Author: Andre Coleman

Introduction

The definition of beauty is not something objective or immanent because people from different place, age or social class may form its own ideal of it. The ideal beauty is analogous with people’s aesthetic feeling at that respecting duration. In our modern society, human body is the one of the most important components used to determine the attractiveness or beauty of a person. But for sure, there is not a definite answer for an ideal body type due to the cultural difference and historical discrepancy among countries and places. In this essay, discussion will focus on the ideal body types for men and women in Hong Kong and how these ideal body types are shaped by mass media, technology and medicine. Besides, based on Sandra Bartky’s findings, impact of body modification on individuals will be analyzed.

Ideal body type in Hong Kong

As Hong Kong was ruled by Britain in the last century, it is at the cultural border between traditional Chinese and western culture. Possessing this unique perception, Hong Kong interpretation of ideal body type is a mix.

Ideal body type for men

Muscularity is undoubtedly one of the criteria for ideal body type for men in Hong Kong. It is usually represented by strong muscular arms, a large firm chest, a slim waist and board shoulders which are found to be alluring to female. Waist-to-chest ratio would be one of the indicator for men to train up their body. The smaller the ratio, the more muscle is concentrated on the upper part of the body and abdomen, generally considered as “V-shape”. In the eyes of most female, it is considered as a perfect body shape. At the same time, a sporty and athletic feeling will be delivered, giving others a message that this person is healthy and self-disciplined. With the masculine body, female believes the person has the ability to protect her and feels safer. Thus, men with a muscular body is so attracting in Hong Kong.

Height also plays an important role on the ideal body type in Hong Kong. It is often measured by the volume height index (VHI). According to the research done by Hong Kong Polytechnic University[1], VHI alone can explain ca. 73% of the variance of male body attractiveness ratings. The optimal VHI will be at 17.6 l m^–2 and 18.0 l m^–2 for female raters and male raters, respectively. It shows that for men who are muscular, it would be better to be taller due to their large volume. One of the reasons behind is that most female would like to have a male partner taller than her, feeling that the man should be able to protect her.

Ideal body type for women

Influenced by the western culture, people believe that women ideal body shape should be slim. So they might regard keeping fit as a mission or a life-long goal. The thinner they are, the more attractive their body shape. The perception of beauty can be measured by waist-to-height ratio, which is an important determinant. Generally, the Ideal waist circumference = height x 0.382. Moreover, they perceive thinness as a sign of independence, strength and accomplishment, which implicated that they are fashionable. The attraction for a proportionate body also affects an appeal for erect posture.

Apart from the body mass, women with large, firm and symmetrical breasts are considered as attractive as well. Some studies show that most men enjoy the sight of female breasts.[2] According to the findings from the New Zealand’s University of Wellington, men constantly spent more time looking at the breasts of female posed in front of them and showed more fascination on female’s breasts than their head. This culture has penetrated Hong Kong thoroughly, leading a proliferation of medical treatment center provided with chest implant surgery.

Affected by traditional Chinese culture, men in Hong Kong consider wide hips and firm buttocks as sexually attractive body type, which indicates a better ability of fertility. Also, wide buttocks of women are a strong implication to men that she is very much capable of reproduction. On the other hand, women with wide hips are particularly more tempting to man when they are walking due to their shaking buttocks, even if the women do not meant to shake it. It can be seen that large buttocks are really important to determine the attractiveness of women in the perspective of cultural and sexual sense.

Perpetuation of the concept for body type

People are not born with an innate sense of what is beautiful or not. They learn some cultural and social standards through a process of socialization. These beauty standards are cultural creations.

Mass media

From a very young age, children start to learn what is most valuable in their culture for sex through mass media. By watching cartoons, they learn that girls should be princesses dressed in pink tiaras with a slim body, while boys should be princes who are muscular, tall and able to protect their partners with their strong arms. Being instilled these values at such an early age, it is not surprising to see that the definition for beauty has changed, focusing on the body shape of people.

On top of the early inculcation, the mass media is doing a remarkable job of making people feel badly about themselves. Through advertisement in different channels, such as free-to-air TV broadcasting, radio and so on, the ideal body types for men and women are presented to the public. These advertisement bombard people with these ideal images by repeatedly brain-washing, internalizing people’s cultural values and ideals of appearance. By then, people become more dissatisfied with themselves[3]. The purpose of the mass media is to create body dissatisfaction, leading people to spend enormous amounts of money, time, and energy to fix the flaws.

Besides, the print media, such as magazines, reinforces the notion of the “ideal” male and female bodies through constant barrage of slender, scantily clad women and muscular half-naked men. As people, especially youngsters, in Hong Kong give lots of reliability and credibility to many of the popular magazines. They read them every day, using them as signifiers of what is “cool” and “hot”. According to the findings from Benjie Achtenberg Macalester College[4], students mentioned in their journals that “they read the magazines and enjoy seeing the images because their favorite celebrities were featured.” It shows that print media is influential which acts as a platform to perpetuate the aforementioned ideal body types for men and women.

Technology

With the advancement of technology, more weight loss methods are introduced. For example, non-invasive surgery, such as CoolSculpting procedure[5] is invented to freeze away patients’ fats and reduce the number of fat cells in the treated areas. Unlike weight loss surgery this procedure is lasting longer and safer because once the fat cells are eliminated, they are gone for good. Apart from that, gastric bypass is a surgery that also helps lose weight by minimizing the stomach and small intestine. Undoubtedly, the innovation and advancement in technology can bring a safer and better experience for people to reduce weight. It will therefore attract more people to pursue a slim body shape under the improvement. These social standards are gradually implanted to people, internalizing their thoughts.

Medicine

Hong Kong people, as an Asian, usually have an enlarged masseter muscle, one of the chewing muscles, causing a squaring of the facial shape. To maintain an ideal V-shaped face, it is popular for people to undergo Botox injections. It shows that the more medicine is available for maintaining a perfect body shape, the more people would do so due to the easier access to modern beauty.

[1] http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/272/1560/219.short

[2] http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/2845918/Men-have-an-eye-for-womens-breasts

[3] http://www.jeatdisord.com/content/1/1/14

[4] https://www.macalester.edu/educationreform/actionresearch/Achtenberg.pdf

[5] http://www.coolsculpting.com/the-coolsculpting-procedure/what-is-the-coolsculpting-procedure/

“Area based regeneration programmes contribute to managing social exclusion but they do not resolve the problem”. Critically discuss this statement.

The following is a critical discussion of the statement that area based regeneration programmes contribute to managing social exclusion yet fail to resolve the problem. Area based regeneration programmes were developed for various reasons, such as tackling poverty, economic regeneration, reducing unemployment, and managing social exclusion. That the latter was not the sole or exclusive objective of the area based regeneration programmes may explain whether these programmes have or have not resolved the problem of social exclusion. There are also arguments that social exclusion is not a problem that could be completely resolved by any single political, economic, and social policy operating by itself. Social exclusion could be understood in different ways so that some organisations or individuals may be believe that managing it or resolving it would be harder or easier than other people would expect. The management of social exclusion without resolving the problem as a whole may or may not be a commendable achievement within its own right, even if it still leaves the problem of social exclusion in existence, this to will be critically discussed.

Area based regeneration programmes came into existence to counteract the damaging economic and social consequences of industrial decline in Britain’s inner cities like Liverpool, London, or Birmingham; and in some of the country’s most heavily industrialised areas such as North Eastern England, the Clyde, and South Wales from the1970s onwards. These industrial areas were locations were the Conservatives electoral support had often been weak although until the Thatcher government the party had been content to subsidise industries in these areas. Previously, government policies did not specifically attempt area based regeneration programmes to tackle social exclusion. Instead governments aimed to use Keynesian economic policies to maintain full employment, and when necessary would keep factories, coalmines, and shipyards open in run down areas with government subsidies. Where any regeneration had taken place it had usually been the replacement of slum housing with new housing estates and tower blocks (Fisher, Denver, & Benyon, 2003 p. 12). Government policies were meant to reduce, manage, or resolve social exclusion by helping people upon an individual basis by targeting social security, health, education, and housing policies to those that needed that help the most. Individuals rather than geographical areas, or local communities were the focus of help from the government. To tackle social exclusion governments had also introduced legislation to reduce social and economic discrimination, such as race relations and equal pay legislation (Coxall, Robbins, & Leach, 2003 p. 397).

Ironically enough the impetus for the development of area based regeneration programmes would occur under the Conservative governments after 1979, which were not initially interested in managing social exclusion or implementing area based regeneration programmes. Running these regeneration programmes was contrary to the Thatcherite ethos of reducing state involvement in social and economic policies. Thatcherite economic policies ended subsidies to the nationalised industries leading to factories, coalmines, and shipyards closing down. Those closures and the collapse of uncompetitive private sector companies lead to high unemployment in former industrialised areas and the inner cities, that in turn increased levels of social exclusion (Moran, 2005 p. 14). The Thatcher government only began area based regeneration programmes as a response to the inner city riots of 1981, which, highlighted the problems that social exclusion and economic decay could cause (Taylor et al, 2000 p.331). At this point the social exclusion and economic deprivations in the former industrial areas and the inner cities reached levels that had not been witnessed since the hard hitting depression of the 1930s (Jones, 1999 p. 8). At first the Thatcher government seemed unable to slow down the increasing levels of social exclusion let alone manage or reduce that problem, which it considered less important than lowering inflation, weakening the trade unions, and rolling back the state. Of course increasing levels of unemployment actually meant that expenditure on social security benefits increased rather than decreased. No doubt the Thatcher government was helped in its decision to start area based regeneration programmes by the availability of European Union regional development funds, that were allocated to the most economically deprived and socially excluded regions within the member states. This meant that the government was able to receive extra funding to regenerate the areas most severely affected by the recession of the early 1980s, and were by-passed any economic recovery or moves to manage social exclusion (Moran, 2005 p. 100).

Area based regeneration programmes were primarily aimed at economic regeneration to reduce unemployment, and its linked social consequences such as rising crime levels and increased incidence of social exclusion. It was believed that reducing unemployment would manage and perhaps eventually remove social exclusion, whilst social security benefits were supposed to help those that did not or could not work. The Conservatives established regional development corporations to carry out regeneration programmes in the inner cities and former industrial areas, for instance regenerating parts of London, Birmingham, and Liverpool. However under the Conservatives the main efforts to manage social exclusion were confined to helping individuals through government training schemes such as Training for Work and the Youth Training Scheme (Fisher, Denver, & Benyon, 2003 p. 16).

