Author: Andre Coleman

Prior to 1980, it was generally assumed that Britain was turning into an egalitarian society (Wilkinson, 1986:1). With the introduction of the NHS in 1948 and the increase in protective and regulatory legislations (Wilkinson, 1986), the predominant impression was that class divisions and socioeconomic inequalities were no longer of significance (Bartley, 2004). However, it became clear in 1980 with the publishing of the Black Report, which dealt with class [1] differences in health, that this was not the case. The report revealed very large differences in death rates between social classes and although general health was improving, these differences were not declining (Wilkinson, 1986; Wadsworth, 1997) (Appendix 1). The majority of scientific evidence supports this socioeconomic explanation of the health inequalities (Acheson, 1998; Marmot, 2005), and even though such inequalities of the British population have been recorded since the mid-nineteenth century (Chadwick, 1842), disagreement continues to prevail over the causes of this phenomenon (Blane, 1985). This essay argues that Black’s materialist theory offers the best explanation, and will critically analyse the alternative theories of key thinkers on this topic to further strengthen this argument. After discussing Black’s materialist theory, his other suggestions of artefact, theories of natural selection and behavioural/cultural theory (Black, 1980) will be analysed. The remainder of the paper will critically discuss Wilkinson’s psychosocial theory followed by Barker’s biological programming and Wadsworth and Kuh’s arguments for the life-course approach.

In the Black report, materialist, or structural, reasoning was seen as the most important factor, and many authors have since reinforced this argument (Marmot, 2005; Shaw, 1999; Blane et.al, 1997). The Black report described materialist as;

those explanations emphasizing hazards inherent in society, to which some people have no choice but to be exposed given the present distribution of income and opportunity (Black, 1980:_).

Most studies of geographical areas illustrate poor health and high mortality characterised by poverty (Gorey and Vena, 1995 quoted in Bartley, 2004), unemployment (Sloggett and Joshi quoted in Bartley, 2004) or pollution (Mackenbach, Looman and Kunst quoted in Bartley, 2004). As an example, people who work in occupations exposed to accident hazards and to dangerous substances, as well as extremes of temperature, also tend to be poorly paid (Bartley, 2004:96).

Vagero and Illsely (1995) claim that Black’s favoured explanation is ambiguous, arguing that there is no apparent idea about how poverty leads to disease in modern society, however the results of low or no income are rather self explanatory. Individuals with higher incomes can afford better housing, reside in safer environments and have better access to healthcare (Grundy and Holt, 2001) and “no-one would seriously argue with the contention that sufficient, safe, nutritious food is an essential ingredient for good health”(Tansey and Worsley quoted in Baggott, 2000). Roberts et.al (1993) argue that the twelve-fold class difference in child mortality down to accidental falls can logically be blamed on the inadequate interior and unsafe exterior space in which the children of lower social class families are forced to play. Additionally, many studies, such as that by Carstairs and Morris (1989) (Appendix 2) show the strong correlations between material deprivation and both mortality and morbidity (Davey Smith et.al., 1990:376). Adding to the materialist argument is Tudor Hart’s inverse care law (1971). Tudor Hart (1971:_) claims that “no market will ever shift corporate investment from where it is most profitable to where it is most needed”. In every society where market forces determine who gets what in health care, inequalities are a big feature of the system. However this argument is no longer as relevant in Britain today due to the NHS (_, 2002) however Watt (2002) claims that the inverse care law continues to remain true even with the NHS, as deprived areas lose out in NHS resource distribution.

In contrast to the materialist theory, some question whether socioeconomic health inequalities exist at all (Mackenbach and Kunst, 1997, Bloor et.al, 1987). Black (1980) suggested that;

Both health and class are artefacts of the measurement process and it is

implied that their observed relationship may itself be an artefact of little

causal significance (Black, 1980:154).

This means that mortality discrepancies are down to numerator-denominator bias occurring because class may be allocated differently on the death certificate, numerator, than at the census, denominator (Davey Smith et.al 1990:375). However Black (1980) concluded that should this possibility have truth, it would not play a significant factor. On the other hand Bloor et.al (1987) argue that the role of artefact explanation is bigger, more pervasive, and more complex than Black implied. However this debate has been overcome in a study by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Using social class as assigned at the 1971 census to categorise individuals at death, it was found that eliminating numerator-denominator bias in this way had no effect on the mortality differentials (Vagero and Illsely, 1995:220). Mackenbach and Kunst (1997:767) suggest that the increase in poor health amongst lower social classes could have instead come from an increasing tendency to complain or the criteria against which one’s own health is evaluated could have changed. They except that this suggestion is merely speculative, but attempt to emphasize the need to look at objective health indicators. However it is “almost universally agreed in the academic literature that social class differences in health are real, a property of social relations in all societies, and not the by-product of measurement errors or errors of definition” (Vagero and Illsely, 1995:220). As Bloor et.al. (1987) point out, the measurement process may be hiding as well as creating health inequalities, which does not reject, but rather emphasises, the importance of measurement. “Measurement problems may affect the size and pattern of differences, but do not cast doubt on their existence” (Vagero and Illsely, 1995:220).

The Black report also presented Health selection as a potential explanation for socioeconomic health differences. According to this suggestion, those with initially poorer health may be restricted in improving their social position and are likely to have lower paid and unskilled jobs (health-related social mobility). In this way, socioeconomic inequalities in health may to some extent occur due to the selection of comparatively unhealthy people into lower social classes (the health selection hypothesis) opposed to the result of social position on health (the social causation hypothesis)(Acheson, 1998). According to West (1991:373) this hypothesis is generally regarded as having a very insignificant role in the creation of inequalities, and a “theoretical debt to social Darwinism”. Illsley (1983), Stern (1983) and West (2002) argue that the Black Report gives insufficient attention to the health selection explanation and that inter- and intra-generational mobility and assortative mating appear to be imperative factors in the persistence of socioeconomic health inequalities (Bloor et.al, 1987). However, the data on health selection is conflicting, somewhat due to a need for a distinction between health-related social mobility and how it explains social gradients in health (the health selection hypothesis). Although there is evidence for health-related social mobility (Rodgers & Mann, 1993), this may not necessarily effect or create socioeconomic health differences (Davey Smith et.al. 1990:373). Additionally, the examination of social class data from the 1971 and 1981 census has shown that downward social mobility does not account for the mortality differentials (Goldblatt, 1988, Goldblatt, 1989). As a result, Blane et.al (2008:11) consider the idea of health selection to be the least plausible explanation for social class health inequalities.

The last of the theories presented by Black is behavioural or cultural reasoning. This explanation is preferred by the medical profession and health experts, and often suggests that such behaviours are basically under individual control. From this point of view class can affect health by conditioning behaviours which harm or encourage health (Blane et.al 1997). The assumption is that lower social classes are more likely to consume harmful commodities (refined foods, tobacco, alcohol), perform less leisure-time exercise and poorly use preventive health care (vaccination, ante-natal surveillance, contraception) (Davey Smith et.al. 1990, Grundy and Holt, 2001). There is a formidable bulk of evidence which connects these behaviours to causes of death such as coronary heart disease, lung cancer and chronic bronchitis (___). Appendix 3 shows an example of the extreme class differences in such behaviours (Simpson _).

According to Blane (1985:436), though material factors are accepted as part of a ‘multi-factorial aetiology’, behavioural factors are thought to make the larger contribution. Air pollution and occupational dust exposure, as illustration, can be part of the aetiology of chronic bronchitis, but this illness is considered largely to be due to cigarette smoking. Material factors are therefore considered of secondary importance. This assumption however may be misleading as official mortality statistics understate the health effects of occupational hazards, since material factors of likely aetiological significance have been ignored, and because their combined effect is barely researched (Blane 1985:439).

Blane et.al (1997:385) suggest that “research into health inequalities has been biased towards behavioural explanations and that materialist explanations have been relatively neglected”. If this is the case it could lead to ineffective policy interventions and to holding lower classes responsible for proceedings which are outside their control. Additionally, the ‘behaviours’ being referred to are stereotypical of what one would assume from lower classes. The problem is that many of these do not always hold true. For example, it is assumed that there are higher rates of smoking amongst lower social classes however this has only been the case since mid 20th century (Simpson, 1987). Additionally, the social class differences in fat consumption are very small, and although the manual class may perform less exercise in leisure time they exert more energy at work (Davey Smith et.al. 1990:375). However Tudor Hart’s inverse care law, as mentioned earlier, explains how lower class behaviours affect the treatment of disease, rather than the creation. Cartwright and O’Brien (1978) found that middleclass people ask more questions to their doctors with an average consultation of 6.2 minutes opposed to 4.2 minutes for the working class, meaning the working class benefit less. He also claims that doctors struggle to relate to the working class, leaving their appointments being awkward and the problem not fully discussed (Baggott, _).

Another criticism of the behaviour argument accepts the aetiological significance but discards the autonomous role it assigns to them (__). They see behaviour as conditioned by the material context in which it occurs, which means that disease producing behaviours are “relegated from the status of independent variables to that of intervening variables between social structure and disease” (Blane et.al., 1997:_). The Black Report demonstrates ways in which behaviour may be embedded in material conditions. Whilst discussing the less frequent use of contraception in lower social classes, he asks:

Is it lack of knowledge, outmoded ideas, or lack of access to the means of

contraception – or is it due to an underdeveloped sense of personal control

or self-mastery in the material world? It can certainly be argued that what

is often taken for cultural variation in cognition and behaviour is merely a

superficial overlay for differing group capacities of self-control or mastery which

are themselves a reflection of material security and advantage(Black, 1980:169).

Vagero and Illsely (1995) call this distinction between materialist and behavioural ‘obscure’. Strong (1990) likened this to “the Marxist distinction between the ‘economic base’ and the ‘ideological superstructure’”. In that hypothesis, the first ultimately determines the second. This also appears to be the case here, as much behaviour does in fact depend on materialist matters. Another example is diet; “the effect of low income renders it meaningless to consider diet a matter solely of choice” (Davey-Smith et.al, 1990). However, the distinction between behavioural and materialist is significant for scientific and policy reasons. Merging the two explanations discounts the influence of the material environment which is not mediated through behaviour (Blane et.al, 1997).

This interrelationship suggests that “part of the differential distribution of behaviour is actually caused by the skewed distribution of living conditions” (_). As a result, the independent contribution of behaviour can only be measured after controlling structural conditions. Such a study by Stronks et.al (1996) found that contribution of materialist conditions was much greater (Appendix 4-9). Additionally, they proved that if the overlap between behaviour and material conditions had been ignored, as it generally had been before their study, the role of behaviour would have been overestimated (Stronks et.al, 1996:667). Therefore given this suggestion that behaviour is to an extent embedded in the environment, material conditions can either effect health directly or indirectly through behaviour (Stronks et.al., 1996). This suggestion can be schematised as shown in appendix 10.

The psychosocial environment interpretation suggests that income inequality has a considerable effect on ones psychological health (Lynch et.al, 2000). When referring to deprivation as relative, not absolute, Hasan viewed;

the aetiological pathway as psychological, related to dissatisfaction about unmet social needs, perhaps inspired by the Townsend definition of poverty as the lack of resources to obtain the living conditions and amenities which are customary or widely encouraged (1989:384).

Such needs, Hasan suggested, were historically first formed and satisfied in the way-of-life of the highest social class (Hasan, 1989:384). Lower classes would endure the frustration of not meeting new needs immediately. As a result the class gradient in health will be eternally reproduced, no matter the level of wealth. This idea contradicts the traditional and powerfully held sociological theory that the level of expectation adjusts to fit ones social circumstances (Siegel in _, 1957). Hasan (1989) assumes that this possibly progressively changed with the beginning of mass television and instant world communication. Wilkinson (1992:_) builds upon this and suggests a “psychological mechanism, based on stress, social support, and self-esteem, and their relationship to the income distribution”. Wilkinson (_) speculates that income inequalities affect health through perceptions of position in the social hierarchy which are based on relative placing according to income. Such perceptions create negative emotions such as humiliation and doubt which are translated ‘inside’ oneself to poorer health via psycho-neuro-endocrine mechanisms and anxiety induced behaviours such as drinking alcohol. Simultaneously, these negative emotions are translated ‘outside’ oneself into antisocial behaviour, reduced civic involvement, and less unity within a community. Therefore perceptions of relative income link individual and social pathology. Lynch et.al (2000) accept that income inequality may produce negative psychosocial consequences, but also argue that interpretation of links connecting income inequality and health have to start with the structural reasons for inequalities, and cannot not simply focus on perceptions of the inequality. The psychosocial interpretation conflates the structural sources with the subjective consequences of inequality and reinforces the “impression that the impact of psychosocial factors on health can be understood without reference to the material conditions that structure day to day experience” (__). The structural, political-economic processes which create inequalities exist prior to their effects being experienced at the individual level (__).

According to Davey-Smith (_) the life-course perspective presents a way of moving beyond generalisations about health inequalities. The life-course approach provides evidence that the biological and social beginnings of life are important in determining the child’s potential for adult health. “Biological programming may set the operational parameters for certain organs and processes. Social factors in childhood influence the processes of biological development, and are the beginnings of socially determined pathways to health in adult life”. Life history studies show the vital factors related with the development of these pathways, and the life phases at which intervention to lessen adult health inequalities could be most effective (Wadsworth, 1997). Mackenbach and Howden-Chapman (2003) state that health inequalities begin in the womb, whilst ___ claims that the ages of _ to _ is the most important time to condition positive behaviours. Sweeting and West (1995) suggest that family life in adolescence could have more direct effects on wellbeing than structural factors and may be circuitously linked to health inequalities in adulthood, through social mobility. However, according to Hardy et.al (2004:64) there does not appear to be a phase in life which has particular priority of health status. Each stage appears capable of adding its own defence or disadvantage (Blane quoted in Marmot and Wilkinson, 2003). However it appears that to completely ignore the life-course approach would be unwise. Without a good education, one may not be able to secure sufficient material conditions (_). Without positive behaviours being reinforced from a young age, one may develop negative health behaviours (_). By looking at the observed relationship between life-course with behaviours and material factors, and the relationship already identified between behavioural and material factors, the ‘healthy mix’ model has been created (appendix 11). The direction of the arrow illustrates the offering which can be made. It shows that materialist matters still have the most importance, as they can provide optimal behaviours, a good life-course and, above all, choice, where a positive upbringing and good behaviours can have its limitations. Taking materialist matters out of the mix could be detrimental to health, as the good life-course reinforcing the positive behaviours to want to buy a safe house and fruit and vegetables is not enough. Material factors offer that choice. Taking away the positive behaviours can lead to poor health as having the money to buy fruit and vegetables and the best health care does not mean one will. Taking away a good life-course may lead to psychological health issues. This illustrates, as this essay does, that life-course and behaviours can have some effect on health, but material factors have the most importance when determining ones health.

Since the emergence of the 1980 Black report, an abundance of studies have attempted to contribute to a broader understanding of socioeconomic health inequalities. After analysing the alternative options, the materialist explanation continues to offer the greatest contribution when explaining socioeconomic health inequalities. Artefact and health-selection are widely agreed to offer little to no significance. The behavioural theory offered the greatest rivalry for this explanation, however it was discovered that the distribution of income sets the parameters within which choices are made. However both behaviour and life-course theories can also play a significant role at the same time. From this observation a model has been derived. The model aims to explain the relationship between life-course, behaviour and materialist matters in a clear manner. The model further emphasises the significance of material factors, and therefore tackling these inequalities should be the aim of health policies.

Appendix 1: (Blane et.al, 1997)

Appendix 2: (Carstairs,_)

Appendix 3: (Simpson,_)

Appendix 4: (Stronks,_)

Appendix 5: (Stronks, )

Appendix 6: (Stronks,_)

Appendix 7: (Stronks,_)

Appendix 8: (Stronks,_)

Appendix 9: (Stronks,_)

Rural areas can be defined as those pieces of land that can lie outside city centers and towns. They are mostly marked by large farms, agricultural activity or large pieces of land that lie idle without much developmental activities. An urban area on the other hand is an area marked with developed town centers and some times these towns have developed into cities. In a majority of cases, these towns were once rural area, which through advances in technology, industrialization and urbanization have grown into what they now are. It therefore goes without saying that both rural and urban centers have something that they can interact in common with. In a quest to develop into urban areas, rural areas need to borrow some development tips from the urban centers, while the urban centers on the other hand would not survive without the support from the rural areas for example in terms of agricultural products that come from the rural areas to support livelihood therein. In addition, movement of people, goods and resources from one point to another keep these two diversified areas in close connections (Routledge, 2005 p. 67).

Over the years, history has proved that any urban city today ahs some rural origin within it. It therefore seems tentatively correct to say that very village is a potential city in waiting. However, there are those special scenarios that would like to prove this otherwise, especially in the case where the more developed areas within the same region, nation or state seem to dominate over the less developed instead of according the necessary support in achieving a common goal of becoming urbanized (Brunn, and Jack, 2003 p. 26).

In order to have a closer analysis of the urban-rural interaction, this study was divided into four sections as follows: Introduction, literature review, findings and analysis and a conclusion.

CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW

Having a glimpse at what authors have to say on this topic helped to get a preview on what was expected as an outcome of the study. According to Eveline Leeuwen in the book ‘Urban-Rural interactions: Towns as focus points in Rural Development, there are some key factors that distinguish rural areas from urban centers, but these factors vary greatly from country to country and from region to region. What may be defined as urban in one country could be totally rural in another and vice versa. However, these are guidelines that could help us to establish the milestones that have been achieved into progression from rural to urban (Eveline, 2010 p. 123)

One of the elements is ecology, which is basically concerned with population density. The number of people living in a given place will help qualify the area as either rural or urban. It is a well known fact that urban areas are more populated than rural ones. However, again the figures could be dependent on the general population of that country as a whole. For example, in Switzerland, urban areas are those that have inhabitants that total to 10,000 or more, while in Iceland, populations of 200 or more inhabitants pass for urban. Such is the contrast in definition in different countries. (Eveline, 2010 p. 123)

The second element that is considered in the differentiation of rural and urban centers is the economic element. This refers to the activities that are carried out with the aim of generating revenue. In rural areas, much of the activities aimed at generation of capital are agricultural-based, while in the urban areas they are non-agricultural. In the urban areas, there happens to be diversifies activities that calls for diversely-oriented labor force. This means therefore that there is a lot of movement in and out of the towns as people either commute to work daily, or they move from the rural areas into the urban in search of employment. Those found to commute between the rural and urban are those who find the living costs within the urban areas too high to bear (Caroline, Anne, 2010 p. 54).

The third aspect that differentiates the two is the social aspect which looks at how people conduct their daily lives in terms of behavior, the values they hold dear as well as the channels they use for communication. There is a wide array of factors that can be categorized into the social aspect of the urban and rural settings, but they are difficult to measure, hence leaving us with an enormous task of defining what is urban and what is rural (Caroline, Anne, 2010 p. 54).

Urbanization and industrialization as factors of transformation from rural to urban

Urbanization in simple terms is the process through which rural villages are slowly but surely transformed from remote, uncivilized centers, into modernized, industrialized and connected centers. This is made possible by the increasing proportions of people living in the urban settings. As people continue to increase in any given locality, in inverse proportions to the size of land, it becomes increasingly difficult for those people to grow their own food and starts depending on the areas considered as hinterlands to provide them with food (David and Cecilia, 2003 p. 96)

Urbanization has become more and more closely associated with industrialization, that the absence of one means a weakness in the other. Cities have always been seen as they ideal places to locate industries. As the industries continue to grow, they need to employ more and more workers, and this facilitates the movement of people from the rural areas as they come into the cities in search of jobs into the factories and industries (David and Cecilia, 2003 p. 96).

Just as an example of how urbanization facilitates growth of rural areas, it has been cited in some reports that only a mere 5% of the total population of the United States lived in the cities around the year 1800, but the figure rose to 50% by 1920. This was the period around which America was undergoing urbanization. The same was happening in Europe. Today, about 80% of the population lives in cities and other urban centers. Yet this transition has been as a result of rural areas silently but surely transforming into urban settings (David and Cecilia, 2003 p. 96).

Importance of urban centers to rural health

It is common knowledge that health is an important component in an individual’s life or the life of the larger society as a whole. Health does not merely refer to absence of disease, but refers to a balanced holistic balance and well being socially, physically, spiritually, physiologically and mentally. With this in mind then, we need not say that the health condition of the people in the rural set up is mostly faced with many challenges and obstacles, compared to their urban counterparts, yet they need to keep healthy in order top keep producing food products for the entire nation. In addition, economic impediments, social differences and cultural disparities all com together to make the situation worse, compounded with the fact that some rural areas are greatly isolated and lack a recognition from the legislators. Let us have a look at some of the health situations around a majority of rural areas (American Sociological Society, 1976 p. 3).

Out of the many health practitioners around the world, only about 10% work in the rural areas as compared to a whooping 70% who work in urban setups. This is great contrast considering that the rural population constitutes a quarter of the world’s population (Detlef, 2001 p. 102).

The rural dwellers hardly ever have employer-provided medical cover, unlike their counterparts in the urban areas. This means that access to healthcare services proves to be a challenge for a majority of them bearing in mind that they only earn meager incomes for their hard labor and this little income must be put into meeting basic needs like food (Detlef, 2001 p. 102).

Rural residents are posed with the threat of death from unintentional injuries other than road accidents than their counterparts in the urban areas. This is because of the even the working conditions that they work under. For example they may get injured while working with farm tools and equipment, get infected with tetanus and have no means of getting injected against it (Sana, 2001 p. 13).

More than 20% of rural children live in abject poverty. As such, it is a great challenge for their parents to be able to accord them the much needed health service that other children their ages and who live in the urban areas are exposed to. Rural residents in general are poorer than the urbanites, with per capita income of $7,417 lower than that of urban dwellers. (Nina, Johnson and Lois, 2004 p. 106)

Rural areas are marked with healthcare provide professional the world over. Statistics show that there are over 2,100 health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) in rural areas as compared to only 900 areas in urban settings (Sana, 2001 p. 17).

Drug abuse and tobacco smoking is more rampant in rural areas than in urban areas among the youth. This is because, while urban youths have other sources of entertainment and numerous activities that keep them busy, the rural youth have nothing but idleness and bad company to hang out with. Drug abuse is also rampant among rural youth because the lack information on the dangers of so doing, bearing in mind that even the quality of education in these settings is quite low (Morton, 1996 p. 12)

There are 40 dentists per 100,000 populations in rural settings, compared to 60 dentist per10, 000 in the urban settings. This says that these rural dwellers are not getting enough facilitation for access to proper dental care. (Morton, 1996 p. 12)

Suicide rate among men and children in rural areas is much higher than that of men, women and children in urban areas. What this means is that we are losing men, who are breadwinners for families and children who are the icons for a brighter tomorrow to suicide due to lack of intervention strategies (Thomas, 1984 p. 134).

Payments done to rural hospitals are quite low, compared to the payments made in the urban hospitals for equivalent health services. Although this spells cheaper service access for the rural poor, it also means that the hospitals are not getting enough resources to keep them going. As a matter of fact, over 450 hospitals have shut down in the rural areas over the last 25 years (Douglas, 1999 p. 57).

These statistics and many more are just a glimpse into what the rural folks are losing out in. What then is the role of the urban areas in beefing up support for the rural areas as far as health care is concerned?

To begin with, urban areas are the places where doctors and other health professional are trained. As such, urban areas need to invest in training many personnel and while planning is being done for the whole nation, ensure that a majority of the personnel are deployed into the rural areas to offer these valuable services (Douglas, 1999 p. 58).

Urban areas are also the place where counselors are trained. They need to be empowered to work in rural areas in order to impart life skills on people so that drug abuse cases and suicide can reduce amicably (Nina, 2004 p. 89).

Financial resources, as we have seen in this paper, are channeled from the cities into the rural areas. As such, strategic planning needs to be done, with the rural hospitals in mind in order to ensure that they run smoothly and that they always have a smooth flow of resources like health personnel and drugs (Katharine, 1982 p. 16)

Without saying much, if urban areas are to continue depending on rural areas for food support, then the urban areas must style up to ensure that rural areas are functioning effectively for example by provision of core essential service, in which health is just a tip of the iceberg. (Katharine, 1982 p. 16)

CHAPTER THREE – FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Through the literature review, a few results were gathered and the following specific issues were raised.

Interactions between ancient urban and rural areas

As we have seen from the definition of urban and rural areas, it leaves us with no doubt that these two areas, despite of their diversities, rely on each other for accomplishment of some goals. For example, agricultural products produced in the rural areas and which need further processing, must be transported into the industrialized urban areas for processing. Since there are no food production activities going on in urban areas, rural areas need to provide them with food products for sustenance. The economic benefits that are realized in the urban centers on the other hand are ploughed back into the rural areas, for example through family support by the people working in the urban areas (Richard, 2008 p. 66).

Case study One

Coming to a more specific analysis of the interaction between the urban and the rural, let us have a look at the medieval city settings in the Roman world. This is a case study that focuses on a symbiotic relationship between rural and urban setting. The distinctions between urban and rural in the ancient days were not merely a matter of the physical form, but also an outlook through the administrative hand of governance. According to a group of archeologists working in Roman in the middle age era, an area qualified as urban if it met the following conditions; exhibited defenses, had a well planned street system, had a dense population, had a market, was legally autonomous in that it could govern itself holistically, had a diversified economic base, was religiously differentiated and had a judicial center (Michael, 1977 p. 174).

At around that time, rural areas in Rome were facing some form of modifications in that, there was a need for farmers to become multi-functional, in that they needed to shift focus from small scale to large scale farm management. This way, they were able to adopt relatively modernized methodologies of farming, hence increasing productivity. What this led to eventually was a self-sufficiency policy that brought an overproduction of products. Later on, the systems of farming had to change from ‘productivism’ to post ‘productivism.’ This ensured that there was food security, both for the rural and urban areas, hence alleviating poverty. This means that when there is sustainable food production for both rural and urban inhabitants, reliance on non-agricultural food products goes down, creating a demand for the food products and hence increasing the income of the rural inhabitants. Consequently, this translated to reduced rural-urban migration in search of jobs, ensuring that population distribution was balanced both in the metropolitan cities and in the rural centers. At a closer analysis though, we can comfortably establish that the continued interactions between rural and urban developed a pattern of transformation that gave rise to the cities. To begin with, some urban centers as we know them today were merely pre-industrialized rural settings that got transformed with the coming of industrialization. Moving from the stage of pre-industrialization, they became industrialized, eventually acquiring the status of a fully modernized, urbanized and industrialized city setting. This outlook is as far as economic aspects of rural-urban interactions are concerned (Michael, 1977 p. 177).

Coming to the social aspects of the interactions in the Roman world, there was seen to be a very close relationship between the inhabitants of the rural areas and those in the urban setting. This was proved by the constant visiting patterns by the urban inhabitants into the rural areas to attend functions like annual religious festivities, rites and rituals. On the other hand, people from the rural settings would show up in the urban areas to attend education, training sessions and extension linkages, as well as to access health care services. These forms of social group interactions facilitated growth in terms of facilitating a shift of focus from interaction purely for agricultural purposes, to a more logical outlook on the dynamics of their own needs necessary for growth and development (Mahmoud, 2003 p. 98).

Politically, The Hellenistic Roman urban world shared a lot of interests with the rural world. For example, it is recorder by researchers that in the ancient medieval days, the two setting shared common administrative relationships that oversaw the smooth flow of government budgetary flows. Income generated by the central government within the cities was distributed to the rural areas through interconnected organizations that linked the countryside to the cities. There was also an aspect of authority approval, meaning that before implementation of certain policies in the rural areas, there was need to first get permission from the higher authorities located in the cities where policies were formulated and passed on as legal decision making tools. Ideologically, Romans are known to have shared common ideologies despite their differences in location. This was possible because as the urban areas became modernized, they strived to drag the rural areas along by ensuring that they got information through books, radio, television and advertising (Geyer, 2002 p. 65).

Case study Two

In a contrasting case study, the rural-urban interaction in the Hellenistic Greek world seems to be weak. The first example is drawn from the way the Hellenistic kings seemed to rule and the motives that they had behind accumulation of wealth. While most leaders would seek to increase wealth for the sake of their subjects, these kings simply did not care about development of either rural or urban areas and their sole purpose was to enrich themselves. Whatever wealth they could amass from the rural areas through irrigation or land reclamation went into making themselves the rich even more. To make matters worse these leaders went to the extent of robbing temples, all in the quest to fulfill their selfish desires. While this had one advantage in the sense that it led to the growth of the cities in which the palaces were located, it also meant untold suffering for the rural folks, who never enjoyed the benefits of their work in terms of financial returns (David, 2003 p. 34).

This clearly shows that the urban-rural interactions were weak, what with the inconsideration of the Hellenistic kings that cared less about development issues and instead were out to enrich themselves at the expense of their subjects (David, 2003 p. 34).

Acculturation in Italy, as yet another example of the discrepancy between the rural-urban relations, was biased to a very large scale. How was this possible? It is recorded that the geographical and social-economic boundaries between the urban and the rural are quite noticeable. Culture between the two social groups is highly distinctive. Much of these discrepancies were triggered by the fact that was a great division between the central and southern Campania, and the northern and eastern regions. While one part was exposed to a lot of Greek influence and benefited from a heavy polis presence, the other region had very few Greek contacts and therefore remained with the old rural cultural habits. This meant that while the central and southern areas received advantages of the Greek presence like industrialization and modernization, the northern and eastern areas suffered loss and some sort of barrier to acculturation. Hellenization comes out strongly, characterized by conflict between the Greeks and the Italians. This leads to a hardening of cultural boundaries, as a sign of strong solidarity of one group against ‘invasion, by another. In this case, the Italians as the ones who are rebelling against change which could spell changes in their livelihoods in terms of transforming them from rural-hood to urbanism (Eveline, 2010 p. 43).

Case study Three

This case study focuses on the intense urban-rural interaction in the late antiquity world. When we talk of the antiquity world we are referring to the old ancient days on a more general note. Generally, it has been established that a majority of the cities as we know them today originated from some rural-like forms and only grew into cities through interactions with other more developed towns and cities by an adoption of urbanization and modernization techniques that they could not do without then, as a study into the origin of cities has led us to believe. While man in the ancient past was accustomed to a life of hunting for survival, with time he developed a learning skill, which he developed and utilized to interact with others and with the gods, eventually forming the earliest village (Eveline, 2010 p. 45).

These early developments can be traced into the east in the likes of Mesopotamia, Nineveh and Babylon. Mumford, in his book ‘The City in History’ says that the granary, the library, the store the drain as well as the bank, as they are known today, are a good reflection of what the rural villages looked like and as such, the cities or urban areas are a complete replica of the good old villages. He goes on to suggest that without the village or the rural, there would not be the urban. In the Central Place Theory, he explains that the basic assumptions in the developmental stages of cities are that resources are the same everywhere, meaning that every village or rural setting has the same potential as any other to develop into an urban setting. It is also assumed that villages consist of self-sufficient households that are not dependent on each other and that transportation costs are equal regardless of the direction to be taken and that the costs are also proportional to the distance to be covered (Viswambhar, 2007 p. 73).

With this in mind then, we can see that there is great dependency on the rural areas for the growth and progression of the urban setting, as opposed to case study one that depicts a very interdependent relationship (Viswambhar, 2007 p. 73).

From the case studies above, it is clear that the two settings, no matter how contrasting, cannot survive independently. There must be a form of relationship, whether symbiotic, parasitic or thwarted. In his book ‘Rural-Urban Interaction in the developing world’ Kenneth Lynch on page 17 tells us that a lot countries still depend on the rural areas for survival of their economic aspects. He looked at the rural-urban relations as symbiotic as cities on the other hand are depended on for financial services, information and channels of communication as well as sources of non-agricultural products (Kenneth, 2005 p. 17).

Extent of variation in interactions between rural and urban settings

Despite the above case study that seems to show that there exists a strong relationship in the interaction between rural and urban settings, the strength of the interaction varies from place to place and just to cite an example to prove this, in the Arabian Peninsula, urbanization is rapidly take charge of urban areas, while there is no agrarian change to brag about is taking place in the rural areas (Ravinder, pg 6). This is because, as the urban areas continues to become urbanized and modernized, they also became globalized, allowing themselves to get assimilated into the culture of other countries, including an adoption of eating habits that led to importation of foods instead of supporting the local farmers by buying food from them (Ravinder, 2009 p. 6).

Something else that affects the strength of interaction making it weaker and almost non-existence is the size of a country, according to Porter, 1980. A small sized nation has more interactions between the urban and the rural and development of such a country is much easier and takes place over a relatively shorter period of time. Such interactions are facilitated by the short distance that inhabitants have to cover to and fro the urban areas and vice versa (Kenneth, 2005 p. 52)

The paradox or rural-urban inequality

As earlier mentioned, the size of a nation greatly determines how fast it becomes urbanized. People living away form city centers find themselves being left behind in matters to do with changing lifestyles like housing styles, medical care, clothing, vehicle ownership and a bunch of many other things that define their social, political and economic lives (David, 2003 p. 18).

Differences in the rural-urban interactions are also triggered by differences in human capital. Most of the cases reported indicate that children from the poor rural settings normally find it hard to find well paying employment when they are much older due to the fact that the level of education they are exposed to is also low quality. However, when they happen to be presented with a chance to access high quality education, it goes without saying that they also become viable for the labor market and the quality of life goes high, the effect that schooling has on labor markets becomes significantly irrelevant (Brunn, 2003 p. 56).

The paradox here brings itself out clearly because, while governments advocate for high school enrolment especially in the rural areas, they know just too well that the quality of education does not match that in the urban areas. This means that the children and populations in the rural settings remain in a ‘rat race’ where in an attempt to eradicate poverty they find themselves stuck in the same race year in year out. The effect is especially felt at the family level as opposed to the community level (Herbert, 1982 p. 100).

