance building and more powerful resistance.” (Kannabiran: 2006)

“This meant that not only did the dalit movement and questions related to SC become known internationally, but international focus, to a large extent, came to be placed on the situation of SC women.” (Hardtmann: 2009:215)

The manifesto of NFDW reads:

NFDW endeavours to seek and build alliances with all other progressive and democratic movements and forces, in particular the women’s movement and the wider Dalit movement at the national level. It thus aspires in a significant way to widen the democratic spaces while at the same time to create and preserve its identity and specificity.

This framework will enable the Dalit women’s movement to seek the roots of its oppression, the diversities, the nature of changes, if any, in specific regions and historical contexts and in particular, perceive the varied levels of consciousness that exist within it.

Source, (Kannabiran: 2006)

In the context of the caste and race debate “The NFDW focused on the specific interpretation of civil and political rights, the recognition of productive contribution to society in terms of equality, dignity, fair wages and popular perception, the guarantee of security of person and freedom from the threat of sexual and physical assault, right to freedom of religion in a context where conversion for a better life resulted in denial of protections and the right to leadership – a claim pitted against non-dalit men, dalit men and non dalit women.” (Kannabiran: 2006)

“Drawing on the definition of racial discrimination in Article 1 of the CERD, the NFDW asserted in the Durban process that discrimination based on caste is indeed a specific form of racism, intertwined with gender since Dalit women ‘face targeted violence from state actors and powerful members of dominant castes and community especially in the case of rape, mutilation and death; they face discrimination in the payment of unequal wages and gender violence at the workplace that includes fields [as agricultural labourers], on the streets [as manual scavengers and garbage pickers], in homes [as domestic workers], and through religious customaˆ¦’” (Kannabiran: 2006)

“The charter of rights of dalit women, formulated in 1999, and christened the Delhi Declaration sets out the guiding principles of dalit women’s rights. It declares that dalits are one of the indigenous peoples of India, who as a people are sovereign, with a distinct identity, history, culture and religion…Significantly, dalit women in this charter declared ‘solidarity in the common cause of women’s rights in India and the world at large for the establishment of gender partnership in an egalitarian society’.” (Kannabiran: 2006)

Theoretical approaches

It is difficult to explain the dalit women’s movement with the help of any one of the given theoretical perspectives, because of the particular context in which DWM is located and the specific historical trajectory it has followed; feminist movements in general have been theorized as new social movements (NSM), however the NSM perspective cannot explain DWM until some context based facts are taken in account. The DWM as separate from the dalit movement and the NFDW in particular is chronologically a new phenomena, the movement has been analysed in relation to the current world order.

The women’s movement, the dalit movement, the dalit women’s movement and Feminism in India has to be situated within the particular history of colonialism, nationalism, modernity, nation-state, and presently the global world order with global institutions like the IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations. Feminism in India cannot be isolated from the “broader framework of an unequal international world.” (Chaudhuri: 2004: xv)

Chaudhuri has argued that we should look at the Indian nation-state’s entry in modernity to understand the women’s question in India. India’s entrance to modernity was facilitated by the colonial state and “the very construction of modern bourgeois domesticity itself can be discerned in the nineteenth century social reform movement.” (Chaudhuri: 2011: x) The social reform movement focused on the high caste-class women as subjects and as well as symbols for Indian tradition has been made clear by Vaid and Sangari (1989).

In the context of DWM it becomes crucial to understand gender as a relational term (John 2004) (Hardtmann 2009). John’s question is that “how then, should one look at the gendered relations between men and women from the exploited sections of societyaˆ¦” (Hardtmann: 2009:209)

“John has commented that the stereotype of associating women with the inside private sphere and men as a general category with the outside world of economic and political poweraˆ¦is very misleading” (Hardtmann: 2009:209) because “such power is in fact in the hands of a very few men, who are upper caste and Hindu, and middle or upper class, and who may constitute no more than 10 percent of the male population. (John 2004b:253)” (Hardtmann: 2009:209)

Arguing in the vein of John, Hartmann argues that “the world bank, the Indian state, and international corporations agree that one solution to the economic problems of SCs in the Indian society is that ‘poor women’ enter the private spheres as entrepreneurs.” Her question is why ‘poor women’ and ‘poor men’. The implicit assumption of these institutions is that “dalit men are economically irresponsible in relation to their families. They are deprived of their so called male responsibility, and as a result they are devoid of constructing their masculinity associated with respect. Women are supported to enter the economic sphere, but when they on the other hand reach an economic position, like Mayawati, they are pictured as immoral and deprived of constructing a so-called femininity, valued and respected in Indian society.” (Hardtmann: 2009:225)

“To invoke John’s pithy description, the thrifty and diligent women are pitted solely against their unruly men.” (Chaudhuri: 2011: xxxix) Who are seen as “bad subjects of modernity.” (Chaudhuri: 2011: xxxix)

Hartdmann suggests that to dalit men and women, oppression is not a question of ascribed gender identities in a heteronormative society, rather dalit men and women are not ascribed gender identities, but on the opposite prevented from constructing gender identities related to a neoliberal economic order in the Indian society, where traditional gender roles are clearly defined. (Hardtmann: 2009:225)

The DWM traces its origins and ideology to Ambedkar. Ambedkar’s faith lay in “the state as a redeemer of the injustices of the Indian societyaˆ¦” (Rao: 2003:24)

Culture is the systems or way of life, which is shared by a large number of people. In culture, some practices and activities create the social differences with other social group. Actually the culture is total of activities, and material or spiritual things. It is basically the logical and self made system of value belief as well as set of practice which become their characteristic and move over time to time or generation to generation. It also gives to individual identity and become the part of that culture. (Stavenhagen. R, 1998)

The tradition is inheriting elements of culture which move one generation to another. Actually tradition is set of customs or practices, which are regularly, perform in our daily life and which support the people in every circumstances that how they can spend their life. (Stavenhagen. R, 1998)

In every culture the tradition and practices are link every one life and dominating their every part of life like birth, marriages death ceremony etc. In Pakistani culture there are some tradition related to marriage are exists like watta satta, Karo Kari, vani, Swara etc.(aˆ¦aˆ¦

Vani is a Pashto word derived from “Vanay” which stands for blood. Vani is culture practice which is very common in Pashtoon families. This cruel custom also practices in Punjab especially in Mianwali and neighboring areas, which becomes there social norm. Mianwali is a region in the north-west of Punjab province, in Pakistan. (Hashmi, A. & Koukab, 2004)

According to vani it is the method of resolving disputes like Qatal and Zana and settling debts between families and tribes. According to this a custom, female who is the member of criminal male’s family are married or given to the victim’s family as a compensation of his sin. These decisions are often final by a Jirga. (Chaudhry.R, 2006).

In phaktoon family, girls are given Vani marriage for as compensation of murder, adultery, abduction and kidnapping which is committed by the men of the family. (Usafzai , Ali. Z. 2004)

In the tribes vani is practice, which has no written rules and regulation. In vani, If one family or tribe of a village kills member of other family or tribe, then the criminal family or tribe offer a girl or woman to the aggrieved family to settle the enmity”.( Khattak, R. 2009).