New Labour was keen to extend area based regeneration programmes to proactively manage, and perhaps eventually resolve social exclusion, and increase measures to reduce unemployment. New Labour extended its New Deal initiative to cover deprived areas within the New Deal for Communities programme (Seldon & Kavanagh, 2005 p. 175). The New Deal for Communities programme was meant to be in a slightly different form to previous area based regeneration programmes as local community groups were supposed to have a greater influence over the projects selected to regenerate their local communities (Fisher, Denver, & Benyon, 2003 p. 216). Generally community groups have welcomed being able to have an influence over the projects selected to regenerate their communities. Community groups before New Deal for Communities often felt excluded from the decision-making processes relating to the areas in which they lived in (Seldon & Kavanagh, 2005 p. 175). Not every New Deal for Communities programme has gone well, most notably the Aston Pride Project which failed due to a poor relationship between the community groups, the local authority, and various government agencies. The project was closed down early amidst allegations of corruption within the community groups and counter allegations of racism within the local authority and government agencies (Dale, May 28 2004).

Whilst area based regeneration programmes have been largely effective at managing social exclusion, there are limits to explain why these programmes are unlikely to resolve the problem of social exclusion altogether. When area based regeneration programmes have been completed there maybe new businesses that have moved to that location and sometimes the standard of housing has been improved, certainly positive achievements, yet not likely to resolve social exclusion by themselves (Seldon & Kavanagh, 2005, p. 175). Both Conservative and New Labour governments have found through experience that area based regeneration programmes are more likely to succeed in managing and eventually resolving the problem of social exclusion when used in conjunction with other initiatives, such as tackling discrimination, poor housing, health and education services. Social exclusion will also need reduced crime levels to stand a chance of being managed (Jones et al, 2004, p. 619). Schemes such as Training for Work & New Deal can lower unemployment, yet there are limits on what they can achieve. Completing those schemes has made people more employable, although they may gain employment outside of the deprived or regenerated areas that they live in. New Deal is probably here to stay as part of New Labour’s welfare to work strategy. New Deal itself targets extra help to those groups that have found it harder to find or keep jobs, such as lone parents and the disabled (Seldon & Kavanagh, 2005 p. 316). These groups are more vulnerable to suffering from social exclusion without living in areas that are economically or socially deprived. These groups are not only helped by New Deal, they are also helped by tax credits and child tax credits. The government wished to improve the opportunity for all children with better education provision and the Sure-start programme for children from deprived areas or families with low incomes. New Labour has also attempted to tackle social exclusion amongst pensioners with the introduction of pension credit (Seldon & Kavanagh, 2005 p.315).

Therefore it can be concluded that area based regeneration programmes have helped to manage social exclusion without being able to remove the problem itself. Area based regeneration programmes were primarily set up to lower unemployment and reduce social exclusion that was higher in the inner cities, and former industrial areas such as North East England, and South Wales. The Thatcher government in many respects made the problem of social exclusion worse rather than better as it pursued economic and social policies that increased unemployment, crime, and social deprivation. The inner city riots of 1981 got the Thatcher government to start area based regeneration programmes in order to maintain political stability, and economic growth. It however became harder to manage levels of social exclusion due to the sell off of council houses that made it harder for people on low incomes to afford their housing costs. The beginning of EU spending to boost and regenerate the most run down areas in the community provided extra funding for the British government to spend more on managing social exclusion. New Labour has been much more interested in managing and if possible resolving the problem of social exclusion by using area based regeneration programmes in combination with other measures such as Surestart, New Deal, and EU regional development funds. New Labour has tried to increase the amount of area based regeneration programmes in existence with its New Deal for Communities initiatives which have included local community groups in the decision-making process and have contributed to managing social exclusion effectively aside from the Aston Pride Project.

Bibliography

Coxall B, Robins L & Leach R (2003) Contemporary British Politics 4th edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke

Dale P – Aston Pride race bias allegation, Birmingham Post May 28 2004

Fisher J, Denver D, & Benyon J, (2003) Central Debates in British Politics, Longman, London

Jones B, (1999) issues in British Politics Today, Manchester University Press, Manchester

Jones B, Kavanagh D, Moran M, & Norton P, (2004) Politics UK, 5^th edition, Pearson Longman, London

Moran M, (2005) Politic and Governance in the UK, Palgrave, Basingstoke

Seldon A & Kavanagh D, (2005) The Blair Effect 2001 – 5, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Taylor P, Richardson J, Yeo A, Marsh I, Trobe K & Pilkington A (2000) Sociology in Focus, Causeway Press Limited, Ormskirk

In development countries women’s status has changed over the past few years. More and more women are forced to make decision between choosing a career or stay at home with the child. Are there possibilities to combine motherhood and business ambitions? Now women are working on equal rights, and even take more and more leading positions in business. But often the cost of choosing career is becoming unstable personal life or even lack of it. Sometimes the price of success is the rejection of motherhood or later motherhood. What drives women to choose careers in the first place? Why do they leave their children at home a month after birth and have to come back to work? The main reason of course is that women try to become independent of men, as well as for fear of not finding a right partner for the marriage. That is why many women prefer to choose a career in first place before having a child because of financial and living conditions. In conclusion, financial government support plays a very important role in choosing a career immediately after birth.

Many women in recent years prefer choosing career than a family, trying to get independence of men and even husbands. Twenty years ago, the role of women was the childbirth and their education, and the role of men was to get money for his family. Now women are eager to get good education, get leader positions in a business and even open their own business. Also, the family budget consists of woman and man contribution now, and, very often, woman’s contribution of money to the family is even more than man. This aspect is often underestimates the role of man in family relationships. In the modern world there are more and more families where women play a significant role in the contribution of money of the development of the family. Women, who choose career in first place, begin first steps into their target even before get married. Work takes almost all free time and that is why there is no time to think about family. Based on the historical data “the childbearing histories of women who were childless at age 30 assessing the impact of education and employment on their decision to either become mothers or remain childless …. These women’s intentions attitudes will be influenced by their educational and career goals” (journal …). Therefore, they often have to refuse the motherhood for several years, or just have no choices except to leave their children with baby sitters, grandparents, or even fathers, changing the role of mother and father in the family. Therefore, very often many women think about whether they have children or a career.

The second reason is that women are realizing that finding a reliable father is not so easy. All women want to give their child the best education and best future that is why, father’s support play the main role in relationship too. Unfortunately, “Many women have not met the right partner to have a child with” (Reflection). Therefore, the main goal for woman is get financial stability in her life for raising and education of a child before even have a baby. Finally, because of uncertainty in a partner and future family life with him, woman often begins think about her own career. And sometimes this uncertainty can leads to single mom. “As single mothers were less prevalent than couple mothers as well as being less likely to be employed than couple mothers” (mother’s work) that is why single women think about their career beforehand. The fact is that if woman decides to be single mother she has to have financial independence before have a child, because raise a child alone is more difficult especially because of full or part-time work.

Many women are forced to come back to work in couple weeks after give birth due to lack of money and a fear of losing their jobs. Government doesn’t give enough consideration to women who have just had newborn baby. During World War II mothers had more opportunities for rising of their children. They even received money for “Landry service and packaged hot diners” (resource) and other different benefits. In our century, government has signed “governmental protection for workers with new babies … which guaranties just 12 weeks of unpaid leave to those who work for employers 50 or more workers” (mother load). Furthermore, these benefits are provided only to federal workers. But under the new law, this period has been shortened to six weeks (mother load). Lack of money, many mothers are forced to come back to work in one month after childbirth. That is why, mother cannot give enough attention to her baby, and some of them are forced to hire a babysitter. In spite of money spending for babysitter, it’s the best way for woman to keep her place at work. Many companies prefer not hiring mothers with babies in order to save money. And also companies “reduce women’s hourly wages” (is there …) if they extend their leave period with babies. It happens because taking care about a woman during leaving period is expensive for companies as well as spending money to additional courses after returning to her position at work after a long period. In some cases woman can even lost her previous job position after childbirth. All these reasons lead to the fact that many women trying to think about their job instead time spending with their children.

In the 21th century women very often postpone childbearing until thirty in favor of personal freedom and getting the financial stability. What is the right age to have a child? Women choose two different ways between become mother or get good job in first place. Some women are driven by wish to have a child in early age. Unfortunately, not every woman has financial support and even education by twenty five years. Most often this choice of motherhood in first place at an early age when the last thing woman thinks about is her career and also financial support from the child’s father. Mother spends more time with her baby. In a while the financial aspect becomes a major problem of buying any stuff for a child and also for paying bills. As a result, it pushes a woman to work in low-paying places to keep the child in proper way, especially if the child’s father financial support is not enough or if it’s single mother. Especially difficult to get a promotion at career growth, if the woman has no education or has no work experience after graduation from school or college, and not enough time to work full-time because of a small baby.

The second type of women are women who choose career and financial stability in first place more often give birth after thirty years. For these women it is much easier to make a career and get independence of financial support. Therefore, when a woman decides to have a baby she need to be sure in “affordable nursery care and career breaks need to be more readily available” (reflection). However, very important role plays a selection of a partner for a marriage; a woman need be sure that father of a baby can provide enough financial support of the family or if she has to come back to work early to help with support. Women, who are trying to combine work and childbearing, have the most difficult decision. These women usually choose part-time jobs in order to find time for their young children of full-time job but “thus mothers must contend withaˆ¦own guilt for leaving their children” (motherhood 21). Unfortunately, there are also disadvantages of late childbirth. Women over thirty years old are often have a high risk of birth a child with abnormalities, miscarriages or problems to become pregnant. Particular attention doctors pay to women who give birth of first child after age thirty, because the pregnancy after twenty five is more complicated than in the early age. What is the best way to choose: to have a child in the early ages and not be sure about future career and child education; or to get financial independence and live in fear of the birth of an unhealthy child; or to combine work and education of a baby at the same time?

The problem of choice between motherhood and career is very important in our life. When mothers think more about their career promotion, they often don’t give enough attention to their children. On the one hand, in the case of getting promotion or paying more attention to work woman is trying to get better financial support for her child. On another hand, woman needs to pay more attention of child education. That is why the better way is if mother can stay at home for one or one and a half years after birth with her child. It will help to safe money for babysitters and also child can get proper maternal care what is more important for children development. The main support should come from the government. For this reason, government should introduce benefits for the mother’s support of mothers and infants. An enterprise where woman works should not be responsible for the financial content for leaving period of the women; they just need to provide the same work position with the same wage rate after returning from leaving period with also the possibility of taking free courses to remind about work responsibilities.

Why is health a social issue?