While it is expected that where there are many thriving markets people should not go without employment, this is not the case in many nations, China, the world’s strongest economy included. Promotion is also supposed to be on the basis of talent and qualification, but those in the rural areas, no matter their qualifications, are not seen to benefits from the proposal of this theory. In fact, in some states, the gap between the rural folks and the urbanites is growing by the day, be it economically, socially or politically. How then can we expect rural discrimination to diminish if these are the thriving conditions left, right and center? (Surinder, 2007 p. 102).

Should we view the relationship between urban and rural entities as necessary and mutually -beneficial, or as exploitative and one -sided?

The relationship between rural and urban areas cannot be belittled or ignored, no matter how insignificant the interaction may seem to be. Needless to say, both rural and urban areas constitute some functional elements that make life what it is in any given region. Cities, as we have seen, cannot survive alone, neither can the countryside achieve much without some support from the cities. Cities for example, need the human resource or labor that comes from the rural areas, while the rural areas on the other hand need the financial capital support that they derive from the cities (Ravinder, 2009 p. 1).

Cities also function as the market base for surplus commodities being produced in the rural areas. In case of export of any surplus, the cities facilitate such arrangements. What of the products that come form the rural indigenous cottage industries? They find their way into the market, both local and international via the city centers. The urban areas and cities on the other hand provides a ground on which policies and rules that govern activities going on in the countryside are formulated (Michael, 1977 p. 55).

As such, the relationship between these two setups is basically a symbiotic one, save for a few instances where research has presented the relationship between the two as merely exploitative, bringing out the urban areas as an exogenous factor that is out to exploit, subdue and take advantage of the indigenous factor (rural area) (Michael, 1977 p. 55).

The changes and variations in the relationship between countryside and the cities are merely a product of the structural transformations in society and not essentially due to a conscious process aimed at weakening the interactions. Over the years, a new concept, colonialism, has made the whole concept of rural-urban interaction even a little bit more complex that necessary. This is because, colonialism has brought out the aspect that cities are a major link between rural areas and the international markets, something that we cannot overlook if planning for rural areas in relation to the rest of the world is to be done (Richard, 2008 p. 66).

When infrastructure is being developed in any given nation, it goes without saying that the major aim of so doing is to have a linkage between the two social divides. However, when the linkage is not done in a manner that leaves no overlaps, then there are chances that neo-colonialism will develop between the rural and the urban, with the urban dominating the rural, as is the case in the Hellenistic Greek (Caroline, 2010 p. 56).

Furthermore, there is a lot that governments can do to strengthen the relationship between urban settings and the rural ones. For example, if marketing, transportation and communications were strengthened, there would be no doubt that both the private and the public agencies would be more than willing to serve the rural areas and as such promote their growth. Planning hence calls for balanced representation of the rural stakeholder. For beneficial development, there is need to have a socio-economic understanding of the benefits that are likely to be derived from such developments, both for the rural and urban settings. There is evidence that suggests that the future of the rural-urban relations has a very strong potential for improvement as there is no one population that can survive without the other. However, stakeholders must first take advantage of the opportunity for such development and poverty development issues (Herbert, 1982 p. 107).

It also must be kept in mind that urbanization is a continuous strong process that cannot be inhibited, especially in the developing nations. Predictions show that in the next 25 years most of the world’s population will be living in the urban centers and since urbanization cannot go beyond 100%, the process will cease for most cities of the world (Herbert, 1982 p. 111).

With this in mind then we cannot afford to throw caution to the wind and simply assume that the rural-urban relations are exploitative or one-sided, save for the few unrepresentative cases within the Greek world.

Chapter Four – Conclusion

The relationship and extent of interaction between urban and rural centers is yet to be established. Nothing much can be said on whether there is an increased or a decreased interaction between the two for reasons mentioned below:

Rural folks and those in the urban areas have intensively different ways, and each of them is at their own level of civilization. Comparative analysis of such distinct settings becomes relatively difficult, bearing in mind that the milestones used for benchmarking the developmental progress for urban setting are slightly or even intensively different. For example, for urbanites, financial development means more to them than to rural folks, the reason being that urban dwellers live all their lives according to their financial power. In rural areas on the other hand, life can be managed through a number of approaches. For example, while in the city one might sleep hungry if they have no money for food, in the rural area one will never go hungry with neighbors around, not to mention vast fields of land that have crops cultivated on them (Mahmoud, 2003 p. 114).

The issue or urban-rural interactions, according to the literature review, has not received much attention from people concerned with the study, mainly geographers. Furthermore, much of the literature available on this topic concentrates too much on the differences between urban and rural settings, rather that the similarities that draw them together. There is now a growing need to shift focus and give the connections between rural areas and the urban ones the attention that they deser

In this research that we propose to undergo, we are looking to investigate the indirect relationship between the love of money, attitude towards unethical behaviour and propensity to engage in unethical behaviour (PUB) among post graduate management students in India. We plan to test a theoretical model to ascertain the causal link between these variables. Attitude towards unethical behaviour may serve as a mediator of the relationship between the love of money and the PUB helping us better understand the complex relation. However, it is not yet known if love of money causes attitude towards unethical behaviour or it is the other way round. More specifically, in this study, we explore the indirect relationship

(The Love of Money ? Attitude towards unethical behaviour ? Unethical Behaviour ) and the moderating variables being the gender of the respondents. After ethics training, female students change and improve ethical behaviour, but male students do not (Ritter, 2006). On the basis of these suggestions, we attempt to examine the possible differences between male and female students using the same model. PUB has been measured using a 15-item Unethical Behaviour measure with five Factors: Abuse Resources, Not Whistle Blowing, Theft, Corruption, and Deception.

We develop our theory from a small set of research ideas presented below-

It is well known that management education is not only a highly commercialised business (more than other forms of education claims Economist, 2004).these days but is a high stakes affair considering that many of the top CEOs of the world are products of business schools. In a ranking done in ‘Why Do MBAs Make Better CEOs?’ by Herminia Ibarra, Morten T. Hansen, and Urs Peyer, CEOs with an MBA ranked on average a full 40 places higher than those without. Indeed, half of the top 10 went to B-school (although, admittedly, one of them dropped out before getting an MBA). Due to increasing list of scandals and other corruptions( Enron, Arthur Anderson LLP, Tyco, Satyam and Bernie Madoff) the lack of business ethics and standards is a well discussed topic, especially in the media.

The Satyam scandal raises serious questions about the MBA culture and business management education. It is significant that the controversial independent director on the board of Satyam Computer Services, N. Mohan Rao, was the dean of the high profile Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. “Business schools are also blamed for the current world financial crisis. The schools value leaders’charisma over substance and uncritically embrace free market and profiteering” (Business Week)

Many students enter business schools due to their love of money (Cunningham et al., 2004; Tang et al., 2006, 2007) and maintain these values over time (Staw, Bell, Clausen, 1986). Years later, business students become business managers and executives. ” The disgraced chairman of Satyam, Ramalingam raju, too has an MBA from Ohio and has done a course in the Harvard Business School. How is it that people with such elite education are involved in such unethical conduct? One reason is that management education has little concern with ethics. The Harvard Business School, the most prestigious of them all, is itself now under intensive scrutiny (What they Teach You at Harvard-My Two Years in the Cauldron of Capitalism, Philip Broughton)

It is important to instil a value of ethics and trust at the b-school level which will help realise you can stick to ethics even while pursuing your love of money. When greed takes over you will notice that the first casualty are your ethics and integrity

Researchers over the years have tried to identify the causes of these unethical behaviours and scandals. According to some researchers, one of the real root causes of this ethics crisis is ”the bottom-line-mentality” (Sims, 1992, p. 508) or ”maximizing shareholder value” (Kochan, 2002, p. 139). Profit-based mechanisms create pressure (to maximize profits) and opportunity (to earn perverse bonuses) and may have some serious flaws.

Recent research supports the notion that ”the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (http://www.biblegateway.com, 1 Timothy, 6:10, New International Version), but money (income) is not (Tang and Chiu, 2003; Tang et al., 2007; Vitell et al., 2006).

”People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (the Bible: 1 Timothy, 6: 9-10).

There is a dearth of empirical research concerning the love of money and evil because many lay people and researchers may consider this issue as a taboo, a religious/ controversial issue, not a scientific/academic issue, and to be excessively value-laden, thereby, may have shown great reluctance to study this taboo(e.g., Vardi and Weitz, 2004; Vardi and Wiener,1996).Thereby, the construct of unethical behaviour is an under-represented area of research in the management field and deserves further attention. Hence we take up the research, assert that the love of money is positively related to the propensity to engage in unethical behaviour (PUB).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Love of money, ethical attitude and propensity to behave unethically has been widely discussed in a number of research journals.

Love of Money

From time unknown, it has been known to the human knowledge that money is one of the most important factors affecting the attitude as well as behaviour of people. Money finds mention in Bible as well (“Money is the root of all evil”). For the present research, the following definition of love of money has been taken – love of money is “one’s attitude towards money with affective, behavioural and cognitive components; the meaning one attributes to money; one’s desire for, value of, expectation about, or aspiration for money; not one’s need, greed or materialism; a multi-dimensional individual difference variable; and a second order latent construct with several first order latent sub-constructs”(Tang et al, 2007, Law et al, 1998).

The first major attempt to establish a scale capturing the meaning of money was made by Thomas Li-Ping Tang (1992). The money ethics was developed as a result which captured six factors like “money as related to different needs, positive or negative attitude towards money, the management or control of money and obsession and power”. The love of money which measures one’s desire and aspiration to get money is a subset of the money ethics scale. The love of money scale was first developed by Tang et al (2002, 2003) that measured the construct on four different components viz Motivator, Success, Importance and Rich. It measures how much a particular individual is motivated by money, to what extent it represents success to him, how important money is to him and his desire to have more money. Later, an abridged version of the love of money scale was used by Tang et al (2007) where only the sub-constructs Rich, Motivator and Importance were considered. This particular scale has been used for the purpose of this research as well. The money ethics scale as well as the love of money scale have been tested and validated across a number of studies spread across different continents (Tang et al, 2007).

Prior to the 1980s, the relationship of money with other variables was not tested significantly (Furnhaf, 1984). However, there has been a lot of study in the recent past which has tried to capture how love of money interacts with other variables. One striking theme has been that the relationship of money with unethical behaviours has been explored to a great extent in the recent literature. Tang (2007) examined the relationship between the income levels and the quality of life using love of money along with gender, marital status and job satisfaction as control variables. The research showed a few very interesting results. However, the one relevant to this research is the one wherein love of money is negatively related to job satisfaction, income is negatively related to the quality of life. This shows that love of money acts as an important variable in mediating the relationship between income and quality of life. Other similar studies establish love of money as important variable impacting consumer behaviour, subjective well being and pay satisfaction. The impact of love of money on several other constructs like pay satisfaction, commitment, work ethic and commitment has been examined by Tang et al (2000, 2006, 2007) and Hong Meng Wong (2008) with target groups spread across geographies and professions. The result has shown that love of money does have significant impact on all of these constructs.

Unethical Behaviour

The field of ethics and unethical behaviour are very broad and considerable research has been done in them. Ethics is the standard that a person sets while judging what is right or wrong. In other words, ethics is something very personal and varies across the population. Ethics as a part of philosophy has been widely studied from the days of Socrates, Aristotle to its present post-modern form. When a person judges some behaviour as wrong according to his/her ethical standards, he perceives the same as unethical behaviour. Attitude towards unethical behaviour is thus defined as whether the person considers a particular set of behaviour as ethical or not. The propensity to engage in unethical behaviour, on the other hand, is defined as how likely the person is going to engage in behaviour that he perceives as unethical.

The components of unethical behaviour have variously been defined by different authors. Since this paper attempts to look at unethical behaviour within organizations and those which are driven by love of money, white collar crimes have only been considered. Ivancevich et al (2003) attemped to define a white collar crime and used constructs like theft, cyber loafing, workplace deviance, counterproductive behaviour, corruption and organizational misbehaviour. Each of these constructs may include many other sub-constructs. Organizational misbehaviour, for example, contains at least 23 different ones like “arson, blackmail, bribery, bullying, cheating, discrimination, dishonesty, espionage, fraud, incivility, intimidation, kickbacks, lying, misinformation, privacy violation, revenge, sabotage, sexual harassment, substance abuse, thefts, threats, whistle blowing and withholding information”. However, for the purpose of this study, only those variables that are related to the financial scandals are influenced by love of money are taken into consideration. The five sub-constructs that have been used to define unethical behaviour include Abuse Resources, Theft, Corruption, Deception and Not Whistle Blowing (Tang, 2004). These variables have been described in some detail here:

Factor Abuse Resources

This factor measures the extent to which the employee is using office resources like Xerox, stamp, telephone and internet for their own personal benefit rather than for the company’s. The use of internet for personal purposes is also known as cyber loafing and is becoming an area of great concern in present day organizations.

Factor Theft

Theft is widespread in companies, government offices, schools, colleges and medical hospitals. Very often, employees take things from office and use them for their own consumption. This has been identified as one of the menaces plaguing many corporate and other institutions. The factor theft has been measured by the employee’s tendency to steal goods, merchandise and cash from the office. It may involve borrowing cash from the counter without asking, taking merchandise home or gifting it to friends.

Factor Corruption

Corruption is the illegitimate exchange of resources done by parties who have little or no claim to them for furthering their own benefits. The Transparency International comes out with annual measures of the corruption perception index which ranks the various countries according to the perceived level of public sector corruption in them. While comparatively prosperous countries with high standards of living like those in the Pacific and Scandinavia rank highly, India has an abysmal position of 84 and a composite score of 3.4/10. This is just one of many studies that indicate a high degree of corruption present in the Indian system. Corruption in the corporate sector may take many forms like falsifying the accounts of the company and fooling stakeholders (as done in the case of Satyam), abusing one’s position in the organization to receive gifts, money and other benefits and playing with the interests of sub-ordinates to increase the bottom-line of the company and hence get a higher bonus.

Factor Deception

Deception or fraud is the act of intentionally misleading people through the inaccurate representation of facts. The society as a whole has seen a rise in the number of cases of deceptions or frauds and the same has been reflected in the corporate sector as well. It is not very unusual to come across sales persons or agents making false promises for making one extra deal and company advertisements vastly exaggerating product qualities to lure customers. Also, often customers are charged more than the actual price, charged more secretly after being promised discounts or actual benefits are hidden from them so that they cannot avail of them.

The existing literature mainly deals with the various facets of unethical behaviour and the attempts to establish the relationship with other variables are comparatively less in number.. However, the rise of corporate scandals in recent past has led to few interesting studies on understanding the drivers of unethical behaviour. Cohen et al (1996) and McCarthy (1997) attempt to measure ethical orientation among Canadian students and collegiate accounting students respectively. Mackewn et al (2008) identified reasoning skills and philosophical orientation as factors affecting the ethical judgement of students at an US university. Douglas et al (2001) studied the impact of the effect of organizational culture and ethical orientation on accountants’ ethical judgements and found significant relationship. Allmon et al (2000) observes that of the various demographic variables, only age and religious orientation have significant impact on ethical orientation. Tang et al(2007) found that love of money had impact on propensity to behave unethically through a mediating variable of Machiavellianism. Tang et al(2006) again examined the relationship between attitude towards unethical behaviour and propensity to behave unethically among business school students in USA and found that the former led to the latter.

The scale for measuring unethical behaviour in organizations was first developed by Tang and Chiu (2003). It was a 15-item-4-factor scale having the items Abuse Resources, Theft, Corruption and Not Whistle Blowing. Later, another factor was added to the scale in the form of deception and the scale was expanded to a 32 items one (Luna-Arocas and Tang, 2004). Chen and Tang (2006), however, shortened this scale to a 15-item-4-factor one for their paper and this has been used for the purpose of this research as well.

Formulation of Hypothesis
Love of Money and Propensity to Behave Unethically

The relationship between love of money and unethical behaviour has been researched upon in quite a few journals. Tang and Chen (2007) examined the relationship between love of money and the propensity to behave unethically with Machiavellianism as the mediator and college major (business and psychology) and gender as the moderator variables. The results indicated that the relationship hold good for the whole sample, for male students but not for female students, for business students but not for psychology students and for male business students but not for female business students. Other studies which probed this relationship were Hong Meng Wong (2008) for Malaysian Evangelical Christians and Tang and Chiu (2003) for Hong Kong employees, both of which showed significant relationship.

