Author: Andre Coleman

Prostitution is listed among the crimes some refer to as victimless or consensual crimes, but research shows that may not be the true picture of prostitution. Before proceeding, we need to define prostitution. Despite of the fact that, prostitution being known as the oldest profession in the history of mankind. The workable definition has proven elusive. From a dictionary we learn that prostitution is the ‘act or practice of engaging in sexual intercourse for money’. But a prostitute cannot simply be a woman who sells her body, since ‘that was the norm of the society that women will get marriage in order to accomplish home and better life style. Promiscuity has been proposed as another candidate. Medieval canon lawyer Johannes Teutonicus suggested that a woman who had sex with more than 23,000 men should be classified as a prostitute, although, furthermore he says that sexual intercourse with 40 to 60 opposite gender would also be called prostitute. However, promiscuity itself does not turn a woman into a prostitute. Although a vast majority of prostitutes are promiscuous, most people would agree that sleeping around does not amount to prostitution. Hence I define prostitution as systematic sexual violence and oppression against female.

Selected national and international research projects and various programs by women have been initiated to address the health burden of violence against women. Such projects have especially focused on the health consequences to women of battering or domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, child sexual abuse and incest, and female genital mutilation (See, for example, World Bank Discussion Papers 255, Violence Against Women: the Hidden Health Burden). In depicting the health effects of such forms of violence against women, these projects attempt to make the violence, harm and human rights violation to women visible. However, a consideration of the dire health consequences of prostitution demonstrates that prostitution not only gravely impairs women’s health but it is obviously violence against women. The health consequences to women from prostitution are the same injuries and infections suffered by women who are subjected to other forms of violence. The physical health consequences include: injury (bruises, broken bones, black eyes, concussions). A 1994 study conducted with 68 women in Minneapolis/St.Paul who had been prostituted for at least six months found that 50% of those women had been physically assaulted by their purchasers, and a third of those experienced purchaser assaults at least several times a year. 23% of those assaulted were beaten severely enough to have broken bones. Furthermore, 90% of the women in this study had experienced violence in their personal relationships resulting in miscarriage, stabbing, loss of consciousness, and head injuries (Parriott, Health Experiences of Twin Cities Women Used in Prostitution).

Prostitution is physically harmful to women. STDs (including HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, human papilloma virus, and syphilis) are alarmingly high among women in prostitution. Only 15 % of the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study had never contracted one of the STDs, not including AIDS, most injurious to health (chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrheal, herpes). General gynecological problems, but in particular chronic pelvic pain and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), plague women in prostitution. The Minneapolis/St. Paul study reported that 31% of the women interviewed had experienced at least one episode of PID which accounts for most of the serious illness associated with STD infection. Among these women, there was also a high incidence of positive pap smears, several times greater than the Minnesota Department of Health’s cervical cancer screening program for low and middle income women. More STD episodes can increase the risk of cervical cancer. Another physical effect of prostitution is unwanted pregnancy and miscarriage. Other health effects include irritable bowel syndrome, as well as partial and permanent disability. The emotional health consequences of prostitution include severe trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, self-medication through alcohol and drug abuse; and eating disorders. Almost all the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study categorized themselves as chemically-addicted. Crack cocaine and alcohol were used most frequently. Ultimately, women in prostitution are also at special risk for self-mutilation, suicide and homicide. 46% of the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study had attempted suicide, and 19% had tried to harm themselves physically in different ways, for example, in another survey of 55 victims/survivors of prostitution who used the services of the Council for Prostitution Alternative in Portland, Oregon, 78% were victims of rape by pimps and male buyers an average of 49 times a year; 84% were the victims of aggravated assault and were thus horribly beaten, often requiring emergency room attention and hospitalization; 53% were victims of sexual abuse and torture; and 27% were mutilated (Documentation available from the Council for Prostitution Alternatives).

In developing countries, it has also been estimated that “70 percent of female infertility is caused by sexually transmitted diseases that can be traced back to their husbands or partners (Jodi L. Jacobson, The Other Epidemic, p. 10). Among women in rural Africa, female infertility is widespread from husbands or partners who migrate to urban areas, buy commercial sex, and bring home infection and sexually transmitted diseases. Women in prostitution industries have been blamed for this epidemic of STDs when in reality, studies confirm that it is men who buy sex in the process of migration who carry the disease from one prostitute woman to another and ultimately back to their wives and girlfriends. The movement of abandoned or rejected ‘barren’ women to urban prostitution has been documented in Niger, Uganda, and the Central African Republic. Numerous studies in Africa and Asia by the World Bank and a number of international research organizations have found that divorced or separated women comprise the great majority of prostitutes or ‘semi’ prostitutes’ (Jacobson, p. 13). Thus, a major health effect of the mass male consumption of commercial sex and the expansion of sex industries in developing countries is not only a rampant increase in sexually transmitted diseases but an exponential increase in infertility. The further effects of this vicious cycle insure that a whole new segment of women who are abandoned by their husbands due to infertility, are propelled into prostitution for survival. In both developing and industrialized country contexts, current campaigns to control the spread of HIV/AIDS by advocating “safe sex” for women in prostitution fail to address the blatant inequities between women who are bought for sex and the men who pay for it. Any AIDS strategy based on negotiating condom use between the purchaser of sex and the woman who must supply it assumes symmetry of power that does not even exist between women and men in many personal consensual relationships. If AIDS programs are serious about eradicating AIDS, they must challenge the sex industry.

Women in prostitution are targeted as the problem instead of making the sex industry problematic and challenging the mass male consumption of women and children in commercial sex. This is institutionalized when governments and NGOs argue for the medicalization of prostitution when they propose laws on prostitution which subject women to periodic medical check-ups. It is stated that women in the sex industry would be better protected if they submitted, or were required to submit, to health and especially STD screening. The way in which sex industries are responsible for the widespread health problems of women and children is mystified with proposals to implement health checks of women in the industry. No proposals have been forthcoming, from those who would propose both mandatory and voluntary medical surveillance for women in the sex industry, to medically monitor the men who would purchase sex. The same is true with current attempts to medicalize prostitution. No action will stabilize the sex industry more than legitimating prostitution through the health care system. If medical personnel are called upon to monitor women in prostitution, as part of occupational health safety, we will have no hope of eradicating the industry. Furthermore, from a health perspective alone, it is inconceivable that medicalization of women in the industry will reduce infection and injury without concomitant medicalization of the male buyers. Thus medicalization, which is rightly viewed as a consumer protection act for men rather than as a real protection for women, ultimately protects neither women nor men.

As with other forms of violence against women eradicating the health burden of prostitution entails addressing but going beyond its health effects. To address the health consequences of prostitution, the international human rights community must understand that prostitution harms women and that in addition to needing health services; women must be provided with the economic, social and psychological means to leave prostitution. Until prostitution is accepted as violence against women and a violation of women’s human rights, the health consequences of prostitution cannot be addressed adequately. Conversely, until the health burden of prostitution is made visible, the violence of prostitution will remain hidden. Once Victor Hugo quotes stated in is novel;

“We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.”

Domestic abuse also referred to as asspousal abuse happens where in a marriage or an intimate relationship one partner tries to take control and dominate over the other. Where physical violence is involved, such domestic abuse is called domestic violence. An abuser uses intimidation, shame, fear and guilt to wear the other down so that the abused can be kept under the thumb. Abusers may threaten, hurt you and even those around you. There is no discrimination in domestic violence and thus it may happen among same-sex partners and heterosexual couples. Moreover, domestic violence may happen irrespective of our ethnic backgrounds, age and economic backgrounds. Women appear to be the common victims but in modern day society, men are also falling victims especially emotionally and verbally.

Different approaches have been used by theorists to show that there are specific characteristics associated with individuals who abuse their partners. These approaches have shown that such abusive characters have inability to cope with stress, possess low self-esteem, they have desire to have control and power over others, once had social support isolation, are dependent on their victims, feelings of jealousy and they may also have some psychological and mental disorders. This indicates that there are different risk factors of domestic violence from economic to biological ones.

Thesis: irrespective of what causes a particular domestic violence incident be it economical or biological, domestic violence is a social problem that affects our quality of life. This is an abusive behavior which is never acceptable and it doesn’t matter whether it comes from a woman or a man, an adult or a teenager. Every one of us deserves to be safe, respected and above all valued.

Ideas (risk factors)

Idea #1:

There appears to be a statistical correlation between domestic violence and substance abuse. Several studies on domestic violence indicate that there are high rates of substance abuse by perpetrators. Regular use of alcohol is documented as one of the leading risk factors in intimate partner abuse. There is evidence that drug and alcohol addiction and domestic violence are things that usually occur together. This indicates that most families where there is a parent who abuses alcohol or any other drugs have high rates of domestic violence.

There are several statistical evidences that show substance abuse increases the risk of domestic violence in homes. For example, around 87% of program directors in the field of domestic violence assert that intimate partner violence increases in a family where both partners are drugs or alcohol addicts. The U.S. Departments of Justice in its records show that around 61% of domestic violence offenders are addicts of alcohol or any other types of drugs. Moreover, a study conducted by the same Department in 2002 on murders in U.S. families indicated that more than half of those accused of murder of their intimate partners had abused alcohol and other drugs at the time of the murder. This is enough statistical evidence linking alcohol abuse and other drugs to domestic violence (Schechter, 2000).

People who abuse alcohol and especially men argue that they normally engage in domestic violence because at that time they were under the influence of alcohol. In some other instances, those batterers living with women who abuse alcohol or drugs justify their domestic violence as one of the best ways in which they can control their spouses the moment they come home drunk. In such instances, risks associated are high because the woman who is being battered may not have control to seek help since she is not sober. Studies on domestic violence in U.S. population shows that in cases where the man is the batterer and frequently abuses drugs and alcohol, such men have the tendency to rid themselves of the violence responsibility by stating that they did so since they were under the influence of alcohol (Kenneth and Elizabeth, 2000).

Substance abuse not only affects the intimate partner in the household but also the children. Children brought up in such a family experience more sexual, emotional and physical abuse than those in non-substance abusing families. Surveys conducted by National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse shows that around 80% of cases of child abuse are associated with parents who abuse drugs and alcohol. This problem may be translated into the later life stages of such children and thus reports indicate that there is high probability that they also abuse alcohol and other drugs and also result in the same domestic violence (Jeffrey and Abigail, 2007).

Idea #2: a major piece to battering of wives is rooted in most cultures especially in the African traditional society. Most men who batter their wives have rigid rules and views on their gender roles. Most batterers have sexist attitudes towards their intimate partners and this has been a consistent cultural issue causing domestic violence. Majority of our societies have trained men in a way that they see women in objectified and disrespectful ways. This makes most men to see their intimate partners as their possession. It was not long ago when in most cultures, women were always considered as properties of men. This is an attitude that actually still lives in the culture of United States. Today, only several years have passed since most states in the U.S. changed their laws regarding rape that occurs among married couples. There before, the laws in most states stated that a man could not be convicted in jail because of raping his wife. This is an implication that this woman was the property of her husband. Thus men in such cultures could do anything with the wife and the only thing that was required of her was just to cooperate. Even if such laws have been changed today, there are still churches where ceremonies are performed for the wife to rake oath that she is going to honor, love and obey her husband.

In most cultures, when a woman gets married, she has to take the name of her husband. The main idea here is that it becomes simpler than to add middle names or even to hyphenate names. This follows from the fact that in marriage and in all societies, a woman has to leave her father’s house and join the husband in his house. There is no time women belonged to themselves but they only belonged to their husband or father. This is what represented the woman’s last name. We can liken this to African slaves who would always take the name of their master or the slave holder. Even in matters of political choices, women started voting the other day and they were taken as individuals who could not take any stand on political matters. The underlying theme is that the general attitudes men have towards women affect people’s willingness to hurt them physically.

Emerging African literature on different causal theories shows there is power of norms and tradition in African cultures that explain the widespread domestic violence incidence. There are so many African societies which see that as a direct connection and as a result they argue that wife battering is normal in African traditions. According to Randall (2003), this is a proposition that is supported by several authors who have conducted several interviews. One such good example is the interview from the Social Welfare Office of Ibadan, Nigeria. This is a region where even police officers remind women who come to report that they have been battered by their husband that Yoruba culture allows its men to beat their women. There are however other indirect cultural explanations of some concepts such as polygamy impact, male promiscuity acceptance, uneven power distribution in traditional African marriages, power of extended families on a married couple and the bride price institution as underlying causes for wives abuse. Payment of bride price to the wife’s parents after marriage makes it even more difficult to leave their battering husbands unless the amount paid is willingly returned by the families of origin.

According to Randall (2003), domestic violence studies conducted in Zimbabwe involving interviews on twenty-five male abusers and seventy-five female victims of domestic violence in Shona-speaking community showed that cultural factors are a major cause for domestic violence. In this study, it was reported that most domestic quarrels emerged out of jealousy and money. A good example is in the Shona community where quarrels between a husband and his wife emerge because the wife has asked for money. This is taken as a challenge on the traditional absolute male control of the household on family finances. There is also a similar dynamic in domestic violence which is initiated by jealousy. Even if male promiscuity in Africa is traditionally accepted, the sexuality of the females is zealously controlled by the family or the husband. Not only in African traditional societies but also in other earlier civilized ones in Americas, Asia and Europe where a wife may be seen as challenging the husband’s prerogatives and authority the moment she demands explanations on his extramarital involvements. In most cases violence erupts if the wife asks her husband where he has been and with whom or in other cases showing threat for addition of other wives. Addition of multiple wives is today seen as a big threat to economic survival for the first wife, the children and a source for HIV/AIDs scourge and thus wives may be tempted to question their husbands. But this questioning is seen as a challenge to the traditional man’s rights and a threat to the culturally prescribed position and this automatically provokes violence.

Idea #3: absolute poverty is considered one of the fundamental basis of domestic violence against women in most households (Inter-American Development Bank, Biehl and Morrison, 1999). Relative violence may also play a role though complementary in generating domestic violence since such families have difficulties in attaining “standards of consumption” apart from food and this may be a potential source of violence.

Studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between domestic violence and poverty. One of the common opinions is based on the fact that poverty comes with frustrations which normally may tend to unleash violent behavior. There are numerous aggravating problems for this and they include high consumption of alcohol, low schooling levels, poor living conditions, few entertainment opportunities, poor jobs and failure to improve conditions of living, large family burden and lack of adequate basic services in life (Rachel, 2000). These are potential circumstances that might predispose marginalized and poor family members to result to domestic violence. The major domestic violence in such cases occurs between the husband (provider) and his wife who takes over the management of the household. On the man’s side, source of conflict is the deficit to materially provide for the household while on the side of the woman; the source may be her inability to manage the little they have which is always “never enough.” In such a standpoint, domestic violence has come as a result of poverty in the household.