Health, in the light of World Health Organization definition, is understood as subjectively felt physical, mental and social well-being as a result of appropriate adaptation to the environmental conditions. Psychical health relates to proper human system functioning. Mental health is connected with ability to recognition of people’s feelings and emotions, coping with difficult situations, problems and stress. Social health concerns the human community, its development and adaptability to the environmental conditions, what means ability to live independently as well as in a social group and retain both individual and group identity.

There were many attempts to classify factors conditioning health. During early 20th century up to 1970s, it was considered, that health mainly depends on health service. At the beginning of the 1970s way of perceiving determinants of people’s well-being changed. In 1974 Marc Lalonde, Minister of Health for Canada, proposed The Health Field Concept, in which he distinguished four basic factors conditioning health (Fig. 1.):

Lifestyle (50%)
Physical and social environment (20%)
Human Biology (20%)
Health Care Organization (20%)
This approach influenced on change in health policy and established base for health promotion

In modern societies, some of the main problems regarding the health such as illnesses induced by ageing, globalization, new technologies, and genetic engineering have cultural and social grounds. State of health is strongly dependent on social processes and occurrences such as lifestyle (for instance nutrition, recreation, reaction for stress), social cohesion, wealth, education, working conditions and emotional relations. All this things can on the one hand make worse or on the other hand improve the state of health.

Currently, it is considered that, the socioeconomic factors (for instance incomes, social status, education level, social support) affect a persons’ health to the highest degree. Depending on these conditions, the people’s lifestyle can favour health or be harmful to it. Poverty and low level of education are reasons of health inequalities. In general, people with low social status are less healthy, have worse access to health care and take risky for health actions more often. Social support in human living environments is regarded as significant factor shaping positive health and fighting pathogenic influence of potential stressors.

In recent decades, people witness a dynamic development of technology and science. As might be expected, new technologies facilitate human lives and make them more efficient. It is possible to say, that in present circumstances, people are able to have an influence on their state of health. However, not always advances of science and in technology go hand in hand with improvement of quality of life. People, preoccupied with making their lives more comfortable, more and more frequently forget about their biological existence. New facilities, means of transport, automation, all kinds of machines are reducing physical activity in their daily life to a minimum. Mass-media, especially television, take them a lot of free time and force them to the sedentary way of life. Nowadays, people suffer from many ailments defined as civilization diseases, which increase alongside with the (continuously) quickening pace of living.

Undoubtedly, work is also a very important determinant of health. When it is done for pleasure, work can give a sense of happiness and positive energy. In practice, it means that actions based on harmony with the environment and self-realization favour person’s health. Work, which is not a vocation, is a reason of stress, unwillingness and apathy.

Meanings of health change in the popular culture and public awareness. Besides strivings for avoiding diseases, more and more people need fitness, vitality, good looks and good mood. Apart from interest in length of life, there appeared care for its sense and quality.

In recent years, there is observed a considerable increase in importance of health in sphere of personal aspirations, aims, and values of individual. Health is no longer defined only as an absence of disease and discomfort. Healthy lifestyle becomes in many environments a phenomenon on the verge of fashion.

Health issues come into prominence in public discourse, concerning inter alia social and political priorities. The right to health is one of the most important elements of the human rights.

Nowadays, health and disease become “valuable goods” of expanding market.

As shown in chapter two, recent literature proves that gender discrimination continues to exist in today’s workforce, evident in the fact ‘that there are still significantly more men in management positions than women’ (Wentling, 2003). This research topic concentrates on three main insights to female students’ perceptions of gender discrimination in the workplace. (i) The level of awareness and recognition of Gender Discrimination, (ii) The extent Gender Discrimination is perceived on one self, and finally, (iii) Gender Discrimination as a recognised obstruction to career advancement. Indeed, the above areas correlate to the dissertations research objectives. In order to determine the objectives, the interview questions concentrated on the following forms of discrimination; Stereotyping, Pay and Career advancement. These discriminative indicators helped measure the three objectives relative to female Management undergraduate perceptions of gender discrimination in the workplace. Below an analysis of the findings are themed and contribute to the relevant literature discussed in chapter two.

4.2 Student awareness and recognition of Gender Discrimination in the workplace

The results of the interviews were fairly surprising despite its equivalence with similar studies. All eight female students did not completely disregard the fact that, various forms of gender discrimination persist within the workplace, with comments such as:

‘I don’t think it’s as much of an issue as it was in the past, but I think there are some elements of gender discrimination present in the workplace’ (P2, 3rd year, Management student).

Although hesitant, all participants had some knowledge of gender discrimination as they recognised various discriminative issues that women as a social group may face at work. As shown on the interview guide in appendix 3, question two openly invites participants to express levels of recognition on the various discriminative issues that potentially take place at work. As a result, a common acknowledgement of gender discrimination by those interviewed, was the notion of unequal pay, with one respondent commenting:

‘In a recent article I read, it said 90% of women in any kind of workforce get paid less than men in full time jobs. This is astonishing. After reading that article I was shocked. I never knew it was that severe, especially in this day and age’ (P1, 3rd Year, Management Student).

Whilst participant one recognised pay is a current discriminative issue at work, she was still taken back at the thought of its severity today. This suggests that participants show little attention to the issue unless the topic of gender discrimination is discussed. Nonetheless, whereas all participants introduced the concept of unequal pay, the majority also identified aspects of gender based stereotyping. In fact one respondent stated:

‘Women are typically stereotyped for being incapable in their job roles than men since there considered “sensitive”. They are pushed aside and not able to become involved in important projects that could potentially promote them, hence there are fewer women in senior positions’ (P1, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

Therefore, the above comments indicate that female Management students are not completely ignorant towards the discriminative reality that takes place in the workplace. In fact, female students accept the existence of gender discrimination as the majority admitted to the various discriminative issues before I had the chance to introduce the subject of, unequal pay and stereotyping. Furthermore, it was interesting to know where this acknowledgement of gender discrimination was discovered. The majority of the participants stated that the media offered much information on the topic, yet claimed that most of it is likely to be exaggerated. Nonetheless, all eight female students mentioned, University teachings were the main source of information to identifying gender discrimination. Many were not aware of its existence, until the Human Resource Management (HRM) module in Management Studies introduced the subject. One respondent commented:

‘In second year, we did a module on Human Resource Management, and covered quite a large amount of information on gender. I remember watching a video in the lecture on Alan Sugar discriminating a woman in regards to maternity leave’ (P2, 3rd year, Management student).

In contrast to Ruggiero et al (1995), the interviewed participants were not as reluctant as authors suggest in perceiving the discrimination that confronts them (Ruggiero et al, 1995), since they were persuaded about the reality of inequality through University teachings and media. Instead, female students declared gender discrimination is adversely having an effect on ‘other women’ since they were aware of what it entails. Therefore, participants are in accordance with Stewart et al (2000), who confirms, disadvantaged groups are extensively aware that various groups’ experience some form of mistreatment in comparison to others (Stewart et al, 2000). In this case, the participants identified that, unequal pay and stereotyping are perceptible forms of discrimination current women face at work.

Additionally, the majority of those interviewed suggest that Management Studies is not a masculine course to study, with one interviewee observing, ‘there seems to be more girls on the course than boys’ (P1, 3rd year, Management student). This supports Powell et al (2005) in the proposition that ‘women’s occupational aspirations have become more similar to those of men’ (Powell et al, 2005) since both genders share a common interest in pursuing a business career, whatever its gendered challenges. However, the participants recognised that Management as an occupation (rather than a field of study) can be considered masculinised, particularly if specialising in a specific area of business. With one interviewee commenting:

‘When studying a business course, it really depends on what area a student specialises in. For example, you will see more boys following a career in finance, whereas girls may prefer a creative and relational side to business such as Marketing or HRM.’ (P3, 3rd Year, Management Student).

This response correlates with Tomlinson’s (2005) suggestion that financial skills such as accountancy are considered masculine, and as such the relevant professions tend to be male-dominated (Tomlinson, 2005). Alternatively, the response also supports, Bible et al (2007) in their argument that, in only four sectors of the business world women seem to transcend the glass ceiling with one sector being, ‘consumer advertising and marketing’ (Bible et al, 2007). Indeed, the notion that occupations are in fact segregated, are acknowledged by the majority interviewed, whom identified the ‘social role theory’ proposed by Eagly et al (2002), whereby male and female personal qualities are divided between masculine and feminine (Eagly et al, 2002) career ambitions. Hence, the majority of female undergraduates mentioned they wish to successfully advance in a marketing career since it is considered an accepted female skill in the business field. In fact, one student mentioned that she is less likely to experience any negative stereotypes in the workplace since her chosen profession in marketing enables women to ‘conform to less competition with men, as women are considered to perform better’ (P5, 3rd Year, Management Student). Therefore, participants identified that workplaces regard female characteristics as best suited in less demanding occupations. Hence, female students wish to pursue a career in the ‘softer’ side of management (Steele et al, 2002) where their feminine skills and qualities are appreciated. Overall, the research findings relative to objective one conclude that, the interviewed participants are aware of gender discrimination since they accepted, negative stereotyping and unequal pay are discriminative issues women as a social group experience in today’s workplace.

4.3 Student Perception of Gender Discrimination on self

While all female students affirmed the existence of gender discrimination women as a social group may face in the workplace, the majority however did not perceive gender discrimination as a likely barrier that they will encounter personally. The findings were similar to Sipe et al’s (2009) study whereby female students’ perceptions of gender discrimination did not align with empirical research on workplace gender discrimination. This was particularly evident through interview questions nine and ten (See appendix 3), that directly measured female students perception of gender discrimination on self. Interestingly, the interviewed participants presented comments that contradicted their views on gender discrimination against ‘other’ women by stating:

‘No, I doubt ill experience any form of gender discrimination. We as women live in a new and improved working generation’ (P3, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

In fact, the majority of the participants suggested that they will not be personal victims of discrimination in reference to negative stereotyping and unequal pay, by making comments such as: ‘No, I won’t be stereotypically threatened and ill make sure of it’ (P7, 3rd Year, Management Student). It is argued that such behaviour is strongly influenced by what Taylor et al (1990) refers to as ‘personal/group discrimination discrepancy’ concept (Taylor et al, 1990). Whereby disadvantaged group members, such as young women, perceive a higher level of discrimination aimed at their group members, compared with them as individuals (Taylor et al, 1990). This was apparent amongst those interviewed, who dismissed the idea that negative stereotyping and unequal pay may be personal forms of gender discrimination as one participant stated:

‘No I won’t be paid unequally. But that is because of the area I will be working in. I think your career area has an influence on whether you’re a target of gender discrimination or not. I doubt I’ll face any forms of discrimination in a Marketing career’ (P5, 3rd Year, Management Student).