Apart from the support in literature, it is intuitively easy to understand the relationship between love of money and unethical behaviour. From the ancient times, money is considered one of the main drivers of all kinds of unethical behaviours. The higher the love of money of a person, the more is his desire and aspiration for getting money and the more likely he is to focus on the end of getting money than the means of getting the same. When the ultimate objective of a person’s actions is very highly valued by him, he is very often willing to forego the mental discomfort that is caused by acting in a way that is against his personal beliefs. That explains why a person with greater love of money will be willing to act against his own ethical beliefs. Interestingly enough, the relationship has already been validated in places like USA and Hong Kong where people are relatively affluent and money should not be a big driver for unethical behaviours. Thus the relationship is expected to be only stronger in case of India since in a comparatively poorer country, love of money should be the major reason why a person would want to behave unethically. Hence, we hypothesize that

H1: Love of money is positively related to propensity for unethical behaviour.
Attitude towards Unethical Behaviour and Propensity to Behave Unethically

The relationship between these two variables can be explained with the help of the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). This theory tries to find explain the construct of behavioural intention with the help of two other constructs, namely the attitude and subjective norm. Behavioural intention is defined as the strength of intention of an individual to behave in a particular way. Attitude is what he perceives to be possible consequences of his behaviour and how he values those perceived consequences. Subjective norm, on the other hand, is the perceived expectation of others as far as his behaviour is concerned and how far he intends to comply with those expectations. According to this theory, the behavioural intention of a person is the sum of his attitude towards that behaviour and subjective norm weighted in different proportions depending on the person and the circumstance. In other words, the behaviour of a person can be predicted by his attitude towards that particular behaviour and what he thinks of other people’s reactions if he behaves in that way. Thus attitude plays an important role in determining how a person will ultimately behave.

Intuitively speaking, any manifestation of behaviour is a direct outcome of the attitude of the person towards that behaviour. If a person thinks doing something is wrong and still proceeds to do it, it creates cognitive dissonance. The person tries to come out of this stage either by changing his actions or changing his beliefs. So the attitude towards unethical behaviour should have a positive relation with the propensity to behave unethically. However, the relation may be weaker in India than in USA because in a less developed country with limited resources and greater competition, people might be tempted to indulge in an activity they consider is unethical in order to further their gains. Thus, the effect of cognitive dissonance is expected to be less pronounced for a person in a developing country than in a developed country, but it is still expected to be there. Hence we hypothesize that

H2: Attitude towards unethical behaviour is positively related to propensity for unethical behaviour.
Love of money and attitude towards unethical behaviour

Love of money and attitude towards unethical behaviour have not been tested much in the existing literature. Most of the research is concerned with the relationship of either of these variables with the propensity to behave unethically. Hong Meng Wong (2007) tested the money profile of Malaysian Evangelical Christians and tried to map them to their ethical attitudes. Accordingly, they were classified as successful money achiever, careful money manager and money apathetic individuals. The research indicated that the three different groups had significant differences in their attitude towards unethical behaviour. The first group was more likely to view actions as ethical compared to others.

Compared to the relationship between love of money and propensity for unethical behaviour, it is much more difficult to hypothesize the relationship between love of money and attitude towards unethical behaviour. It is true that a person with a higher love of money is expected to have a different ethical attitude i.e. if he perceives a particular action to be ethical or not. A person with a higher love of money is more likely to engage in unethical behaviour and to escape the cognitive dissonance, he is more likely to justify the same as ethical behaviour. On the other hand, a person with lower love of money is likely to have a stronger ethical code. Viewed in another way, love of money will change a person’s attitude towards unethical behaviour and will lead him to engage in unethical behaviour. Hence, we hypothesize that

H3: Love of money is positively related to attitude towards unethical behaviour.
Gender and Love of Money, Attitude towards Unethical Behaviour and Propensity to Behave Unethically

Studies have indicated that males and females have a different attitude towards what constitutes unethical behaviour. A large part of that can be explained by the gender socialization theory. Socialization is the process by which a person tends to inculcate his/ her norms, customs and ideologies. Gender socialization theory suggests that men and women tend to learn different kinds of values and norms in keeping with their defined role in the society. There have been three different theories proposed to explain gender socialization. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory suggests that gender differences come into existence as soon as children observe their genitals. Social learning theory uses positive reinforcement men and women receive when they exhibit their expected behaviour to explain the gender socialization. Cognitive development theory proposes that men and women try to act differently according to their stereotypes in order to better understand the world around them and differentiate themselves from each other.

The occupational socialization theory, on the other hand, suggests that people in the same occupation tend to behave in a particular common way in order to better adapt to the needs of their jobs. Thus for the purpose of this research, the gender and occupational socialization theories carry contrasting predictions about the impact of gender on constructs like love of money, attitude towards unethical behaviour and the propensity to behave unethically. While according to the former, gender should have an impact, the latter suggests that since the respondents all belong to the same occupation (business school students in India), occupational socialization should prevail and the role of gender should be nullified.

Mason and Mudrack (1996) tried to address this dichotomy by examining the value and ethical systems in full and part time employees, both male and female. The gender socialization theory suggests that there is gender difference in ethics variables regardless of the employment status. The occupational socialization hypothesizes gender similarity on the same variables. The study showed some interesting findings. While there was no significant gender differences in part time employees, the ethical differences between men and women was significant for full time employees and women were found to be more ethical in nature. . This led the authors to argue that the segregation of males and females within the work force has led to the development of different ethical attitudes in the two groups and males generally are more unethical compared to females. . The same line of thought leads us to argue that males will have more love of money compared to females. Studies have also indicated that males are more driven by performance and competition than emotions and empathy as compared to females (Chen and Tang, 2006). More love of money in males can explain this phenomenon. Hence we hypothesize that

H4: There is a positive correlation between gender (male) and love of money
H5: There is a positive correlation between gender (male) and attitude to unethical behaviour
H6: There is positive correlation between gender (male) and the propensity to behave unethically

On the basis of the above discussions, the following model has been suggested:

Love of Money

Attitude towards Unethical Behaviour

Propensity for Unethical Behaviour

Gender

Some of the extraneous variables that could have impacted the results were the kind of education and the age of the respondents. Both these effects have been eliminated by restricting the sample to respondents from business schools. Another variable that was studied in the American context was the income of the respondents since most business schools students there have part time job and are self-sustaining. Even after this, there was no significant relationship observed between income and the other variables. Since business schools students in India do not usually have any source of income, this factor has not been taken into consideration.

Research Methodology

Sample

The sample selected for this survey consisted of only business schools students in India. Accordingly, an online questionnaire was floated and the link was sent to selected respondents in business schools all over the country. In the final analysis, 270 responses were collected of which only 262 have been considered. Care was taken to make the survey completely anonymous in nature since it has been observed that people are generally not very forthcoming while talking about their ethical preferences in public. (Chen and Teng, 2006)

Measures

All the constructs have been measured by using a five point Likert Scale. For measuring the love of money, the abridged love of money scale was used (Chen and Tang, 2007). It is a 9-item-3-factor Likert scale. The measurement and functional equivalence of this scale have been widely established and cited in many different studies across various countries and languages. Unethical behaviour has been measured by using a 15-item-5-factor scale (Cheng and Tang, 2006). This scale also has good reliability, face validity, content validity and measurement invariance data. The scale has been used to measure both the attitude towards unethical behaviour and propensity to behave unethically. While measuring the former, the respondents have been asked to rate the particular items on a scale of very unethical to very ethical. In case of the latter, the respondents have been asked how likely they will engage in the behaviour as mentioned in these items. To reduce priming effects, the measurement of propensity to behave unethically has been done before the attitude towards unethical behaviour (Chen and Tang, 2007).

Consumption has always been an important aspect of human society, in different ways at different times and in different places (Clarke 2003). The consumer revolution, the birth of which is a subject of debates (McKendrick claims to have discovered it in the eighteenth century England, Williams- in nineteenth century France, and Mukerji- in fifteenth and sixteenth century England), represents not just a change in tastes, preferences, and purchasing habits but a fundamental shift in the culture of the early modern and modern world. (McCracken 1988) The consumer revolution is seen to have changed Western concept of time, space, society, the individual, and the state. Western culture gradually became increasingly dependent on and integrated with the new consumer goods and practices, which appeared from the sixteenth century onwards; culture and consumption began to fashion their present relationship of deeply complicated mutuality.(McCracken 1988) In such a consumer culture, consumption has an important significance to the meaningful practices of peoples everyday life. That is, they not only make their consumption choices from the products utilities but also from their symbolic meanings. Basically, consumption is employed not only to create and sustain self but to locate people in society as well. However, from a critical point of view, seeking to create the self through symbolic consumption can also contribute to the enslavement of individuals in the deceptive world of consumption. The following paper seeks to explore the theoretical approaches regarding the relationship between consumption and the self.

{In the postmodern world} Our Identity is moulded as consumers. (Sarup 1996, p.120)

…Living life to the full became increasingly synonymous with consumption. (Gabriel and Lang 1995, p.7)

The construction of self in modern society is considered to be invariably linked to consumption. The modern society undoubtedly represents a consumer culture, where peoples life functions in the scope of consumption. (Firat and Venkatesh 1995) It is, peoples social arrangement in which the relation between lived culture and social resources, between meaningful ways of life and the symbolic and material resources on which they depend, is mediated trough markets .(Slater 1997, p.8) Hence consumption is of great importance to the allusive practice of individuals everyday life. Along with the creation and maintenance of the self, consumption is also employed in order to locate different individuals in society (Elliott 1994a). The various material goods that people buy, the ideals and beliefs they held show who they actually are and whom they identify with. Indeed, people consume various things not only for satisfaction of personal needs but also for creation of their self-creation projects (i.e. for sense of significance in their pursuit of being ), which may be achieved symbolically through mundane consumption. The validity of this is confirmed by a considerable amount of literature. Lang and Gabriel argue that whether one is looking for happiness, identity, beauty, love , et cetera, there is a commodity somewhere which guarantees to prove it. In McCracken point of view, different products embody qualities that reach beyond their attributes or commercial value, which means, they are capable of carrying and accommodating cultural meanings. Symbolically, people use these meanings in order to create cultural idea of the self, to obtain and maintain lifestyles, to represent social connections and to promote changes in society and the self. (McCracken 1988) In other words, people consume these cultural ideas in order to exist in this culturally composing world. McCracken (1988a, p. Xi) confirms the latter point: without consumer goods, certain acts of self-definition and collective definition in this culture would be impossible.

Shopping is not merely the acquisition of things: it is the buying of identity. (Clammer 1992, p. 223)

Sartre (1998) argues that The bond of possessions is an internal bond of being. (p. 588)

He emphasizes on the idea that people come to know who they are trough what they possess. By actually observing their material possessions they structure and sustain a notion of existential self. The idea of seeing is of vital importance, because as Sartre states to see it is already to possess it. In itself it is already apprehended by sight as a symbol of being . Thus, when see a superb landscape, people are capable of obtaining a notion of possessing the given landscape, and then associating it with their sense of being . This idea illustrates how people acquire a feeling of existing trough window shopping alone. To have is to be concept is also asserted by Belk (1988) and Dittmar (1992). Dittmar (1992, p. 204-06) argues:

Material possessions have socially constructed meanings …this symbolic dimension of material objects plays an important role for the owner s identity. …This suggests that material social reality in an integral, pervasive aspect of everyday social life, of constructing ourselves and others.

Belk (1988) in his examination of the connection between having and being , states that it is a two-fold process working in both directions respectively. Not only do people place their self-identities into their possession but they also integrate the latter into their identities; that is mirrored in the so called self-extensions process (i.e. the extended self). As extension of the self, peoples possessions not only enable them to find their actual characters but to achieve or adjust their sense of continuity from the past. Thus, material possessions act as a capacity to manage individual s life in its current course.

As stated above to have is to be but to have also means to belong . Richins (1994, p. 523) states, Possessions are part of the social communication system and are sometimes actively used to communicate aspects of the self. Undoubtedly, when obtain personal possession that expresses peoples individual sense of identity and their sense of belonging to a group and collective identity. Material things encompass symbolic meanings, trough which a bridging of the self to others in society is possible. Dittmar (1992, p. 11) states:

The notion that we express our identity trough our material possessions, and make inferences about the identity of others, on the basis of what they possess, means that there must be socially material objects as symbolic manifestation of identity.

Nowadays, people are able to use consumption symbolically in order to gain a considerable sense of belonging to various imagined communities (Anderson 1983) or different neo-tribes (Maffesoli 1988). Thus, people consume different products that add to the symbolic means of identification of the self, trough which they associate themselves emotionally with those sharing their lifestyles. (Gabriel and Lang 1995)

Consumption, as it has been stated in the above paragraphs, provides people with symbolic meanings to construct their self and identity, but it also can imprison them to the superficial sense of self and the enduring consumption. Therefore, from a critical perspective, to have means to be enslaved.

If I am what I have and if what I have is lost, who then am I? (Fromm 1976, p. 76)

According to Fromm, seeking to obtain a sense of being trough having hides a risk of losing it since having may not stay permanently. Contrary, he raises the idea that people realize the self by giving and sharing practices, et cetera. To have contributes to peoples enslavement of their own possessions. (Fromm 1976) People become slaves (i.e. commodities) in the realm of goods (Giddens 1991). Faurschou (1987, p. 82) argues:

{Postmodernity is} …no longer an age in which bodies produce commodities, but where commodities produce bodies: bodies for aerobic, bodies for sport cars, bodies for vacations, bodies for Pepsi, for Coke, and of course bodies for fashion total bodies-a total look. The colonization of the body as its own production/consumption machine in late capitalism is a fundamental theme of contemporary civilization.

The belief that people are capable of exercising their freedom through certain choices seems unrealistic. Actually, we all not only follow lifestyles, but in an important sense are forced to do so-we have no choice but to choose (Gidddens 1991, p. 8). Also, Elliot (1994b) states that the pleasure, more specifically the immediate one derived from numerous consumption practices may imprison people in the scope of addictive consumption. Gergen (1991, p. 74-5) shows some apprehension over freedom of consumption:

Yet this same freedom ironically leads to a form of enslavement. Each new desire places its demands and reduces one s liberties. …Liberation becomes a swirling vertigo of demands. Daily life has become a sea of drowning demands, and there is no shore in sigh.

The will and eagerness to be more, to grow more, to accumulate more and more, and more results in suffering and self-destruction of the individual. The only possible way of letting go this degenerated cycle is to accept the idea that to be is merely an illusion. Consequently, people should let go of their will to be , leave alone the desire to have .

Considering all that has been stated above in the current paper about relationship between self and consumption strongly confirms their cooperative coexisting within and in developed societies of the contemporary world. The consumer is seen as caught in a cultural project (McCracken 1988), which main purpose is to achieve a full completion of the self. The consumer machine provides individuals with the necessary cultural materials in order to rationalise their varying ideas about themselves and their social roles in society. All of their cultural notions are embodied in the symbolic nature of goods, and it is through their possession and practices that individual understands the meaning in his own life. As Kavanaugh states, …individuals in a society create themselves or define themselves culturally through the objectification of {a culture s} conceptual models in centrally prescribed phenomenal forms (McCracken 1988).

It is through the systematic endowing of the meaningful properties of objects/goods that individual satisfied the opportunity and responsibility of self-definition. The logic and directions of this process of self and world construction through the nature of goods has been increasingly understudied and since recently it has been drawn accurate exploration. But which still needs further examination.

Relationships between women and men are not simply impossible or difficult. Misunderstandings of social beings are inevitable to occur; when men expect women to think and act as men and women expect men to think and act as women, conflicts becomes inevitable. This does not mean that men and women live in absolutely different realities (Corner, 2008). We can also not conclude that all the conflicts that visit relationships between men and women are solely from lack of knowledge of their differences. This paper endeavors to dig into an understanding of the various relational conflicts that springs from perception differences (Patterson, 2007). The greatest challenges that are facing majority of men-women relationships are failure to be aware of their identities and failure to accept their differences so as to live skillful and full lives. For congruent and cohesive coexistence, men and women must understand their differences and similarities.

2.1 Background of Man-Women Relationship

For many centuries the differences between women and men were socially defined. The lenses of sexism were used to distort the relational differences in which men assumed superiority over the women and maintained their position through domination (FGU). When the goals of equality between men and women became a public demand, people started losing the awareness of the importance emanating from the differences. The vision for equality between the two sexes has narrowed all the possibilities of discovering what truly is in existence within women and men (Corner, 2008). The understanding of the differences that exist can serve as a very important tool in facilitating reconciliation between the two sexes when a conflict erupts. If the different sexes were to understand themselves, then they would with ease devise mechanisms of dealing with their sexual differences conflicts that tampers their congruent relationships.

Dr. Michael G. Conner (2008), a clinical medical and family psychologist has purported that men and women are equal but different. He has supported his allegation by stating that even though men and women have equal rights to opportunities and protection under the law they are different in their physical and psychological making. Men and women differ in their perception to some life concepts and consequently diversified approaches.

2.2 Why the Concern on Relational Conflicts?

Relationship between men and women is not always productive; conflicts between the two sexes prompt one to ask ‘what are the sources of the conflicts?’ we do not refute the fact than men conflict with fellow men as women conflict with fellow women, but our area of concern is a desire to know why the conflicts between men and women differs from the conflict of the same sex. Science has endeavored to explain the biological reason behind the differences. McCarthy (2008) did a research that was meant to identify whether the behavioral difference between men and women has any biological explanation. He identified that the behavioral difference is as a result of the distinct mind between the two sexes. He pointed out that female’s and male’s brain appear to be constructed from strikingly different blueprints. The recent neurological studies have identified that the differences in the circuitry that wires the brain and the chemicals that transport messages inside the brain is so vast that one has to conclude that there are two types of brains. People act and react from their perception towards a given situation hence behavior. This acts as a source of conflict between men and women.