According to Schechter (2000), there were so many studies on domestic violence among low-income that were conducted in the 1990s when most families lost guarantee on income supports. The results were pervasive. After low-income people in Chicago were examined, the studies found that 25% of low-income non-recipients and 33% of welfare recipients experienced “severe aggression” in their adulthood via their partners. There were also results that 8% of non-recipients and 19% of recipients experienced serious aggression within the previous twelve months. The same studies found that in Worcester, Massachusetts low-income and homeless mothers reported 32% positive cases of physical violence within the previous two years. Moreover, a study by the National Family Violence Survey showed that domestic violence on women who have annual income less than $10,000 were 3.5 times likely if compared to those who had more than $40,000 annual salary.

Counterargument

There must be a misconception that domestic violence is caused by substance abuse, cultural factors or even poverty. The fact is that equal numbers of drunken and sober men are equally violent. Where studies have been conducted on this they have not been able to explain in detail why almost 80% of heavy and binge drinkers never abuse their partners be it the wife or the husband. Alcohol or any other stimulant substances are used by men so that they can use them as the excuses or the permissions for them to act violently. Many stop taking alcohol and they still continue being violent. Also not every child who grows up in a violent home will grow up to become a violent adult in his/her home. Domestic violence is a choice. Sometimes people react violently because they have been provoked by others and this may act just as the normal self-defense.

Refutation

By the time one gets provoked, its because he/she has in one way or the other tried to exert control over his/her partner. It is a fact that irrespective of whether the domestic violence resulted after one was provoked either due to poverty frustrations and pressures, cultural beliefs or substance abuse it has adverse effects on our victims. Children brought up in such backgrounds may develop low self-esteem and long term effects that may haunt them later in their lives. It is possible to find such children having dismal academic performances. Others have been sexually, emotionally and physically assaulted and all of us need respect, love and to be valued.

Conclusion

Domestic violence is live in our modern society. Women appear to be the most affected since gender inequality ahs always been there. Until the 70s women who were battered had no places to report or to seek support ands especially those who were sexually assaulted. There were few shelters for victims of domestic violence like hospitals, civil and criminal courts, law enforcement and other social service agencies. But today, there seems to be numerous community-based violence programs that provide array of quality services. These include safety planning, transportation, crisis counseling and intervention, legal advocacy, children’s services and housing and relocation services among others. In order to minimize domestic violence cases there are many programs engaging in continuous advocacy efforts and this may include collaboration with community service workers, development of public awareness campaigns and being active for political lobbying efforts that improve safety for children and victims. With such efforts, we may help to minimize adverse effects on victims.

This study will examine the causes, incidence, and solutions involved in preventing and analyzing domestic violence. By observing data from across America, one can realize the growing problem of domestic violence, which has involves great majority of males victimizing women. By realizing the causes of poverty and a lack of education, the issue of domestic violence can be dissected in this sociological phenomenon. By observing a great reliance on educating men and women in psychological and therapeutic strategies, as well as learning how to eradicate poverty, domestic violence can be diminished within the United States.

The problem of domestic violence is a serious issue within American society, which has staggering affects on the economy and the well being of spousal relationships. In this regard, many studies have been done to discover the reality of domestic violence, such as the one’s committed between a man and a woman. The American Institute of Domestic Violence states these facts in a study done in 2004:

1.85-95% of all domestic violence victims are female.

2.Over 500,00 women are stalked by an intimate partner each year.

3.5.3 million women are abused each year.

4.1,232 women are killed each year by an intimate partner.

5. Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women.

6.Women are more likely to be attacked by someone they know rather than by a stranger

(The Human Factor, 2005, para.3).

The fact that nearly 90% of women are the victims of domestic violence tells us a great deal about the role of male aggression in these violent acts. The problem of female victimization is extensive through the statistics, as 5 million women suffer from male violence, and are targeted by a male that has been romantically involved with them. These incidental numbers rand percentages reveal a staggering population of women that are being attacked and sometimes killed by men. In this manner, one can realize the numbers and the problematic role of patriarchal aggression within American society in domestic violence.

The causal psychology of domestic violence between men and women involved in marital or non-marital relationships relies on the victim’s ignorance. As the aggressive male tends to feel that he has the right to abuse the woman, so does the women feel that she does not deserve any better treatment from her abuser. This form of pathology involves a conditioning element, which psychologists explain as possible causes for this form of domestic abuse. The most abundant issues involving this form of abusive relationship is explained through economics and education levels:

1.Both males and females with disabilities are at increased risk of abuse due to reliance on their caregiver.

2.Many victims are pregnant.

3.Women from families with annual incomes below $10,000 are at increased risk for intimate violence.

4.Conversely, wives whose educational or occupational level is high relative to their husbands are at greater risk for abuse than those in marriages without such differences.

5.The abuser is typically an underachiever who has obtained lower occupational status than expected given the abuser’s education

(Burnett, 2006, para.45).

In this regard, the causal factors indicate that the psychological pathology of domestic abuse relies on the income level and educational capacity of the abuser and the victim. This tells some of the facts that relate to many of the couples involved in these relationships, and why depression from poverty and the inability to get a decent education helps add to stress levels. Furthermore, the pressure of being pregnant and the difficulties of having low incomes may also be a factor in why these types of women are targeted. Also, the theory of adult attachment may be a viable explanation to help describes the causes that economic and psychological stress place on the abuser and victim:

Adult attachment theory describes the ways romantic partners respond during times of distress, separation, or interpersonal conflict (see Pietromonaco & Barrett, 2000). Attachment-related cognitive schema provide default reactions to difficult situations (Bowlby, 1982) and predict whether adults prefer to cope independently, seek support from romantic partners, or combine these approaches. In unhealthy attachment styles, coping responses may include misperceptions of relational cues and difficulties regulating affect (Gormley, 2005, para.6).

This provides some of the psychological factors that poverty and stress have within the background of the domestic abuse that may be occurring within male/female relationships. The result of the habitual tolerance and the ignorance that is partaken by both men and women should be understood within this format. A lack of education in relationships and the tendency of both parties in the relationship rely on dysfunctional approaches to stress and communication, resulting in the violence that relies on the aggression of the male.

Solutions to this problem would clearly indicate that education and poverty are serious factors in regards to how people handle stress. In many ways, it is the psychological education of both men and women that must be addressed when dealing with social issues of this gravity. The use of therapy for abused women has become a priority for many state and private counselors that have used the law and psychological training to help women defend against abuse:

Advocates that empower and assist victims to well-being are concerned above all for the safety of the victim and her children. Safety is a basic human need, and a fundamental right in any human relationship. Domestic and sexual violence are violations of that primary need for safety and security. Because a victim’s greatest risk for harm occurs at the point in which she takes steps to end the abuse, every interaction and intervention must consider her safety and her assessment of the situation (Koch, 2001, p.102).

This solution helps to promote the education needed by the victim, since she is most likely to the be the brunt of the violence. By taking an approach to the female component of the abuse, the woman can learn to see the signs of abuse and learn to empower herself through education. With psychological tools given by an occupational therapist, one can realize how prevention can help the woman the erroneous judgments that she may have been taught by her own parents or past abusive spouse. This can help the woman to make the right choice with an informed opinion as to how she may want to proceed with the relationship. In some cases, resolutions can be found by learning to educate both the abusive male and the woman in educating themselves in coping skills in their relationship. However, it is the woman that gets precedence under law in regards to the abuse, since she is usually the physically or mentality abused person in the conflict.

One solution for men may be the same education afforded to women. In the case of understanding familial backgrounds and behavioral patterns in psychology, the research indicates that abuse is taught though generational standards of aggression and even alcoholism that underlie many of the domestic violence issues in today’s society:

These findings provide new information regarding the relative impact and interrelationship between previously separately identified risk factors for the development of problems with alcohol and aggression. Moreover, the multigenerational span of time encompassed by this only partially retrospective study offers a life course perspective on the transmission of risk that has been only segmentally examined in prior work. The model indicates how early childhood experiences of the parents, involving grandparental aggression against the parents as children, as well as the grandparents’ own alcoholism and marital aggression, affected the development of the parents’ antisocial behavior, which in turn was linked to their adulthood outcomes of alcoholism and marital aggression, as well as their aggression toward their own offspring (Fuller, 2003, para.27).

These important factors in research make it extremely liable that men may also use psychology to help better educate (through coping skills) in breaking patterns of aggression. The instances of being taught violence toward women is a familial and generational problem that is instilled within boys at a young age. The use of a therapist can help to alleviate some of the issues of coping with anger and rage, which they have also been made a victim of in their understanding of spousal relationships. These psychological factors, in collusion with discovering effective modes of gaining employment, can help the abusive male recover and learn to change old habits that were vented upon the victimized partner in the relationship.

In conclusion, the incidental statistics, causal, and solution based research on domestic violence has been evaluated in this study. The increasing number of women being killed and victimized by men must be taken seriously in an effort to dissolve rising rates of abuse. By realizing the damaging cycles of multi-generational violence that occurs in both the female victim and the male abuser, the premise of psychology can help to bring about greater educational modes of healing in preventing future abuse. In this manner both men and women can learn to use newer and healthier coping skills that affect them due to economic disparity or a lack of education. In this manner, domestic violence is a problematic issue in American society, and it must be understood and researched to help prevent further abuse.

Gender-based violence both reflects and reinforces inequities between men and women and compromises the health, self-respect, safety and sovereignty of its victims. It encompasses an extensive assortment of human rights violations, including sexual exploitation of children, rape, home brutality, sexual battering and harassment, trafficking of women and girls and numerous detrimental customary practices. Any one of these abuses can leave profound mental scars, damage the wellbeing of women and girls in common, including their reproductive and sexual health, and in some instances, results in death. Violence against women has been called “the most insidious yet slightest renowned human rights oppression in the globe, and is a demonstration of historically uneven supremacy dealings between men and women, which have led to dominance over and inequity against women by men and to the hindrance of the complete progression of women, that cruelty against women is one of the critical social mechanisms by which women are compelled into a subsidiary position compared with men.

Around the world, as many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or maltreated in some other approach – most frequently by someone she knows, including by her spouse or another male relatives; one woman in four has been ill-treated during pregnancy. Violence against women mutually violates and impairs or nullifies the gratification by women of their human rights and elementary freedoms. In all societies, to a superior or minor extent, women and girls are subjected to corporal, sexual and mental violence that cuts across ranks of earnings, class and customs. This is a subject which endangers women’s lives, bodies, mental uprightness and autonomy. Violence may have reflective effects, both direct and indirect, on a woman’s reproductive health, including: unnecessary pregnancies and limited admittance to family planning information and contraceptives, treacherous abortion or injuries unremitting throughout a lawful abortion subsequent to an unwanted pregnancy, complications from recurrent, high-risk pregnancies and lack of follow-up care, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, continual gynecological problems as well as mental tribulations.

Gender-based violence also serves – by purpose or outcome – to perpetuate male authority and control. It is sustained by a custom of silence and denunciation of the significance of the health penalty of violence. In addition to the impairment they exact on the individual stage, these outcomes also exact a communal duty and position an intense and needless yoke on health services. According to Murphy and Ringheim, four factors have been constantly linked with violent behavior: norms of male privilege and possession of women; male supervision of possessions in the family; male execution of decision-making in the family; and concepts of masculinity attached to supremacy and nobility (2001). Moreover, UNFPA recognizes that violence against women is inextricably linked to gender-based inequalities. When women and girls are anticipated to be generally submissive, their conduct in relation to their health, together with reproductive health, is unenthusiastically affected at all stages of the life cycle. When investigating the extenuating conditions – lack of resources, education, healthcare and the sex trade, we find great and competent relations, and understand that these factors enable the perseverance of this phenomenon.

The pervasiveness of home violence in a given society, thus, is the outcome of implicit reception by that society. The way men analyze themselves as men, and the way they think of women, will verify whether they use aggression or intimidation against women. Studies of very young boys and girls show that even though boys may have an inferior acceptance for annoyance, and an inclination towards rough-and-tumble play, these tendencies are dwarfed by the magnitude of male socialization and peer demands into masculinity roles. UNFPA recognizes that ending gender-based violence will mean changing cultural concepts about masculinity, and that procedure should dynamically appoint men, whether they are strategy makers, parents, spouses or little boys.

Cross-cultural studies of wife abuse have found that nearly a fifth of peasant and small-scale societies are essentially free of family violence. The existence of such cultures proves that male violence against women is not the inevitable result of male biology or sexuality, but more a matter of how society views masculinity. Most domestic violence involves male anger directed against their women partners. This gender difference appears to be rooted in the way boys and men are socialized — biological factors do not seem to account for the dramatic differences in behavior in this regard between men and women. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence. Some husbands become more violent during the wife’s pregnancy, even kicking or hitting their wives in the belly. These women run twice the risk of miscarriage and four times the risk of having a low birth-weight baby.

Looking at the pprevalence of and reasons for domestic violence among women from low socioeconomic communities of Karachi, cross-sectional study were conducted to estimate the prevalence of domestic violence and identify the reasons for it among 400 married women aged 15-45 years in low socioeconomic areas in urban Karachi. Data were collected with a pretested questionnaire. The prevalence of verbal abuse was 97.5% by the husband and 97.0% by the in-laws; the prevalence of physical abuse was 80.0% and 57.5% by the husband and in-laws respectively. Financial issues were the commonest reason for domestic violence followed by infertility and not having a son. The prevalence of domestic violence in this sample of women is high. There is a need to address this problem with efforts from health workers, policy-makers, nongovernmental organizations and others (Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal 2007).

The majority of sexual assault victims are young. Women in positions of abject dependence on male authorities are also particularly subject to unwanted sexual coercion. Rape in time of war is still common. It has been extensively documented in recent civil conflicts, and has been used systematically as an instrument of torture or ethnic domination. Now, with precedents set at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Tanzania, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, at The Hague, for mass rape, other acts such as sexual assault, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced sterilization, forced abortion, and forced pregnancy may qualify as crimes of torture, crimes against humanity, and even some as crimes of genocide. This vicious cycle of development, identity and gender-based violence in fact explains the empirical evidence of the association between gender based violence and poverty, the individual risk factors of alcohol and substance abuse, male unemployment, male educational status and childhood experience of violence. Poverty, lack of education and lack of healthcare increases both vulnerability and the likelihood of exposure to gender based violence. There has also been the prevalence of the sex trade among women as a means of earning income which ultimately has unbearable the consequences on its workers and on women in general. The objectification of women is also a pressing issue that cannot be ignored.