Although the notion of experiencing unequal pay was directly rejected by the participant, it can be argued, the above response also suggests female students internalise their career decisions in areas they are likely to be accepted. In turn, female students may feel a sense of security when adjusting to careers that carry feminine entities such as marketing, hence underestimating the likelihood that they may be victims of gender discrimination. In fact, most the typical comments from those interviewed were adamantly sincere that inequality can be prevented based on their determination to tackle such an issue if raised. For instance one interviewee commented:

‘No it won’t affect me. If it did I wouldn’t have taken this degree and let it become a waste just because I’m a ‘potential’ victim of stereotypical discrimination. Being stereotyped in the public eye at work is an issue that many women can’t control, but what they can do is prove themselves and others wrong that they are indeed as good as men’ (P2, 3rd year, Management student).

Such responses were typical from participants. Whilst the majority of those interviewed recognised that women are stereotypically perceived incapable to manage in comparison to men, the participants remained assured that such discrimination can be personally counteracted by positive attitudes, ensuring that their skills as managers would be apparent, and therefore enough to overcome the possible forms of gender discrimination. Hence, female students perceiving gender discrimination as an unlikely barrier they will encounter personally. As Tomlinson (2007) suggested, a student’s career progression is shaped by their attitude and approach, rather than the structure of opportunity in the market (Tomlinson, 2007). Indeed, such optimism can be explained through Crocker’s ‘attribution ambiguity’ theory whereby disadvantaged group members, in this case women, engage in self-protection if a negative contribution is made towards them (Crocker et al, 1989). Therefore, participants responded defensively when positioned as a target of discrimination, with one respondent commenting:

‘Apparently, women are to “sensitive” for demanding jobs like Management and therefore are “assumed” they can’t do a better job than men. A woman can do just as well, or even better, if high levels of dedication are present at work’ (P4, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

This comment was particularly appealing, as the participant sarcastically mocks the notion that all women are generalised to obtain ‘sensitive’ attributes and thus expected to perform less vigorously in comparison to men. The majority of the participants imposed defensive responses by attributing negative feedback to discrimination when they felt at a disadvantage, suggesting that a woman can prevent stereotypical threats if proven she is just as capable as men. It can be argued, by amplifying self-esteem, female students ‘reactively’ conceal rather than reject the personal effects of gender discrimination by expressing positive responses for which present them as immune to the matter. In other words, participants considered a tactic acceptance of gender discrimination to ensure it won’t personally affect them. Consistent with the ‘psychological reactance theory’ put forward by Brehm (1966), when participants felt a threat to their right of freedom, they presented an instance reaction to protect their image as future business employees, by making comments such as:

‘Yeh, there are talks of unequal pay, but I personally think it could be exaggerated, so I doubt it. Things are getting better, because you see successful women out there. In fact, by being aware of unequal pay will only encourage me to do my research before going into any job and negotiate my salary, to know what the average pay should be like for that firm’ (P8, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

Interestingly, although reluctant to accept the possibility of experiencing unequal pay, the above participant slightly anticipates the issue by developing a strategy to convince that she will prevent the possibility of experiencing unequal pay. In general, the majority of the participants were reluctant to allow gender discrimination as a personal barrier towards career success, therefore its presence and effects are underestimated, and thus perceived as being of little consequence since the issue is assumed to be easily prevented. In fact, several referred to legislation laws as a personal protective solution; though presumably the reality that those laws are clearly not always complied with, since forms of inequality prevails in the workplace (Guardian, 2010). However, the reality was not addressed by female students as shown in the comment below:

‘Besides, there are strict legislative Laws and Acts that help prevent unequal pay. With them around, experiencing inequality in today’s workforce is unlikely’ (P5, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

The above response is one of the typical comments participants made suggesting they are immune to gender discrimination. Indeed, the majority perceived gender discrimination as a minor concern in their future careers, thus likely to enter a ‘gender-neutral’ workplace whilst legal protection is in place. Conversely, it is also interesting to discuss the minority of those interviewed that in fact, admitted:

‘If it’s happening to various business women today, then what makes me any different, it’s clearly an issue that can’t be controlled, not even by law’ (P4, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

Although only three out of the eight participants interviewed, support this view, it is interesting to acknowledge the differing judgments female students propose, relative to gender discrimination at a personal level. In fact, the minority accept they may become possible victims of discrimination like ‘other women’, unlike the majority whom underestimate this view.

Overall, it can be argued, female Management students’ perceptions of gender discrimination support the ideology of a meritocratic society. Statistics show, female undergraduates (as a group) tend to outperform males within higher education (National Statistics, 2007). Moreover, within universities, students are assessed based on the quality of their scholarly work, and not perceived skills based on their gender. Therefore, female undergraduates are likely to view the workplace as equally assessed, and relatively gender neutral, due to the credited and reinforcing atmosphere universities provide. Thus, explaining the underestimated attitude female students’ convey towards gender discrimination. Indeed, the majority admitted to the various discriminative issues women as a social group experience, yet optimistically expressed that, gender discrimination will not personally affect them in their business careers since they ensure it can be prevented.

Then again, although participants accept gender discrimination exists amongst women as a social group, it can also be argued that, female students’ somewhat implement and accept gender discrimination as a personal concern. For instance, by participants deliberately choosing careers in Marketing to prevent the risks of becoming personal victims of discrimination, suggests that interviewees are subconsciously limiting their aspirations to careers where they feel they will be accepted. Indeed, by specialising in areas in favour of women (such as marketing), female students have internalised that the business workplace is male favoured and therefore they would rather work within it, rather than against it, to avoid the threats and challenges of gender discrimination in their careers. Therefore, instead of completely disregarding gender discrimination, participants unintentionally seek tactic acceptance of it to ensure that it won’t happen to them. In other words, although participants consciously perceive gender discrimination as an unlikely barrier they will encounter at work, they subconsciously accept the potential affects it may have on their working lives by preparing protective strategies, in case they ought to be potential victims of gender discrimination.

4.4 Potential impact of Gender Discrimination on female career advancement

The interviewed participants were further asked to share their views on what factors may obstruct their career advancement. A common problem many working women face is their employers’ reaction to further commitments such as domestic responsibilities. Female commitment is often assumed unreliable in comparison to men whom forever carry ‘single responsibility’ (Dodd-McCue et al, 1996). As a result, this prevents many women in middle-management positions from attaining senior hierarchal ranks, known as the ‘glass ceiling’ effect (Alvesson et al, 1997). When personally questioned about the impact that having a family may have on their career, the majority interviewed, expressed a preference to start a family later in life answering, ‘yes, but not for a while’ when asked whether or not, they planned on starting a family in the future. When asked ‘why’, participants made it clear that the start of their career is more important, and that when they feel they have progressed enough, then they may start to think about family relations. Therefore, the majority somewhat agree with literature that domestic responsibilities can hinder the chances to female career advancement, with one interviewee commenting:

‘I’ve got the chance to concentrate on one thing, and that is to build on my career. Why limit my opportunities with further responsibilities?’ (P7, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

Whilst female students are somewhat expressing a ‘preference’ (Hakim, 2000) about starting a family later in life, implicit within that admission is the acknowledgement that if they do not prioritise career over family then they are less likely to advance in their careers. In other words, the participants appear as though their choices are restrained due to their gender since the majority admitted that domestic responsibilities can restrain career advancement. It can be argued, that female students internalise the situation of domestic responsibilities by delaying starting a family in order to increase their likelihood to career advancement, thus accepting its potential consequences. Nonetheless, female students continued to express defensive responses to questions that placed them at a disadvantage when discussing the implications of having family responsibilities, with one participant commenting:

‘To be honest, equality in the workplace has definitely improved. My mum is a working woman with three children and has been successful in her career. In fact, after maternity leave, the company were adamant for her to come back after maternity leave, because they were happy with her as an employee’ (P2, 3rd Year, Management Studies).

Whilst the majority of those interviewed accepted that domestic responsibilities may negatively impact their chances to career advancement, the participants maintained optimistic and positive in overcoming gender discrimination if family responsibilities were involved in the future. For instance, female students stated the benefits of working from home as one participant commented that, ‘today, many organisations are considerate towards the balance of work and home lifestyles’ (P7, 3rd year, Management student). Again supporting Crocker et al’s (1989) ‘attribution ambiguity’ concept, female students engaged in ‘self-protection’ when negative contributions were made relative to them. Indeed, participants assured workplaces offer opportunities that place women at an advantage where they can ‘fairly’ climb the corporate ladder alongside their male counterparts. Therefore, participants recognise the consequences of domestic responsibilities, yet reassure themselves that it is an issue they will counteract since organisations are assumingly considerate towards working mothers. As a result, participants support Crosby et al (1989) in the view that, women as victims of gender discrimination tend to deem they are personally exempt from the reality of gender bias that operates in society, even if they acknowledge this happens to their group (Crosby et al, 1989). Indeed, when asked if domestic responsibilities can impact career advancement, one participant commented:

‘Not really, since women are able to combine work and home responsibilities. Many organisations have creche’s. Perhaps my commitment may sway during maternity leave, but like many other successful women, I will pick myself back up again. At the start of my career I need to prove I’m an employee worth keeping, despite my family obligations’ (P8, 3rd year, Management student).

Again, like the majority, the interviewed participant proposed a strategy to prove her capabilities of being a good employee at the start of her career (and presumably feel once this is achieved) having a family won’t make a severe difference towards career success. As suggested, by amplifying self-esteem, participants enhanced a tactic acceptance of gender discrimination to enforce a positive outcome to their position as women with future domestic responsibilities. Conversely, when participants were asked how domestic responsibilities may impact their chances of selection and promotion, their response was somewhat surprising:

‘Organisations perceptions of women vary. Unfortunately, there are companies whom may judge me based on my gender, especially if I was to have children. Presuming that women can’t and won’t fully commit to the workplace’ (P1, 3rd year, Management student).

Interestingly, half of the participants made similar suggestions such as, ‘to be honest if I was an employer, I would probably recruit an employee who I know will serve and dedicate fully to the company, and if that’s male, then so be it’ (P4, 3rd Year, Management Studies). This suggests that, participants not only accept the negative implications domestic responsibilities may have on selection and promotion, they also agree to the gendered selection and recruitment process. The socially constructed stereotype placed upon women, even if their childless, is an uncontrollable matter in which one participant stated: ‘Alan Sugar is a perfect example of a typical male employer who basis his recruitment decisions on when young women plan on starting a family’ (P2, 3rd Year, Management Studies). When comparing to the above comments, rather than internalising the matter, participants perceive selection and promotion as an issue they cannot overcome; rather they admit, ‘women of childbearing ages are a liability’ (Times Online, 2008), hence delaying starting a family. Overall, female students believe to advance in their careers, work is first priority. By proving their efforts are just as good as men, their chances of internal opportunities such as selection and promotion are more likely to be granted.