2.3 Approach and Intervention

This paper shall explain the various sources of conflicts between men and women derived from their perception differences and explain the intervention measures that can be employed to overcome the conflicts. The hypothetical intervention applicable in overcoming relational conflicts emanating from perceptional differences include: Empowerment; doing away with the ignorance, Communication; sharing perceptions hence overcoming the challenge of relational conflict, learning to be listeners of each other, acceptance of the fact that perception differs, being flexible over conflicting issues and learning to negotiate over issues in dispute.

A research was conducted to identify whether reaction differences between male and female is biological or a result of socialization process. It involved two months old male and female infants prior to the socialization process. The research identified that female infants are more responsive to sounds of a person in distress than male infants. Male infants were more responsive to objects as opposed to female infants who were more responsive to faces (Yarborough, 2006).

3.1 Differences of perception that acts as sources of conflict between men and women
3.1 Processing of information

There are fundamental differences in the manner in which women and men process information. Women can process information more extensively and different pieces of information than men can do; men have a tendency to digest one thing at a time. A study was conducted to find out the truth of this allegation. Man and women were taken to a room for some few minutes and then later were asked what they observed. Almost all men could just remember the general appearance of the room, while the women remembered distinct details such as the position of a flower vessel, the photos on the walls, the cleanliness of the table clothes, the model of television among other details. Such a pronounced capacity to information processing has acted as a major source of conflict between the two sexes (Gilligan, 1982). For example, a woman may be talking to the husband while watching the television and still noticing what the children are doing. She may ask the husband a question who is engrossed on the TV and simply because it’s hard for him to engage in a serious conversation while watching the television, he may not give the right answer. The wife may think that the husband is ignoring her leading to relational conflict. Research has identified that relationship between boys and girls to be sour many times. Many girls perceive the conversations with boys very boring. This is because girls can process diverse information at the same time but the boys can only deal with one thing at a time. The boys find the conversations as time wasting since they become confused during the talks, they would rather engage in sport activities rather than engage in a conversation with some girls who may be engaged in three topics at the same time.

3.2 Reading of sexual cues

Research has identified that men are more responsive to sexual cues than women. This means that during a conversation men can read sexual cues more readily than women. Men have been found to be more sensitive to sexual signals than women. This difference acts a source of relational conflict between men and women. During a conversation between a husband and wife, the husband may expect the wife to read in between the lines his expression of desire for sex but the woman may not see from such a viewpoint. The man may conclude that the wife is not interested or is repelling him (Yarborough, 2006).

3.3 Appearance

Men and woman differ to a great extend in their perception towards appearance. They mostly appear to be fashion phobic. Mostly this emanates from hoe they are perceived by the other men. Men fear that they would appear to be too foppish or narcissistic if they are too overly concerned about clothing (Booth, Crouter, & Clements, 2001). Those selling fashion to women have to approach men from a different perspective. Women and fashion are inseparable. When a woman has the most recent wearing she is adored and envied by fellow women. She is moralized to ask and need more to maintain the glory and celebrity. Their men partners do not seen to understand why their women spend all they have to be fashionable hence a source of conflict (Yarborough, 2006).

3.4 Keenness to Details

Studies have identified that women and men differ in their thinking: Men are macro thinkers while women are micro thinkers; this means women attention are to details in al issues that they deal with while the men are concerned about the end product. For example a woman will concentrate on all the adverts on various types of oils that are in the market to ensure that she applies the right oil to different parts of the body. She will buy different types of hair shampoos, hair oil, hand oil, face oil, legs oil, and body oil. A man will just use one type for the whole body (Sabbatini, 1997). The keenness to details have caused many relationship breakages between men and women as men feels women are too inquisitive in attempt to ensure all things are okay. A woman on the other hand feels a man is irresponsible hence she can not cope with such levels of recklessness.

Researches have identified that women’s two spheres of brain communicate better than they do in men. The studies have identified that women pull in information from both halves. This distinct feature allows women to give more sophisticated emotional responses (Sabbatini, 1997). This makes women to be better in reading subtleties and in talking on emotions. Relational conflicts crops up when a woman is facing an issue that she feels the male partner should feel with her and consequently offer the appropriate moral and emotional support, but simply because men have different perception on emotional issues he may fail to respond as expected stirring a woman to think that the man cares less hence a source of conflict (Ligate & Tucker, 2005).

3.5 Response to threats

Men and women respond to challenges and threatening situations differently. There are many studies that show that many women responds to fears and threats by running away from the threat while men confront the situation. Many researchers have argued that this is a question of socialization, while others have argued that it’s an innate trait emanating from inborn perception characteristic. Conner (2008) has argued the physical differences between men and women are the reasons behind their differences in perception hence dissimilar approaches to threats. Men have greater upper body strength with build muscles and thicker skin; this propels them to believe in themselves. The relational conflicts emanates from a situation where the two sexes are faced with threatening situation that requires an endorsement of the two to face the challenge, if a woman flees the man fail to understand the reason for the reaction perceiving such a move as an act of betrayal (Kuriansky, 2001).

3.6 Approach to problems

Women and men approach a problem with similar goals but with dissimilar considerations. Even though men and women can solve a problem equally well their approach to the problem varies to a great degree. A woman believes in sharing and discussing a problem so as to explore, deepen and strengthen the relationship with the person she is interacting with. For women, their greatest concern is ‘how the problem is solved’ rather than the final solution. The approach that will be used to approach a problem is a determinant of strength or the weakness that will exist in a relationship between the parties involved. Men have a very different approach to a problem. A man will approach a problem as an opportunity to prove his competence as well as his strength to solve problems and commitment to relationships (Berry, & Traeder, 1995). The manner of solving a problem is not of concern as arriving at the solution efficiently and effectively. Men have a tendency to dominate or assume authority in the process of problem solving. They are often destructed and are less concerned with quality of relationship while solving a problem. The different approaches to problem solving are a source of conflict. If a woman attempts to dominate, men feel they are abased and may not take it on a light note. Women may also feel offended if a man cares less on the relationship in problem solving.

4.0 Applied Hypothetical Intervention
4.1 Overcoming Relational-Conflicts between Men and Women

Men and woman differs in one way or another, this paper has explained why men and women differ, the issue of perception: women have shared ways of dealing with diverse situations which differs from men’s approach; these differences are brought about by difference in the way women perceive things being different from the way men view things. As it has been clearly showed in this paper the differences in approaches makes men and women conflict. Men can not live differently from women, they have to co-exist amidst their differences, this calls for adoption of strategies that will facilitate a comfortable or conducive coexistence.

4.1.1 Overcoming Ignorance

One of the greatest causes of the relational conflict between men and women is ignorance: Conflict is inevitable for somebody will feel unfulfilled or offended if a partner or a colleague seems not do things the way you want them done. The reason as to why people feel offended is because they do not know that men and women have diverse perception (UNESCO, January 2002). There is a need to create awareness; as a mitigation measure, social psychologist should put pen to paper on perception differences and use all the available channels of communication to Create awareness. Couples facing relational conflicts should be helped to understand themselves and understand their partners, if somebody understands how his / her partner sees and approaches diverse concepts, he / she will make efforts to see the concept in question from their point of view (Cameron, 2000). Lack of flexibility to accommodate a partner emanates from the ignorance; one wonders why can’t the partner understand a concept that seems so simple?

4.1.2 Use of Communication

Conflicts are worsened by lack of communication between the conflicting parties. If both sexes in a relational conflict were to learn the art of communication; the perceptions diversities could easily be overcome. Many conflicting partners engage in looking for a ‘way to avoid a conflict’, hence the act functions as a part time solution to the problem; partners avoid sharing their views which they make out as contrasting with their partner’s (Booth, Crouter, & Clements, 2001). Conflicting perception and approaches to relational conflicts between men and woman can easily be dealt with by handling a conflict in such a way that will bring growth and constructive solution; accepting the truth about the diverse perception and agreeing on the mode of settling conflicting issues. Councilors should advice people to learn to speak out their hearts, what is their feeling towards a given concept, and why they feel that a desired approach to a given challenge is varied and most workable. Such a strategy calls for flexibility where the partners consent that either could be right hence each should be given an opportunity to support his/ her take. Conflicting partners should not avoid discussing an issue in conflict for such a move worsens the already heated conflict. Both men and women should always take the responsibility of fixing an issue in question at home, workplace or social gatherings (Academic leadership. Com 2010).

4.1.3 Listening, Acceptance, Accommodation and Flexibility

If men and women accept the reality of their perception differences they will get into a position of accommodating each other. Our diversity in perception should not act as a source of conflict rather as an opportunity to learn. It’s only when one learns to listens to the other sexes’ point of view will he/she have a wider perception, of course it again requires flexibility, consequently accommodate the partner’s ideas. In this endeavor both people have to learn to be compromisers. If a situation presents itself that has diverse ways of approach according to the different perceptions, after the sharing of the diverse perceptions, one of the partners will have to compromise their belief so as to avoid conflicting by endeavoring to see things from their partner’s point of view. Negotiation is also very important in arriving at a consensus over an issue in conflict (Phobias-help.com, 2010). After the partners agree that they can never think the same, they should negotiate for a common ground. This is achievable by avoiding competition of ‘whose idea wins’ for such will extrapolate a conflict.

5.0 Conclusion

Conflicts in the society are inevitable, but with the right intervention measures they can be reduced. Relational conflicts between men and women have been so pronounced some times leading to loss of life and property. Many marriages have been broken since the parties involved could not bear the diversity of perception. Men and women continues to conflict because of their dissimilar takes over issues of life. Studies have identified that men and women have different biological makings that causes perceptional differences. The perceptional differences act as sources of conflict.

For fruitful coexistence between different sexes there is a need of acceptance of our diversified perceptions in order to develop mutual existence mechanisms. People should employ all the available resources that will facilitate understating acceptance and mutual relationships between sexes. If the parties in conflict were to accept their differences and face them together without pointing figures at each other and ensure that communication between them is kept on toes overcoming the challenges would not be a big deal. There is no solution that can never be reached if people would learn to be listeners, flexible and accommodating of their partners (Corner, 2008).

6.0 References

Academic Leadership. Com. (2010). Conflict Resolution Menu. Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/onlinetraining/resolution/aboutwhatisit.htm

Booth, Crouter, & Clements. (2001). Couples in conflict: Penn State University Family Issues Symposia Series. New York NY: Routledge.

Cameron, D. (2000), Good to talk? Living and working in a communication culture. London: SAGE.

Corner, M. (2008). Understanding the Difference between Men and Women. Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://www.crisiscounseling.com/Relationships/DifferencesMenWomen.htm

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: psychological theory and women’s development.

London, UK: Harvard University Press.

Greenberg, Bruess, Conklin. (2007). Exploring the dimensions of human sexuality. New Jersey, NJ: Jones & Bartlett.

IFU (INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN). Workshop on Conflict Resolution Facilitator’s Guide. Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://www.ifuw.org/training/pdf/conflict-facilitator-2001.pdf

Kuriansky, J. (2001). The complete idiot’s guide to a healthy relationship. Complete idiot’s guide to. New Jersey, NJ: Alpha Books,

Legato, M. & Tucker, K. (2005). Why men never remember and women never forget. Washington, DC: Rodale.

McCarthy, M. (2005). Women’s brains are different from men’s – and here’s scientific proof. Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/womens-brains-uareu-different-from-mens-ndash-and-heres-scientific-proof-870849.html

Peterson, J. (2007). Female Perception vs. Male Perception. Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://www.lifescript.com/Life/Relationships/Marriage/Female_Perception_vs_Male_Perception.aspx

Phobias-help.com. (2010). How Do You Deal With Conflict? Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://www.phobiashelp.com/effective_communication_skills/How_Do_You_Deal_With_Conflict.html

Renato, M. & Sabbatini, P. (2003). Are There Differences between the Brains of Males and Females? Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n11/mente/eisntein/cerebro-homens.html

UNESCO. (January 2002). Best Practices of: Non-Violent Conflict Resolution in and out-of-school. New York, NY: United Nations Education Science and Culture Organization.

Yarborough, M. (2006). Differences in Men & Women’s Perception. Retrieved on February 1, 2010 from: http://etransgender.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=197

Introduction

As the only male in a group of four female working on a presentation, the learning experience gained reflectively looking back was invaluable. How I got on in the working process while engaged in the completion of this presentation represented a process of understanding the difference in dynamics of working within a group situation whereby my initial impressions of the progress being made differed from the manner in which each individual approached the situation.

The following will offer a reflection on this situation.

At first, I felt as if I was the only one actively engaged on the project, gauging that the others were being flippant in their approach. Tavris and Wade (1984, pp. 71-73) offered some insight into this as they advise that men are more aggressive than women. They point to the example that this difference is detectable as early as age three when children start playing with one another (Tavris and Wade, 1984, pp. 71-73). Their analogy stated that little boys from the start show more physical aggression, play aggressive, have fantasy aggression and utilize verbal aggression (Tavris and Wade, 1984, pp. 71-73). This, they point to is the male aspect of winning, which means getting started earlier and taking over (Tavris and Wade, 1984, pp. 71-73). Fay and Tokarczyk (1993, pp. 78-79) developed my understanding further in adding that women approach work in a different manner, as they are more social beings. Dale and Lynne Spender (1986, p. 32) dismiss the mythical talkativeness of women indicating that in mixed sex conversations that women only talked ten to twenty percent of the time gauging their situation. They added that women, after feeling comfortable in a group setting will then set about the task at hand, however, they have privately thought about the problem and have definitive ideas and approaches to discuss when that time arrives (Spender and Spender, 1986, pp. 34-35).

Lunneborg (1990, p. 21) offered the following insight to this start of the project situation that I seemingly was so preoccupied with. She states that women tend to spend time gathering and thinking more about the information aspects in singular fashion, gauging the situation against their own personal skills and formulating approaches as they consider what they either know or have gleaned from other members of the group (Lunneborg, 1990, pp. 23-28). These dynamics helped me to understand that my learning style was simply too male oriented to at first take in the significances of how women approach problems and solutions.

I learned that the first thing I should have done was approach the first session as an introduction to my co-workers, asking for inputs on how to set about the presentation as a group process, instead of feeling that I was the only contributor. Novarra (1980, p. 51) advised me that women manage in a less academic fashion. They, women, are “… accessible, unstuffy, informal, direct in getting to the point, spontaneous, averse to wrangling, sympathetic and not long winded or pompous”. Nickles and Ascroft (1981, pp. 206-207) referred to the foregoing style as ‘beta’. They, women, utilize power for the good of the group as opposed to the individual, and that good management represents sensitivity in the creation of a work environment that fosters growth and learning (Nickles and Ascroft. 1981, pp. 206-207). They offered additional insight in that ‘Beta’ power cares more about the quality of work life and uses flexible schedules, job sharing and the decentralization of authority (Nickles and Ascroft. 1981, pp. 206-207). Leaders are not needed at the top of the hierarchy in making decisions, as it is a shared process.

Howe (1975, pp. 127-171) advised me that women are more democratic, egalitarian and cooperative. In working with men, or in this case a male, women tend to slow things down to create a pace that reflects thinking and sharing. She added that women have an alternative view of power that is based upon sisterhood, and that in a group situation the usual first steps in the process entail an informal discussion as the parties get to know one another for later interaction as opposed to the male method of the big dog taking over and letting other things fall into place.

As I saw the collective approach take hold later in the process, the understanding I gained after the fact made me better understand the dynamics of working with women and how my initial impressions were male based. The difficulty I felt I had in maintaining group focus was my male approach as opposed to the reflective and group sharing approach women utilize to address working situations, which are similar in context to their approach of problems in any form.

Conclusion

The apprehension I experienced in working with a group of four females taught me that there are differing ways in which the approach to a working situation can be handled. As the only male member I thrust myself into thinking into feeling that I needed to take charge, even though I held back on that action. Upon reflection, that was a wise choice as the group dynamics later showed me that the work at hand was being handled, but in a different manner than I was accustomed to. The lack of individual conflicts, the overall courteousness of the group, and the process of producing the piece was an enjoyable and productive session. My feelings of getting a late start did not account for the accelerated pace of development as a team whereby ideas, solutions and contributions flowed naturally without power struggles, thus shortening the time frame to get things accomplished.

In retrospect the entire experience enabled me to take away from the process a new set of techniques and understandings with respect to group dynamics that was not just applicable to women, but groups of any gender composition. My concerns regarding being the only male in the group were facets of my own imagination as the females did not and were not focused on gender differences, they were focused on meshing the group into a cohesive unit, whereby the synergy would be greater than the parts.