Violence, and women’s fear of it, limits women’s choices in virtually all spheres of life. It has long-term, as well as short-term consequences on women’s physical and emotional well-being. It detrimentally affects women’s ability to gain an education, earn a livelihood, develop human relationships and participate in public activities, including development programmes. There are different types of problems all over the world that women face, from the wealthiest countries to the poorest. In many countries, women are not entitled to own property or inherit land. Social exclusion, “honor” killings, female genital mutilation, trafficking, restricted mobility and early marriage among others, deny the right to health to women and girls and increase illness and death throughout the life-course. It will remain difficult for us to see sustainable progress unless we fix failures in health systems and society so that girls and women enjoy equal access to health information and services, education, employment and political positions.

Reports by UNICEF, State of the World’s Children, state that reasons for such disparity include the fact that women are generally underpaid and because they often perform low-status jobs, compared to men. UNICEF notes that the data isn’t always perfect, and that generalizations such as the above can hide wider fluctuations. “In Brazil, for example, women under the age of 25 earn a higher average hourly wage than their male counterparts.” (p.39)Women not only earn less than men but also tend to own fewer assets. Smaller salaries and less control over household income constrain their ability to accumulate capital. Gender biases in property and inheritance laws and in other channels of acquiring assets also leave women and children at greater risk of poverty. Paid employment for women does not automatically lead to better outcomes for children.

Factors such as the amount of time women spend working outside the household, the conditions under which they are employed and who controls the income they generate determine how the work undertaken by women in the labor market affects their own well-being and that of children (2007, p.36). Moreover, according to the United Nations, in no country in the world do men come anywhere close to women in the amount of time spent in housework. Furthermore, despite the efforts of feminist movements, women in the core [wealthiest, Western countries] still suffer disproportionately, leading to what sociologists refer to as the “feminization of poverty,” where two out of every three poor adults are women. The informal slogan of the Decade of Women became “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own 1 percent of the means of production” (Robbins 1999, p.354).”

Historically, economic recessions have placed a disproportionate burden on women. Women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable jobs, to be under-employed or without a job, to lack social protection, and to have limited access to and control over economic and financial resources. Policy responses to the financial crisis must take gender equality perspectives into account to ensure, for example, that women as well as men can benefit from employment creation and investments in social infrastructure. According to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2009, The economic and financial crisis puts a disproportionate burden on women, who are often concentrated in vulnerable employment, are more likely to be unemployed than men, tend to have lower unemployment and social security benefits, and have unequal access to and control over economic and financial resources. International statistics of the International Labor Organization showed that The economic crisis is expected to increase the number of unemployed women by up to 22 million in 2009, the International Labor Office (ILO) says in its annual Global Employment Trends for Women report (GET), adding that the global jobs crisis is expected to worsen sharply with the deepening of the recession in 2009.

In most societies, rape and domestic violence have on occasion provoked public outrage, but it has been left to women’s organizations and movements to take more concerted action. The North does not have all the answers to this problem as gender-based violence is very much in existence in the developed world. Because gender-based violence is sustained by silence, women’s voices must be heard. UNFPA puts every effort into enabling women to speak out against gender-based violence, and to get help when they are victims of it. The Fund is also committed to keeping gender-based violence in the spotlight as a major health and human rights concern. Another fascinating fact is that gender based violence is rampant in developed counties as compared to the developing countries. For instance, in a place like the U.S, despite the fact that advocacy groups like National Organization for Women (NOW) have worked for two decades to halt the epidemic of gender-based violence and sexual assault, the numbers are still shocking. Murder, Intimate Partner Violence or Battering, sexual violence and assault are common phenomena.
To the astonishment of most women across the globe, there is such a low conviction rate in gender-based violence cases, women are not believed by men and apparently even by fellow women. The judiciary imposes light sentences on such cases and even to some they are released on very modest bail or a mere warning. UNFPA advocates for legislative reform and enforcement of laws for the promotion and the protection of women’s rights to reproductive health choices and informed consent, including promotion of women’s awareness of laws , regulations and policies that affect their rights and responsibilities in family life. The Fund promotes zero tolerance of all forms of violence against women and works for the eradication of traditional practices that are harmful to women’s reproductive and sexual health, such as rituals associated with puberty. Possible victims have been offered legal, medical and psychological support, and medical referrals when necessary. Attention has been paid to involving communities, and to creating support networks for gender-based violence victims that include both police and health-care providers, along with counseling services. UNFPA has also held workshops for health providers on recognizing the effects of gender-based violence on women’s health, and on how to detect and prevent abuse and assist victims. These have stressed the need for confidentiality and monitoring. This body has also strengthening advocacy on gender-based violence in all country programmes, in conjunction with other United Nations partners and NGOs as well as advocating for women with parliamentarians and women’s national networks.
There have been strategies to counter violence against women and support the survivors. Case studies come from times of peace and times of armed conflict. Sections suggest strategies for transforming attitudes and beliefs in different societies that condone such violence, for supporting individual survivors, and to ensure that governments and NGOs fulfill their duty to protect woman. Women’s rights around the world are an important indicator to understand global well-being. A major global women’s rights treaty was ratified by the majority of the world’s nations a few decades ago. Yet, despite many successes in empowering women, numerous issues still exist in all areas of life, ranging from the cultural, political to the economic. For example, women often work more than men, yet are paid less; gender discrimination affects girls and women throughout their lifetime; and women and girls are often are the ones that suffer the most poverty. Many may think that women’s rights are only an issue in countries where religion is law, such as many Muslim countries. Or even worse, some may think this is no longer an issue at all. But reading this report about the United Nation’s Women’s Treaty and how an increasing number of countries are lodging reservations, will show otherwise. Gender equality furthers the cause of child survival and development for all of society, so the importance of women’s rights and gender equality should not be underestimated. As part of its work to counter gender-based violence, UNFPA has supported training of medical professionals, to make them more sensitive towards women who may have experienced violence and to meet their health needs.

Governments are not living up to their promises under the Women’s Convention to protect women from discrimination and violence such as rape and female genital mutilation.” There are many governments who have also not ratified the Convention, including the U.S. Many countries that have ratified it do so with many reservations. Gender equality and the well-being of children go hand in hand since it furthers the cause of child survival and development. It produces a double dividend: It benefits both women and children. Women’s equal rights and influence in the key decisions that shape their lives and those of children must be enhanced in three distinct arenas: the household, the workplace and the political sphere. Gender equality is not only morally right, it is pivotal to human progress and sustainable development.

Furthermore, this will be taking us closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goal Number 3-promoting gender equality and empowering women-will also contribute to achieving all the other goals, from reducing poverty and hunger to saving children’s lives, improving maternal health, ensuring universal education, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability. Pressure must be maintained on national governments to prioritise the coordination of programmes and policies across sectors such as health, justice, social welfare and education to ensure that the composite needs of survivors of violence are addressed. Of equal importance is scaling up responses that work – media campaigns, hotlines, and one-stop crisis centers and so on.

Basically, gender based violence limits women as human beings, drains their energy and hope, and constricts the possibilities of creating a new vision of society. Since it includes threats of violence, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private, Violence against women is a violation of women’s human rights, a cause and consequence of gender inequality, and a major cause of women’s ill health. It is a detriment to their well-being, very often a crime, and a significant cost to the resources of the wider society. As a consequence, there are policy issues across the whole range of subjects that concern governments. These issues are particularly important in the area of crime, health, family, education and economic well-being.

Laurance (1999) stated that “Tropical forests do far more than sustain biodiversity; they are homes to indigenous peoples, pharmacopeias of natural products, and provide vital ecosystem services, such as flood amelioration and soil conservation” (p. 109). This shows that forest is very important to us but deforestation is causing all the forest to be cleared. What is deforestation? Deforestation is the act of cutting down all the trees in a particular area. Deforestation is carried out for some reasons. These reasons could be categorized into legal deforestation and illegal deforestation. Tropical forest takes up about six percent of the earth and a lot of problems could occur when all the trees are cut down. To this day, people are still debating on whether deforestation is appropriate or not. What are the causes and effects of deforestation?

What is happening to the tropical rainforest now? We have always read news about Indonesia and the occurrence of forest burning almost every year. Why are they doing it? It had been reported that they burn the forests so that they will have a better land to plant palm oil. It acts as a fertilizer to the land because their plants died and converted into fertilizer. Even thought they did it to fertilize the land but it brought harm to the people who live around the country. Air pollution often happens in Malaysia because hazes are formed due to forest burning in Indonesia. Haze is an atmospheric phenomenon that causes the air around it to be misty and blurry. It brings harm to the people that inhale it. Therefore, the rate of people receiving treatment for illnesses caused by inhalation of haze increases every year.

This shows that deforestation is causing a lot of effects on mankind and it is often shown on advertisement and newspaper; however, it seems that people are still not aware of the effects of deforestation. This research paper is discusses about the causes and effects of deforestation around the world. Many people are more aware of the effects than the causes of deforestation. This research paper is going to talk about the causes and effects of deforestation. Besides discussing the causes and effects of deforestation, this paper also argues about what can be done to save the forest too.

Causes of deforestation

One of the most common causes of deforestation is clearing out the forest to pay back the foreign debt of that particular country (Culas, 2006). Some country has a huge sum of foreign debt and they don’t the capability to clear their debt; thus they clear out the forests so that the land they acquire later could be used for crop production. By planting crops that could be exported to another country, they could earn a lot and repay back their debt. This is why most countries choose to clear forests and focus on agricultural purposes. Countries that do not owe other countries any debt are less likely to take up deforestation or will have a lower rate of deforestation. Therefore, countries that are in a heavy debt should look for alternative ways that could gain them a better income instead of clearing up the forests. As I have mentioned earlier, tropical forests only takes up about 6 percent of the whole earth. If these countries continue to clear up the forests without thinking of the consequences, the amount of forests left on the surface of the earth would seriously decline.

Another cause of deforestation is the increasing demand of land. Due to the increase of human population, certain countries are also experiencing an increase in the demand for houses. This leads to developers seeking more land to build houses on. Hence, developers clear up forests after forests so that the land they acquire could be used to build houses. Through the development of houses on forest land, they can sustain the population in that country. We don’t have to look at other country. We just need to take a look at our own country, Malaysia. Forests in Setapak area were cleared up to build condominiums. Malaysia has the population of over millions and the demand for houses is very high. They choose to clear up the forests so that there would be more land to build apartments, condominiums, terrace houses and other housing structures. This shows that deforestation is the first option when it comes to fulfilling the demand for land. Besides fulfilling the demand of houses, the demand of oil has also leads to deforestation. Oil is widely used everywhere in the world now. When the demand for oil increases, lands are also needed for oil plantation. The absence of land made oil plantation a difficult task; hence, deforestation becomes the option again to gain lands. Trees were chopped down and the land is then used to plant oil palm so the demand for palm oil could be met.

Besides meeting the demand of land, the weakness shown in the government’s policies is also one of the causes for deforestation (Laurance, 1999). Ever since we were kids, we were always taught that there are rules when it comes to cutting down trees. Despite that, many people continue to violate the rules and continue to do illegal logging. Why is it that people constantly neglect the boundaries set up by the government and commit illegal loggings? This is because of the government’s weak policies. Rules and boundaries were set by the government but there were no enforcement. Law enforcers are not strict and often neglect their duty when it comes to punishing individuals for violating the rules. For example, the law enforcers just releases those who have violated the laws despite catching them and witnessing them doing illegal logging. This does not help reduce deforestation but rather makes the matter worse. People will think that it is fine to do illegal logging since the law enforcers, such as police officers, do not arrest those who violated the rules in spite of their crime. Such acts by those who work for the government will only promote further deforestation instead of stopping them. Soon, the trees in the country will gradually disappear.

The effects of deforestation

What are the effects of deforestation? One of the effects of deforestation includes affecting the habitat of the indigenous people. When deforestation happens, it gravely affects the indigenous people because deforestation contributes to death, illness, poorness, and culturl shock (Mitten, 1997). The indigenous people who live in forests seek their food from the forests and deforestation terminates their only means to acquire food. In addition, logging activities have become an easy way to earn money. Therefore, all the companies build their factory near the rivers. The waste products that were made while processing forest products would be dumped into the river; thus, polluting it. Indigenous people drink water from the river. As a result, they will get sick because of the dirty water caused by the factories. It can even cause deaths if it gets too serious. Besides that, the culture of the indigenous people that has been passed down from generations to generations will soon vanish when the indigenous people slowly decreases due to death. Cultural shock will occur and the history of the indigenous people will soon be forgotten.

Besides harming the indigenous people, deforestation harms the wildlife too (Bonaudo, Pendu, Faure, & Quanz, 2005). This is because around 80 to 90 percent of animal species live in the tropical rainforest. Imagine if all the trees were cut down, what will happen to the animal? It is without a doubt that the animals will lose their natural habitat and they will become extinct. Animals, such as pandas, refuse to breed when they are not in their own natural habitat. Therefore, the population if panda keeps decreasing as time goes by because their natural habitat is being destroyed due to deforestation. When deforestation happens, the animals lose their natural habitats and also their protective shield. This causes the animals to have some difficulty adapting to their new environment and as a result, the animals would refuse to breed. The extinction of these animals is guaranteed if they refuse to breed due to the destruction of their natural habitat. Our future generation will have to look at pictures or visit the museums in order to the animal instead of just looking at the animals in real life. Deforestation will soon cause the future generation to lose touch with the animals that exist now and they will only know them through knowledge passed down by their parents or by visiting a museum.

Another effect of deforestation is climate change. Bala, Caldeira, Wickett, Phillips, Lobell, Delire, & Mirin, (2006) stated that “deforestation affects the global climate by releasing the carbon stored in the living plants and soils as well as by altering the physical properties of the planetary surface” (p. 6550). Trees take in carbon dioxide that is released by human through respiration. Trees stored carbon dioxide to produce their own food through photosynthesis process. When the trees are all cut down, there will not be any more trees to absorb the carbon dioxide that is released by humans. Carbon dioxide will then be trapped at the atmosphere and temperature will increase. As the carbon dioxide in the air increases severely, so does the temperature. This will results in the phenomena known as global warming. When global warming happens, ice in the North Pole and South Pole will melt. This will result in an increase of sea level. The increase in the sea level will flood countries that are geographically situated in a lower sea level and these countries will disappear from the surface of the earth. Soon, all the land will be flooded and the countries will disappear one by one.

What can be done?