Vani Tradition is an old age tradition. This tradition started almost 400 years ago when two ‘Pathan’ tribes of Mianwali fought a bloody war. During the war approximately 800 people were killed. At that time Nawab of Tank tried to solve the problem. He called the “Girga” (jirga) who decided that girls are given as Qisas. Later on this decision became a custom which passed over generation to generation. This tradition is practiced in different areas of Sindh, Punjab and NWFP. (Hashmi, A. & Koukab, 2004)

These marriages are known as Vani, Sakh, Sawara, Sharam, Khoon Baha, and Sang Chatti with the difference of languages in different areas. (Zofeen T. E, 2006) In Punjab it is known as “Vani”, Sindh it is known as “Sang Chati”, Baluchistan it is known as “Ijai”, and NWFP it is known as “Swara”. These are an original means of different dispute resolution instrument. (Ramzan, I. 2009)

The custom and tradition are unwritten and there are no hard and fast rules. So vani has practice in different ways. Mostly the vani decision is made according to the nature of crime. Hidden vani is the kind of vani when some kind of crime done for which both families are not wanted to open it for the sake of honour then it is done. It is type of secret vani. Mostly these issues are zana either zina bil jabar or zana bill raza. In this type of cases female indirectly convince the male for the particular proposal. (Salamat, R.2007). The second kind of vani which is done in front of tribe, in this case the decision is made by jirga. Mostly the decisions are done according to effected family will. (Salamat, R.2007).

In vani custom the relation are decide at the time of decision in Punchayat that can be nikah, engagement or ruksati. In engagement the decision of vani women and men are decide and ruksati are decided later according to both party will. Mostly this decision is done when girls are minor or not born but their decision of marriage is done. In second type of vani is that nikah are done immediately in jirga. This decision is done when severe kind of dispute is between two families. That time parents and no one has permission to delay the nikah. In mostly cases the father or brother accepts the nikah on the behalf of girl. Immediately departure of bride it also part of vani. In some cases the bride leave parents home immediately after the decision of vani and in some cases the day and month of departure are decided in jirga and according to the decision the departure are done. (Salamat, R.2007)

In some cases money and property is also given to the victim family with the women. This happen mostly in the cases of long term enmity. Secondly when rich families give vani to poor family then for the betterment of their girl criminal families give property or money to effected family. (Salamat, R. 2007)

In the tribal area Vani is performed as beneficial instrument because this practice is resolve the dispute and tie the enemy in strong relation which never breaks again. When there is enmity between two families and tribes due to any reason then people of both tribes arrange the marriage for the sake of new and strong relation. The criminal party accepts crime and gives her female to other party, through giving female to his family is compensation of sin and aggrieved party forgive them. In simple word the girl is used for compensation. (Salamat, R. 2007).

The main thinking behind vani is that in dispute effected family actually loss their hounor because of criminal party. Women are consider the hounor of family in that tribal areas so effected party take women of effected family as compensation. So through women actually they return their hounor. (Salamat, R. 2007).

According to Islamic law of Qisas and Diyat, in compensation (Badal-i-Sulh)of murder , the criminal paid or given to a Wali, cash or in the form of moveable or movable property, which done according to mutual willingness of both parties and Shariah.( Chaudhry, Sharif, M. 1993). But in vani practice women give to another party as compensation. The some people are poor when they murder some one, then it is impossible for them to pay the Qisas and Diyat. So they give them women for compensation without money. Actually it is wrong. It is done to save the money and property, Due to materialistic world now a day even rich people of tribal areas also give the women as vani and save their money and property. (Salamat, R. 2007).

According to vani custom the any girl and women of criminal party accept as vani but in community the custom are not like this. There are some proffered girls or women for compensation purpose. These are sister, daughter, daughter of brother; etc if girl of that criminal party is not available then they can buy the girl and give effected family. But mostly it is preferred that the girl and women are kid of that criminal person or group. In the effected family male member are also required for marriage purpose. There is no specification for male or bride groom. On effected side male can be brother, son, father etc. Mostly that person is chosen who are older, abnormal and those by whom marriage is not possible. (Salamat, R. 2007).

It is inhuman and unislamic practice that is violates of women basic human right. It is cruel meanness towards women, treating them as a property and cattle that is used to settle disputes. Women pay for that crime which she never did. This tribal tradition makes the life of thousands of girls a living hell. (Ehsan A. 2006).

Violence against women through customary practice like Vani, Watta satta, hounor killing, exists in Pakistan, Which was creating serious disorder in the society and exploit the women life. These practice is become the social norms, Like Vani ‘marriages has become as a social norm in tribal areas of Pakistan. (Hashmi, A. Koukab, Mushtaq. R, 2004). These practice are continuously practice, in 2008 in Pakistan 50 cases of vani are done and under the jirga system and 210 cases of forced marriages are registered. (Awan. A, Z. 2009).

Vani is a pre-Islamic tradition which has no scope in Islam. These practices must be condemned and punished. Vani is also against the teachings of Islam. In Islam all marriage prohibited which done under any kind of pressure. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) has at many examples to stop such kind of marriages. These marriages were known as ‘Sabaya’, which is practice in the days of Jahiliya (ignorance). In which Arabs used to capture the ladies of enemy and beaten after the battle. Vani is also the example of that marriage in two manners. A woman is married without her consent and punished for that crime which she never committed. Which is restrict in Islam(aˆ¦aˆ¦..

In Islam there is no discrimination between persons on the basis of gender, color, race, nationality, wealth, etc. only the superiority of a person is base on justice, and moral excellence. So how it is possible, that any person exploited the women’s life on the name of custom is Islamic practice. Islam gives women respect, honor, right to inherit property, to marry anyone with their own choice and the right to divorce. (aˆ¦aˆ¦..

According to Islamic law a punishment should have four characteristics. It should be disciplinary, retributive, reformative and a limit. But vani has not any of these characteristic, because criminal himself goes free and innocent girl pay their unlimited cost. In Islam, there is no clear responsibility that every person must bear the burden of his/her own actions, and in Islam no concept of women gives as compensation in Badal-i-Sulh. It violates the law of Qisas and Diyat. (Anis, F. 2003)

According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights in article 1 that all human being born free and equal right and dignity, but the vani practice is direct conflict with it 1 article. In vani practice the girl punished for those act which she never did. She is also born free and equal right like men. But she exploited in the hand of men and become commodity. As a human being she is free for take any decision, but in vani without her consent she gets marries with any person for revival. Article 16 of Universal Declaration of Human Right, that there is no limitation for any men and women to marry and form a family. Without any discrimination of race, nationality or religion they can enjoy their marriage and family. There is free full consent for both men and women to choose their spouse. But in vani neither the men consent is asked or nor the women consent for marriage. Both men and women force to marrying to end of enmity. (Hashmi, A. & Koukab, 2004)

The vani practice is also violates the constitutional law. Like in vani women liberty and mobility are restricted but in Article 9 of the Constitution are guarantees that any person whether men and women has freedom of liberty. It also violates Article 4 of the Constitution that guarantees that every citizen has full right to enjoy the protection of the law but in vani practice law don’t support her. It has declared in Supreme Court that vani custom un-Islamic and unconstitutional under the Constitution of 1973. (Chaudhry, M.G. & Ulfat, A. 2007)