4.5 Summary

The findings uncovered that the interviewed participants acknowledged gender discrimination exists; however, do not perceive gender discrimination as a likely barrier that they will encounter personally. Female students underestimated discrimination by expressing self-protected comments when negative contributions placed them at a disadvantage. As a result, participants internalised discrimination through corresponding behaviour to ensure that they will not be personal victims of discrimination and are likely to be more accepted at work. Moreover, the participants’ proposed a tactic acceptance of discrimination whereby they attempted to either protect or insulate themselves from its gendered effects to overcome the various discriminative issues many women face today, hence considering gender discrimination as a minor issue. Alternatively, it can be argued that participants subconsciously perceived gender discrimination as a personal concern. By internalising or establishing tactics to prevent gender discrimination, an indirect acceptance of personal discrimination is apparent, since participants plan solutions to resolve the matter in case it was to happen to them. Nonetheless, female students’ responses directly demonstrate that they do not perceive gender discrimination as a likely obstruction they will personally encounter at work, thus perceiving it as an unrelated matter.

Chapter Five- Conclusion

In conclusion, despite the reality of gender discrimination whereby women ‘as leaders in industry, business, and the public sector continue to be underrepresented’ (Probert, 2005), female Management undergraduates have presented a naive discernment of gender discrimination by, underestimating the various discriminative issues that may personally take effect during their working lives. The dissertation findings revealed key themes relative to female students’ perceptions of gender discrimination in relation to, their level of awareness and recognition, the extent female students perceive gender discrimination on self, and, how if gender discrimination did occur, may it impact their career advancement. Unlike, Sipe et al (2009) whom argued, female undergraduates disregard gender discrimination, the interviewed participants in this dissertation, recognised the negative effects of stereotyping, pay and domestic responsibilities socially and somewhat personally. Particularly, female students are currently aware and accept that gender discrimination may be a challenge for working women to advance in their careers. However, similar to the former study, the results established that, female Management students do not perceive gender discrimination as a barrier they will encounter in their careers.

Astonishingly, female students perceived gender discrimination as being of little consequence within their own working lives since they positively internalise the situation to make it work for them. By specialising in ‘feminine’ careers, such as marketing (Bible et al, 2007), or even, starting a family later in life, female students believe they are more accepted and likely to advance in their careers, thus avoiding the risks of gender discrimination. Therefore, participants perceive gender discrimination as an issue they are able to overcome if they work within its gendered effects rather than against it, hence disregarding the issue as a personal problem. As such, considering a feminist perspective, radical feminists in particular would be very disillusioned by such responses as participants seem to simply accept prejudice exists, and indeed are seeking to change themselves in order to better suit the workplace, rather than challenge the system. Furthermore, the majority of the participants’ underestimated the possibility of being victims of discrimination by expressing self-protected responses to ensure they are not personal members of a disadvantaged group. Participants were reluctant to accept being victims of discrimination as they optimistically developed strategies to prevent confronting the various discriminative issues that they suggested women as a social group experience at work, thus placing themselves at an advantage in comparison to ‘other’ women. This supports the ‘personal/group discrimination discrepancy’ concept, proposed by Taylor et al, (1990) as female students, perceived a higher level of discrimination aimed at their group members, compared with them as individuals. Then again, as participants accept gender discrimination exists amongst women as a social group, it can also be argued that, female students’ indirectly implement and accept gender discrimination as being personally relevant during their working lives. Indeed, by internalising and developing tactics to overcome the situation, female students are subconsciously preparing ways to prevent the consequences of gender discrimination, in case it happens to them. Accordingly, their responses unintentionally show a tactic acceptance of personal gender discrimination rather than a complete rejection, as they state they will not be victims of discrimination but then, continuously develop strategies to ensure they won’t.

Overall, the established findings of this dissertation research seem to be somewhat worrying, since final year female Management students outspokenly underestimate the potential consequences of personal discrimination. This attitude amongst current female undergraduates is consistent with Carr et al’s (2003) study which reported that, women professionals considered themselves to have been unprepared through their early experiences and educational years for the types of gender discrimination they experienced during their working lives (Carr et al, 2003). Relatively, although female students somewhat accept the effects of gender discrimination; their responses still express naivety towards the matter when determining gender discrimination on self. Thus, female students optimistically believe the gender inequality gap has sincerely improved, will continue to improve and likely to close by the time they enhance during their professional years. If continued perceiving the matter as unrelated, current female students may risk real opportunities to correct gender discrimination through training, enforcement, and premeditated human-resource planning during their careers. Thus, female students in the future should be appropriately educated and better prepared for the work realities of various discriminatory employment practices. Therefore, whilst this dissertation research disseminates towards young women whom are likely to benefit from this topic by anticipating gender discrimination before entering their professional careers. It also targets and encourages employers to pay more attention to the matter by continuing making conscious efforts to educate future employees about the realities of workplace discrimination, and address gender discrimination effectively through policies, training and enforcement. It is in my contention that if female students are consc

Violence against women commonly known as gender-based violence refers to violent acts ?committed against women with the victims gender as a primary motive. ?Violence against women is very common especially in developing third world countries and even ?in countries with over suppressed societies for example in many regions of the Middle East. ?Even in developed and modern nations still today gender- based violence is not totally ?eliminated and still exists though comparatively the rate is lower than the underdeveloped and/ or ?developing countries. ?

It is like a plague that has engulfed and destroyed many homes and families and a situation that ?needs to be addressed with complete focus as a healthy society produces healthy generations ?which in turn results in healthy and prosperous nations. For years the problem has never been ?addressed seriously and so far has ruined families and disturbed the society at large majorly due ?to lack of awareness among the individuals.?

The ever increasing day to day mechanical lives and expensive living cost is causing more stress ?and depression in individuals, the matter instead of being curtailed by various relevant law ?enforcing agencies, NGO’s and concerned state organizations the occurrences of violence ?incidents against women is on high increase. ?There is a dire need to find ways to stop this as crises intervention cannot only address and ?simplify the situation rather more serious steps are needed to curtail the devastating effects that it ?has on children and families.?

Every year millions of women are affected world over and majority of cases do not come on ?record nor handed lawfully and this ignorance results in gradual increase in such unacceptable ?acts against women. We will all agree here that such violence against women leads to physical ?and psychological harm both, and at times the psychological scars are impossible to treat thus ?damaging the personality of the subject woman for life time.?

If a woman suffers such physical and emotional harm the whole society suffers and the final ?impact is the suffering of the entire society. Thus this raises serious health concerns and requires ?immediate action and prevention from violence from those who are the policy makers and various ?agencies responsible for stopping this violence. ?

The affected suffers from loss of trust, loss of dignity and a deeply compromised self – esteem ?that needs to be addressed along with factors like housing, economic support, social welfare and ?legal issues being an integral part of the health promotion strategy. ?The most common form of violence experienced by women globally is physical violence inflicted ?by an intimate partner, with women beaten, forced into sex or otherwise abused.? In a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) it was found that between 15% ?and 70% of women experience physical and/ or sexual violence by a partner. ?

According to a United Nations report at least one out of every three women around the world ?has been abused some way or the other in her lifetime and that too by someone known to her.? According to a WHO report the impact of this gender- based violence on the society is deep and ?directly burdens the health care services as women suffer serious physical injuries, death, sexually ?transmitted diseases, miscarriages, acute depression and many other psychological health issues ?resulting in weak and low physical health. And the states have to bear heavy economical costs in ?billions per year.?

A 2003 report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the ?costs of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceed US$5.8 billion per year: ?US$4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account ?for nearly US$1.8 billion.? We can have an idea of existence of this gender-based violence in various parts of the world ?from the figures collected by the WHO while carrying out a study in 11 countries and according ?to this study; ?

The percentage of women who had been subjected to sexual violence by an intimate partner ?ranged from 6 per cent in Japan to 59 per cent in Ethiopia. ?Several global surveys suggest that half of all women who die from homicide are killed by their ?current or former husbands or partners. ?In Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United States, 40 to 70 per cent of female ?murder victims were killed by their partners, according to the World Health Organization.?

In Colombia, every sixth day one woman is reportedly killed by her partner or former partner. ?Psychological or emotional violence by intimate partners is also widespread.? Up to 70 per cent of women experience violence in their lifetime, according to country data ?available.?Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car ?accidents, war and malaria, according to World Bank data. ?

Female genital mutilation (FGM), defined by WHO as the partial or total removal of the external ?genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs WHO estimates that between 100 to 140 ?million girls and women have undergone some type of FGM. Most of those affected live in 28 ?countries in Africa, although there are some in the Middle East and it also happens among ?immigrant communities in some countries in Western Europe.?

Rape and dowry related violations are also very common resulting in harassment of brides and ?also dowry related deaths, particularly in certain parts of India and other southern Asian ?countries. This violence is exercised not only by the husband but also by the husbands’ close ?relatives (mother, brothers, and sisters). ?

Acid throwing in some Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, the disfiguring ?of women by throwing acid or burning them are forms of violence rooted in gender inequality, ?but the immediate reason for this is often disputes concerning marriage and dowry. While this is ?not one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women, its consequences are dire for ?those women subjected to it. ?

? ”Honor” killings this is the murder of a woman, usually by a brother, father, or other male family ?member, because she has allegedly brought shame to her family. This phenomenon is rooted in ?the notion of male honor and female chastity that prevails in many countries in the Eastern ?Mediterranean region. It means a man’s honor is linked to the perceived sexual purity of the ?women in his family. If a woman engages in sex outside marriage or even if she is raped, she is ?thought to disgrace the family honor. In some societies, the only way to cleanse the family honor ?is by killing the woman/girl.?

This kind of violence against women and girls is exercised also in western European countries ?within immigrant families. It is generally referred to as ”honor” killings-a rather misleading ?term as the connection with honor is difficult to understand in most cultures. The term ”murder ?in the name of honor” has been suggested. ?

There was this case of honor killing of 3 daughters and their mother who was murdered in ?Canada and bodies dumped under a bridge by their own father with the help of his second wife ?who were immigrants there and belonged to an Asian country. ?