Deforestation has caused a lot of harm to the mankind. There are a number of actions that could be taken to reduce deforestation. For example, instead of cutting down trees to acquire new land, we can perform land reclamation. Land reclamation involves the creation of new lands from oceans or riverbeds. Besides that, government should enforce the rules instead of handling the matters leniently. The people who violate the rules should be fined or prosecuted. This serves as a warning to others so that they will stop their illegal logging and this could help save and preserves the trees around us. Every country should preserve their forests and plant more trees so that the biodiversity could be maintained.

Discussion

All in all, deforestation has caused a lot of devastating effects not only to the people but also the animals. Before understanding the effects, we need to find the roots of why deforestation happens first. As I have stated earlier, the causes of deforestation are the large sum of foreign debt, the increasing demand for land, and the weakness in the government’s policies. Deforestation happens because the trees were cut down for crop production. With the production, they could repay back the debt. Besides that, the demand for land gradually increases as time goes by. This is because the increase in popularity has increased the demand of land to build houses. Moreover, the weaknesses in the policies promote deforestation instead of curbing them. This occurs because the government did not enforce the rules that were set and they did not take illegal deforestation seriously.

Deforestation has done a lot of harm to the people and also to the wildlife. The most common effect is causing harm to indigenous people. Indigenous people live in forests and everything they do inside the forest is part of their culture. Deforestation causes the indigenous people will lose their home as well as their source for food. Deforestation will cause their culture to extinct sooner or later. The most precious aspect in a country is its original culture. If the indigenous people are extinct, there will be no more culture for that particular country. Besides harming the indigenous people, deforestation harms wildlife too. Most of the animal species live in the tropical forest. Not only does it act as a natural habitat for the animals, forests also act as a protective shield for the animals. When deforestation occurs, they lose their natural habitat and protective shield. Soon, they will be on the edge of extinction. When this happen, it will cause a loss in biodiversity and our future generation will have to know the animals through pictures. Another effect of deforestation is climate change. Trees act as storages for carbon dioxide that are released by humans through respiration. Trees absorb carbon dioxide for their photosynthesis process. If the trees were cut down, all the carbon dioxide will be released to the atmosphere and this will cause the temperature to increase. An increase in the temperature will result in global warming and global warming; in turn, melts the ice in the North and South Pole. This results in an increase of sea level. Therefore, lands that are positioned in a lower sea level will soon be flooded and disappear from the surface of the earth.

After understanding the causes and effects, what can be done to curb deforestation? Every government should find another alternative way to boost their economy and repay back the foreign debt. Instead of cutting down the trees for crop production, they can try boosting the economy through the tourism section. This way, they can save the forest and gain profits at the same thing. Besides cutting down trees for more land, land reclamation can be taken to acquire more land. These methods are able to fulfill the demands for land as well as preserve the forest at the same time. Governments should also enforce the rules that were set for logging activities. People who violate the rules by carrying out the illegal logging act musr be fined or prosecuted. This acts as a warning to others so that they do not dare to do it again. Besides that, government could come out with other ways of punishing the people that violates the rules. As an overall, they must enforce the laws and regulations on environmental issues.

Conclusion

I chose to do this research on deforestation because I have read a lot of news on how deforestation do us harm and yet no one has done anything to stop it. I hope that this research paper could help people to do understand more on the causes and effects of deforestation. Besides that, I also hope this research will help curb deforestation and save the trees from being logged. By doing so, the biodiversity of the earth could be maintained and no harm would befall on humans. If deforestation continues to happen, there will be no more trees in the future. This will result in higher temperature, loss of biodiversity and more. Therefore I hope everybody will do his or her part in preserving and protecting the forest so that there is a better future for our next generation.

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II of Russia who is commonly referred as Catherine the Great was the Russian Empress from 1762 until her death in 1796. Catherine’s real names were “Yekaterina II Velikaya”. She was in the category of the “Enlightened despots” who were rulers influenced by the enlightened principles that embraced religious tolerance, freedom of speech, press and property.

Catherine was born as Sophie Augusta Fredirica to her father Christian August., the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and her mother Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein Gottorp. She thus was from a noble family. She received her education from a French governess and included other tutors. Catherine’s parents were devout Lutherans.

In 1745 she was to married to Tsar Peter of Holstein Gottorp becoming the Princess. Because of her ambition to get married and become a princess, she abandoned her father’s religion and instead converted to Orthodox Church. The eminent marriage also forced her to learn French, which she did with so much effort to an extent that she got a severe pneumonia attack, because of walking barefoot in her bedroom repeating the Russian lessons.

Her and her husband Peter settled in the Palace of Oranienbaum. Unfortunately her husband was immature and impotent and became unfaithful to her. This eventually led to the breakup of their marriage.

Catherine read widely on and befriended many powerful political groups that opposed her husband. Empress Elizabeth died on 1762 and Peter succeeded her to become Peter III of Russia. This made them move to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Automatically Catherine became the Empress. By then they had a son named Paul who was the heir-apparent in case of the father’s death.

In July of that year, there was a bloodless coup where Peter was dethroned by the Leib Guard who were the military personal guards of the Emperor of Russia. The throne was bequeathed to Catherine; she reigned till she died in 1796. After six months as a Prince and three days after disposition, Peter III died at Ropsha.

Catherine the great was very intelligent, hardworking and had a very strong will. Her ambition to become the Empress of Russia saw her strike sharply at those who seemed to try and replace her with the rightful heir of the throne, Paul her eldest son. In her reign Catherine broadened Russian Empires’ boarders both to the south and the north absorbing new Russia, Crimea, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus and Courland.

Catherine was eventually able to expand the Russian territory to 518,000 kilometer squared. This was not an easy task bearing in mind that the expansion was at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. She was able to achieve all this through a very shrewd statesman named Nikita Panin.

In her initial years of her reign, Catherine directed most of her efforts towards making her position in the throne more stable. This was to enable her have an extended period of peace in order for her to be effective in other domestic affairs and foreign affairs. She understood the essence of a cautious foreign policy, which Panin did on her behalf. Panin fell out with her after his plans to counter the power of the Bourbon and Habsburg who had formed a league failed.

It was not until 1764 that she felt secure and stable enough to start working on reformation towards improving social conditions in Russia. For such expansive reformation Catherine utilized the ideas of the enlightenment. It was through such ideas that she undertook to change Russia’s old legal system that was inefficient because it was based on the code of laws that dated from 1649.

Towards this end she came up with a proposal she called “The instructions” which was circulated through out Europe and turned out to be a sensation. This is because it provided for a very advanced level of legal system. The legal system was to be enshrined on the principles of equal protection and prevention of criminal acts. This was as opposed to the previous method of meting out harsh punishment.

In 1767 Catherine formed a legislative commission to revise the old laws using “The instruction” as the basis. The commission failed the set purpose leading to the suspension of the review. After Panin fell out with Catherine in 1781, she replaced him with Alexander Bezborodko who was a Ukrainian born councilor.

Because of her ideas from the Enlightment, Catherine commissioned the Court betskoy whose sole purpose was to draw up plans to ensure the provision of education for all boys and girls through out Russia. The type of education she advocated for was the European style. As a result of her efforts schools and universities were established throughout Russia. This led to the foundation, for the first time of special girls’ schools in Russia. This also led to the establishment of a medical college whose sole purpose was to provide adequate health care for all the citizens. One good example is the Smolny Institute for girls, which was founded in St. Petersburg.

Catherine rarely used violence to consolidate power and strengthen her grip on Russia. However, she resorted to other methods that usually proved very effective. For example during her time the church had become quite powerful, to weaken it she seized the church’s wealth and then employed the clergy as state employees.

Foreign affairs demanded much of her attention between 1768 and1774. Catherine made Russia as the most powerful empire during this time. This came about after the first Russo-Turkish war against the Ottoman Empire. This war included the Battle of Chesma (1770) and the battle of Kagul (1770).

This war began after Catherine sent Russian troops to support her former lover Stanislaw Poniatowski, who she wanted to suppress a revolt that had come about because of Russia’s influence in Poland. The revolution got support from Turkey and Austria. However, after two years lengthy negotiations with Turkey led to ceasefire. Catherine was very persuasive which came in handy at this time.

This enabled Russia gain a foothold on the Black Sea. Acquisition of the right to the Black Sea was an important milestone. This was because Russian merchant ships acquired the right of sea whereby they could sail and passing through the Dardanelles which was an important European waterway.

Also from the negotiations the vast steppes of modern South Ukraine were incorporated in the Russia Empire. In 1783 Catherine, in her quest for expansion annexed the Crimea, this led to the second Russo- Turkish war (1787-1792) where the Ottoman Empire sort to regain the lands it had lost to Russia during the first Russo Turkish war (1768-1774).

The Ottoman troops lost miserably which led to the signing of the Treaty of Jassy. The treaty led to the end of the Second war and led to the confirmation of Russia’s dominance in the Black Sea. This was because from this treaty Russia’s claim to the Crimea was legitimatized.

In 1773 in the Volga River Basin a peasant revolt led by Cossack started but was crushed by the Imperial forces when Cossack was captured in 1774, this was the only time that peace was realized for some time which enabled Catherine concentrate on domestic affairs, especially affairs that concerned the functioning of the government. It was during this time that the education standards were raised.

Catherine played a very important role in shaping the role of Russia in the field of diplomacy. In the European foreign issues, Russia under Catherine played a very instrumental role in mediating on disputes that sometimes led to war. She mediated in the War of the Bavarian succession (1778-1779), between Prussia and Austria. It was through Catherine also that Russia witnessed the partitioning of Poland, where all the commonwealth territory with Prussia and Austria were divided.

After all these expansion Russia turned into a vast empire that was in position to compete with other European neighbors.

On the art and sciences scene, Catherine played a critical role. She viewed art and science as a means through which Russia could be recognized as a civilization centre.

St Petersburg was turned into a great and dazzling capital. Through her patronage, theatre, music, painting and other form of art improved tremendously. She developed a manual for the education of children which she borrowed from the ideas of John Locke a famous English Philosopher.

She established the famous Smolny Institute. It was established for the purpose of educating ladies from noble families and rich merchants. This institute became one of the best institutes not only in Russia, but the whole of Europe as well.

Catherine was a prolific writer and exchanged ideas and correspondence leading philosophers and writers like Voltaire and Diderot. She wrote plays, fables Satires and memoirs.

The Russian age of ‘age of Imitation’ happened during her reign where the Russians imported and studied the classical works from Europe.

She spent millions of Rubles to build the Hermitage art collection. Today, Hermitage Museums that occupies the whole of the Winter Palace is one of the largest Museums in the world with one of the largest art collections totaling to over three million.

Despite her great support of art, during her reign there was censorship of the press and publications and sometimes writers were exiled. For example Radishcev after publishing The Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow which addressed the poor leaving standards of the peasant serfs, he was exiled to Siberia.

After converting from Lutheran to Orthodoxy, Catherine became indifferent to religion. Thus she never hesitated to suppress any religious dissent and never allowed dissenters to build chapels. However she exploited the Christian faith by promoting the protection of Christians under the Turkish rule. This was to ensure the weakening of the Ottoman Empire.

After the partitioning of Poland she sort to control the Roman Catholics. On the other hand, Russia became a safe haven for The Society of Jesus whose members were running away from the persecution of Jesuits across Europe.

Catherine the Great personal life was characterized by multiple lovers. She had a total of around 13 lovers in her reign that included Alexander Potemkin. Potemkin was a former lover who she had fallen off with but he continued to select future lovers for her.

Catherine was kind to her lovers even after breaking up with them. She had a reputation of rewarding them handsomely.

Works Cited
Alexander, John.T “Catherine II, Bubonic Plague, and the Problem of Industry in Moscow” The American Historical Review, Vol. 79, No.3. (Jun, 1974), pp.637-671.
Cruse, Mark. The memoirs of Catherine the Great. New York: Modern Library, 2005.
Dukes, Paul. Catherine the Great and the Russian Nobility: A Study Based of the Legislative Commission of 1767.Cambridge at the University Press, 1967
Haslip, Joan. Catherine the Great: A Biography .New York: G.P Putnam’s, 1977
Rasmussen, Karen “Catherine II and the Image of Peter I” Slavic Review, Vol. 37, No. 1. (Mar., 1978), pp.51-69.
Thomas, Gladys Scott. Catherine the Great and the Expansion of Russia. London: The English Universities Press, 1947
Waters, Brenda Meehan-“Catherine the Great and the Problem of Female Rule” Russian Review, Vol. 34, No. 3. (Jul., 1975), pp.293-307.

In the modern day Sri Lankan society, the concept of caste with its pre-historic background plays different roles is human life, and its role becomes dominant at the juncture of the typical Sri Lankan marriage.

The research will open up doors to show the typical Sri Lankan community being traditional and outdated, the concept of caste is still one of the major determinisms of leading a happy and successful marriage life.

The society we live today is complex and all of us have to live with different ideas and attitudes. These diverse ideas and attitudes come into light in different occasions and stages in our lives. The concept of “Caste” is a phenomenon unique to the countries in the Indian Sub Continent and it is fossilized in the society. Gender, age, caste, ethnicity and class play major roles in the establishment of the Sri Lankan society. While gender, age, caste and ethnicity are decided by one’s birth, class is decided by one’s ability.

In the present Sri Lanka society, caste does not play a significant role. Caste, which is decided by birth comes into action in different occasions and stages in one’s life in different ways and caste becomes a dominant figure in the Sri Lanka context when it comes to marriages. According to Robert Knox, [1] “Sri Lankans are very selective and careful about marriages. It is a tradition not to get married to a person from a lower caste. Sinhalese would never sacrifice their dignity for an unsuitable marriage even it brings out wealth.”

A person from Colombo might hear that caste is not as important as it was in the past and that it is subjected to deterioration. Nevertheless, the following extract suggests that it is not so. [2] “Sinhalese are highly concerned about the concept of caste and boundaries around it and that at least in the dry zone the concept of caste and boundaries around it are significant’ The above description indicates though caste is not highlighted in the surface level, it becomes a very important concept for the Sinhalese in practical situations.

According to E.R. Leach, [3] ‘The deterioration of the caste system leads to the deterioration of an establishment. Marriages between different ethnicities can still be seen in the society ‘. E.R. Leach helps one to identify the modern nature of the caste system. The notice on marriage proposals on week-end Sri Lankan newspapers highlight caste consciousness still plays a major role in the contemporary Sri Lankan society.