Pakistan is the member of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women) which work to protect the women from discrimination, violence against women and protect their rights. In article 16 of CEDAW in which stated that all parties shall take all proper step to eliminate discrimination against woman in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women. In this article man and women both has right to enter in marriage and freely chosen the spouse. But in vani practice there are no concept consent and equal right for marriage. Women oppress for marriage by father, brother or other male member of society. (Hashmi, A. & Koukab, 2004)

Vani is illegal practice. In 2002, the Chief Justice of Pakistan declared vani as un-Islamic practice. In March 2004 a press reports of the Law and Justice Commission stated that,

All people who include in vani decision must be punished. The Commission also came with a draft amendment to article 366-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. According to it:

Those entire person who take part in the decision of vani whether any person to offer or accept of women as vani, or whether the part of Punchayat they shall be punished in jail. Which is minimum 3 year or it can exceed 10 years and also liable to a fine. Whether it is done with the consent of both the parties, or it is done with the consent of the female herself, it must be punished. But still this amendment has not been passed. (Chaudhry, M.G. & Ulfat, A. 2007)

In vani practice marriage are done without the consent of girl so it is also violate the Hudood ordinance section 6 in which force marriage under this practice need to protection of law, because it is illegal. (Hashmi, A. & Koukab, 2004)

Vani practice is done mostly as child marriage which is prohibited in Islam and all over the world laws. According to UN Convention in which child marriage are prohibited under Rights of Child in article 2. At the same according to Muslim Family Law Ordinance, that at the time of marriage the girl must have reach at the age of 16 and a boy must reached at the age of 18, and both proper consent taken before marriage.

According to Punishment for Parent or Guardian Concerned in a Child Marriage Section 6. If any persons promote the child marriage in any case or in any way shall be punished minimum 1 month or with fine which extends to one thousand rupees or with both. But vani mostly girls given over are below the age of 18 which is in conflict with these law and convention. . (Ebrahim, Z. 2009).

Government takes initiative against vani, Like Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and different NGOs are working against the custom of vani. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has also taken action of forced marriages in different areas of parts of Sindh, Punjab and N.W.F.P. National Judicial Policy making Committee in a meeting announced that vani is unislamic practice and it must be punished.( Minallah, S. (2007). In 2004 Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex- president, passed law against vani during visit by the US president, George Bush. But it didn’t implement because of laws limited influence in rural areas. In rural area feudal system is so strong so only 15 vani cases have been tried under the new law in Mianwali. (aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦.

There are several cultural factors which become the reasons of violence against women in Pakistan. Patriarchal society, misinterpretation of Islam, and cruel practices in culture are major cause of low women status. Women are considering as object and property. Vani practice is one of the major customary practices which become vital cause of women exploitation. The women pay the cost of that sin which actually they never did. The only sin of women is that she had the blood relation with sinner or criminal. Because of this her whole life are exploited. (Jehanzeb, 2004).

If girl married as vani and went to enemy house then there is no place in society. They are treated by their new families without any kindness. Even parents of vani victims are mistreat with her after marriage and not value her sacrificing. They have no place in either home or in-laws. The innocent girls are suffering forever in an environment of opposition Due to psychological trauma it difficult to handle the stressful demand of their husband, children and in-laws. (Jehanzeb, 2004).

Vani is considered an evil tradition and sever punishment, especially by the feminists because the main victim is the innocent and wordless girl who sacrifices for the sake of her brothers and parents. It is a cruel behavior towards females because women bear the punishment of that crime which she never committed. (aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..

According to the annual report of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2003), Vani is like of death punishment for victim women. Although they are not physically killed, but the humiliation, abuses and misery which they face in her husband home is terrible punishment which she faces in her whole life. Women face this for that crime which she never did. (p.56)

Vani girl is just like a slave in their house, because she comes from the enemy’s family. The Taunts, curses and violence become the fate of vani women in everyday life, because she has blood relation with that person who killed their loved one. She is a continuously reminder in the in-laws of the death of their loved one. They try to give pain to the girl and her family members.” (Ullah Khan, Z. 2006)

This custom is like announcement of death sentence for girls, because she knows that she has to live in unwelcoming and miserable scenario till the end of her life. She must lives in aggressive situation and she will never be happy there, because there no one love and care about her. Everyone abuse and taunt her, because she has blood relation with sinner. (Ebrahim, 2006).

Vani whether is used properly or is misused, is against the norms of human rights. The vani girl has to bear psychological and mental torture till the end of her life. That girl will have to live in an unsympathetic situation and she will never be happy over there. The innocent girl never understands the cause of pain upon her. Her body, mind and soul would traumatize till she dies. They have to face terrible cost of that decision. (Khan, 2009).

Violence against women is not only brings physical injuries, psychological impacts of violence become the cause of pressure on their power of thinking and behaving. This violence leaves a long lasted trauma which with no proper healing. (Babur Udin, Z . 2007). Because of vani women life becomes miserable. So being a mother miserable condition and lack of security makes children turn into indirect victims. Apart from the women suffering problems with self-esteem, their children face severe emotional and behavioral problems growing up with the traumatic. (Jehanzeb, 2004).

Violence against women is not only about women violence on sex, or about conflict. It is about control, their mobility, their access to material resources and their both productive and reproductive role (Heise, Ellsberg and Gottemoeller( 1992) highlight:p.2)

In patriarchal society women has low status, because man considered as personal properties which control every aspect of lives of women including their life style, behavior and movements etc. Men make the decisions, and women pressurize to follow those decisions in family, tribe, community and society. Because of male dominating society women consider minority in society. (Hassan, 1995).In many tribal areas, women are even not considered as human beings. She is cattle or personal property which used for trade or to settle debts or conflicts. These types of practices become women low status in society. (Shaheed, 1990).

In our society women are face discrimination and violence on a daily life, due to the cultural and religious norms and belief. In our society the concept of “Char Divari,” a term translated literally to mean “the four walls of the house” restricted women mobility. (Shaheed, F. & ghazdar, A.1998) According to social norm women restricted in her father and brother home and after marriage the live in husband’s home. There is no other option for her. In the society the proverb like ( aurat baap k ghar ko chorti hai dole mai or shohar k ghar ko coffin mai) mean women leave father home in bridal palanquin and that of their husband’s only in coffin. These types of social norms restricted women mobility. She faces psychological and physical violence but never dare to leave it.( shaheed,F.& ghazdar,A.1998)

In vani practice at the time of departure no brides are made in proper way and when she leave the father home that time their relative and parents weep bitterly because they know that now her mobility is restricted. Even she never allows coming parents home expect particular occasion. (Salamat, R. 2007).