Bibliography

Fay, E., Tokarczyk, M. (1993) Working Class Women in the Academy. University of Massachusetts Press

Howe, F. (1975) Women and the power to change. McGraw Hill

Lunneborg, P. (1990) Women Changing Work. Bergin and Garvey

Nickles, E., Ashcroft, L. (1981) The coming matriarchy. Seaview Books

Novarra, V. (1980) Women’s Work, men’s work. Praeger

Spender, D., Spender, L. (1986) Scribbling sisters. Camden Press

Tavris, C., Wade, C. (1984) The longest war: Sex Differences in perspective. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Since 1960, the feminization in the European work force is a phenomenon unquestionable. Indeed, today in France of 100 employed people, 47 are women contrary to 1962 where they were 34. In spite of this increase, sex is a significant decisive of professional position in working places (De Curraize, Y., Hugouneny, R., (2004)). This gender discrimination results through the gap of salaries between men and women. We consider in this study gender that gender gap defines oneself as a ‘measure of the difference between the earning of men and women’ (Andrew Barnard (August 2008) p.18). Certainly, a number of significant review and reports have revealed that women in both full time and part time work earn less than men. Therefore, it remains professional disparities between men and women. To understand this gender discrimination, our analysis focuses on pay according sexes.

Firstly, a current situation regarding women work will give basing on factors and reasons that have contributed to this situation. Secondly, a legal position will be analyzed through government initiatives set up to reduce this issue. Finally, the measures that organizations should and could take to eliminate gender pay gap will be examined.

First of all, this part will focus on the current situation regarding women work and will find the factors which are contributed to this situation.

Above all, it is necessary to define payment to understand our subject. Indeed, payment defines oneself as an income and all contractual terms and conditions including a basic salary and other benefits for example bonus, pension scheme, company car that could receive an employees.

Today, the pay gap between men and women tend to decrease but it remains narrowed slightly. Indeed in the UK, the statistics revealed that pay gap between sexes is 12,2 per cent in 2009 while in 2008 it was 12,6 per cent. Therefore, sexes’ pay gap decreased however it has not removed. Moreover, according to Employee Benefits’ in Salary Survey (2009) the mean salary of men including rewards differs from ?16,000 above the mean salary of women. (Jones, Ben (December 2009)). Furthermore, in regard to the median earning, it is noticeable that the average pay of man in 2006 is ?11.71 contrary to women which is ?10.24. Anon (11/9/2006) Sexe’s pay gap shrinks. We could wonder if the women work is being valued equally to men. According to Anon (01/11/1999), the women work is 20 per cent less valuable than men’s work.

However, it is difficult to understand the pay gap if pay is not associated to observable factors. In fact, to analyze difference of income between men and women, we have to add ‘the age, the region the occupation industries and sectors” variables (Andrew Barnard (August 2008) p.23). According to Appendices 1, 2 and 3, it is to say that these variables have a significant impact on earnings.

Firstly, if we focus on age effect on earning according to gender we can see that men progress faster than woman until 21-22 years old, then earnings increase at a similar rate until age 40 and after 46 years women earning are high than men. (See appendix 1) This tendency can be explained by the fact that women tend to return later to the working market due to their career breaks when they are pregnant. Secondly, if we choose the variable of occupational effects (See appendix 2) it is argueable that there is a difference of earnings between men and woman in managers and senior officials higher than administrative and secretarial occupations. In fact people who work within professional and technical occupations, career breaks are damaging people future earnings less who work within professional and technical occupations that means career is more flexible compared to senior officials occupations. Finally, in appendix 3 it can be seen clearly that women are submit to discrimination in manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, energy and quarrying sectors due to their lack of skills in this sector. Only, the public sector offers roughly the equal earnings according gender.

Finally, we can study the mentality of European Union members that know their feelings about the subject and know if for them it is natural that women work less than men in nowadays. (See appendix 4). The survey reveals that European’s opinions differ from one country to another. In France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal the majority of pooled people are discordant to this statement. Contrary to Greece, Bulgaria, Lithuania which are agree to say that it is normal that women work less than men. (European Commission (2009)) the results of this survey show very well that the mentalities are difficult to change and this contributes to discriminate women working.

Discrimination occurs ‘when one person’s wage is different from another otherwise identical person’s for reasons of non-productivity related characteristics such as gender’ Andrew Barnard (August 2008). Therefore, it is questionable why women are paid less than men. Andrews Barnard thinks it results from a “combination of discriminatory and economic reasons”.

According to De Curraize, Y., Hugouneny, R., (2004), allocation of time between productive and domestic spheres is often in favor or men. Indeed, the salary of women is often a supplementary salary whereas men are specialized in working area. Moreover, stereotypical perceptions of women still remains through a lack of flexibility due to their needs to reconcile demands of career and family, some negative effects of masculine organizational culture. As reported by the minister of employment, social cohesion and housing (2006), women are less paid than men because their working time is lower than men’s men working time. Indeed women work more frequently than men in part-time, they are doing more complementary hours but less lucrative than supplementary hours. In other part, men in average jobs are paid more than women in such that their supplementary hours are also in average better pay.

Moreover, the pay gap between men and women is not only due to discrimination. Indeed, Hakims (2004) argues that it is a scientific theory. Men and women have different main interests and they find their fulfillment through differ balance. Of 100 women, 20 are work centred, 20 are home centred and 60 are adaptive. And on 100 men 30 are adaptive, 60 are work centred and 10 are home centred.

Furthermore, it can be add also that women have a profile career easier to “damage” than men. The presence of children is of course a reason to cease activity particularly in women less qualified. Concerning women who have a high level of studies, maternity has an effect of working length with a transition of part-time to conciliate work and family life. Finally, women are concentrated in less lucrative fields often they are focus on health, social, teaching jobs at the expense of scientific and engineer field therefore we can speak about of occupational segregation (De Curraize, Y., Hugouneny, R., (2004)). Finally, Goldberg (1973) thinks that the male dominance in the working area could come from their hormones. Indeed, their attraction of competition, assertiveness, and dominant are due to their testosterone. Therefore, it is obvious for them to be in high hierarchy.

To conclude this part, we can consider that discriminal in pay, occupational segregation and the unequal impact women’s family responsibilities are three main factors which contribute to the gender gap.

In this second part, a legal position regarding women work will be given through government initiatives. The main actors who contributed most to progress in the area of gender equality according to survey of European Commission (2009) are associations representing women’s interests, national equality organization, trade unions, the European Institutions (European Parliament, European Commission, European Council), National public authorities, NGOs, and Employers’ representatives. Firstly, we will see that some convention, laws and ratification will create to reduce gender discrimination.

Firstly, on the European level, some texts have been ratified. First of all the principle of equality between men and women defined in article 119 of Roma Treaty (1957) which announces the equality of pay without discrimination based on sex. This implies a payment given for a same job being establish in the basis of the same unit of measurement and that the payment given for a job paid being the same for the same work position.

On the national level, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and United Kingdom Parliament have enforced The equal pay act in 1970 which is amended in 1983 based on prohibition of any less favorable treatment between men and women in terms of pay and conditions of employment. The term pay is interpreted in a broad sense to include, on top of wages, things like holidays, pension rights, company perks and some kinds of bonuses. Also, Sex discrimination Act dated of 1975 protects men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marriage. Moreover, this Act is mainly in relation to employment, training, education, harassment, the provision of goods and services, and the disposal of premises. Other amendments have been introduced by the Sex Discrimination Act 1986, the Employment Act 1989, the Equality Act 2006, and other legislation such as rulings by the European Court of Justice. In February 2001, the EOC sets up Equal pay task force publishing a report to eliminate gender pay gap and almost try to understand it, take evidence and suggest commendation about how to close the gap through amending social economic and labour market policies to complement equal pay measures for instance flexibility, training opportunities. This report lays down 5 multi-levels to addressing the issue. The first one is ‘raising levels of awareness and developing a common understanding of what the pay gap means’, the second is ‘reforming and modernising the equal pay legislation’, then ‘capacity building to ensure that employers and trade unions know how to implement equal pay’, the fourth is ‘enhancing transparency and developing accountability for delivering pay equality’ and the final one is ‘amending social, economic and labour market policies to complement equal pay measures’ (Equal Pay Task Force Report (2001)). The law of 23 March 2006 has the same goal of Equal pay task force however this law leads to a sanction when there is no plan of curbing professional inequalities in companies. (Gottely-Fayet J. (Mars 2010))

James Purnell, Minister of State for Pensions Reforms (March 2007) would allow men to share more domestic responsibilities. As reality has proved that men are already doing more within the household, but they still do less than women. This pensions reforms stands for tackle to ‘stereotypical career paths (job ‘suited’ to women for example Women and Work Commission- Five ‘C’s), remove stereotypes embedded in organizational culture for instance women in support roles and reduce stereotypical view of men as managers’ (Managing diversity for equal diversity course slides). We have to notice also the Government’s Ten Year Childcare Strategy (2nd December 2004) which is setting up to improve parent’s life. It relies on 4 principles which include the choice and the flexibility which is means that parents have a large choice about balancing work and family life, the availability concerning families with children aged up to 14 who need it, an ‘affordable, high-quality childcare place’ is available in order to meets their expectations, the quality where a ‘high-quality provision with a highly skilled childcare’ is promoted and finally the affordability where families could be able to ‘afford flexible high-quality childcare that is appropriate to their needs’ according to the Government office for London (2004). And finally the Equality Act 2006 allowing to the British Government to introduce regulations outlawing discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in goods and services in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2006) and a provision relating to the creation of a public duty to promote equality on the ground of gender. Finally, can be seen that government shows the will to remove discrimination through creative equal opportunities initiatives based on career-break schemes, work place nursery, women-only training programs, special holidays, work-sharing and part-time employment. (Firth-Cozens, J. and A. West (1990))

Government initiatives against discrimination are not enough to succeed to reach a total equality between men and woman. Indeed, other strategies within companies can be used to combat pay gap.

Firstly, according to Jones, Ben (December 2009) a greater transparency is necessary in the companies, the availability of pay showing detailed job evaluations. For instance, in the public sector equal pay monitoring is a compulsory requirement. Employees have to make audits to publish gender gap in order to aware on discrimination, review existing policies within their companies and to re-examine how your staff are paid. The audit results will help to identify and address pitfalls in pay systems. It will also suggest good basis for create new policies or improving old ones. If companies are enrolled in fair pay this allow to have a positive impact on staff motivation and retention. It will also improve trust in the employer/employee relationship. EOC Equal opportunities commission (2009) pointed out.

Some others measures should be taken to reduce the pay gap between men and women like impose penalties on company guilty of gender based pay discrimination, intensifying efforts to combat prejudice and generally negative accepted areas concerning women that is means challenging stereotypes; facilitate responsibility women positions through formal monitoring programs, remove barriers of inflexible working; improve access for women and men to sectors and jobs in which they are under-represented for example apply a fair recruitment and selection procedures and finally enhancing the standing of the sectors or jobs in which a majority of women are employed like combining work and family life, lifelong opportunities for women in training and work, embedding quality part-time work and improving career’s advice. European Commission Survey (2009) p.67

Moreover, EOC proposes a guide to employers on equal pay between men and women under the sex discrimination ordinance. Indeed, company can enroll in Equal Pay Policy in order to have a ‘good employment practice to maintain open communication with staff’. This policy permits to ensure to employees a clear understanding on problems relating to their career within their organizations and understand principles affections their remuneration throughout their working life within their company. The Equal Pay Policy should cover the following requirement in order to combat pay gap:

Some commitment are recommended like ‘organization’s commitment to support the principle of equal pay between men and women, an outline of the policies and practices undertaken by the organization to ensure pay equity, a commitment to carry out equal pay self-audits periodically and to take corrective actions if necessary, another one to provide resources to monitor equal pay practice in the organization, an account of actions taken and results obtained to validate compliance on equal pay under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance and the establishment of a mechanism to provide assistance to staff to address equal pay concerns’.

To sum it up Governments, organizations and institutions show their will to reduce and remove gender gap thanks to some Acts and laws such as the Equal Pay Act, Equality Act or Government’s ten year child care strategy. Also, some strategies are implemented within companies like the development of a certain transparency, audits, fair recruitment, and career advice. In spite of the reduction of gender pay gap, we notice that it still remains through some statistics which show discrimination in pay, occupational segregation and unequal impact women’s family responsibilities.

There are good reasons to be optimistic about the future because the majority of Europeans consider that it is not normal that a women work less than men therefore the mentalities are changing however to combat women work discrimination it is questionable if the image of the women should be less stereotype in the media?

Appendices

Figure 1
Andrew Barnard (August 2008) Modelling the gender pay gap in the UK: 1998 to 2006
Figure 2
Andrew Barnard (August 2008) Modelling the gender pay gap in the UK: 1998 to 2006
Figure 3
Andrew Barnard (August 2008) Modelling the gender pay gap in the UK: 1998 to 2006
Figure 4
European Commission (2009), Gender equality in the EU in 2009

What is euthanasia?

There are a lot of definitions of euthanasia which have the similar meanings with each other, and here are some definitions from different say.

From Medicine Net.com

“The word “euthanasia” comes straight out of the Greek — “eu”, goodly or well + “thanatos”, death = the good death — and for 18th-century writers in England that was what euthanasia meant, a “good” death, a welcome way to depart quietly and well from life.”

(Medical Net.com, Medical dictionary)

From Answer.com

“The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment.”

(Answer.com, the world’s leading Q&A site)

From wiseGEEK

“Euthanasia is the process of painlessly helping a terminally ill person to die.”

(wiseGEEK)

Legalization of euthanasia

The legalization of euthanasia is not common, it still cause intense debate among people. Up to now, there are two countries accept the legalization of euthanasia, Netherland and Belgium.

Netherland is the first country that legalizes euthanasia, the House of Representatives in Netherland approved the proposed law of euthanasia on the 28th of November in 2000 and, finally the Senate in Netherland allowed the legalization of euthanasia on the 10th April in 2001.

Belgium is the second country that approves the legalization of euthanasia. After two days debate, the lower house of the Belgian parliament approved the bill by 86 votes in favors, 51 against and with 10 abstentions. The Belgian parliament finally passed law partially legalizing euthanasia in 2002.

Though these two countries allow euthanasia and mercy killing that carry out by doctors, they set up strict rules to govern it. For examples, the person who request to euthanize must be conscious and he or she must has suffered from the prolonged physical and mental pains of terminal illness, more than one medical opinion are needed to approve each case of euthanasia.

Moreover, actually there are some places which are allow people to commit some kinds of euthanasia. For instance, physician-assisted suicide is allowed in Swiss, doctor can remove patients ‘respirator in some special cases and, terminal patients are allowed to decide continue the treatment or not by themselves in Denmark.

On the other hand, there are still lots of countries fight against the legalization of euthanasia, including Italy, Vatican, Russia, German and Britain..etc.

Reason for euthanasia

There are a number of reasons for euthanasia, including the pains that the patients suffered, the “dead life” that patients had, the family suffers and the economic burden to the society. More detailed explanations will carry out in the following paragraphs:

The prolonged pain that the patients suffered

People always say life is a divine gift to everyone, gifts should be enjoyable, and people should live enjoyably. However, for those who suffer from terminal illness, they have no hopes and they suffered from the great physical and metal pains in every moment, they are not enjoying their life, but being torturing. For those terminal illness patients, living can be a torture and euthanasia is an ideal way to die, people can die without any pains. So why don’t people choose to die peacefully rather than live with pains?

Prolonged death is not life

Comatose patient or vegetable refer to person who is physically alive but mentally inactive. They can’t move, can’t do anything but just in coma condition all the time, it is not a life real indeed. Though they might recover, the probability is very small. Without own thinking and the ability to move, that means they are not really living.

The pain and pressure that the patients’ family suffered

Although terminal patients and vegetable are always being take care by the nurse and doctors and live in the hospital, it doesn’t mean that their family members no need to take care of them. Since the staffs are not only take care of one terminal patient, so they can provide limited care only. For example, terminal patients and vegetable needs people’s care, it is important to have somebody talk to them even they can’t response, that’s what their family have to do. It is not difficult to imagine how tired they are keeping go to the hospital everyday and sometimes might be have to go there several times per day.

So, euthanasia is not only a way to escape for the patients, but their family as well.

Economic burden to the society

As the report mentioned above, prolonged death is not life, so it is necessary for people to consider continue spending money on those patients or not. Terminal patients and comatose have a very low chance to recover, however, the medical expenses for maintaining their life is quite heavy. Generally, the expense for a comatose is $8000 – $10000 per month, it seems that the cost is not so high. But, there are number of patients, let’s take America as an example, the medical expenses spent on those patients cost 10 – 70 billions US dollars each year because of the large amount of patients. Although it is merciless to include the economic factor in the reasons of euthanasia, we are living in a century which is utilitarianism always comes first, we have to accept this ruthless fact.

Arguments against the legalization of euthanasia

After listing the reasons for euthanasia, it comes to another controversial issue which is related to euthanasia, the legalization of euthanasia. Up to now, there are only two countries legalize euthanasia, it reflects that the legalization of euthanasia still need more discussion and the report is going to point out the arguments against this issue. There are three arguments against the legalization of euthanasia.