Careful studies show the concept of caste which hails from the colonial period has undergone slight changes after the independence in 1948. As job opportunities are allocated based on academic qualifications, the caste system faces its deterioration. After the changes brought up to the constitution in 1997 and the society being exposed to the open economy made the modern society look into matters based on money. It is evident that the nature of caste has changed, but it does not indicate that the identity one gains through caste has totally been rejected. It clearly depicts the caste consciousness of the traditional Sri Lankans comes to the surface in marriages.

CHAPTER 2
METHODOLOGY

AIM

The aim of the research is to study the role played by the Sri Lankan caste system in determining a marriage and the importance of a caste to lead a happy and successful marriage life.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Although caste seems on old fashioned and unscientific basis for determining whether two people are compatible for marriage, historic evidence shows that it is a predictor of maintaining success.

THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Caste system is a reliable determinism of successful marriages.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The sample is a randomly selected set of twenty married soldiers from the Sri Lanka Army representing different areas around the island and different castes.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

10. The collection of data and information for this research will be highly based on the following.

Interviews done with the twenty soldiers.

Questionnaires given to the twenty soldiers.

Books related to the research topic.

The Internet.

11. The books related to the research topic and the information gathered through the Internet opened avenues to identify the caste system in Sri Lanka and it led to write a review of literature on the nature of the Sinhala marriage in chapter three. While the fourth chapter describes the impact of caste in determining the marriage of the selected sample, the fourth chapter deals with impact of social, economic and family conditions on deciding a caste. The conclusion is done at the fifth chapter.

CHAPTER 3
BACKGROUND
CASTE SYSTEM AND THE NATURE OF THE SINHALA MARRIAGE
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CASTE

12. The caste system is perhaps the world’s longest surviving social hierarchy .A person is considered a member of the caste to which he or she is born and remains within that caste until death, although the particular ranking of that caste may vary among regions and over time.

13. The caste system in Sri Lanka is a division of society into strata. Ancient Sri Lankan texts such as the Pujawaliya, Sadharmarathnavaliya and Yogarathakaraya and inscriptional evidence show that the hierarchy prevailed throughout the feudal period. Caste as we know it today appears to have been introduced to Sri Lankans by Prakrit language speakers from North India. The introduction of Buddhism in the third century BC blunted the edge of the system to a certain extend. However, there is a reference to king Abhaya’s son, Saliya choosing to lose caste by marrying Ashokamala, a Candala or outcaste woman, in the second century BC, indicating that caste taboos remained in place.

14. Studies based on caste have allowed the society to come up with different definitions on caste, and these definitions have allowed people to identify the impact of caste on marriage. The concept of caste, the nature of its expansion and the definitions put forward under different areas pave a pathway to understand this concept.

15. According to Peiris Reif, [4] “The cruel nature of our ancestors led to the origin of a caste system. Thirst for power and land made them fight with each other. As a result, a need arose to appoint a leader who is physically and intellectually balanced to resolve the conflicts.”

16. The sources indicate that Aryans from India during their visit in the fifth century have brought down their caste system to Sri Lanka. The legend shows that the ancient Sri Lankan society had different castes such as Raja, Bamunu, Welanda and Govi and the base for these was provided by the different castes like Brahmans, Shathriya, Vaishya and Sudra in ancient India.

THE CONCEPT OF CASTE AND DEFINITIONS OF CASTE.

17. Caste is a phenomenon in the society and culture. According to Edmancy Leach, “A caste cannot stand on its own. It has a close bond with its members through a network.”

18. Mr: Amarasekara Daya in his book titled, The Sri Lankan Society elaborates L.L.Kroeber’s (an anthropologist) ideas. “Caste is a unit. It consists of indigenous sub units. Such a unit enjoys the privileges of the society. Based on that, we can differentiate one sub unit form another sub unit.”

19. Mr: Amarasekara further elaborates on caste by bringing forward measuring instruments introduced by Hutton, an anthropologist. They are, [5]

Caste is an indigenous concept.

There are specific boundaries between different castes.

A caste is a collection of situations which depicts bureaucracy.

It is accepted that through food, physical relationships, customs and by touching a member of a privileged caste by a member of a discriminated caste will corrupt the privileged caste.

Caste is related to traditional occupations.

Caste is decided by birth.

Caste in totality, is a system based on prestige.

20. W.M. Waister, an anthropologist bringing out his views on caste says that keeping laundry, making gold and silver jewellery were the duties of the discriminated castes and these services were rendered only to a privileged segment of the society.

21. Though a man from a privileged caste can keep a woman from a discriminated caste as his mistress, he is not allowed to take meals with her. As Mr: Bryce Rayan elaborated people were allowed to share the same well for drinking water and eat together with farmers from different castes in the paddy field, but at a wedding, people from Govi caste were never allowed to sit with people from other castes at the table. This clearly indicates the effect of caste on marriage.

MARRIAGE

22. The concept of marriage differs from country to country, society to society and culture to culture. Marriage simply means the joining of the two sexes who maintain a socially approved or accepted sexual relationship for reproduction. Since marriage is given so many definitions it is believed that studying all these definitions will help one to understand the concept of marriage.

23. According to Mr: Tuder Silva [6] “Marriage is the union of two or more people of both sexes for a socially accepted sexual relationship for the purpose of reproduction. Marriages are of two types, monogamy and polygamy.” The above definition gives an idea of a marriage. According to a statement by the British Anthropology Society, “Marriage is a unit which authorizes the children the rights of their biological parents.”

24. According to Mr Kumara Hemantha [7] “Marriage is a special bond between two elders of both sexes based on norms, ethics, rules and regulations. Both the elders maintain a sexual relationship for reproduction. Further, marriage is a unit made up of a husband, wife and their children.”

25. The society and time are the deciding factors of rules and regulations of a marriage.

26. The ancient traditions of marriage and the caste have a dinosaur effect on the relationship between the Sinhala marriage and the caste. The Sinhala society by Mr: Ralph Peiris is a suitable example for it. Through his book he talks about the different types of marriages, different methods of getting married, reasons for a marriage and the openness of marriages in ancient Sri Lanka. [8] “Marriage to a person out of the caste was strictly prohibited. The ancestors did not want their sons and daughters to marry a person with a lower status though that person is from the same caste.”

27. The above description shows that the ancient society considered caste an important factor in the marriages, and it also indicates that the Sinhala marriage is a lose bond.

28. According to Robert Knox, in 1600’s caste had a prominent place in the Sinhala marriage. Further, he elaborates that caste was given priority than wealth in ancient Sinhala marriage.

29. [9] “Caste discrimination is there because of the system of family. The need for a family arose to provide security and satisfy different needs of people. Therefore people began to think about their castes in marriages.”

TYPES OF CASTES IN SRI LANKA

30. According to Bryce Rayan in his book, Caste Discrimination in Sri Lanka, “Relationships between different castes began due to the nature of occupations and breaking up of the society into small units.” Jana Wanshaya which is the oldest text on caste discrimination shows that there are twenty six different castes in Sri Lanka. [10] They are,

a. Govigama

b. Salagama

c. Kamburu

d. Waduwo

e. Hannala

f. Rada

g. Ambettayo

h. Sommarayo

i. Durawo

j. Kumbhakarnayo

k. Karawo

l. Weddo

m. Berawayo

n. Hakuro

p. Hunno

q. Pannayo

r. Samanno

s. Welwaduwo

t. Gahalayo

u. Paduwo

v. Malakarayo

w. Kinnarayo

x. Rodee

y. Olee

z. Indrapalanagayo

aa. Chandalayo

31. According to Mr. Kalinga T. Silva’s research on castes, [11] there are fifteen castes in Sri Lanka. Though there is a compromise about the top and the lower levels of the caste system in Sri Lanka, there are several arguments about the middle level. According to Mr. Silva, Sri Lanka is divided into two parts as up country and low country. While people from Patti and Gahala castes live in the up country, people from Karawa, Salagama, Durawa and Hunnu live in the low country.

Order ( This is not yet been finalized )

Name of the Caste

Traditional Occupation

Percentage of Sinhala population

Level

01

Govigama

Radala

Land Owners

0.001

01

Govi

Farmers

49

Patti

Herdsmen

0.001

02

Karava

Fishermen

5

02

03

Salagama

Cinnamon Peelers

04

Durava

Toddy Tappers

3

05

Hunu

Quicklime Industry

0.002

06

Achari / Galladu / Navanandana

Traditional Artisans

0.0005

3

07

Hena / Rada

Traditional Washmen

3

08

Wahumpura / Hakuru

Traditional Makers of Jaggery

12.5

09

Kumbal / Badahela

Traditional Makers of Pots

2.5

10

Dura/ Wellandura/ Bodhi pannadura

Safeguard Srimaha Bodhi

0.001

11

Nakathi / Berawva

Traditional Dancers and Astrologers

3

12

Bathgama / Padu

Servants and Porters

18

13

Gahala

Traditional Drum Beaters

0.001

4

14

Kinthara

Weaving Mats

0.3

15

Rodi/ Hulawali

Traditional Beggars / Traditional Makers of Ekel Brooms

0.001

Other*

1.493

* Castes which belong to the other category are Porava, Kara, Olee, Palee, Barber and Ganthara and the number is very low.

33. Mr. Kalinga Silva in his analysis says, [12] ‘Though caste is subjected to deterioration, that in the Asian community it becomes dominant at three occasions. Marriage is one of them. A survey conducted with estate workers who have an Indian origin indicates that caste is a major determinism for 90% of their marriages.” Climbing up the economic and social hierarchy is the second occasion the caste becomes important. The concept of caste is highlighted at this occasion.

34. Usage of the concept of caste as a weapon in the political battle field is the third occasion where this concept becomes prominent. The following extract taken from Jamnis Tiggin’s studies about Sri Lanka shows the way, the concept of caste dominated the Sri Lankan political arena.

“W!;a l=md?h uq;a l=md?h

.fa l=md?hg ckaoh fouq’”

35 This was taken from a leaflet distributed during an election campaign and “Gama” here means a caste.

CHAPTER 4
DATA
REGIONAL REPRESENTATION AND CONCEPT OF CASTE

36. The following table shows the randomly selected set of twenty soldiers from the Sri Lanka Army representing different regions around the island and different castes to conduct a research on the role played by the Sri Lankan caste system in determining a marriage and the importance of a caste to lead a happy and successful marriage life.

Husband’s caste

Wife’s caste

Number of families

Govigama

Govigama

09

Karawa

Karawa

02

Bathgama

Bathgama

01

Hakuru

Hakuru

01

Govigama

Hena

01

Govigama

Salagama

01

Govigama

Padu

01

Padu

Govigama

01

Karava

Salagama

02

Achari

Govigama

01

Total

20

37. The sample represents 45% of Govigama, 10% of Karava, 5% of Bathgama, 5% of Hakuru and 35% of mixed castes.

Chart 4.1 – Cast of sample

38. The regional representation of the sample is as follows.

Srl no

Husband’s caste

Wife’s caste

Region

01

Govigama

Govigama

Mahiyanganaya

02

Govigama

Govigama

Bibile

03

Govigama

Govigama

Badulla

04

Govigama

Govigama

Padaviya

05

Govigama

Govigama

Welioya

06

Govigama

Govigama

Hakmana

07

Govigama

Govigama

Kanthale

08

Govigama

Govigama

Horana

09

Govigama

Govigama

Puswellawa

10

Karawa

Karawa

11

Karawa

Karawa

12

Bathgama

Bathgama

Puttalam

13

Hakuru

Hakuru

Kegalle

14

Govigama

Salagama

Kamburupitiya

15

Govigama

Hena

Veyangoda

16

Govigama

Padu

Kurunagala

17

Padu

Govigama

Matale

18

Achari

Govigama

Ambanpola

19

Karava

Salagama

Elpitiya

20

Karava

Salagama

.Galle

SRI LANKAN MARRIAGE AND THE IMPACT OF RACE AND RELIGION ON IT

39. Eighteen soldiers of the sample emphasize the importance the importance of equality between races 90%in marriage. The nature of family and demands of the society have made them think that way. As the majority of the sample represents the rural areas of the island, they think that if they do mix marriages they would be neglected by their parents and relatives, and thereby end up in unsuccessful and unhappy marriages.

Chart 4.2 Marriage and races

40. Eighteen (90%) soldiers representing the sample think equality between religions is very important to have successful marriages. According to them, the Sri Lankan village is based on temple, and when the husband and wife are from two different religions it is impractical to go to two different religious places simultaneously. Further, they believe that it is hard to practise diverse observances under one roof.

Chart 4.3 Marriage and religions
SRI LANKAN MARRIAGE AND CASTE

41. Sinhalese believe that race and religion are important factors in marriage. Typical Sinhalese confide in equality between castes in their marriages. While thirteen (65%) soldiers of the sample believe their partners should be from the same caste, seven (35%) soldiers do not believe so.

Chart 4.4 Marriage and caste

42. Arranged marriage is still commonly practised in Sri Lanka, but an increasing number of young people today refuse arranged marriage. In arranged marriage caste becomes an important consideration. In love marriages the couple thinks only about matching their races, religions, ideas, views and interests. For them, caste is a minor matter and the survey shows that most of the couples have received the blessings of their parents.

43. The marriage proposals on weekend newspapers highlight the fact that caste is a major determinism in arranged marriages. The following table is taken from a survey conducted by Mr. Daya Amarasekara on marriage proposals in newspapers.

Caste Male Female Total Percentage

Govi 31 48 79 67’5 ]

Karawa 06 07 13 11’0 ]

Durawa 03 02 05 4’3 ]

Salagama 02 02 04 3’5 ]

Deva – 02 02 1’7 ]

Rajaka 02 02 04 3’4 ]

Wellala 01 02 03 2’5 ]

Hetti – 01 01 0’9 ]

Other 01 03 04 3’4 ]

Total 46 69 115 100’0 ]

44. According to the table, the majority is Govigama and the minority is Hetti. Mr. Amarasekara tells that this table depicts the spread of castes all around the island.

45. When asked from Sri Lankan women about their views on marriage and caste it is evident that women from higher castes do not want to get married to men from lower castes. These women do not want their children to be treated differently by the society because of their fathers’ surnames.

OTHER FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE MARRIAGE

46. Another factor which influences modern marriage is the economy of each individual. The research shows that people are interested in getting married to people from the same economic level or above. People expect to lead simple and comfortable marriage lives by getting married to a person from the same economic level or above.

47. Most of the women in the modern society prefer to get married to men who are more educated than them.

CHAPTER 5
DATA ANALYSIS
MATCHING CASTE AND ITS INFLUENCE TO A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE LIFE

48. While thirteen soldiers out of the sample have married women from the same caste seven soldiers have married from different castes. The following table depicts the present status of the marriage lives of the thirteen soldiers whose spouses are from the same caste.