In our society women continuously become the victims of this senseless violence. The hounor of family associated with women. Through out life it is internalized on her in socialization that family hounor are linked with her action. Women spend whole life in submission and fear that she doesn’t do any thing which becomes the result of family dishonored in society. (Shaheed, F. & ghazdar, A.1998) All her life she faces threats. She accepts all kind of violence for the sake of father, brother, or husband hounor and actually these relation makes women lives more miserable. So through out whole life women have pressure to safe the hounor of male and family in society. In vani same women has social pressure to safe the life and hounor of his male member of family. For the sake of his family so-called honour she spend whole life in hell (Babur Udin, Z. 2007)

According to Human rights lawyer Hina Jilani (1998, p.143), women protection in the name of family honour from immoral activities is done for the sake of social morality actually is the oppression of basic human rights of women.

Gender-based violence included physical, psychological violence on women, which is done by her husband or by another person family. Physical violence includes torture beating burning and murdering of woman. Psychological violence includes verbal aggression, humiliation, abuse, taunt etc. (International Planned Parenthood Federation (2000). When vani women went husband home where she face physical violence like beating, torture of husband or other family member and also psychological violence like curses, abuse, taunt then how her life are secured. This violence has no limitation, women face it till death. (U, Ubaid. K, Ullah, Zia. & F, Aliya. 2006)

A cultural myth is a traditional story that has a meaning attached to it. These myths have an effect in they way people lead their lives and even how they interact with each other. It is notable that myths have a role to play be it personally, or to the wider society. In as much as one may believe or doubt such myths, they still continue to exist in different ways, and are shaping destinies of many. Myths can be full of truth or falsehood and depend on the interpretation a person may prefer. Many societies and races in the world have diverse myths which may encourage or discourage certain patterns of behavior. Rituals and customs are explained in myths and their merits or demerits laid down for everyone to discern.

The Greek mythology (Detienne, 18) is most notable especially in the way they exhort ancestors to be like gods. Myths came before science and this makes it impossible to discredit them. Long time ago, people depended on myths to explain the mysteries of creation and they accepted them with a lot of zeal. Many other questions were answered including the origin of man and his eventual destiny after death. Evil is also brought under the scrutiny of myths and they expound its cause and reason for its existence. The rise of modern civilization can too be traced in myths ranging from agriculture to industry to settled life in cities.

The modern world has continued to embrace myths in one way or another. Modern technology has given rise to much development in mass media which in turn has enabled many myths from different parts of the world to be collected together for study. Books have been printed and availed to anybody with interest to read and either agree or disagree with the subject. From an individual to a community, some cultural myths seem worthy in the sense that they encourage or uplift the spirit (Wessels, 92). Others may not necessarily be so and may seem unrealistic especially if they are prejudicial or implying immorality.

Happily Ever After; the American society as any other society has not been left behind in embracing myths. Many of them believe that happiness can be sought and achieved despite the hardship one may go through. Happiness is attributed to material possessions whereby those who do not have ample material wealth are considered unhappy. The ideology of possessions can be traced through ancient myths some of which are still followed today. Hard work is associated to prosperity and lack of it therefore leads to a lowly life.

Studies have shown that happiness is not related to material or money possessions (Veenhoven, 5). The old notion which led many people to acquire as much as they could has been proven false. Traditionalists believed that it is out of what you possess that gives you the feeling of happiness. People then would strive so much in order to have money so that they may live the rest of their lives happily. In did not matter the means or the extent to which this was sought as long as one could proudly claim he had money. Americans forgot that happiness is never permanent and mostly is derived from being comfortable with what one has, however little.

Obsession with possessions created greed in American people which can never be satisfied. Someone even came up with a term “National Happiness”, a system that oversaw people overlook other important issues in order to acquire happiness. Ironically, this myth has wrought greed, selfishness and immorality in the Americans (Alesina & Tella, 3).

The Nuclear Family has been a basis upon which nations are built. The nuclear family is composed of a father, mother and their children. This family set up has been criticized for a very long time due to its lack of universality, essence and modernity (Chester, 111). Industrialization brought out the need to move away to work places and obviously the nuclear family was affected. When the heads of the family began moving to far away places in search of job, there remained a question as to whether those left should still be considered as a nuclear family.

The myth that every nuclear family should cater for itself has contributed negatively in its essence. Most Americans may prefer to be in such families in contrast that whole societies need to live together and cater for each other. Another aspect which makes the nuclear family fail is failure of it being universal. Since other societies in the world have extended families, the notion in Americans mind that only the nuclear family is perfect could be wrong. This is another cultural myth that has pulled back the Americans in their pursuits and has isolated them.

The western culture took the nuclear family as a symbol and went ahead to portray it in art and media. But statistics show that there has been a decline in the number of nuclear families in the America over the past few years. Divorces and remarriages are common and therefore the true definition of a nuclear family has eroded. This goes on to show that the ideal nuclear family that was projected was just another cultural myth which has no place in modern society. It becomes a myth in the sense that sometimes ago; departure from this family set up was seen as immoral and unhealthy by many Americans (Uzoka, 34).

Most Americans have shunned the extended family setup which encouraged communal responsibility, and have upheld nuclear families which promote individualism. The extended family comprises of the nuclear family and the relatives. This type of family is mostly concerned with building relationships which in turn play a role in the wide community. It is only when people begin to care for each other, the immediate community benefits as well as the whole country. It is therefore important that the Americans embrace extended family and break from their cultural myth of nuclear families.

Racial Stereotyping

There have always been contentious issues in regard to racial conflict existing between the whites and the blacks in America. The problem can be traced in the colonial times whereby black slavery was a norm. Blacks then were considered superstitious and primitive. Such a myth has seen them being oppressed for so many years that even now there exists a small percentage of whites who regard them so. They have also been associated with every negative aspect in society from crime, violence and laziness.

An important fact to note is that, were it not for a tradition of viewing black negatively, they too are human and have all the abilities as white have. The cultural myths have engineered a trend that is difficult to deal with in modern society. Some instances where these myths have brought about are cases where people are discriminated according to their skin color. They are denied jobs and other government services just because of their skin color. A recent case during Hurricane Katrina where the government failed to act speedily is a case study for this. It attests to the fact that cultural myths still have a place in the modern society; albeit the American society ought to shun this evil (Palmer, 75).

Americans have stereotyped many other races. The, Americans have stereotyped many other races and the most affected are the African-Americans. African -American simplification of individuals’ behavior is the African-American Stereotyping. They came about into the American culture from the period of colonial settlement, specifically after the collapse of Slave Trade. The minstrel of the earlier blackface illustrates blacks as ignorant, superstitious as well as naA?ve in addition to been joyous which are the same characteristics which were associated with the slaves. Additionally the African-American have been stereotyped as a race which consists of people who are only good at sports. The act of stereotyping has got to its peak in the media through movies in addition to television. The media has contributed in passing negative information regarding the lifestyle of African-American to the young people. Certain shows aired on the T.V channels demonstrate the false personalities about the African Americans. To make the matters worse, there is a specific video game which has been developed whose main character is an African American who plays only the role of killing, robbing alongside having sexual relations with persons. This indicates an example through which the media has been involved in stereotyping. It is because of these cultural myths that have behaved in negative ways towards each other. They have refused to move away from such myths ignoring the fact that such cause hatred amongst each other.

Mark Twain analyses myths in a perfect way by showing in the characters the effect myths can have on people. The main themes of past, slavery, chivalry are expressed well in the book. Self-destruction and or preservation are another aspect that is brought about by the book.