Euthanasia can be considered as murder

Law functions as a tool that maintain the peace of the society and delimit the truth and falsehood in the society. Therefore, when considering the legalization of euthanasia, we must ensure it is not conflict with the existing law. Murder means someone kills the others, it is illegal in all countries. Euthanasia ends people’s life, actually it is a kind of murder too, and the legalization of euthanasia indicates the legalization of murder as well. To adhere the principles of law, euthanasia should not be legalized. Also, the concept of euthanasia is conflict with the ethics and violates the humanism, it is a uncivilized behavior that causes the wrong values in the society.

Life must be protected and promoted in all circumferences

life is a divine gift that no one has the right to take it away, except god. Life is precious to everyone, that’s why we have being taught that killing people is definitely wrong when we were children and we also set up law to punish murderer. All these things are used to protect our life. Furthermore, a positive outlook of life should be promoted instead of treat the end of life as a way to escape. This positive attitude is what an improving society should have, look forward to the future and never give up in any situations.

A favor is provided for lawless person

The legalization of euthanasia allows people to end their life, at the same time, it allows people to end the others’ life too. As a result, there are lawless person can make use of this law to achieve their evil wants. For instance, people who don’t want to provide for their aged parents may make use of euthanasia to end their parents’ life and, euthanasia can be a tool that help the lawless person to get the inheritance earlier by ending their parents’ life.

Data from survey

A survey on euthanasia has carried out, there are totally 30 people who come have different nationalities, religions, genders and ages do the survey. The survey consists of 7 questions, which focus on different aspects of euthanasia and some statistics will show below.

To ensure all interviewees know what euthanasia is, the above question is the first question of the survey and the pie chart shows the result. According to the statistics, 70% of the interviewees know the term “euthanasia”, 27% of them are not quite sure what euthanasia is and only 3% of them don’t know what euthanasia is. This result reflects the issue of euthanasia is quite popular among people, but there are still some people not sure what euthanasia is. During the survey, we found that the reason of most people chose the answer “NOT SURE” is they don’t know the difference between euthanasia and suicide. It can be concluded that most people know the term “euthanasia” but there is still misconstruction about euthanasia existing in the society.

According to the statistics, the total number of people who think euthanasia is in conflict with moral values is 13, slightly higher than the number of people who answered “NO”. The distribution of the statistics is that the people in the age group of 18-29 are tending to answer NO while people in the age group of 30-40 and 41 or above are more likely to choose YES. It indicates the different thinking and values between the younger people and middle -agers and old people. In the youth’s values, they mostly think there is no conflict between euthanasia and their moral values, but in middle-agers and old people’s eyes, it is an irreconcilable conflict. Another remarkable point is people aged above 30 are generally having their stand on this question, only 1 of them has no stand on it. Comparing the number of the other age groups, the younger age groups have a total number of 4 people choosing the answer NOT SURE, it is obvious that the younger are not having definite view. This phenomenon occurs can be explained by the age of people, it is a comprehensive fact since people mental is mature with their age.

The general trend is people are not agreeing on the legalization of euthanasia. Referring to the statistics, 9 people agree legalizing euthanasia, 14 people disagree the legalization of euthanasia and the rest of them have no stand.

Among five groups of people from different countries, Chinese’s attitude on the legalization of euthanasia is the most clear and definite. There are 16 Chinese interviewees in total, 4 of them agree the legalization of euthanasia and 10 of them do not, it shows that more than 50% of them oppose the legalization of euthanasia, it is a definite statistics compare with the result of the other countries. On the contrary, Australian is more likely to agree the legalization of euthanasia, there are 4 people out of 8 people in Australia agree to legalize euthanasia, while the other 50% of the people are disagree or have no stand.

Apart from the above two nations, the other nations are having an indefinite attitude, people from Japan, Korea and France are tend to choose “NOT SURE”. Referring to the result, there are 2 Koreans, a Japanese and a French chose “NOT SURE”. It reflects these three nations don’t have an identical attitude on this issue.

In this question, more than one answer can be chose, so the above result has more than 30 votes in total.

According to the result, there are 28 interviewees think that the family members of a person should be authorized to decide the person commit euthanasia or not, nearly all of the interviewees chose this option. The number of people chose the option, himself or herself, is slightly fewer than the option, family members, just 3 more people have chosen family members than himself or herself. It reflects people concern on the patients’ family members decision the most, even more than the patients himself or herself.

Doctor is the choice that falls behind the option, himself or herself, there are 14 people chose this option. It reflects that though doctors are providing professional medical advice, most people don’t consider them to be the one who approve the commitment of euthanasia. It can be explained by the identity of doctors, since the doctor is just the person who cures the patients, the relationship between the family members and the patient is much closer than doctors and the patients. The least popular choice is his or her friends, there are only 2 people chose this choice. It is not difficult to understand this result, it is because friends are outsider in this case.

Conclusion and Recommendation

In this report, a lot of researches and a survey about euthanasia have been carried out. After researching into the issue of euthanasia, euthanasia can be concluded as ending a life without pains and there are both pros and cons on the legalization of euthanasia.

Referring to the result of the survey, there are several discoveries after the analysis. To summarize, most people know the term “euthanasia” but there is still misconstruction about euthanasia existing in the society, older people are more likely to think the euthanasia is in conflict with their moral values while the younger do not, the general trend is people are not agreeing on the legalization of euthanasia and family members of a person is the one that people think they should be authorized to decide the person commit euthanasia or not.

Base on the above conclusion and findings from report, a number of recommendations have raised. Firstly, I recommend people spend more time on knowing the true meaning of euthanasia since it is a popular issue in the society, but there are still some people misunderstand the term “euthanasia”. At the same time, it is the government’s responsibility to ensure their citizens have enough understanding on the public issues, so I suggest the government try to use different ways to teach people a correct meaning of euthanasia. The last thing I would like to suggest is the government has to consider twice before legalizing euthanasia because it is an issue that affect a lot of aspects, like ethics and religion. If the government legalizes euthanasia thoughtlessly, the society may in a state of chaos.

It is remarkable to say that population studies weren’t that popular prior to the Second World War. People weren’t concerned about how a population grows. In fact their evolving population was considered a mathematical research rather than a demographic one. After the Second World War though, demography has become a well developed discipline introducing to the post war populations may information regarding their change/evolution.

Various studies show that after the First demographic transition, between the 1946 and 1964, women were more likely to have numerous children. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) had an extremely great increase and populations have grown by approximately a 2%. Unfortunately, after that period, things had changed and the total fertility rate had declined dramatically.

So, do couples actually want to expand their family names? Do they really want to have a baby under these conditions and way of nowadays living? Population growth is one of the most important issues demographers have to deal with, within their careers, making them extremely concerned that we might have a nice probability to become extinct as a race.

Many theories and studies are published every year, in journals, books and in various types of report showing that low fertility is a potential problem for the population growth, societies and even individual families.

Having that in mind and doing my own personal research based on the reasons causing this phenomenon, I came across the following article that influenced me and raised lots of questions in my mind as an active society member: “When people respond to lower mortality rates by having smaller families, economies change fundamentally, usually for the better. As the fertility rate falls, the number of working-age adults’ creeps up relative to the rest of the population, laying the foundation for the so-called “demographic dividend” (The Economist, ‘fertility decline, the demographic dividend, poverty and inequality. Demography and Inequality’) .

AS the article regards, having a low fertility rate creates a more satisfying economic living. This phenomenon actually affects the Italian population. It is noteworthy that the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) throughout the years in Italy has become one of the lowest fertility rates among Western European countries. TFR has declined from 2.45 to 1.63 (OECD ‘Low participation countries’). 1,63 is a value well below the initial 2.45 one, provoking a population decrease.

Many reasons such as social, political, economic, psychological as well environmental, are responsible for Italian young adult generations to maintain the fertility levels offensive. In this essay I will discuss the reasons causing low fertility rates in Italy.

Main Body:

To understand how people became aware of the low fertility situation, we have to explain the Demographic Transition theory. With Demographic transition theory we mean the industrialization progress. We define the change from a pre-industrialized establishment, of high rates of mortality and fertility to a post-industrialized one, with both fertility and mortality rates low.

In 1929 a famous English demographer, Warren Thompson, developed a theory that distinguishes 3 different types of countries based on their population growth rates:

Group A: The countries with falling rates of increase facing a strong population decline.

Group C: The countries which neither birth nor death rates were controlled, also known as Malthusian.

Group B: The countries with the imaginary population growth. In these countries, the death rates were increasing rapidly while the birth rates remained constant. At a first place the death rates increase provokes an illusion that the population is growing. Within the years though, because of the fixed birth rates, the population actually has decreased.( Dudley Kirk (1996): Demographic Transition Theory, Population Studies: A Journal of Demography, 50:3, 361-387)

It is not a surprise that the Italian population is part of the second group (Group B). In the early 90’s Italy and other European countries had a fertility decline to significantly lower levels, known as one of the lowest-low-fertility countries. In the following graph we can see the Italian fertility rate going. It illustrates a slight increase from the 50’s until the 65’and a significant fertility decrease from the 70’s until today: C:UsersxanthisDesktopMSC Social StatsUnd.pop.changeessay1 articlesUntitled.png

Source: Country Profiles WFR2009 (Italian Part).

Nevertheless, the question remains unanswered: Why fertility declined in the first place?

The idea of new industrial societies, undoubtedly introduced the small family belief. With technological development, new skills were needed and as a result new opportunities for getting different jobs appeared. Obviously, to be up to date with the technology improvement, education has become of crucial importance and new economic roles appeared for women as well. As a result women became independent from childbearing while high child-rearing costs were introduced.

By the time, industrial and technology improvements created a fundamental decline, -within the young adult’s Italian population -, of motivation to subjugate. Fairly enough the young adults are not motivated since having a child nowadays causes lots difficulties to a couple. Despite the fact that childbearing is one of the most important and positive experience of a couple’s life, young adults cannot afford it. It seems that everything is moving around the economic status of a couple, since taking a birth decision is highly related with the economic income and employment. Female employment in Italy is generally low even for-part time workers. Most of the Italian women have as a first option to leave the labor market after having a baby rather than combine the child caring with their jobs. That incompatibility of labor force participation and childbearing is created due to non flexible labor markets. The employed Italian females have to deal with the following problems in a family centered society such as in Italy: Society is organized in a way that suits more the male adults. In fact scarce child rearing facilities exist because of the above philosophy. It is believed that in a family the bread-winner is the male. As a matter of fact, the care of a child is by law considered a woman’s responsibility.

Furthermore, mothers don’t have any state support for a new child and working, while having a child violates the social norm. Another problem that it may sound a bit old-school, also affect women’s labor force participation. Women have a double workload as they also do most of the household work. Most of the men decide to move from their parental house when they have to move in with their partners. They do not experience their selves the opportunity to leave alone and take care of their own place, so as a result they do not know how to behave properly with house works (Demographic patterns from the 1960’s in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, A review.(Rydell, Ingrid, presented at seminar at Institute for Future Studies: October 2002,Dalla Zuanna 2001).

This economic uncertainty in early adulthood, delays the process of leaving the parental home. Most of the working adults leave home at the age of 25-29 when they feel, barely, independent economically. Italian families encourage the late departure from the family house because of these economic conditions. This late departure has a direct effect on fertility since leaving your household in a late age means that probably the marriage age will be delayed as well and so a shorter time interval it can be used for childbearing.

Whereas to lots of sexually transmitted diseases the pharmaceutical/chemistry section has raised and created new methods that help young adults avoid unwanted pregnancies. The separation of sex from childbearing is caused exactly by the use of these methods, the contraceptive ones which contribute to low fertility levels.

Ageing is one of the most important reasons causing the reduction of population increase. As I stated before, based on Warren Thompson’s theory, Italy is included in the Group B countries. Younger people may want to downsize the welfare state given the increasing challenges involved in supporting the old population. Due to fewer young adults, a large proportion of older voters exist and so there are no changes in the system. Labor force productivity is also affected by ageing. Having small numbers of young adult workers, older ones cannot be replaced and as a result productivity of work force becomes weak.

Conclusions:

As seen, in this piece of essay, low fertility may be a strong problem for the population growth and create lots of disadvantages. This argument has 2 schools of thoughts. Many argue that if population growth existed, and remained increasing then lots of benefits would have affected the population. In example, large number populations support a larger number of people who are free to talk and express their ideas. More people brainstorm helping the world progress within technology, science and belief. In addition, larger numbers create a generic diversity. Diversity is particularly important, while learning about diseases and disorders. Work force also may be affected. Large number of workers can decline dramatically the unemployment rate since having a large number of workers creates opportunities for new working roles and places.

Furthermore, extending the housing market, so that more young people could set up a home would probably increase young adult’s fertility rates. Also population growth control could reduce poverty. It is notable to say that extremely large populated places are victims of higher numbers of poverty. While a population grows, more demands are being asked by many and as a result they will have to depend on state benefits in order to survive.

This in turn puts further effort on resources. Controlling population growth may result a positive factor since resources would be spread evenly.

On the other hand, as others argue, low fertility and ageing may be viewed in a positive way. A smaller population means less pressure to support. Fewer houses, roads, bridges and buildings would cause less money to spend for their maintenance and in that way government can spend money on other, less urgent, aspect, in example children education. Having fewer kids, the educational investment per child becomes larger and as a further result the labor force productivity will increase.

Moreover, some argue that less and old people provide better environmental living. Older people consume less damaging energy for the environment. In fact having a smaller population gases, air pollution and oil of the well known destructive issues of the environment can be less damaging. Fewer people help in saving the earth. It also helps in decreasing carbon dioxide (co2) and other gasses. Additionally, small population may keep some countries survive. Customs and traditions may be kept alive while interacting in small number populations.

Concluding when a country has too many wastes, there would be not enough space to store the others. Since there are more people, the resources would not be enough for those people. Many believe that resources should be divided equally between the people of a population.

When a disease attacks a country with a big population, probabilities are higher for an easy spread of it.

My personal opinion is that low fertility is a potential problem for the general population growth. Generations must change and evolve. Surely having smaller populations has lots of benefits but it has a huge disadvantage, smaller populations are more controlled by the government. Over the years I believe that next generations will be more comfortable as a whole than the previous ones. Today’s children are richer in things and education than their parents were as youngsters and today’s children’s children would be more comfortable than nowadays ones. It is always evolving for the better.

Concluding, I couldn’t agree more with the following statement that I found in an article: ‘Demography is too important to be left to demographers’ (Dudley Kirk (96): Demographic Transition Theory, Population Studies: A Journal of Demography, 50:3, 361-387). Populations must be aware of that situation and reproduce man kind.

Abstract- In India, The realities of rural life in India are difficult to comprehend. We are now witnessing a steady improvement in the enrolment of women in schools, colleges and even in profession institutes. Their health is better as compared to earlier decades. In this decade, women are entering into the job market in increasing numbers field showing their skills even in non-traditional sectors like police, defence, administration, media and research fields. In the political field, the reservation for women is a significant step forward towards their political empowerment. When thirty-three percent reservations for women in Parliament becomes a reality, women’s voice will be heard in the highest forum of democracy. The day, women of India will reach zenith in their empowerment. People were not allowed to share own property, they did not have a Share in the property of their parents, they had no voting rights, and they had no freedom to choose their work or job and so on. The present seminar has been planned with a view to discuss the various issues related to the Empowerment of Women and to suggest measures for achieving this end. In India population according to the 2001 Census, the percentage of female literacy in the country is 54% up from 9% 1951. In order to help women to be in popular, they necessary to be empowered. There is a condition for empowerment of women is to the transform a developing country into a developed country. In this paper we are highlighting that in India country women’s strength is critical and we explain the critical value of women how improve their value & status for some ways.

Keywords- Economics, Status, NGO, PEP, Improving,

CEDAW,

Introduction

In the empowerment of women include many things – economic opportunity, social equality, and personal rights. Women were deprived of those human rights, often as a matter of tradition. In rural areas, women are generally not perceived to have any meaningful income generation capacity, and hence, they are relegated mainly to household duties and cheap labour. We are now witnessing a steady improvement in the enrolment of women in schools, colleges and even in profession institutes. Their health is better as compared to earlier decades. In this decade, women are entering into the job market in increasing numbers. They are showing their skills even in non-traditional sectors like police, defence, administration, media and research fields. Twenty-six laws have been enacted so far to protect women from various crimes [7]. In particular define empowerment is depend just like that power cannot change if power cannot be change. If this is inherent in neither positions or nor people, then empowerment impossible, nor is empowerment conceivable in any meaningful way. Bookman & morgen et.al [5] in 1984 defining that empowerment status of women level on that time, women level on that only born child and work at home [4] VARA LAXMI is definition in an article way by A Sustainable approach for Women Empowerment through Micro-finance, the micro-credit or micro-finance has got much avowed attention among government circles, voluntary sector and the academia. More importantly after the success of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank started by Prof Mahammad Yunus who bestowed with the Nobel Peace prize for 2006, for the efforts to create economic and social development from below. There is also mounting evidence to show that the availability of financial services for poor households – such as micro-finance -can empower the rural people to achieve their goals and enhance their lives accordingly. It is assumed that women’s control over income will lead to increased well-being for women and their children. This individual economic empowerment is also assumed to lead to wider social and political empowerment. [8] NGO plays an important for role for improving empowerment. This Asian-foundation organization two running program MDG-3 (Gender, Equality and women empowerment) & the convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) for women empowerment.