Srl no

Husband’s caste

Wife’s caste

Region

Present status of marriage life

01

Govigama

Govigama

Mahiyanganaya

Unsuccessful

02

Govigama

Govigama

Bibile

Successful

03

Govigama

Govigama

Badulla

Divorced

04

Govigama

Govigama

Padaviya

Planning to get divorced

05

Govigama

Govigama

Welioya

Unsuccessful

06

Govigama

Govigama

Hakmana

07

Govigama

Govigama

Kanthale

08

Govigama

Govigama

Horana

09

Govigama

Govigama

Puswellawa

10

Karawa

Karawa

11

Karawa

Karawa

12

Bathgama

Bathgama

Puttalam

Unsuccessful

13

Hakuru

Hakuru

49. According to the table, the marriage lives of the two families representing Govi caste (Row 1 and 5) and the family representing Bathgama (Row 12 ) are unsuccessful.

50. The following reasons have made their marriage lives unsuccessful.

a. According to the soldiers from rows 1 and 5, their marriages are a failure because of their wives’ illegal affairs. Since these soldiers come home once in every two or three months, there is enough freedom and opportunities for their wives to have illegal affairs and this has ended their marriages in divorces.

b. According to the soldier from row 12, the reason for his marriage being unsuccessful is the mismatch of ideas between himself and his spouse. He says that his wife never agrees with his suggestions and works according to her own plans and ideas. They have decided to get divorced after being married for eight years because of mismatch of ideas.

51. The above study shows that though the castes match, these people have decided to get divorced because of external forces. This is a very common phenomenon in the present day Sri Lankan society.

52. The following table shows the present status of the marriage lives of seven soldiers of the sample who have married out of their castes.

Srl no

Husband’s caste

Wife’s caste

Region

Present status of marriage life

01

Govigama

Salagama

Kamburupitiya

Unsuccessful

02

Govigama

Hena

Veyangoda

Unsuccessful

03

Govigama

Padu

Kurunagala

Unsuccessful

04

Padu

Govigama

Matale

Unsuccessful

05

Achari

Govigama

Ambanpola

Successful

06

Karava

Salagama

Elpitiya

Successful

07

Karava

Salagama

.Galle

Successful

53. Though the families from rows 1,2,3 and 4 have done their best to lead a happy and successful marriage lives, the insults by the parents and relatives of the party which represents Govi caste have made their marriages scatter. In family gatherings, the partners who represent the lower caste have been subjected to inferiority. Two females who represent Govi caste in rows 4 and 5 have been outcasted by their families because of their marriages to males from lower castes.

54. Parents and relatives of the soldiers in rows 1 and 2 totally ignore the presence of their daughters in law at family gatherings and even invitations to special occasions are sent only to the male partner. This indicates how embarrassed the wife becomes in front of her husband’s parents and relatives.

55. The couples from rows 5, 6 and 7 lead happy and successful marriage lives though they are from two different castes. Parents and relatives of both the parties have mutual understanding and they respect each others ideas, views, attitudes and interests.

56. The research unveils that people from Govi caste are interested in dominating the society, and the interest on the concept of caste by the other castes are very low when compared with Govi caste.

57. However, the caste consciousness of the Sinhalese in arranged marriage is at a higher level.

CHAPTER 6
SUMMARY

58. The objective of this sociological research is to study the role played by the Sri Lankan caste system in determining a marriage and the importance of a caste to lead a happy and successful marriage life. The ancient traditional Sinhala marriage and its relationship with caste and the role played by caste in present Sinhala marriage were studied in depth to come to a conclusion.

59. The sample of randomly selected twenty soldiers from the Sri Lankan Army representing different regions and castes help to discuss in detail a sensitive topic which people very rarely speak in public. Interviews with the sample assisted to reveal the following facts.

a. Race and religion have played a dominant role in deciding the marriages of the

sample.

Sinhala and Buddhist back grounds of the sample have motivated the sample to avoid marriages with different ethnicities.

60. Caste plays a major role in Sinhala marriage. People from Govi caste want to maintain their authority while other castes make less efforts to maintain authority. It is evident that Govi caste is considered as the top caste but no conclusion has been made about the positions of the other castes. It is evident that people from higher castes reject people from lower castes and people from lower castes always try to select partners from higher castes in marriages.

61. In the past, most of the marriages were arranged ones , but today many are love marriages. In the modern society, people are interested in finding their own partners according to their level of education, interests, economic status, regional differences and attitudes. Though it seems that caste is not considered as a major determinism in marriage, it becomes prominent when one look at the reactions of parents and relatives of a higher caste partner who has selected a lower caste person. Though the system of caste is subjected to decay it has a dinosaur effect in marriages, and leading a happy and successful marriage life.

62. The research also reveals that when compared with men, women are more interested in marrying a person from the same caste or a higher caste. As the surname of the father automatically goes to the children, women make sure that they do not marry men make from lower castes. The women also do not like to live with the parents and the relatives of their husbands’ because they are scared of the insults of the husbands’ parents and relatives.

63. The above facts depict that caste plays a major role in the Sri Lankan marriage, and the attitudes of parents and relatives of the two partners are important in deciding a marriage.

CHAPTER 7
RECCOMANDATION

63. The study shows that in marriages, the concept of caste is dominant. As the citizens of a democratic society, people have been given the rights through the constitution to live freely within the accepted rules and regulations of the government. Caste is not a barrier to a person to get proper education and move up the social hierarchy. Further, a person has the legal authority to change one’s surname which is a determinism of his or her caste.

64. Though caste is considered in marriage, it is not a barrier to have love affairs and sexual relationships. A person from a lower caste who is at the top level in the

Single-parent families can be defined as families where a parent lives with dependent children, either alone or in a larger household, without a spouse or partner. Single-parent is a parent who cares for one or more children without physical assistance of another parent in home. “Single parenthood” may vary according to the local laws of different nations or regions. Single-parent families which are families with children under age 18 headed by a parent who is divorced, widowed, adoption, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood or not married. But mostly single-parent families came about because of the death of spouse. Besides that, most of the single-parent families face common problem and special challenge, the most common problem is their children. Children who live with single father or mother, they have to take care themselves and get less care from parent because of busy working. According to social scientists, children who growing up in single-parent families are disadvantages in other ways when compared to a two-biological-parent families. Many of these problems are directly related to the poor economic condition of single-parent families, not just to parenting style.

Factors of Single-Parent Families

The effect on children

In single-parent families, children tend to experience short-and long-term economic and psychological disadvantages, higher absentee rates at school, lower levels of education, and higher dropout rates (with boys more negatively affected than girls) (Demo & Acock, 2011). Besides that, they will more on criminal activity, including alcohol and drug addiction. Teenagers, on the other hand, are more negatively affected by parental discord prior to divorce than by living in single-parent families and actually gain in responsibility as a result of altered family routines. In addition, children in single-parent families more likely to suffer emotional problem, due to mother and father split up or any other reason. In future, children who from single-parent families become adults, they are more likely to marry early, have children early, and divorce. Girls are at greater risk of becoming single mothers as a result of noncapital childbearing or divorce (McLanahan & Karen, 2011).

Economics of single-parent families

The main problem of single-parent families is economic, in single-father families, there will be no any problem, because father have particular job, have no worry. But in single-mother families, there might have problem, for example, when single-mother divorced or widowed, she have no any job or any income to maintain the families. Single-mother has to face economic problem, such as lack of money paid for children studies.

Lower level of educational achievement

Children or teenagers who live under single-parent families will face lower level of education problem, this is because the families facing finance problem, having poor economic condition, so the parent have no enough money send the children to tuition, or any learning centre to have extra learning, children just only go to the government school study. Besides that, parent who have finance problem, he or she don’t have enough money to buy the reference books for their child, they just study the text book, can’t get extra learning material or knowledge.

Children / Teenagers having conflict with their parent

Children or teenagers who lives in single-parent families will have conflict with the parent, this is because the parent are busy working outside and spend less time with their children, or even can’t have a good communicate with them, lack communication between parent and their children, then the conflict occur. Parent who busy working outside, they can’t spend more time on them, that’s why the parent don’t even know what their child need or wants. Besides that, children or teenagers with argue with their parent because the parent can’t understand them, can’t have a good communicate with them.

Less supervised by parent

In a single-parent families, single father or mother are busy working at outside, they don’t have much more time supervised their children. This will cause the children turn to bad side, because the parent can’t spend time on supervise them. When parent busy working not at home, or parent don’t have much time with the children, so when the children will feel alone or boring, they will hanging out with friends, truancy with friends, smoking with friends, or taking drugs. In this situation, the parent doesn’t know at all, they don’t know what their children doing outside, making good or bad friends.

No discipline

Children who lives in single-parent families, most of them don’t have discipline, this is because single father or mother didn’t spend time on family education, they just busy with their job. Family education is important for children, for example, children who don’t have discipline, he or she is just a rude boy or girl, they don’t know what is respect and how to respect other people. Besides that, when the children study in school without discipline, he or she don’t know how to respect the teacher and not following the instruction, for example, when teacher teaching the lesson, he or she playing with other friends and disturbing other students, he or she will be punish by the teacher or headmaster due to don’t have any discipline.

Divorce parent/single parent finds new partner who treats the children of the previous partner badly

When a divorce parent or single parent live single for few years, he or she might find a new partner for accompany his or her. But here is the problem, if the parent find the new partner is bad, the new partner will treats the children of the precious partner badly. For example, if the new partner of the parent doesn’t like the children, he or she will keep making trouble on them, such as beating them, threaten the children, and any other worst things on them.

Casa Study of Single-parent families

Children in single-parent families more likely to suffer emotional problems, report finds

Children from broken homes are almost five times more likely to develop emotional problems than those living with both parents, a report has found

By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent 5:59PM BST 21 Oct 2008

Young people whose mother and father split up are also three times as likely to become aggressive or badly behaved, according to the comprehensive survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics.

Living in a “reconstituted” family containing step-children or step-parents increased the risk of developing behavioral problems still further, it found.

The stark findings of the study, commissioned by the Department for Health and the Scottish Government, fly in the face of the Government’s repeated failure to extol the benefits on children of growing up in a traditional family home.

Under Labor, the number of couples getting married has fallen to the lowest level for more than a century while almost half of newlyweds are now expected to end up divorcing.

Yet Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, insisted recently that “there is no ‘ideal’ parenting scenario” and “marriage has little relevance to public policy”.

The ONS report involved interviewing parents, teacher and children themselves to find out how many suffered emotional problems such as anxiety or depression, how many “conduct disorders” such as aggression had, and what the possible reasons behind them were.

After interviewing 5,364 children aged between five and 16 in 2004 and again last year, the researchers found that 3 per cent had developed problems over that time. In addition, 30 per cent who had emotional problems at the first survey, and 43 per cent who had behavioral issues, still had them three years later.

The researchers stressed they had not discovered any direct causes of emotional and behavioral problems developing or persisting in children, but agreed there was a link to living in a broken home.

Children whose parents had split up over the three years were 4.53 times more likely to develop emotional problems than those whose mothers and fathers stayed together, and were 2.87 times more likely to show the onset of behavioral disorders.

The report said: “The odds of developing an emotional disorder were increased for children where there had been a change in the number of parents between surveys, from two parents to one parent compared with children and young people in families that had two parents at both times.”

It went on: “Children and young people in households of ‘reconstituted’ families, particularly where there were step-children, were more likely to develop conduct disorder as were those in families which had two parents at Time 1 and one parent at Time 2.”

In addition, children whose mothers were mentally ill were found to be more likely to develop conduct disorders, as were those whose mothers were poorly educated.

Children who endured three stressful events such as seeing one’s parents’ divorce or appear in court, or suffering a serious disease or being badly injured, were three times as likely to develop emotional problems.

However those who were happy where they lived, had lots of friends or enjoyed activities outside school were less likely to become unhappy.

The report’s author, Nina Parry-Langdon, said: “If children belong to more clubs, it may offer some protection against getting a disorder in the future.”

One-parent families on the rise

Two-parent households are becoming less common

Britons are increasingly likely to live in single-parent families, stay at home for longer, marry later and struggle to afford a house, official figures show.Family

The Office for National Statistics said children in the UK were three times more likely to live in one-parent households than they were in 1972.

Last year almost 60% of men and 40% of women aged between 20 and 24 in England still lived with their parents.

The department’s annual Social Trends report studies patterns in UK society.

Among the findings this year was that wages rose on average by 92% from 1995 to 2005, but house prices rocketed by 204%.

Stephen Evans, chief economist with the Social Market Foundation, said problems getting on the property ladder were partly to blame for young people leaving home later, but insisted there was an element of choice involved too.

“They’re making a choice to extend their education because they know that they’re going to get higher earnings in the long run.”

Changing families

Since 1971 the proportion of all people living in “traditional” family households of married couples with dependent children has fallen from 52% to 37%.

Children by family type

Over the same period, the proportion of people living in couples with no children rose from 19% to 25%.

Nearly a quarter of children lived with only one parent last year and nine out of 10 of those households were headed by lone mothers.

David Green, director of the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programmed: “If you take almost any measure – how well children do in school, whether they turn to crime, whether they commit suicide, etc – it’s better to have two parents.

“It’s also the biggest disadvantage of lone parenthood that you’re much more likely to be poor.”

But Jane Ahrends, from One Parent Families, said while single parents might face poverty, the image of them as “young, feckless women who deliberately get pregnant” was wrong.

“The vast majority of lone parents are ordinary working mums and dads in their 30s and 40s, who are just trying to do their best in circumstances they didn’t choose,” she said.

“And remember, families are constantly changing – lone parenthood is not a permanent state for most people. It’s a phase, usually lasting about five and a half years.”

Lone living

More children are born in Britain today outside of marriage than in most other European countries, the report also said.

The average figure is 44%, compared with just 3% in Cyprus, and just 12% in Britain in the early 1970s.

BBC home editor Mark Easton said that in Wales and the north east of England the numbers of children born to unmarried parents were even higher, at 52% and 55% respectively.

More than seven million people in Britain also live alone now, compared with three million in 1971.

This, the report said, had left societies more fragmented and led to much less trust and co-operation between neighbours.

Other findings included:

· Second marriages made up two-fifths of all marriages in 2005.

· In the same year, the average age at first marriage in England and Wales was 32 for men and 29 for women – up from 25 and 23 respectively in 1971.

· Divorces in 2005 fell to 155,000 from a 1993 peak of 180,000.

· In 2005, 66% of single-parent families lived in rented housing compared with 22% of couples with dependent children.