Hank Morgan is a prisoner who has traveled back in time to the sixth century and is sentenced to death before Arthur’s court because of his strange dress and appearance. Before the execution is carried out, he is able to buy his freedom by convincing the Arthur that he is a magician. He relies on knowledge that a sun eclipse will take place before he is executed and he convinces the King that he is the cause of it. Hank is given the highest title in the land and he does not fail to ridicule the people who fear him.

Morgan sooner learns about superstitions embraced by the natives and he capitalizes on his superior knowledge to outdo them. Through the magician Merlin, Hank is later discovered as a fake and people start to spread rumor about him. Using his wit he is able to outsmart Merlin again by “calling fire from above”. Hank uses his influence to bring about industrialization to that country and also set up schools.

She becomes familiar with the territory he begins to understand the people and their way of life, which are still much in superstitions and myths, and even befriends a girl named Sandy. Hank outsmarts Merlin again in rebuilding a broken water fountain and thus retains power and respect. He convinces all present on his ability to summon the demons. Morgan has a way with the native’s lives and together with the king he continues the hold of power.

Sandy gives birth to a baby with Hank and upon the child’s illness he is lured to leave the country thus leaving a gap in the country’s leadership. The King and Lancelot fight over Guinevere infidelity. The church provokes a revolt over Hank the people start a war. The story ends with the present day where Hank is found dreaming about his lover, Sandy, almost a millennium later. It is argued by some people that the book is an attack on American’s values which include materialism and technology. American sentimentalism about the past is also criticized (Twain & Thompson).

In conclusion myths, however good they might be still remain myths. In the modern society, we should be keen to understand the truths about life and work together towards a common goal. The real goal in our cultural diversity should be to see everybody gets food, clothing and shelter and that they can fit in every situation.

Twain in his book looks in the effect myths have on our culture and day to day live. The mythic Arthur is associated with the past in contrast with Hank who symbolizes the present. The church is also brought into perspective and is seen as an evil and an enemy which conspires with political figures to oppress people. Slavery as another social menace should also be done away with. Slavery was embraced by many people in the past since they saw in it a way to get cheap labor and monetary gain. It becomes a cultural myth that Americans now should abolish.

Magic is contrasted with reality in form of industrialization. People in the past relied on magic to achieve their needs but the book shows that such a myth can be done away with through use of technology. Industrialization should be a factor in civilization rather the magic of yesteryears. Many more achievements can be found by training people since human nature allows it. Training determines the behavior of a society unlike when people rely on myths. They are then able to differentiate between what is right and wrong (Umland & Umland 25).

Besides stereotyping being hurtful, it is wrong as well. Even though the stereotype can be correct in some occasions; relentlessly putting an individual down on the basis of predetermined perceptions cannot assist in motivating one to succeed. Stereotyping only gears people to lead lifestyles of hatred and in some situations stereotypes victims live in fear.

It should be noted that all these myths have had a place in American society and some have tarnished its name. Americans should therefore move away from negative cultural myths, as discussed above, in order to continue as a nation. Above all, all other nations look towards America for guidance and support.

Hegemonic masculinity is a belief in existence of culturally normative ideal of male behavior that is characterized by tendency for male dominance. Proponents of hegemonic masculinity theory argue that hegemonic masculinity is not necessarily the most dominant form of expression in male although it is the most socially endorsed; always contributing to subordinate position of women. Connell (2005) notes that hegemonic masculinity is characterized by ambition, strength, drive and self reliance and argues that such characteristics are encouraged in males but not in females. In his opinion, Donaldson (1993) argues that hegemonic masculinity concerns the dread of and the flight from women; and views it as a culturally idealized form, a personal or collective project and a strategic strategy for men to subordinate women. It is violent, exclusive, anxiety provoking, internally and hierarchically differentiated. However, Donaldson (1993) highlights that not all men practice it, although many benefit from it. Furthermore, it constructs the most dangerous things that humanity must content with; it is resilient and incorporates its own critique, although unraveling. This essay discusses the concept of hegemonic masculinity in relation to gender and social change.

Hegemonic Masculinity: Gender and Social Change

The concept of hegemonic masculinity is criticized for being framed within hetero-normative conception of gender that essentializes male-female difference and ignores difference and exclusion within the gender categories (Trigiani 1999). The concept largely rests logically on dichotomization of sex, which is biological versus gender, which is cultural, thus marginalizing the body (Trigiani 1999). According to Cornnell (2005) hegemonic masculinity is constructed in relation to subordinated masculinities; especially women thus there is no feminist that is hegemonic in the sense that the dominant form of masculinity is hegemonic among men.

Iacuone (2005) views hegemonic masculinity as the most common blueprint for gender in Western culture as it dictates how “real” men should behave and the goals they should aspire to attain through the masculinity practice. It is an imagined construct rather than a practical one, with only few people possessing all its traits, although majority hold the principle with highest esteem (Iacuone 2005). In line with hegemonic masculinity traits, the identity of heterosexual man depends on his dislike of subordinated gender constructs; hence Iacuone (2005) admits that hegemonic masculinity views women as objects, depicts them as servile and most appropriate for domestic duties; only being value to men in a sexual capacity. The dominant masculine culture influences attitudes of construction workers, whereby hegemonic masculinity prescribes that men should be tough, be courageous enough to face danger and to dominate over others. Such men only view social environment as a conducive place for risk taking, with most of them viewing women as sex objects who should be there to entertain them and even embrace sexual assault to women as acceptable (Iacuone 2005). However, a small portion of men try to resist the influences of hegemonic masculine culture in gender, especially in settings where men challenge traditional patriarchal relations with an aim of improving women’s welfare (Iacuone 2005).

Kimmel & Amy (2008) view hegemonic masculinity as a social ideal of a real man, described by society as young, married, white, and protestant, urban, heterosexual, white of college education, good complexion, height, and weight and employed. They argue that any male who does not have any of the described character traits should consider himself as inferior or unworthy. Gender is an ever present force that defines daily behavior of human beings. Spade & Valentine (2010) bring out the masculinity contrast between men and women as viewed by society. They argue that as women graduate from girlhood to womanhood and join mixed gender groups at work, in colleges or play, their voices are often ignored and subordinated; they have to monitor what they say, how they say it and how often they talk to ensure that they do not dominate because their gender limits their participation (Spade & Valentine 2010).

Gendered patterns of belief and behavior influence people’s way of life in daily intimate relationships, with family and friends. According to Spade & Valentine (2010), studies shave revealed that girls who transgress into boys’ zone end up being eventually respected by their male playmates if they are good in conventionally male activities, while on the other hand, boys are harassed and teased when they try to participate in girl’s related activities thus dominance of hegemonic masculinity is maintained by denying boys access to girls’ activities. Furthermore, the dominance of masculinity is reinforced when boys are ridiculed because they do not comply with society expectations of hegemonic masculinity; hence they fail to be sufficiently dominant. In order to cope with pressure from the society, Spade & Valentine (2010) note that most men have learned how to do the behaviors that maintain hegemonic masculinity, while at the same time suppressing feelings and behaviours that might make them look feminine. This shows the extent of slavery, frustrations and fear experienced by men in order to maintain their hegemonic masculinity status in the society. Despite these frustrations, hegemonic masculinity comes with its benefits as it is maintained in a hierarchy that is realized by only few men, with every other person subordinated to them; including women, poor white men, men of colour, gay men and men from devalued ethnic and religious groups. This dominance may be institutionalized in the structure of the situation.