In Saudi Arabia where I used to visit frequently almost every year as my spouse was working in ?Jeddah I witnessed many cases where in men when going for work locked their wives from ?outside till the time they were back home in the evenings the reason being lack of trust on their ?spouse and during one such incidence the house caught fire due to short circuit and the wife, ?maid and an infant child were rescued by the neighbors through apartment windows as the door ?to the house was locked from outside by the husband who had left for work. I left the site ?wondering how much black smoke these three must have inhaled especially the infant child and ?what effect it would have had on their lungs??

With the passage of time and increasing awareness especially in girls / women due increasing ?literacy rates among women such violation is now getting well recognized as a public health ?problem and human rights violation of worldwide. ?

The states and working organizations for prevention and betterment of societies are now realizing ?how this relates directly to the public health sector.?

More and more need have arise to take appropriate measures and proper trained health workers ?are being placed close to the victims of such violation who are also well acquainted with the ?community they work for and its inhabitants.?

The local health services and communities need to play their role and create awareness among the ?public to prevent such incidents. ?

The Central and Federal government bodies need not only to make strict laws for the prevention ?of gender-based violence but ensure effective implementation as well.?

The most effective way to reduce tolerance towards violence against women is to openly debate ?the subject as still there is limited knowledge regarding most workable interventions for the ?prevention of gender- based violations.?

References

• ? www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpcd/chp/hpkit/index.htm

• http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/?

• http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/suppl_1/25.full

• Violence Against Women – the United Nations

? www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/…/UNiTE_TheSituation_EN….?

• Violence against women – Gunilla Krantz, Claudia Garcia-Moreno

• http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Violence_against_women

This paper summarizes the article titled “The issue of Australian indigenous world-views and accounting” written by Susan Greer and Chris Patel (2000). Also critically review the article and compare it with other articles those discuss the same idea and focus on the same issue.

As any research area and especially in social sciences, the difficulty and the complex of the topic should be taken as a point of departure for exploring and studying the topic as well as the importance of the topic.

The paper was structured into eight sections as following: an introduction; limitations of Hofstede’s cultural taxonomy; yin and yang values framework; core Australian indigenous cultural values; work-related values; land-related values; the meaning of native title and concluding comments.

The purpose of the paper is to provide “evidence of cultural differences between indigenous Australian values and the Western capitalist values implicit in the language of accounting and accountability”p1 as the authors believe that although great efforts have been made on the cross-cultural accounting research, the mainstream cross-cultural accounting research has failed to address two main issues:

First: the mainstream research of cross-cultural accounting focused on the impact of culture on the accounting systems but not the influence of accounting on societal values.

Second: the cultural differences within countries have been omitted.

The article tries to study this issue and fill the knowledge gap in this field, also presents the “cultural norms and values among the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples within Australia” p 308. Specifically, the study aims to “demonstrate that Australian indigenous cultures embody core values that conflict with the values encapsulated within Western systems of accounting and accountability”. p308

Article Summary

The study illuminates the differences between indigenous Australian peoples cultural values and Western capitalist values appears in language of accounting that related to work and land.

Choosing the conceptions of work and land were based on two reasons, first the previous studies which have shown the importance of the work related values and differences between cultures. Second, the recent introduction of “native title” into property law granted the Australian indigenous conception of land some legal recognition alongside other forms of property rights” p309

the authors criticize Hofsted’s cultural taxonomy as they believe in its limitations, they refer to a number of limitations as: this approach overly simplistic as it reflects the values of the politically and socially advantaged groups within countries, also it does not include the minorities in the sample such as indigenous peoples, moreover, “it fails to address the complexity of culture” p310

Because of these limitations mentioned above, the authors adopt another suitable approach which they believe it is the appropriate one for such a study.

The alternative used approach is Yin and Yang values framework, the authors believe that “A useful perspective for examining the cultural values and conceptions of reality reflected and socially reproduced by accounting, is that of the “universal masculine or yang and the universal feminine or yin” (Hines, 1992, p. 318).as some writers (Hines 1992) showed that the language of accounting preferences yang values, such as quantification, objectivity, efficiency, productivity, reason, and logic, and in doing so, silences or excludes those values associated with the universal feminine or yin, such as relationships, nurturing, experience, and intuition” p310

The authors address the usefulness of the adoption of this value framework to their study in two primary reasons. The first reason is because of the evidence of unique Australian indigenous cultural values provided from a large collection of anthropological, sociological and pedagogical literature. Secondly, the increasing emphasis of the Australian indigenous people s on cultural values and traditions.

Core Australian indigenous cultural values

In this section, authors try to introduce the differences in cultural values within the indigenous Australian peoples or (the yin core values).

According to the authors, “The whole community is classified into specific relationships with each member (Crawford, 1989). For example, the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia gave Europeans kinship terms aˆ¦. The Yolngu of the Northern Territory are also known to assign positions within the domain of Yolngu kinship to non-Aboriginal people with whom they have more than superficial or brief contact aˆ¦. Thus for many indigenous peoples, kin positions constitute the basic datum of social identity.” p 313

Also authors state that sharing and relatedness values are central to these indigenous societies especially to Aboriginal society.

In the next sections the authors focus on two groups of value taking them as examples, these groups of values, according to the authors, are aligned to yin values.

Work-related values

In this section the work-related values of indigenous peoples are presented as yin values, which are clearly reflected in the indigenous attitudes to work, consequently are in contrast with yang values.

Some examples was given in support to this issue “the strength and nature of obligatory relationships and the web of sharing within kinship networks are often acknowledged as a key determinant of the success or failure of indigenous enterprises. Yet, governments at the state and federal levels and indigenous funding bodies have consistently ignored this factor. Instead, indigenous organisations and communities have been increasingly submitted to financial accounting controls and measures of financial accountability and compliance which prioritise yang values that are in direct conflict with the core Australian indigenous values of sharing and relatedness.” p 316

Land-related values

Descriptions of how the land is considered by indigenous peoples in Australia can be found under this section where the authors provide evidences on how land values for these indigenous are different to accounting and accountability systems in the Western capitalist environment.

The authors state that “The earth is considered the source of all life and, as such, the indigenous peoples are obligated to look after the earth, so that the earth will in turn provide for them” p 318

According to the authors the link between these peoples and land is much deeper than just an economic property, as it can be read that “In Australian indigenous culture it is the spiritual link to the land that is all-pervasive. The land is the source of the Dreamings, the source of identity and the foundation principle of land rights in indigenous culture is not one of individual proprietary rights, rather it is relationships” p 319

The meaning of native title

Native title was identified in the article as “inalienable right consisting of the laws, customs, practices and traditions of particular communities. As such, the rights under native title are limited to the indigenous community which observes those traditions, customs and practices. Native title does not equate with the “estates, rights or interests in land which form the law of real property at common law . . . it is to be regarded as unique” p 320

The indigenous consider it as an important part of their culture not as it appears in the Western accounting literature as:

. The property;

. The asset;

. The economic resource;

. The commodity; and

. The “natural” capital.

The loss of this title means loss of culture itself for these Australian indigenous peoples.

Conclusion comments

the article concludes with the mention of the failure of mainstream cross-cultural accounting research to include the norms and values of less advantage groups such as indigenous, also the article refers to the complexity of accounting and accountability to study such a subject as these social aspects are part of many other subjects as history, ideology, language and mythology. Moreover, the authors suggest to build on the work has been made by Hines (1992) and Broadbent (1995; 1998).

Critical Reflections

This section critically evaluates the work has been done by Greer S. and Patel C. (2000) by reviewing the used method and objectives achieved in the light of other works on the same topic.

Strengths

it is good attempt to bring such issues to the attention of accounting, some issues like the issue of accounting and indigenous, how they are effected by accounting and how accounting should benefits from their cultures for example in terms of environment and social responsibility. As Gallhofer et al (2000) think that “it seems appropriate to speculate further upon how indigenous cultural principles might be reflected more generally in the context of impacting upon accounting” p 397

The objectives of the article were clearly stated and strongly linked to the title. Also the abstract summaries and explains clearly the debate issue of the article and the limitations of the methods used before.

The aims and objectives of the article were well addressed and The findings were well organized and reported objectively. More importantly, new approach was applied as alternative method to characterize the indigenous peoples’ cultural differences in terms of accounting and accountability.

It can be said that the article was well written and sectioned in good order, also very clear literature review was introduced by descriptions of the related work has been done in the same field within discussions in different places in the article which, also number of good references were used in both method section and the development body. In my view, that would give a good opportunity to describe the contents of the article and make them more readable. Not to mention the number of examples was injected in different sections of the article to support the ideas included.

Weaknesses

Gallhofer and Chew state that (2000) “We are particularly concerned to address the problem that non-indigenous researchers face when they write about issues concerning indigenous peoples and cultures” p 258. As mentioned it could be a problematic issue that non-indigenous researchers can not reflect clearly the complexity of cultural and social elements and accounting in indigenous societies in general.

At one point it could be said that the method used to gather the data for this article were clearly explained and the developments of the critical contextual analysis were well explained. On the other point, however, the reliability of the used texts is sometimes difficult to be measured. Also the scope of the study and the population used were not based on a clear approach.

Hofsted’s cultural taxonomy was criticized in the article because of its limitations; however, the method was employed as alternative approach (Yin and Yang value framework) has its own limitations too.

At one point the used method is acceptable for determining the content and deliver broader understanding to the reader .however, it could be questionable if it is the appropriate method to explain and develop scientific accounting theory and result reliable outcomes as it is affected by other sciences such as language, history and politics. This makes the issue is more complicated and can not be studied without considering other elements, for instance, Jayasinghe and Dennis Thomas (2009) found that “The findings imply that any form of rational transformations in indigenous accounting systems in local subaltern communities requires a phenomenological analysis of any prevailing and dominant patronage political systems.” p 351

From personal point of view, hybrid Approach should be applied to study the topic including ethno-methodological approach.

The article does not mention clearly how to improved the accounting theory and engage it with indigenous culture and practices, in personal view, the expected outcomes of studies not just general description to matters but also to give potential solutions.

It also can be argued that the article does not show whereas the indigenous peoples welcome the western accounting and accountability systems or not, and if yes till which degree. In general, the article should have studied both sides of the relationship between the indigenous and the language of western accounting and how they affect each other rather than focusing on one side as the relationship is an interactive one.

As it seems that the issue is more deep-rooted in the accounting field which requires studying the historical background of the matter.