Care in the Community

United Kingdom has many legislations in place, these legislations are in place to protect and give appropriate help to all residents of the country. Four of these legislations/acts will be discussed in this writing. The acts are, Mental Health Act 2007, Direct payments Act 2007, Mental Health Capacity Act 2007 and also Independence,Well being and choice green paper. In addition to this, it will also look at Community Care Act 1990. In each of these 4 main legislations , it will underline the advantages and disadvantages and then it will indentify the moral, financial, political and social policy,which will all be relevant to the legislations. Community Care Act 1990 will indentify and explain why it has been put in to place and what is Community Care Act 1990 all about.

Community Care Act is a piece of legislation which governs health and social care in the United Kingdom. It sets out how the National Health Service should assess and provide for patients based on their needs, requirements and circumstances. This legislation gives measures for Social Services Departments to provide care and support services in the community, rather than in institutions. Covers duties for each local authority to produce a community care plan and to carry out assessments of those who may be in need. According to many researches it has shown that the Community Care Act has been put into place as a cost cutting measure and the Conservatives have been accused of failing to adequately fund the NHS.( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/442807.stm)

Since the Mental Health Act 2007 has been amended from the 1983 Mental Health Act it has shown many positive factors such as the changes in professionals roles. The role of Approved Mental Health Professional was introduced as a result of the Mental Health Act 2007 which amended the Mental Health Act 1983. This type of role is opened to anyone with a nursing background such as: registered social workers ,first level nurses whose field of practice is mental health or learning disabilities, registered occupational therapists; and Chartered psychologist (http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:ko7D0JWfI30J:www.basw.co.uk/Portals/0/Chris%2520Southworth.ppt+amhp+role&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk).

With relevant and sufficient training all these professionals listed above could become an Approved Mental Health Professional, and will be approved for the next 5 years and if they wish to continue in this role they will have additional training to atend. These professional bodies have to be approved by their local authority. Once the professional worker becomes an Approved Mental Health Professional they have the right to make decisions about people well being and give people with any health or social needs appropriate help. It would be also good to point out that the Approved Mental Health Professional has a lot of power in their role and will have to give correct and proffesional treatment and help t those who need certain care. This may be a very positive factor however what we have to look at and examine is this, ‘is it morally right to become AMPH from being an ASW’. Into some extend we can say that this is not morally correct as this does not have enough training. And also in many situations we could say that this is a cost cutting measure, as the NHS is in need of Approved Mental Health Professionals.

Another advantages and disadvantages were brought in by the Direct Payments Act 1996, this brought in a lot of positives factors to many people lives. The Direct Payments Act 1996 advantages concentrates on giving people mainly back their social life, it gives them more control of their life which is very important to everyone. Direct Payments gives patients more independent and more control of their lives , therefore they will feel more relaxed and happier and mainly be less overwhelmed by financial demands. They will have the freedom to pick their own care staff and be in control. This will give them moral empowerment. However Direct Payments Act 1996 has brought in lot of disadvantages such the care managers are reluctant to use direct payments and do not have enough knowledge about this. And also it brings in a lot of responsibilities such as paperwork and hiring new staff. Which then opens a whole new responsibility and lot of people don’t want to get involved in that as this means more work for a lot of people. However this is not the correct way to be responding as a proffesional person and all care managers and care staff should be fully knowledgeable about this legislations, as this means that many service users will be missing out on something that could make a large positive impact on their lives.

Direct Payments Act 1996 has brought in positives and negatives. But does this suit everyone. After researching the Direct Payments Act and what do direct payments users think we can say that this suit the majority of its users.

Next legislation that this piece of writing will concentrate on is Mental Health Capacity Act 2007 this act states that everyone should be treated as able to make their own decisions until it is shown that they are not. It also aims to enable people to make their own decisions for as long as they are capableof doing so.

A person’s capacity to make a decision will be established at the time that a decision needs to be made. A lack of capacity could be because of a severe learning disability, dementia, mental health problems, a brain injury, a stroke or unconsciousness due to an anesthetic or a sudden accident. (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/HealthAndSupport/YourRightsInHealth/DG_10016888)

The positives of this act are that a person will be able to make their own decisions unless it is proven that they no longer can, once the cant make their own decisions, the decisions will be made for them. This is very positive as mainly this will protect vulnerable adults who can’t no longer make decisions for them self’s. This act will give them power and freedom unless proven that the person is no longer able to make decisions. The negative outcome of this act would be that people will not feel free and for some it won’t be morally right for someone to make decisions on their behalf. Into some cases some people may feel as if their dignity has gone due to the lack of power, once they can’t make decisions.( http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm) This Act will also help people make financial decisions once they can’t make that decisions themselves. From November 9 2009 direct payments will be available to people who lack capacity who meet the criteria laid out in regulations and guidance issued earlier this month. (http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm)

Once Direct Payments are available to people who lack capacity this will make things more smoother for people and will give them more freedom and more control of their lives.

Last legislation in this writing will talk about is the Independence, Weill being and Choice Green Paper. This Green Paper gives a clear picture for adult social care for the next 10 to 15 years and how this may work. It gives all people the chance to everyone to give their ideas,views and opinion and lets them have their own sa on the matter and then it will be considered. They way that this should work is that if people give their opinions and views this should make smoother and easier legislations for the future. However this is a very long process as this is first open to the public that is what is called the green paper, once the government has decided it wants to go ahead with a specific area it then becomes a white paper. The white paper then, is presented to the parliament to be voted on, once it has the majority of votes it then becomes an Act. So this will be a very long process. However if this will be done it will give people more control of their finances and their morals.

The last part of this writing will evaluate the main provisions of community legislation and their implications.

As writen about in the previous paragraphs, four legislation were discussed along with positives and negatives of each one. It can be said that all four legislations ome with advantages and disadvantages. Positive factors are the ones that mainly all service users are interested in. However the negatives are something that needs more interest put to it. For example the Direct Payments Act, and the fact that Care managers do not want to get involved with because their aren’t so knowledgeable about it. In the research that have been carried out during this writing, it can be acknowledged that mainly all legislations do concentrate on changing service users lifes for a better future. It also highlights that the legislations are in place so that service users get control of their lives back and making sure that service users have the freedom and do not loose ther dignity and morals.

References:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/442807.stm [Assessed 9th November 2009]

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:ko7D0JWfI30J:www.basw.co.uk/Portals/0/Chris%2520Southworth.ppt+amhp+role&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk [Assesed 11th November 2009]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/HealthAndSupport/YourRightsInHealth/DG_10016888 [Assessed 12th November 2009]

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm [Assessed 14th November 2009]

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/publicationsandstatistics/publications/publicationspolicyandguidance/dh_4106477 [Assessed 15th November 2009]

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm [Assessed 17th November 2009]

This study was designed to observe the career and family priorities of college students. It was studied to determine whether men and women differ in feelings towards career and family. It was hypothesized that there would be an inverse relationship between career values and the importance of family life between men and women furthermore; female students would value the family life role, whereas male would prefer the occupational life role. It was tested with the help of Life Role Salience Scale (Amatea, Cross, Clark, & Bobby, 1986). Thirty female and thirty male college students rated the scale. Statistical analysis demonstrated that women valued family more than career and men valued career more than family.

INTRODUCTION:

Everyday decision can be related to the essence of human. In today’s society, individuals are trying to ”do it all”-to find life satisfaction through a combination of multiple roles (e.g., career, marriage, parenting, homecare). Super (1990) theorized that one’s life career is made up of many different roles occupied over the life span, including the roles of career person, home and family person, community member, student, and leisurite. However, if they are not spending their time in ways that are congruent with their values, they are unlikely to find the happiness they seek. Greehaus and Beutell (1985) theorized that the more important a role is to an individual, the more time and energy that person will invest in it, which will allow less time and energy for other roles. Super discussed participation, commitment and value expectations in relation to life roles. Participation is the amount of time spent in a role, whereas commitment and values expectations reflect the importance of the role to the individual, and the degree to which the individual can meet their needs through that role (Super & Neville, 1986). Satisfaction in life is related to role congruence, which is the amount of congruence between the level of participation in each life role and the level of commitment to and valuing of that role. For example, if an individual highly values and is highly committed to the family role, but only participates in this role 5% of the time, that individual will be less satisfied with life than an individual with greater congruence between valuing/commitment and participation. Research has demonstrated that inconsistency between role participation and role commitment may cause increased psychological distress and decreased marital quality (Voydanoff & Donnelly, 1999).Graduating senior women on the Berkeley campus overwhelmingly reported that they expected to be married, to have children and to have a career. Nearly nine-tenths are planning to earn graduate degrees in law, medicine, science, or business, and half expect to earn as much if not more, than their future husbands. Simultaneously, they hope to raise two or three children each and to interrupt their careers for extended amounts of time, (Six months to twelve years) in order to care for their children. Some researchers say that women place family before career and like to spend large amount of time at home, especially when their children are young. And women with children earn significantly less than either men or women without children. College women and men are quite similar in one respect they both want partners or spouses and they both want children. Ninety percent of the women and men in one of the research say that women hope to marry and have children. But one asks these students how they plan to combine their careers, marriages, and children, striking differences appear. They wanted their husbands to work continuously. It would be strange,” said one, echoing the sentiments of many,” if I was at work and he was at home”. But many of the men were tentative about their future wives employment. Several men stated they wanted there wives to stay home after she had children. Clearly, both women and men see the husband’s job as essential to the economic well-being and survival of their future families and the wife’s job as optional-a luxury they can choose to add on or take off at will. Most of the students come from fairly traditional homes-their mothers were responsible for cooking, doing the dishes, and cleaning the house while their fathers made money and fixed things around the house. Students say that mother took care of the kids and the house while father went out to work and earn money. Extensive research indicates that college men and women endorse both achievements goals such as career development and marital goals. Many researchers have found that college men and women are increasingly similar in their goals and value orientations. Scant information is available about how women and men with similarly strong and equal motivations toward the achievement of goals and the maintenance of affiliative relationships will prioritize, make decisions, and interact when achievement demands and personal relationships conflict. Students reveal ignorance of the career hazards of interruptions in employment, and lack of awareness of the family sacrifices and stresses attendant to career commitment (Catalyst, 1987; Phillips & Johnston, 1985; Zuckerman, 1980).

As men and women in college today think about their future and plan for work and family, they are exposed to a variety of mixed messages relating to gender. Gender socialization continues to influence young people’s identities and stereotypes from the past frame choices (e.g., Angrist & Almquist, 1975; Komarovsky, 1985; Machung, 1989) for students as they move into a society which, at least theoretically, permits equality of opportunities regardless of gender. Yet, participation of women in the work force has increased significantly and attitude surveys indicate that we are much more accepting of women taking active roles in our society (e.g. Mason & Lu, 1988). Nevertheless, women still face considerable occupational segregation (Blau & Ferber, 1985). Research suggests that women continue to oversee management of home, children and social activities of the family, while men “help” with household tasks (Hochschild et al., 1989) since discrimination results in women earning less money for equal time at work, men can justify their non-involvement in household chores because they must “provide” for the family. Thus, despite many changes, today’s college students have grown up in traditional families where women have had to assume the majority of household tasks, whether they worked outside of the home or not. Consequently, many traditional gender expectations are maintained by the structural inequality in our society. According to Eccles, women’s career choices will differ from men’s because they place more value on family and relationships. Machung’s (1989) interviews with 30 graduating Berkeley seniors, illustrates the contradictions which occur between the changing role of women in society and the traditional roles we still hold for women and men in the family. The women whom Machung interviewed wanted careers, but recognized that their career paths would be interrupted by family and children. The men researcher spoke to, on the other hand, planned their career with the expectation of having a support system (wives) to care for their homes and families. The women in other studies (e.g., Komarovsky, 1985; Maines & Hardesty, 1987; Angrist & Almquist, 1975) also express tentativeness of plans for their work life, in which career planning becomes contingency planning or planning around husbands and children. Women in these studies expect to be working most of their adult life, but also expect that their family will take priority over work as needed. Sociological functionalists saw employment and family in an earlier and family life in an earlier historical period as well-integrated (Parsons and Smelser 1956; Goode 1960). Only one person, the male breadwinner, participated in the labour force; the wife/mother met childcare, house-hold upkeep, and other pattern maintenance needs. Husbands and wives were thus “specialists” in their roles. Societal restrictions on employment for women of childbearing age reduced work/family conflict and stress. Today in our society there is almost universal support in principle for equal opportunity however; traditional attitudes regarding women’s family roles persist. Employed women thus experience conflict between work outside the home and family responsibilities (Mortimer and London, 1984; Mortimer and Sorensen, 1984). Pleck (1984) finds that traditional norms promote “asymmetrically permeable boundaries” in the roles of men and women. For men, the work role dominates; the family is expected to accommodate to its requirements. To support their work involvement, men spend relatively little time on family work. Because the male family role inextricably entails being a good breadwinner (Bernard, 1984), male workplace success simultaneously fulfills both work and family role responsibilities. On the other hand, women are expected to stress family obligations over activities related to employment. Women’s work roles often “give” to accommodate the family (e.g., women with young children often work part-time or intermittently). Thus, employment doesn’t radically disrupt the traditional core wife/ mother responsibilities. In essence, employed married women have two jobs, one in the workplace, the second in the family; this normative pattern has negative implications for their socio economic attainment (Marini, 1989). Therefore what normative controls used to accomplish (i.e., a women was expected to quit work when she married or had children).

Adolescence is widely recognized as a critical life stage for vocational development (Erickson 1963) and crystallization of future plans. Adolescent work and family orientations are therefore expected both to reflect changing work/ family linkages and to contribute to them in the future. Public opinion trends (McLaughlin, 1988) show that widespread behavioral change (e. g., wives’ employment) often precedes attitudinal change (e.g., approval of wives working). Moreover, status attainment researchers have demonstrated that educational and occupational aspirations influence attainments (Sewell and Hauser, 1975). Given these reciprocal relations of work – and family structures, it is important to continually monitor trends in young peoples work attitudes and behaviors. Recent research shows that future work (Farmer, 1983; Shapiro and Crowley, 1982) and family (Affleck, Morgan, and Hays, 1989; Machung 1989; Joss Elson, Greenberger and McConchie, 1977a, 1977b; Maines and Hardest, 1987) continue to be central life interests for adolescent boys and girls, with both planning to spend significant portions of their lives in the labor force and in families. A major gender difference persists in that girls more often plan to work part-time and intermittently rather than full-time to accommodate competing work and family role demands (Machung, 1989; O’Connell, Betz, and Kurth, 1989).Young women often anticipate that career and family life will be problematic if perused simultaneously (Machung 1989; Ward and Rubin1989; Archer1985; Crowley and shapiro1982). Tangri and Jenkins’s (1986)1980 survey of 1967 college female graduates showed a dramatic increase in reported conflict between career and marriage in the post graduate years. Adolescent males ,in contrast ,see their adult work and family roles as more congruent; they see few problems in wanting both careers and families(archer1985).This is to be expected since families do not impede adult men’s career(Mortimer and Sorensen 1984 ).Maines and Hardesy (1987)conclude, “young men and women anticipate participating in basically the same categories of activity(education, work, family),butaˆ¦differ in their assumptions about the nature and extent of that participation.” Men expect ability and labour market opportunities to determine their futures, while women face the problem of how to integrate these various dimensions of their lives (Maines and Hardesty, 1987). Regan and Roland (1982) investigated marginal shifts in university seniors’ life goals and vocational aspirations, finding that they had changed over the decade of the 1970’s. Women graduating in1979 expected careers to be the primary source of future satisfaction but also indicated that family relationships were still very important. Van Maanem and associates (1977) argue that an understanding of careers should focus on the interaction among individual aspirations, family concerns, and work demands. We therefore, build a measure of lifestyle commitment, constructed from individuals ordering of life goals, to investigate relationships.