Hegemonic masculinity is supported by sex role theory, which advocates for people to learn from society’s institutions to behave in ways that are appropriate to their sex. According to Trigiani (1998), the sex role theory views men as aggressive, rational, dominant and objective while women are passive, intuitive, submissive and subjective. The theory further assumes that culture values characteristics of each sex equally and that these values complement each other in to bring out balance in the society; whereby women are just as esteemed for their passivity as men are for their aggressiveness (Trigiani 1998). However, Haenfler (2006) views hegemonic masculinity as a configuration of gender practice that only embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of legitimacy of patriarchy, taken to guarantee the dominant position of men and the subordinate position of women. Haenfler (2006) laments that since late 19th century, the social basis of masculinity has been undermined and men hardly understand what it means to be a man. Furthermore, modernization, rapid industrialization, urbanization and the rise of bureaucracy has separated boys from fathers and destabilized the male breadwinner role. In addition, feminists have challenged dominant notions of gender, making it a challenge for a young man to figure out how to be a man in modern days (Haenfler 2006).

Haenfler (2006) observes that the young men’s current fears and continued erosion of male breadwinner role might provide a historic opportunity for men, both collectively and individually to reject the destructive and narrow limiting definitions of masculinity and prefer to create more peaceful and egalitarian definitions of manhood. In a culture that glorifies masculine displays of confidence, sexual prowess, strength and power, men increasingly feel unsure, impotent, weak and powerless hence they have often responded to their confusion and feelings of inadequacy through self control, reactive exclusion and escape from reality (Haenfler 2006). Haenfler (2006) observes that men who feel like they are losing control over their work and relationships often exercise extreme control over their personal lives, fitness, alcohol consumption and sexual appetites; hence becoming objects of self control. They react to crisis of hegemonic masculinity by attempting to shut women out of positions of power and influence and escape women’s influence by retreating to “male only” social behavior (Haenfler 2006).

Haenfler (2006) laments that while hegemonic masculinity may have its benefits to men in terms of public status and masculine privileges, it comes with a price as men often pay with poor health, shorter live and emotionally swallow their relationships and suffer from mental distress.

Other critics of hegemonic masculinity argue that hegemonic masculinities do not correspond to actual lives of men, thus the theory provides a vague and imprecise account of social psychological reproduction of male identities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, hegemonic masculinity embodies men as superior human beings and views women as inferior and submissive creatures, who should live at mercy of their male counterparts. It teaches men to undermine and mistreat women and fellow men who are perceived as inferior. It values competition of hierarchy, sexual prowess and physical toughness at the expense of human dignity, self respect and peace of mind. Hegemonic masculinities often suppress their true feelings to avoid looking feminine as they internally suffer from mental and emotional distress to please the society and live as expected. However, with increasing modernity and industrialization, hegemonic masculinity is slowly losing its meaning; with many women assuming the role of breadwinners and rising to leadership positions as many young men become more and more afraid of society defined masculine responsibilities associated with hegemonic masculinities.

America is experiencing poverty at an increasing rate in terms of the number of children in poverty and the intensity of poverty. There are approximately 15.3 million U.S. Children living in households defined as falling below the poverty line (Duncan, 1998), and they are increasingly concentrated in impoverished and underclass neighborhood (Greenwood, 1995). One-third of all children experience poverty in at least one year of their life and only one in twenty experiences ten or more years of poverty.

Poverty has become a major concern in the United States because of the effects it has on the youth in our society. Many young children are faced with lack of food, inadequate living conditions, and lack of parental guidance. Strains are placed on children living in poverty as young as the age of seven. Children living in poverty generally isolated from mainstream society, don’t have access to community organizations, poor schools, low self-esteem, depression, behavioral problems in school, and engage in delinquent activities.

Delinquency among the poor has been studied over the years to see if there is a relationship between delinquency and poverty. Theories have suggested the link between delinquency and poverty is due to unemployment, family disruption, lack of education, marital disruption, female- headed households, teenage pregnancy, isolation of poorer neighborhoods, lack of role models in the communities, less supervised youth programs, and no formal community networks to deter potential criminal (Anderson, 1993; Hannerz, 1968; Liebow, 1967, Rainwater 1970, Sullivan, 1993, Sutles, 1968).

The link between poverty and crime is diverse (Jargowsky and Bane, 1991). The reasons why people who are living in poverty commit criminal acts vary from crime being the only opportunity to achieve a higher level of socioeconomic status to enhance financial ability. People of all class commit crime for different reasons, but it has been proven over the years by different researchers that people living in poverty commit more crime than any other class. This literature will focus on what is known about the poverty and delinquency, the gaps in this field, method used in this field, and current study in this field.

Literature Review
How Poverty is defined and measured?

How poverty is defined and measures has attributed to different results in the study of poverty and crime. Poverty has been defined in several different ways. One definition of poverty is a situation in which a person’s income is below 60% of the median income of a country. According to the Census Bureau, poverty is defined an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter.

The official poverty measurement was adopted in the last 1960s and it consisted of a set of thresholds for families of different sizes and composition that are compared to a resource measure to determine a family poverty status. The thresholds represent the cost of a minimum diet multiplied by three to allow for expenditures on other goods and services. This measurement of poverty had several weaknesses according to the National Research Council and the Panel on Poverty and Family. The official measurement did not take into consideration the expenses it takes to hold a job, and it does not reflect the effects of key government policies that alter the disposable income available to families (Citro and Michael, 1995).

Alternatives approaches to measure to poverty thresholds were viewed by in 1995 by the Panel on Poverty and Family in regards to experimental poverty measures. For experimental purposes, poverty was measured by a dollar amount for food, clothing, shelter, and utilities, as well as a small amount for needs such as transportation expenses, expenses to maintain a household, and personal care. The panel developed a threshold designed for a family of four- a mother, a father, and two children. According to the panel, thresholds can be adjusted for the needs of families of different sizes and composition and geographic locations.

Paul Jargowsky, one of the most well known researchers on poverty and crime, adopted only a small fraction of the official measure of poverty recommendations of the Panel of Poverty and Family. During his methodology for his many studies, he measured poverty by calculating a simple poverty score by determining the proportion of high poverty census tracks within a city during his several different studies. He believed that the cut off threshold was 40% of poor residents, and other researchers such as (Wilson, 1996) used 30% threshold to represent poverty.

Data from the Census Bureau has also been used to measure poverty as well. The percentage in poverty is calculated as the percentage of the total population in the census that fall below the Social Security Administration’s poverty line. Poverty definitions and measurement differ from researcher to researcher; therefore, results in research will vary depending on what definition and measure of poverty is adopted (Jargowsky and Bane, 1991; Rickets and Sawhill, 1988; Wilson, 1996).