It is also arguable that although the authors arose the differences between cultures within the same country, they applied the comprehensiveness when they studied the indigenous and ignored the cultural differences between these indigenous peoples themselves, for instance Gallhofer et al (2000) believe that “There are complex differences between the three groups of indigenous people and indeed between their different tribes.” p 384

Questions Left to Answer

The article raises issues and possibilities that should be focused on and questions need to be further explored; additional studies are needed to raise research possibilities beyond those identified and overcome method limitations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the paper has promoted to the idea of providing evidence of differences between indigenous Australian values and the Western capitalist values in the accounting context. Some good cases have been presented with implementing a developed method in the field. Besides, several of good references have been used in order to develop the problem statement of the article,

It could also be said that the yin and yang values framework which used in the paper has its limitation in terms of providing evidences of the problem studied.

The conclusion was based on the findings from the critical contextual analysis used and the literature reviewed; also the recommendation was limited to a call for additional research in this area of research as some other researchers suggest (Gallhofer and Chew 2000).

Overall, the study gives good contribution to knowledge in terms of the used method and the objectives, also the study would need to be linked to other works have been done on the same topic (Gallhofer, S., Chew, A. (2000), Gallhofer, S., el al (2000), Davie, S. (2000), Jayasinghe K. and Thomas D. (2009), to give better and broader understanding to the problem introduced in the mentioned article.

The self-concept of a person is about how he/she believes their own characteristics and the evaluation of these attributes (Solomon et al., 2010). A common term, self-esteem, is used to define the positive aspect of an individual’s self-concept (ibid.). A simple distinction of self-esteem is the ideal versus real self (ibid.). As there is usually a gap between the two of them, products are used to minimize the gap and assist an individual in achieving certain goals (ibid.). Thus in this literature review, products would be a main concern in explaining how they are used to help develop a person’s self-concept.

Belk (1988) stated that possessions are seen as a part of our sense of self. Our possessions are used to broaden our self-concept and thus we use them to understand ourselves (Sartre, 1943 cited in Belk, 1988). McCarthy (1984 cited in Belk, 1988) also concluded from his research that a product might contain more of our identities than an individual. Products could act as a consequence to an established self-concept as well as an antecedent to self-definition (Solomon, 1983). The former appears more often in most research, in which consumers buy a product to satisfy their particular need or to manage their appearance or impression in front of others (ibid.). The later is about the consumer’s use of product as stimulation to define a particular social role (ibid.). Products consist of symbolic qualities which are used by consumers to clarify the behaviour and performance of a social role (ibid.). Both aspects of the product usage are significant for consumers in their self-definition process.

In this chapter, the two factors, ‘consumption’ and ‘interaction’, are addressed in two separate subsections in order to explain their influences on the definition of an individual’s self-concept. The third subsection, ‘work identity’, is also included in this literature to explain some characteristics regarding this specific self-identity which is novel to the participants in this research.

Consumption

Sartre (1943/1956 cited in Kleine et al., 1993) mentioned that ‘who we are’ is represented by ‘what we have’, hence consumption is related to self with respect to the person’s possessions. Buying objects is a form of putting one’s self into the object (Belk, 1988). Sartre (1943 cited in Belk, 1988) suggested that buying an object is similar to creating an object, in which the identity of a person is invested into the object through associating the object with his/her characteristics. The strength of maintaining the self identity also increases after immediate purchase of the product (Ball and Tasaki, 1992).

Relationship between ‘self’ and possessions

A person’s concept of self and social identity could be defined by his/her use of products (Holt and Thompson, 2004 etc. cited in Solomon et al., 2010) because the products consist of hints which includes information about the person’s particular social role (Solomon, 1983). Social role is defined by Young as ‘a behavior pattern associated with a particular person in a particular social system’ (1991: 33). A person acting as a particular social role would behave according to role expectations (Young, 1991). People could choose to enact any role and they would alter their behaviour in different situations (ibid.). Even if two persons are acting as the same social role, they would not behave in the same way (ibid.).

The role the product plays in the consumption process could be explained by ‘consumption system’, which describes how the consumer uses the product to achieve his/her goal (Boyd and Levy, 1963: 129). Consumers purchase the product not for its physical existence but the function it provides for the user in accomplishing certain tasks (ibid.). Thus even basic or daily products, such as our house and clothes, could be used to express our self (Kleine et al., 1993; Young, 1991).

The relationship between a person’s self identity and his/her possessions could be explained by the term ‘attachment’, which means that the maintenance of self-concept is supported by current or previous ownership of a product (Ball and Tasaki, 1992). As attachment and time in owning the product increase, that product would become more associated with any significant circumstance or people in the life of the owner (ibid.). But it should also be noted that time is needed for the increase in the level of association even for a high attachment (ibid.).

Prominence of identities

An individual could possess many identities or roles within him/herself (Solomon et al., 2010). Different products may be required for an individual to display his/her particular social role (ibid.). We usually choose products which agree with our identities (Kleine et al., 1993), and consequently each of the identity would be supported by a consistent set of possessions (ibid.).

For each of us, some of our identities would be more prominent in specific occasions (Kleine et al., 1993; Solomon et al., 2010). Our behaviour would be affected by the salience of an individual’s certain identity, and therefore those behaviours related to the prominent identity would be performed more frequently (Kleine et al., 1993). We tend to do something which is rewarding to ourselves (ibid.). The more we perform these rewarding behaviours, the more confident we feel with the usage of those possessions (ibid.). More central identities would be more likely to guide an individual for suitable behaviours (Solomon, 1983).

More about the prominence of identities would be explained in Section 2.2.2.

Disposition

Several consumer researchers (Bonsu and Belk, 2003 etc. cited in Arnould and Thompson, 2005) had argued that disposition is important in the transition of roles and identities of consumers. Especially during times like getting a new job in this research context (Belk, 1988), those possessions related to the role of a student may be disposed because the self-image of the new employee role is inconsistent with those old possessions (La Branche, 1973 cited in Belk, 1988). The quitting of the student role could also be regarded as disposition for which the graduates acquire the new role of an employed person instead, according to the example of one participant in Young’s (1991) research that her role is transited from a manager to a student. Ball and Tasaki also agreed that ‘people will psychologically outgrow many possessions and acquire attachments to others that reflect the new self’ (1992: 170).

However, a person may choose not to discard a product because it acts as a storage platform of valuable memories relevant to his/her past (Belk, 1988). An example is given by the case of one participant in Young’s (1991) research, in which she was keeping the plaque which stored the memory of the relationship with her former boyfriend. She kept it for some time before she threw it away (ibid.). To conclude, whether to dispose or retain a product depends on its importance to the individual for his/her desired identity.

Interaction

Social identity theory states that a person’s self-identity is created from comparison with others and then he/she is classified into appropriate social groupings (Abrams and Hogg, 1990 etc. cited in Walsh and Gordon, 2008). It is a continuous process (Walsh and Gordon, 2008) through interaction between individuals (Charon, 1992 etc. cited in Walsh and Gordon, 2008). The value of one’s self is then confirmed by others (Pratt, 1991). Belk also agreed that ‘others are an important mirror through which we see ourselves’ (1988: 146). Therefore in this section, the concept of symbolic interactionism and prominence of identities are discussed to address the influence of interaction on a person’s consumption pattern and self-concept.

Symbolic interactionism

Symbolic interactionism would be a useful concept in assisting the explanation because it emphasizes the formation of self-concept in relations to other people (Solomon et al., 2010). This theory states that a symbolic environment exists and it provides a platform for people to interact those symbols in creating symbolic meanings (ibid.). With shared symbolic meanings established through socialization, people should be able to adjust their behaviour and determine their self-image with respect to how others predicted those actions (Solomon, 1983). Those products containing the shared meanings may then be used for enhancing the social role as they provide a greater chance in guiding the user to act consistently with that role (ibid.).

Other people could provide reflexive evaluation to an individual with regard to the symbolic value of the product he/she uses to represent his/her role (Solomon, 1983). This evaluation would then be used to shape the self-concept of that person (ibid.). It could exist in an interpersonal or intrapersonal level (ibid.). The former is a more common one, in which those symbols used to determine one’s role exists at the societal or cultural level (ibid.). The latter is about the imagined appraisal of an individual within oneself, for which the interaction process exists within oneself and he/she use his/her internal evaluation to build up his/her desired role (ibid.). Both processes are effective in determining one’s role and self-concept.

Prominence of identities

The prominence of identities was explained in Section 2.1.2. Some more points are added in this part. Kleine et al. (1993) provides two reasons of the salience of our identities. The first one is about our surrounding social circle (ibid.). The circle forms our social connection, and the interaction with those people would help shape whom we are and the stability of these salient identities (ibid.). The second one is about the evaluations we receive from our social connections (ibid.). As explained in Section 2.1, we have a tendency to perform rewarding behaviours (ibid.). Thus we would adopt the identities which receive the best appraisals from others and choose those identities as the salient ones (ibid.). Thus the effect from our social connections may be one of the factors influencing the prominence of our identities.

A new role: the work identity

Work identity is a self-concept related to work (Walsh and Gordon, 2008). People usually form their work identity from their organizations or professions (ibid.). The greater the status and competence of the organization or profession, the more an individual creates his/her work identity from the group (ibid.). Baumeister and Muraven (1996) viewed work as a way of building up one’s self. Especially for the young females in this context, mastering their first job could be viewed as another kind of possessions which help create their self-identity (Belk, 1988).

Work Orientations

Wrzesniewski et al. classified three levels of ‘work-orientations’: ‘jobs’, ‘careers’ and ‘callings’ (1997 cited in Walsh and Gordon, 2008: 54). People who are jobs-oriented view their work as obtaining returns and rewards and they care less about their work identity (ibid.). Individuals having a careers work-orientation are likely to create their work identity through membership of their organizations or professions or both of them (ibid.). People who have a callings work-orientation would create their full self-identity through their profession because they consider their work as the most important thing in their life (ibid.). Thus it implies that a strong work identity is a consequence of having a careers or callings work-orientation.

Income and Money

Income is the basic appraisal for the work of every employee. They can either spend their income on various products or save the money for further use. Although having possessions is a way of enhancing self-concept, money is also considered a kind of self extension (Belk, 1988). Money provides a person with greater flexibility in choosing activities or possessions and thus it helps magnify the person’s sense of self (ibid.). Rubenstein (1981 cited in Belk, 1988) mentioned that people usually regard money as being successful and powerful, and in fact people with higher income are also reported to have higher self-esteem, happier and more satisfied (e.g. Diener, 1984 cited in Belk, 1988).

Current research context

The three sections above have discussed the theoretical findings by different scholars on the content of this research. However, most of the findings are from European context, for which they may not be applicable to the Asian context. Therefore, this research is aiming at understanding whether the practical findings from an Asian context would be relevant to the European scholarly findings, or if the cultural difference occupies more for this research context.