Gender differences in work and family experiences have been a consistently important theme in work-family research (Lewis & Cooper, 1999). On the basis of Greenhaus and Beutell’s argument about the importance of role salience to the work-family conflict (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985), many scholars have hypothesized that women experience more work-family conflict than men because of their typically greater home responsibilities and their allocation of more importance to family roles. However, more recent researchers have discovered that men and women do not differ on their level of work- family conflict (Blanchard-Fields, 1997). In those studies where gender differences were found. The unanticipated results regarding gender and the work-family conflict raise the possibility that researchers’ emphasis on between-gender differences may mask important within-gender variation in work- family conflict. Within-gender variation may be as critical as between-gender differences in explaining work-family conflict. Gender identity does not stand separate from other identity issues. Rather, it is part of a complex psychological and social process whereby men and women adopt varying degrees of traditionally masculine and feminine roles and responsibilities (Anderson & Leslie, 1991). Social and cultural factors, as well as the individual’s abilities and personality characteristics, mediate the relationship between gender and work-family conflict (Farmer, 1985). Thus, individual variation within gender can provide valuable information beyond the mere knowledge of gender in order to explain differences among persons regarding work-family conflict. The range of findings in the literature highlights the need to attend to the variation in men’s and women’s beliefs about the importance of work and family roles, rather than to generalize to all men and to all women (Kerpelman & Schvaneveldt, 1999). Understanding this variation may contribute to a more coherent and comprehensive explanation of work-family conflict.

The aim of this study is to explore gender differences in work-family conflict while attending to both between- and within-gender variation in perceptions of importance of work and family life roles. In the study we considered the importance attributed simultaneously to both work and family roles by both men and women. This approach should facilitate more precise understandings and may clarify some of the mixed findings of previous research concerning gender differences in work-family conflict. Role salience was typically determined by examining commitment and values regarding work or family roles (Neville & Super, 1986). It is important to note that these researchers investigated work salience or home salience without simultaneously considering the relative importance of both roles in an individual’s life. Much of the research on career and family orientation has disregarded the perceived relative importance of both work and family roles. As a result, these studies do not reflect the growing recognition that work and family are interdependent spheres of life (Rapport & Rapport, 1971; Westman & Piotrkowski, 1999). Despite the increase in women’s involvement in demanding occupations and the substantial rise of women’s vocational aspirations over recent decades (Gerstein, Lichtman, & Barokas,1988), men’s occupational goals and aspirations frequently exceed those of women. For example, Leung, Conoley, and Schell (1994) found that women generally have lower career aspirations than do comparably talented men. During socialization to work and family roles, men are traditionally raised to pursue the “provider role” and women the marital/ family role (Major, 1989). Many women in the West continue to be socialized to believe that being a wife and raising a family is the first priority in life and that financial independence and career advancement is secondary (Gilbert, 1993) by this findings we can anticipate that more women than men will fit the Family profile that comprises individuals who assign high importance to the family and relatively low importance to work. Similarly, if young men are raised to adopt the provider role more than young women, it is likely that more men than women fit the Work profile, and assign high levels of importance to the work role and relatively low importance to family roles. By this we can say that women will be represented most often in the Family profile and least in the Work profile. Men were expected to most frequently fit the Work profile and least frequently the Family profile. In research we assumed that women’s values and commitment regarding parent and spouse roles would be higher than men’s. In addition, following most research findings (Major, 1993; Schwartzberg & Dytell, 1996), we anticipated that men’s values and commitment to the work role would be higher than that of women. Many women are expected to feel primary obligation to the family role (Schwartzberg & Dytell, 1996; Tompson & Walker, 1989). Many researchers have found that college men and women are increasingly similar in their goals and value orientations. Scant information is available about how women and men with similarly strong and equal motivations toward the achievement of goals and the maintenance of affiliative relationships will prioritize, make decisions, and interact when achievement demands and personal relationships conflict. Students reveal ignorance of the career hazards of interruptions in employment, and lack of awareness of the family sacrifices and stresses attendant to career commitment (Catalyst, 1987; Phillips & Johnston, 1985; Zuckerman, 1980).

As men and women in college today think about their future and plan for work and family, they are exposed to a variety of mixed messages relating to gender. Gender socialization continues to influence young people’s identities and stereotypes from the past frame choices (e.g., Angrist & Almquist, 1975; Komarovsky, 1985; Machung, 1989) for students as they move into a society which, at least theoretically, permits equality of opportunities regardless of gender. Yet, participation of women in the work force has increased significantly and attitude surveys indicate that we are much more accepting of women taking active roles in our society (e.g.. Mason & Lu, 1988). Nevertheless, women still face considerable occupational segregation (Blau & Ferber, 1985). Research suggests that women continue to oversee management of home, children and social activities of the family, while men “help” with household tasks (Hochschild, 1989; Bernardo, Shehan, & Leslie, 1987; Coverman & Sheley, 1986, Berk, 1985). Since discrimination results in women earning less money for equal time at work, men can justify their non-involvement in household chores because they must “provide” for the family. Thus, despite many changes, today’s college students have grown up in traditional families where women have had to assume the majority of household tasks, whether they worked outside of the home or not. Consequently, many traditional gender expectations are maintained by the structural inequality in our society. The purpose this study was to identity the relationship between male and female college students priorities in terms of there future goals regarding career and family. It was hypothesis that there would be an inverse relationship between career values and the importance of family life between men and women furthermore; female students would value the family life role, whereas male would prefer the occupational life role.

Methods

Participants

In the present study there were two groups consisting of total 60 subjects of which there were thirty female students and thirty male students in the age group 17-22 years. The samples were selected randomly from different colleges.

Material

The instrument used for the study was life role salience scale. The scale had four different sub-scales dealing with occupational, parental, martial and homecare. Life role salience scale was assed on five point Likert scale ranging from a score of (disagree-1, somewhatdisagree-2, neitheragreenordisagree-3, somewhatagree-4, and agree-5). The purpose of this research was to find reliable information. The first section of the survey consisted of a small section of demographics, including age, gender, major, ethnicity, and academic classification. The second part of the survey contained the Life Role Salience Scales (LRSS), which measured variables of gender, career goals, and family priorities (Amatea, Cross, Clark, & Bobby, 1986). The LRSS contained forty value statements regarding feelings about work and family roles. In addition, the LRSS was assessed on a five point Likert scale, ranging from a score of one (disagree) to five (agree). The scale is geared toward role reward value and role commitment level (Amatea et. al., 1986). It also identifies four major life roles as occupational, marital, parental, and homecare. The purpose of this scale is to obtain reliable information pertaining to future career and family expectations of male and female college students (Amatea et. al., 1986).

Design:

The present study was quasi-experimental design. The subject variable was the gender of the participant, and the dependent variable was whether or not the participant rated his or her career role or family role as more important. This is determined by the participant’s score on the two Occupational subsets of the LRSS and the participant’s score on the Parental, Marital, and Homecare subsets. The age group of 20-25 was taken for the study. This particular age group was taken so as to see where this age is where people take decisions regarding career and family.

Procedure:

The students who volunteered where given consent form and the instructions were read aloud and were also mentioned in the questionnaire. The participants were debriefed on the true nature of the study. Specifically, they were told that the experiment was not about the social opinions about men and women, but on the priorities of male and female career and family values. Once again, all the questions were addressed and students received contact information for any further questions that they may have.

Results

The data analyzed for this experiment was based on the LRSS which measured family as a combination of homecare, parental and marital roles and assessed career values through occupational role expectations (Amatea al., 1986). Means and standard deviation for all the scales, by gender are shown in Table1. The data displayed variability between males and females in regard to parental role expectations. Overall, the means between genders exhibited significance, and were detected in levels of an independent samples t-test shown in Table 1.According to the data, their was large difference between both men and women in terms of parental role scale. (t=2.45*). As a result the difference between the results of both genders on LRSS reveals that females assessed a higher value towards the parental role than males. Furthermore, the differences between gender in relation to homecare expectation was significant (t=3.17*) which suggests that female preferred homecare role more than males. These results support our hypothesis, which stated that there is an inverse relationship between gender, career and family values. Table 2 presents the paired samples t-test; comparisons of the means between the occupational and parental roles were significant. (t=2.63*).table3 shows the paired samples statistics of life role expectation between males. By comparing the means, their was a significant difference (t=2.15*) between male occupational and marital views.

Table 1- Gender Life Role Descriptive and Independent Samples Statistics

Male

Female

mean

sd

mean

Sd

T

Occupational

39.93

3.28

37.93

3.43

2.30

Parental

37.97

4.01

40.77

4.80

2.45

Martial

34.63

4.00

40.75

4.76

5.39

Homecare

37.63

2.16

40.47

4.39

3.17

P<0.05

Table 2- Female Life Role Paired Samples Statistics

mean

sd

T

Occupational

Parental

37.93

3.43

2.67

40.77

4.80

Occupational

Martial

37.93

3.43

2.63

40.75

4.29

Occupational

Homecare

37.93

3.43

2.49

40.47

4.39

P<0.05

Table 3- Male Life Role Paired Samples Statistics

mean

sd

T

Occupational

Parental

39.93

3.28

2.0722

37.97

4.01

Occupational

Martial

39.93

3.28

5.6119

34.63

4.00

Occupational

Homecare

39.93

3.28

3.2077

37.63

2.16

P<0.05

Discussion

This study investigated career and family values of college students. The first purpose of this study was to identify whether or not males and females had different priorities concerning family life and occupational roles. In the present sample of thirty males and thirty females, significant differences were observed between family and career expectations. According to our analysis, females appeared to value the parental role greater than males. This finding suggests that women assess a larger significance towards family priorities than men who value career. These findings supported our hypothesis, which said that there would be a difference in career and family priorities between genders. As hypothesized, females appeared to value the parental role greater than the occupational role. Thus, females held higher expectations for having a family, rather than a career. Likewise, males showed a preference for occupation, as opposed to marriage. Consequently, males viewed having a career as a greater importance than having a family. Overall, the results of this study highlight the tendency for females to value family priorities, as opposed to males who value career. This finding is also different from gender-role traditionalism research, which suggests that both male and female attitudes change correspondingly during college (Bryant, 2003). Furthermore, results of the present study also indicated that among females, women were more likely to value family, as opposed to career. Past research, such as the Valedictorian Project, obtained results congruent with our findings. Arnold (1993) attributed these outcomes to lowered career aspirations possibly due to female beliefs regarding family-work conflict. In other words, women lowered their career goals to avoid future work conflict and experience fewer family life demands (Arnold, 1993). This finding suggested that external factors (such as occupational stress) tend to lower women’s desire to achieve career goals. On the other hand, additional research indicated that universal work expectations were common between genders, in that both males and females contained aspirations in regard to high education, work, and family values (Maines & Hardesty, 1987). Similar studies also suggested that women, who pursued “high-level” careers and contained greater occupational aspirations, appeared to value high quality career roles over family roles (Faver, 1982). These findings, although they were incongruent with our results, suggested that women and men valued career equally. Many studies have emphasized that women’s career and domestic choices are situational and change over time, that women negotiate their positions and form ideologies in accordance with various circumstances encountered over their life courses (Gerson 1985; Hochschild with Machung 1989; Jacobs 1989). While not denying the validity of this position, the study suggests that many women students, even before they have had any experience with marriage, motherhood and extra domestic work are incompatible and that husbands are reliable lifelong providers -that help to shape their core identities we suggest that these ideologies influence the choices and decisions, students make as they go through college and enter the world of work, which in turn condition and limit other choices they may wish to make as the circumstances of their lives change. Ultimately, an individual’s priorities navigate that person throughout life. A person’s values guide him or her in attaining future goals. The very nature of human beings is dependent on critical decisions based on their priorities, which result in life roles. Thus, value lies in identifying gender priorities, in which future human behavior may be predicted. Consequently, future research on the career and family values of college undergraduates is needed to investigate how males and females of different ethnic backgrounds value career and family role expectations, whether or not an increased sample size would affect the results of the present study, and the influence of college environmental factors (size, religious affiliation, and location) on gender values. Finally, eliminating media tactics geared toward unrealistic gender stereotypes would decrease the gender-role social pressures exerted on males and females. By projecting realistic and non-traditional attitudes, both men and women would expand their life role opportunities.

Women’s achievement orientations are clearly not less than males. But women do not feel they must sacrifice their family roles to achieve the arenas of education and work. They anticipate that future family roles will be more important to them than males. Males see their future educational and work as more important than family. Although women expect to earn less than men, they have similarly high expectations for income as their male peers. However, we also find many differences between males and females which imply that traditional gender roles may be influencing plans for their futures. Of particular interest is the gender difference in self-perception. Although females perform well in academics than male they are likely to see themselves as less able than their male.

The difference in self-perception is particularly perplexing. These findings support a traditional gender socialization model in which males and all things masculine are valued and females and all things feminine are devalued. Women may be socialized to devalue their own achievements whereas males, despite lower abilities would be pressured to overestimate their abilities. Therefore, responses such as these may be appropriate for both young men and women of marriageable age if they live in a world where men are expected to be superior (Eccles, 1987). We also find that men and women have very different expectations form roles in the home and work place. Although both sexes feel that a good marriage and family are important, men do not feel it is important for them to maintain household activities. Furthermore, males hold more traditional values about women combining work and family, and are more likely to wan their wives to remain at home. Likewise, women place more importance on household roles, expect to be employed for fewer hours, and are more likely than male