Why People living in Poverty Commit Crime

People living in poverty commit crimes for several different reasons. Survival in the poverty stricken neighborhoods is one of the main reasons for criminal behavior. Often times, many people have to commit crimes such as robbery or burglary as a mean to have financial gain in order to feed themselves and their children or to be able to maintain their household expenses. People also commit crime because it is the norm to take the law into their own hands (Cooney, 1997). High poverty areas do not have the access to the local law enforcement as other areas normally have. Law enforcement is often viewed as not being helpful; therefore, we see many retaliatory crimes committed in these areas. Retaliatory violence in response to “disrespect” becomes a way to achieve status in the absence of other opportunities. People living in such neighborhoods believe that they have to take the law into their own hands because the local authorities have failed to protect them Kurban and Weitzer (2003). The response time to such neighborhoods is much slower compared to neighborhoods in the suburbs, and everyone is viewed as a criminal when they may actually be a victim. Crime in poorer communities is a just a form of self help (Anderson, 1993).

Many people living in poverty do not want to be living in poverty. In order to obtain a higher level of socioeconomic status, crime is seen as the only option (Wilson, 1987). Money that is made by committing crimes such as illegally selling crack cocaine, or another type of drug, or money that was obtain illegally is used to established some type of legal business establishment. Once the legal business is established, there is no longer a need to commit crime and this places the individual into another class. Crime is also committed to have fun or have something to do to occupy an individual’s time (Agnew, 1992). Grand Theft Auto is one of those crimes that are committed to just have fun. Many people, especially, adolescents, commit this offense to joyride around the city.

Many youth begin a life of crime because of their parent’s ineffective parental practices. Being poor and having children to provide for can lead to emotional distress. Parents are inconsistence with their children, forceful, and extremely harsh and the bond between parent and child is weaken (Sampson and Laub, 1994). When that bond weakens, children are more at risk for deviant behavior. Parents are also not involved with their children’s education as other parents in mainstream society. It has been proven that poor performance in school is associated with the onset of delinquency (Maguin and Loeber, 1996). School is often viewed as a place to go to fight and steal from classmates rather than a learning institution. Obtaining an education is not stressed by some parents to their children; therefore; their children never understand the importance of education. School is looked at as a place for fighting, bullying, stealing, and just a place to “hang out”. Poor children are not successful in school. They have been found to be deficient in reading and mathematical skills (Beebe, 1993). Rewards from the school environment are limited by the lack of school success, therefore, the risk for delinquency is increase and a life is crime behavior is developed (Mofitt, 1981).

Growing up in an isolated poverty community, children are told they can not achieve high academics because of their living conditions. Many children are forced to withdraw from school because of attendance. Missing school on a daily basis is a norm in high poverty areas because children lack decent or proper clothing for different types of weather, the lack transportation. They may faced interrupted utility services and over crowdedness in the home they may hinder their ability to attend school and learn (Swain, 2006)

Poverty and Delinquency (Isolation)

. Poverty can be classified into three types which are persistent poverty, underclass poverty, and ghetto poverty (Wilson, 1996). Many studies have link poverty to geographic isolation and street crime as crime and violence (Anderson, 1999). High poverty areas are generally clustered together and are isolated from mainstream society. Jargowsky (1996) suggested that the loss of jobs in the poor neighborhoods, and the creation of managerial and professional jobs in the suburbs lead to economic segregation. Isolated neighborhoods are deprived of the basic needs that it needs to prevent problems such as violence and crime. Excellent schools, churches and reinforcements of morals and values that mainstream society lives are absent from the neighborhoods that are segregated (Jargowsky 1996).

Segregation from mainstream society has limited people in high poverty areas to have contact with people in mainstream society. Due to the limited contact, poor people are not given the opportunity to see values and norms that the remaining of society bases their lives. People living in mainstream society base their life around obtaining the American Dream. They believe in college education, marriage, family, career, and home ownership. In poorer communities, these values and beliefs are irrelevant and replaced with norms that are appropriate for their environment (Wilson, 1987). As suggested, the norms for most poor people are some form of criminal behavior.

Poor people tend to only associated themselves with others that are poor. This is mainly because they feel intimated by someone who has higher socioeconomic status, or someone who has a higher education level than themselves. They are most comfortable with someone who is receiving welfare or some form of assistance from the government. Seeing only criminal behavior and not being able to see mainstream society’s behavior severely handicaps poor people. Behavior is learned; and if an individual is isolated and only see crime being committed within their communities, they will be more likely to commit crime. For the high poverty stricken areas, criminal behavior is spread throughout the community and thus creates a powerful predictor for delinquency (McDonough, 1992).

Some members of the isolated would like to move to a more their families to a more affluent neighborhood to decrease the chances of their young children engaging in delinquency (Ludwig, 1998). Children will have more opportunities, better education, better job networks, and will be able to achieve the American Dream. Moving from a poor isolated community to a more affluent community can be difficult for some of the residents. Due to the isolation, they are often afraid and believe they are not intelligent enough, and fear they will be rejected by society because of their background.

Poverty and Delinquency (Time and Persistence)

People who are identified as poor do not have the same experience of poverty. The difference in the experience of poverty is based on its persistence and its timing (Franworth, 1994). Poverty early in a child’s life and the longer a child lives in poverty are strong indicators of delinquency (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan, 1997). Many children are born into poverty and remain in poverty throughout their entire childhood. This type of poverty is known as persistent poverty. African Americans experience poverty longer than other ethnicity groups, and the elevated rate of delinquency among African Americans is contributed to lower socioeconomic status and urbanization (Hawkins, Laub, and Lauritsen, 1998). Recent studies confirm that exits from poverty are higher for household headed by white males and much lower for those headed by black females (Steven, 1994).

A child living in persistent poverty faces a wide range of behavior problems that leads to delinquency. Some of these problems are school related issues such as fighting, humiliation, and anger. Duncan (1994) investigated the impact of persistent poverty on children who were five years old. The study indicated that the effects of short-term poverty are not as large as the effects on persistent poverty (Duncan et, al., 1994; 307). Delinquency is most prevalent in persistent poverty than short-term poverty.

Poverty early in a child’s life can be detrimental because it is then when shaping of a child is most important. If poverty is experienced later in a child’s life, it can affect school attendance and possible it can be a factor in whether a child graduates from high school or not (Duncan, 1998). School is not a priority for an adolescent living in poverty; but rather, living conditions, survival, negative influences within the community, and any emotional issues that may arise within a child living in poverty.

Previous Researchers Studies and Methods

To determine the link between poverty and crime, determines what type of method is used. Ethnographic research is best used to examine the relationship between poverty and delinquency (Anderson, 1990; Jankowski, 1991; Sullivan, 1989; Williams and Kornblum, 1985). This type of study link other factors such as persistent unemployment, marital disruption, and female-headed household and teenage pregnancy to poverty and delinquency (Anderson, 1993). Ethnographic is best for capturing persistent poverty which is living in poverty for a period of eight years or longer (Duncan and Rogers, 1991). Although the best method, it would take at least a ten year longitudinal study which most researchers don’t have the time to dedicate to such study. Individual analysis is the most convincing type of research, but provides the least support between poverty and crime (Jankowski, 1995, Tittle and Meier, 1990). Empirical research has also suggested that persistent poverty leads to crime (Currie, 1985; Hagen and Peterson, 1995; Jencks, 1992; Krivo and Peterson, 1996; Sampson and Wilson, 1995).