CONCEPT

In India, the empowerment process has already begun. For centuries women were not treated equal to men in many ways. While a small minority of people in major cities have benefited from the information revolution of the past decade, the lives of most people in rural India (over 650 million) have hardly improved. Now that we have come out of those dark days of oppression of women there is a need for strong movement to fight for the rights of women and to ensure that they get all the rights which men have or in other words a movement for the Empowerment of Women. Twenty-six laws have been enacted so far to protect women from various crimes. These are very positive signs which imply that women can be leaders. Though some women have shown their mettle yet a large number of them have to sharpen their leadership qualities in various ways. The recent law on the ‘protection of women against domestic violence’ satisfies the long pending demand of the women activities. But a lot of work has to be done as there is a category of women (who consider themselves highly educated) that proudly accepts that they don’t have digital literacy even though they own a computer, they cannot even operate bank accounts or make travel arrangements for family or handle hospital admissions even during emergencies. Even for a simple task like social visits or shopping generally they need the company of their husbands. Women should remember that they are also rational, intelligent and thinking human beings. Dependent women are not empowered women. If modern women think that they are empowered, it’s a myth for them. Empowerment means to inspire women with the courage to break free from the chains of limiting beliefs, patterns and societal or religious conditions that have traditionally kept women suppressed and unable to realize their true beauty and power.

Different Levels of Empowerment

In line with most theorists on empowerment the one has to view empowerment as taking place on different levels and that change on all levels is necessary if the empowerment of women is really to occur. We have to relate empowerment at three levels: empowerment on the individual, group, and societal/community level and the interaction between these.

The individual level deals with individual women’s abilities to take control over their lives, their perceptions about their own value and abilities, their abilities to identify a goal and work towards this goal.

The group level deals with the collective action and sense of agency that woman experience together, in a group.

The societal level deals with the permissiveness of the political and social climate, the societal norms and the public discourse on what is possible and impossible for women to do, how women should behave etc.

The different levels are seen as connected and mutually reinforcing, e.g. when empowerment on individual level occurs, this will have effect on the group and societal level. Women who are empowered on an individual level will most likely go on and affect the other levels. Empowerment on a group level e.g. women organizing around a particular need is likely to have effect on the individual empowerment of the women in the form of increased self esteem and sense of agency.

Historical Background of Women Empowerment in India

The status of Women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millenniums. In early Vedic period Women enjoyed equal status with men. Rigved & Upanishads mention several names of women sages and seers notably Gargi & Maitre. However later the status of women began to deteriorate approximately from 500 B.C., the situation worsened with invasion of Mughals and later on by European invaders. Few improvement movements by Guru Nanak, Jainism, Raja ram Mohan Rai, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Pandita Ramabai and others did give some relief. It is not that Britishers didn’t do anything for improving the condition of women. Some laws were enacted such an “Abolition of practice of Sati”, Widow Remarriage Act 1856 etc.Feminist activism picked up momentum in India during later 1970’s. Later on many groups and NGO’s have been working for the Empowerment of women. We are proud that in India Women got voting right much before USA and some other European countries.

Empowerment of Women in Rural India Today

The realities of rural life in India are difficult to comprehend. While a small minority of people in major cities have benefited from the information revolution of the past decade, the lives of most people in rural India (over 650 million) have hardly improved. A majority of villages do not have sustainable economies, and only through oppression of women and lower castes can the landlords, upper castes, and government officials support a better life for themselves. Private initiatives are lacking as the government, to preserve its power, has placed obstacles and disincentives at every step. For example, modern healthcare for all of rural India is a free government service, but the reality is that the delivery of primary health care has failed miserably. A number of charitable institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played a positive role, often assisted by government grants and foreign donations [2]. NGO, s and civil society at large in order to use the research document as a springboard to launch a sustained advocacy strategy to achieve the MDG-3 target of 33% of women in parliament. Our operating premise is that improving, economic and political opportunities for women improve societies as a whole. The foundation seeks to identify change agents build constituencies for reform around key issues affecting women’s states and promote internal efforts to identify and solve problems [8].

Empowerment of women involves many things – economic opportunity, social equality, and personal rights. Women are deprived of these human rights, often as a matter of tradition. In rural areas, women are generally not perceived to have any meaningful income generation capacity, and hence, they are relegated mainly to household duties and cheap labour. Without the power to work and earn a good income, their voices are silenced. Even in matters of sex and child bearing, women often do not have the ability to oppose the wishes of their men.

Birth control and reproductive health of women are behavioural issues affected mostly by economics, access to health care, and education. Until this reality is accepted, the desired changes may not be attainable in the foreseeable future.

In a society where men control the destiny of women, how is it possible to empower women? Simply encouraging women to resist the wishes of men would not only fail, but would create mistrust of any goodwill attempts from “the outside” to help rural communities. Women will gain power only when both men and women begin to respect and accept the contribution of women. Developing women’s capacity for income generation without threatening men is key.

Two Stories (First story)

First story based on The George Foundation placed in Bangalore, India and founded in 1995, was established to help alleviate poverty, promote health and a clean environment, and to strengthen democratic institutions and values in India. We have come to know of the following two events, among many others, in the course of our work with the families of the children in our boarding school, Shanti Bhavan. The first case involves a young pretty mother who was living with her son in a small hut. Her husband had earlier abandoned her, and she was not able to return to her parents as they considered her “unworthy.” One morning, she accompanied two men from the city who promised employment for her in the Middle East following an interview at an office somewhere, only to be gang raped and then returned to her village after a few days. Her absence was noticed by her neighbours, who blamed her for the outcome and accused her for the separation from her husband. Feeling shame, and finding that she could no longer live in the community, she set herself on fire with kerosene.

Second story

The second story is about a middle-aged woman whose husband had more than one “wife,” a common practice in rural India though not officially allowed. One of his wives contracted AIDS somehow, and while her illness had become generally known, he continued to have sexual relationship with his other wives. He made no effort to medically test or to take adequate protection measures for himself or his other women, and soon all involved contracted the disease. These two real life stories represent the endless number of lives lost from ignorance, the low status of women and their inability to control their destiny.

Some example work improving & reason for failure

Dharmapuri District in Tamil Nadu State, India, has been identified as one of the most backward districts in the nation in terms of health and development. This District is remote and the project described below is carried out in an area about 24 kilometres from the nearest city, Hosur. Infrequent and irregular public transport hinders quick access to government emergency health services. Education facilities are limited to government primary schools of poor quality, and the nearest high school is located 10-15 kilometres from many of the villages served by The George Foundation’s projects [1].

Reason: – In Dharmapuri District the Foundation has attempted to facilitate the development of a model community consisting of several villages that prosper from sustainable and integrated economic activities. Health and education facilities are being renovated, and economic opportunities are being shared, especially among the socially disadvantaged castes and women [1]. In this article Transitioning from a command and control culture to employee empowerment requires a commitment to long-term change. Too often, management fads and quick fixes in the name of empowerment have been implemented rather than relevant changes in management systems, structures, and cultural values. To be successful, empowerment must be seen as a long-term program of employee participation and involve-ment.but this type of program cannot run for long time [10].

Why is there still a Need for Women Empowerment?

In spite of the various measures taken up by the government after Independence and even during British rule the Women haven’t been fully empowered. We may be proud of women in India occupying highest offices of President, Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Sonia Gandhi, and Leader of the Opposition or women like Ms. Chandra Kochar occupying highest positions in the Corporate Sector but the fact remains that we still witness dowry deaths, domestic violence and exploitation of women. Some create history in space & sport like Sunita Williams & Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza & Anju Bobby George The female feticide is common phenomenon. The male female ratio though improved over last few years is still far from satisfactory. It is 940 women per 1000 men for India in some states it is as much lower as 877. These are the states where female feticide is maximum. The female literacy rate is also lower than the male literacy rate. The ground reality is deprivation, duration and exploitation of women specially women from rural areas and those belonging to deprived sectors of the society. The Urban elite class women have no doubt been benefitted by the efforts of women empowerment.

IV. Way of Improving Empowerment of poor women in India

The World Bank has been the major source of external funding through loans to governments (never directly to private institutions) for specific projects. Very few projects have ever met their goals; in fact, most rural projects have been dismal failures. Unbearable bureaucracy, terrible inefficiency, and corruption at all levels of the government have wasted much of the money allocated to rural development. Furthermore, the local officials who manage projects that target women do not themselves believe in the potential of women. Yet the process continues, without an alternative. International agencies continue to pour money into these programs, only to benefit the middlemen. Clearly, a new approach is required to have an impact on the lives of women in rural India, and to ultimately help stabilize population growth [1]. In this article the people empowering People (PEP) program uses the definition of empowerment to connect research, theory and practice. The PEP program builds on theory of critical adult education developed by Friere (1970), Horton (1989), and others. The focus is on the connection between individual action and community action encourages individual change through training sessions and discussions and supporting action through participants give people the opportunities, resources and support that they need to become involved themselves [7]. Nanette Page review in own article about PEP, empowerment as a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. In PEP as in we strive to teach people skills and knowledge that will motivate them to take steps to improve their own lives-to be empowered [3]. President Pratibha Patil said that women empowerment is of utmost importance if we want women’s progress. He said “Creating the environment which imparts equal status to women in family, society and country is the sole motive behind various facets of programmes being run for women empowerment. We have to work towards making them able to take their own decisions,” .Stressing on the importance of education, the President said, “Education is the first tool of empowerment. Right to Education, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan have ensured that education is available to children between the age group of six and 14. Be it a boy or girl, every child must get education. It is these educated women who can in turn educate other women and teach them independence and self-confidence [9]. In this report develop the empowerment improving mater from Financial Inclusion. MasterCard embarked on an initiative to further the process of women’s empowerment in the country in partnership with SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association). SEWA is a leading Indian organization that works towards helping women in securing employment opportunities, empowering them to be self-reliant with supportive services. I had the unique privilege of participating in SEWA’s activities and witness their success first hand at the recent inauguration of the seventh Rural Urban Development Initiative (RUDI) processing centre at Bodeli, near Vadodara, Gujarat supported by MasterCard. Through this program we will provide full-time employment opportunities for women in 100 adjoining villages to begin with and will expand to a catchment of 300 to 500 villages in Gujarat. This will help benefit approximately 2,000 farmers and 400 SEWA members [11].

Women’s Economic Empowerment through Co-operative Farming, Vocational Training & Business Development

Due to the lack of specific implementation plans and faulty representations, local communities have not adequately accepted government and private schemes for the upliftment of women. Women have not actively participated in their own emancipation due to their lack of economic independence and rampant illiteracy. Therefore, The George Foundation decided to address this important issue of women’s empowerment in India by raising the status of women in Hosur Taluk through economic empowerment and education.

Krishnagiri District is the most backward district in Tamil Nadu. In the geographical location selected, there are no high schools, no private schools, inadequate primary health sub-centres, and no NGOs. Roads, water supply, drainage and communication network are inadequate to augment economic development. Fragmented land holdings are not conducive to commercial farming. Child labour is rampant in this socially backward area. Population statistics of our country clearly indicate that quality education is out of the reach of the poor and marginalized irrespective of their innate potential. Women are often exploited by their communities. They have very little voice and no knowledge or means of improving their social and economic status.

In the villages of the area, the caste system is deeply entrenched. The lower caste colonies are ostracized and basic facilities are denied to them. Female infanticide is a common practice and women are punished socially for bearing girl

Children Gender biases are very evident in the preferential treatment given to the male child.

Rain-dependent agriculture, home-based animal husbandry, silkworm rearing and brick making are the main income generating activities. Fisheries, horticulture and industries have been established in a few select areas such as Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and House. Rural folk find it difficult to travel to these cities in search of jobs. The average family income level is below the poverty line.

One of the popular schemes employed by several NGOs, and supported by some international and bilateral agencies, is the so-called “micro-finance” or small loans that usually range up to $100 (Rs. 5,000) per woman to start some form of business. Notable successes have been recorded, and the program has received considerable world attention. Most poor women entrepreneurs are said to have been able to make their businesses successful, and repay the loan. However, our experience in this area with lower caste poor women has been somewhat different.

Poor women, especially from backward communities and lower castes, are mostly illiterate, untrained, and have very little social and economic status. In India, there are over 350 million such people, mainly in rural areas. The unemployed are nearly 200 million people, a great majority of them belonging to these deprived sections of the society. Without meaningful skills, social status, and economic power, they are unable to do any business on their own even with financial assistance.

To start even a small rural business, it takes no less than $500. According to some studies conducted by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmadabad, the average capital need for a one-person small business is in excess of Rs. 1 lakh ($2,000). Further, the chance of making any business successful is very small – the odds are barely 1 in hundred for an educated person. Uneducated lower caste rural women find it almost impossible to starting any such entrepreneurial work without adequate capital, proper training, and on-site daily support.

Based on our understanding of the problem faced in our rural community, we have devised a scheme for empowering poor and socially deprived women. The key ingredients of this program can be summarized as follows:

Adequate training in an area where the women have natural abilities and understanding (for example, farming and cattle rearing)

Use of superior technology to obtain better output and higher profits (modern farming techniques, such as use of proper fertilizers, deep ploughing, drip irrigation, etc.)

Creation of financial assets through savings (from profits generated from sale of produce, over and above wages received)

Ownership of physical assets (use of financial assets to buying cultivable land – A? acre per family)

Sharing of resources such as wells, tractor, etc. among several farmers

Provide a support system that addresses concerns, difficulties, know-how, etc.

Access to information and markets (knowing what high-value crop to grow and when, which markets offer higher prices on a given day, tie up export contracts, etc.)

Only when these requirements can be met, we believe poor illiterate rural women can be expected to turn into entrepreneurs.

The George Foundation has purchased/least 250 acres of land. An executive committee composed of representatives of The George Foundation, village panchayats, and agricultural consultants has been formed. Under its direction, the soil is being prepared for crop cultivation. Superior seeds of selected crops have been purchased. The panchayats members are highly motivated about this project.People from the surrounding villages is participating in the preparation of the land for farming. This program will be expanded to cover the neighbouring state of Karnataka in its later stages.

Members of the village panchayats, the village administrative officer and the block development officer have been with the project from its planning stage. The geographic community and the community of beneficiaries, particularly poor rural women, were involved in planning and implementation of the project.

Changing Social Institutions to Improve the Status of Women in Developing Countries

Figure 1 highlight how social institutions affect the economic role of women, i.e. their chances to have access to the labour market and to better paid and more qualified jobs such as professional workers, technicians, administrators and managers. Social institutions can exert their influence in two ways. Traditions, customs and social norms can constrain women’s activities directly – by not allowing them to start their own businesses, by refusing them jobs that involve contact with or managing men, or by simply not allowing them to leave the home alone. All these direct factors lead to an exclusion of women from entrepreneurial activities that are often the first step towards independence, self-esteem and liberty of choices. Morrison and Jutting (2004) analyse empirically the relationships between social institutions and the economic role of women. They measure the depth of discrimination caused by social institutions with economic (ECO) and non-economic (NON-ECO) indicators (for explanation, see Box 1). They find that the higher the value for ECO and NON-ECO variables the lower the probability that women will play an active role in the economy. A further econometric analysis puts into question the widely believed view that a rise in income will generally facilitate women’s access to the labour market [2].

Figure-1

Conclusions

The Empowerment of women has become one of the most important Concerns of 21st century not only at national level but also at the international level. Efforts by the Govt. are on to ensure Gender equality but Government initiatives alone would not be sufficient to achieve this goal. Society must take initiative to create a climate in which there is no gender discrimination and Women have full opportunities of Self decision making and participating in the Social, Political and Economic life of the Country with a sense of equality. Then only the Vedic verse “Wherever Women is respected, God resides there” would come true. The best gift parents today can give to their daughters is education. If women choose to be ignorant then all the efforts taken by the Government and women activists will go in vain. Even in twenty-fifth century, they will remain backward and will be paying a heavy price for their dependence, so, it is a wake-up call for women to awake from their deep slumber and understand the true meaning of their empowerment. In the end I would like to conclude with the following words, “Women as the motherhood of the nation should be strong, aware and alert”.

Despite the difficulties that are likely to be encountered, we believe it is possible to bring about major improvements to the lives of women in rural India. Well-planned and properly managed private initiatives can succeed in empowering women, provided the approach taken is sufficiently holistic. The time has come to go beyond small pilot projects that hardly ever lead to major undertakings. There has been much needless suffering for too long by a majority of the world’s population. It would be a noble and worthwhile effort to prove the concept on a large scale, probably for several million people in an area. That would require considerable organizational skills and management talent, with a clear focus on accomplishing set goals in a time-bound fashion. The success of such a program would be the model that international funding agencies and philanthropic institutions can build upon, and serve as a departure to the failed policies and programs of the past.