Researchers such as Coulton, Chow, Wang and Su (1996), Massey and Denton (1998), and Lee (2000) used at least one of the three measures while looking at poverty segregation in 100 metropolitan areas. The first measure used was the proportion of poor families living in the extreme poverty census track. The second measure was proportion of poor families living that would need to move to a different census track to achieve an equal distribution of poverty throughout the metropolitan area, and the last measure was the probability that poor families would encounter other poor families within their census track. These three measures are distant, but are empirically related (Coultron et al. (1996). To show the poverty by census track, Pittsburg (PA) and Cincinnati (OH) cities with near the same in population (334,563 verses 330,662) was used. Cincinnati had 31.2 % of its poor residents living in the census track in which 40% of the tract residents are poor in contrast to 22.5% in Pittsburg. It was suggested that poor residents living in Cincinnati’s poverty ring are more geographically and socially isolated from non-poverty tracks that are resident s of Pittsburgh’s high poverty track.

In 2000, 236 cities with a minimum population of 100,000 were used in a research that focused on the relationship between poverty clustering and crimes in the cities. For the purpose of the research, the Uniform Crime Reports and the Census of Population and Housing were the two data sources used. The Census of Population and Housing calculated the percent of residents on poverty in each census tract. This study used two tracks for the research; one track for 30% poor census track and one for contiguous 40% poor census tracks. The study took the median age of city residents because the crime rates are most likely be committed by younger residents (Baller, Messner, Deane, and Howkins, 2001; Cohenand Land, 1987). Other factors that were measured in this study were unemployment, African Americans, and female headed households. This study concluded that social isolation rather than deprivation contributed to the relationship of segregation and crime.

Longitudinal data spanning over 14 years was used to measure the level of exposure to poverty and its timing and used to examine the relationship between poverty and delinquency. The sample population range in ages from 10 -15 years old and a face to face interview were conducted from 1979-1992. This study had an over representation of Hispanic and African- Americans disadvantage youths. The sampling in this study has several limitations. First limitation was the self-reporting of delinquency for the youth, and no one older than the age of 15 could participant in the study. This sample is not a national representation of all children living in poverty between the ages of 10-15. Exposure to poverty was measure by the number of years the youth’s family lived in poverty. The family income was measure by each year the family was below the poverty level, thus was the divided by the youth’s age to determine the percent the youth spent in poverty in his/her lifetime. The study also examined the impact of poverty at different stages in life (Brooks-Gunn, 1997). Stages in a youth life were measured form birth to 5 years old, from 6 to 10 years old, and from 11 and older. The results of this study indicated that the extent that the level of exposure to poverty is important in the likelihood of delinquency. It also revealed that poverty had more effect on a child in the early years of development (Jarjoura and Triplett, 2002)

Kurbin and Weitzer (2003) studied retaliatory homicides in St. Louis. They found that retaliatory homicides were more prevalent in disadvantage isolated communities. They took narratives from individuals who were involved in homicides and they confessed retaliation was associated with a mistrust of the police. Kurbin and Weizer (2003) concluded that disadvantage isolated communities suffer from policing vacuum and promotes cultural values to settle disputes among themselves. Kurbin and Weizer were not the only researchers that concluded that crime is way to settle disputes. Anderson (1999) and Wilson (1897) argued that poor people who are isolated developed a set of alternative norms in order to survive on the streets. Cooney (1997) also argued that poor people engage in more criminal behavior because the limited access to the law.

To truly capture the relationship between poverty and crime, ethnographic research is the most productive type of study. A field researcher will have the opportunity to capture the lives of people living in poverty for an extended period of time. This type of research will provide the answers to why people living in poverty become delinquent and a researcher will understand the struggles and hardships poor people face. A researcher conducting ethnographic research will be able to explain in his findings the state of mind of someone living in poverty and clearly explain why criminal activity has become a way of life.

Many different researchers have conducted research using different methods, but most of the researchers have concluded that there is a direct link between poverty and crime. It can be concluded from the various studies that people living in poverty commit greater amounts of crime than others not living in poverty. It can be concluded that the limited access to police is one of the reasons greater amounts of crime occur in poor communities. It can also be concluded that isolation plays a major role in criminal behavior among poor people.

Previous study mainly focused on segregation and isolation. Current study has focused on spells and timing of poverty as it related to criminal behavior.

Gaps in the Knowledge on Poverty and Delinquency

One major gap is that there has not been a study to explore the interaction between overall poverty and concentrated poverty, even though there is some indication that poverty may indeed interact with its spatial concentration in predicting crime. An example of this is the research that was conducted by Sampson and his colleagues on neighborhood effects. Their findings were that social behavior is influenced not only by what happens in one’s immediate neighborhood, but also by what happens in surrounding areas (Sampson, Raudenbush, 2001). The negative consequences of living in a poor neighborhood and living in non-poor neighborhood can spill over to surrounding communities, implying a possible interaction between poverty and its geographic distribution. The effect of poverty on crime may be higher in neighborhoods where poverty is spatially concentrated because poor residents in such areas are less likely to experience negative influences not only fro their own community but surrounding ones as well. Researchers can believe that poverty on criminal behavior may be somewhat mitigated when it is less spatially concentrated and potentially exacerbated when it is more concentrated.

Another gap in the relationship between poverty and crime is criminological investigations. Nor do criminological researchers draw upon the vast literature that now exists on poverty in America to inform their analyses of delinquency. It is not shown that there are considerable differences among the poor by the level of exposure. Understanding the importance of distinguishing the poor by level of exposure begins with recognition that there is a dual nature of poverty in America (Bane and Ellwood, 1986). The concept of a dual nature to poverty refers to the fact that while there are substantial numbers of people living in persistent, long-term poverty, many people, including children, experience only short-term poverty.

There is a need to pay more attention to the measures of poverty that that is used and to understand just who is captured by the measures. What is missing in most studies of poverty and delinquency is data on more than one year in the life of the subject.

Debate on the Subject

There has been some debate over the relative roles of concentrated disadvantage and segregation in explaining violence (Sampson and Wilson, 1995). Researchers are at odds with whether or not it is isolated African American communities or race related factors that explain higher crime in those communities. Massey and Denton (1993) believe that segregation is more important than race related factors. In previous studies, it was shown that overall poverty and isolated poverty affected whites, but only the overall poverty affected American Americans (Pruitt, 2000). The most difficult part of the debate is the importance of isolated poverty verses the importance of racial segregation is that isolation poverty is related to African American and isolated poverty among whites is rare (Krivo and Peterson, 1996, Kasarda, 1993). Researchers have conducted several studies to try an overcome this debate. Krivo and Peterson (1996) analyzed the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and index street crime in Columbus, Ohio with some white neighborhoods experiencing disadvantage.

Conclusion