This research aims at answering the three research questions raised in Chapter 1. Specific research details related to each question would be discussed below.

What products do young female university graduates in Hong Kong choose to define their desired self-concept and social role?

First of all, for females, the research from Secord and Jourard’s (1953 cited in Belk, 1988) found that females concentrate on body parts more than males. Solomon (1983) also suggested that appearance-related products could produce a strong link between the sense of self and the behaviour associated with that ‘self’. Therefore participants may purchase more appearance-related products like clothing or skin-care products. Second, consumption is used for self-definition when the person has an unfamiliar role (Solomon et al., 2010) or when he/she is undergoing a role transition (Solomon, 1983). As mentioned in Chapter 1, the employee ‘self’ of young graduates is in a comparatively fragile sense. Tuan (1980) suggested that this fragile self should be supported by possessions because these possessions may be able to represent the identity of an employed person. Young (1991) also mentioned that role transition requires a change of the environment, social role, enacted behaviour and possessions. Especially when the self-image of being an employee is weak at the start of their career, they tend to purchase user-image related products to strengthen their self-perception (Wright et al., 1992). Research from Wicklund et al. (1981 cited in Solomon, 1983) also found that students possessing a more imperfect sense of ‘career’ self would tend to utilize luxurious products to represent their desired ‘career’ role.

Therefore in this research, their preferred types of products and spending pattern would be explored to understand how they view their identity at the moment. The issue of difference in spending pattern before and after graduation would be especially addressed to explore the process of their role transition.

How do their interactions with others shape their salient social identities?

In this research, participants are all playing a relatively unfamiliar role of being an employed person. They may not understand the appropriate behaviour of their new role and thus there may be large gap between the ideal behaviour and their actual capacity in performing those behaviours (Solomon, 1983). Therefore they may rely on external cues in guiding their actions (ibid.). Their self-image would be largely shaped by the appraisals of others on their own possessions (ibid.). They would access whom they are or their role based on the evaluations of others (ibid.).

From the literature by Kleine et al. (1993) in Section 2.2.2, the two reasons of salient identity are both about a person’s social connections. Therefore in order to explore the relationship between interaction and the salience of identity, the issue of social circle and the interactions among the group would be explored. The interactions may affect how they view themselves and subsequently their consumption patterns and behaviour, and finally their salient identity would be shaped accordingly.

To what extent does their work identity constitute to their self-concept?

In their role transition from a student to an employee, their salient identity may not be stable and they may have several prominent identities instead of just an obvious one. Thus the issue of level of importance about the working role in their self-concept would be addressed to explore if work identity is considered important in their mind. Their view towards their current job would be explored because the research from Wrzesniewski et al. (1997 cited in Walsh and Gordon, 2008) indicates that people who are more career-oriented tend to have a stronger work identity and vice versa. Their view towards their income and their general spending and saving habits would also be asked to explore how they view money and the appropriateness of the spending and saving patterns for young graduates.

In 2006, Answers Corporation explained that homosexuality is a term created by 19th century. The meaning of homosexual is, having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 2006).

Homosexuality includes two groups, which are female homosexuality and male homosexuality. Female homosexuality is described as lesbianism and the male homosexuality is described as gay (Answers Corporation, 2006).

At the beginning, some of the psychologists said that homosexuality is a mental illness and put it into the list of mental disorder. However, after some of the studies, they realized that homosexuality is not a mental disorder because it is related to psychological disturbance and is in no sense of ‘mental problem’ as well. So, homosexuality removed from the list of mental disorders (Tozeland, Loewen, & Monteith, n.d.).

The factors that lead to homosexuality are critical and discuss by many specialist fields such as psychologists and psychiatrists.

View of Psychologists toward Reason of Homosexuality

In Robinson study (as cited in “Facts about Homosexuality and Mental Health,” n.d.), early of the twentieth century, Ellis (1901) argued that homosexuality was inborn and it was not immoral, not a disease, and that many homosexuals made outstanding contributions to society.

Sigmund Freud has a different theory of human sexuality from Ellis. He believed that all human beings were innately bisexual. Human beings become heterosexual or homosexual as a result of what they have experiences with other people or environment that surrounding of them. Freud also agreed with Ellis that homosexual orientation should not be viewed as a form of pathology (“Facts about Homosexuality and Mental Health,” n.d.).

He wrote a letter to an American mother in 1935. He said that, people can’t get any advantages from their homosexual orientation. But, they were always blamed, discriminated by other people. Actually, homosexuality is not a sin, not an illness as well. He also said that, we need to see it as a sexual function produced by certain sexual development. There are many individuals of ancient and modern times that were respect by us are homosexuality. According to him, it is injustice and cruelty to describe that homosexuality is a crime and sin. He told the American mother that, analysis may let her son feel harmony, peace and full efficiency when her son in the time of unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, and inhibited in the social life whether he remains a homosexual or gets changed (“Facts about Homosexuality and Mental Health,” n.d.).

View of Reincarnation Researchers toward Reason of Homosexuality

According to Dr. Ian Stevenson, he concludes that homosexuality is a natural human trait that results from the reincarnation of a person of one gender as a person of the opposite gender. Such people must adjust to their new gender and sexuality at an early age. The difficulty of adjusting relating to the ‘sex change’ and lead to homosexuality later on in their lives (as cited in Williams, 2006).

Reincarnation means the soul occupation a new body after the death of the former body (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2006). The classic form of the reincarnation doctrine was formulated in India, but certainly not earlier than the 9th century BC, when the Brahmana writings were composed. After the Upanishads clearly defined the concept between the 7th and the 5th century BC, it was adopted by the other important Eastern religions which originated in India, Buddhism and Jainism. Due to the spread of Buddhism in Asia, reincarnation was later adopted by Chinese Taoism, but not earlier than the 3rd century BC (Reincarnation, its meaning and consequences, n.d.).

Former girls who are reborn as boys may wish to dress as girls or prefer to play with girls rather than boys. Former boys who are reborn as girls may wish to dress as boys or prefer to play with boys rather than girls. Former men who are reborn as women will be attracted to women and will therefore be lesbian. Former women who are reborn as men will be attracted to men and will therefore be gay (as cited in Williams, 2006).

“Former” means past-life or previous life and “reborn” mean present lifetime. In many cases the person begins talking about his or her life or lives before the present lifetime, about their previous death and about the time between lives including the planning of the present lifetime (as cited in Williams, 2006). So, Dr. Ian Stevenson concludes that, homosexuality is the stem of reincarnation.

Beside of the factors to cause homosexuality, the factors that influence people attitudes towards homosexuality are also very controversial.

Different people may bring out different of attitudes, thinking, feeling and behaviors towards homosexuality. The differences can be considered contribute to some of the factors such as personal and social factors.

Personal Factors that Influence Attitudes towards Homosexual

Age. Have a measure of tolerance of homosexual behaviors from attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations, such as the nations of Australia, USA, Norway, and others indicated that the higher points of tolerance scored as 100 and the lowest point as 0. The higher the tolerance scored the higher the acceptance of homosexuality. The predicted level of tolerances for young people age 20 would be 53 points. People in middle age have tolerance scores of 43 points by age 40. At age 60, the tolerance scored is about 33 and with 23 points at age 80. It showed that, as the age increasing, the tolerance scored of homosexual was decreasing.

The tolerance point of elder was low compare to younger people (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

Beside of the factors of age, the attitudes also influences by religion.

Religion background. Different religious will makes a large difference to tolerance of homosexuality. According to a test of measure of homosexual behaviors tolerance, the higher points of tolerance scored as 100 and the lowest point as 0. The higher the tolerance scored the higher acceptance of homosexuality. Ardent believers in a personal God would rate homosexual behavior at 28 points. But, staunch atheists who are totally reject the idea of personal God rate homosexuality at 59 points (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

It obviously showed that, Ardent believers in a personal God was less accepting to homosexuality which rate 28 points compare to staunch atheists who totally reject the idea of personal God which rate 59 points (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

Beside that, church goers are less tolerant of homosexuality than those who are never darken a church’s door. People who are regular going to church rate 32 points, and those who are shunning the church were rating 48 points (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

It is because according to Christians, homosexuality violating some of God’s most basic commandments for humanity. Christians’ belief in God’s condemnation of homosexuality is claimed to be so important that forcing them to treat gays equally means forcing them to violate their religious beliefs (Cline, n.d.).

In nearly all societies throughout human history, religion offers answers to fundamental questions concerning the origin and meaning of things. Religious systems of explanation offer accounts of the creation of the world, as well as specifying the rules for proper behavior-and the consequences for infractions-that have been imposed by the Creator (Gross, 2005).

Christianity traditionally forbid sexual relations between people of the same sex and teaches that such behavior is sinful (Gross, 2005).

So, religious belief and church attendance have strongly influence on attitudes towards homosexuality in almost 29 nations.

Beside of the factors of religion, the attitudes toward homosexuality also influences by faculty of study among students (“Societal Attitudes towards Homosexuality,” 2006).

Faculty of study. Students who studied faculties of Arts or Social Science had more positive attitudes toward gay man compared to Science or Business students. The result revealed that students in the faculties of Arts and Social Science had more positive attitudes towards homosexual compare with students in faculties Business and Science (Schellenberg, Hirt and Sears, 1999).

It shows that there are two possible reasons that determined these results. First, students who value traditional sex roles may be the most likely to select programs in faculties of business and sciences where political attitudes are conservative. Second, students with less value traditional sex roles may be the most likely to select programs in faculties of Art and Social Science. It is because they thought the departments are more liberal (Schellenberg, Hirt and Sears, 1999).

In academic field, beside the factor of different faculty of study, the educational level also plays a very important role to determine the attitudes towards homosexuality.

Educational level. The higher years of education people involve, the higher scored of tolerances people have. The higher points of tolerance scored as 100 and the lowest point as 0. The higher of tolerance scored sign that it is more acceptance of homosexuality (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

The point of tolerances was 34 out of 100 rating by people who with 8 years of education. Those with 10 years of education were rating 38 points and people who have complete 2 years master’s degree after 4 year bachelor’s degree was rating 51 points. So, the gap between the least educated and the most educated is 17 points. (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

This tolerance-enhancing effect of education actually is link to other forces which importantly depend on the independent of age, so the lesser censure of homosexuality among the highly educated cannot be attributed to a changing social climate. The age effects themselves suggest that there is a changing social climate, but the education effects are in addition to that (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

Other than that, gender also likely to have strongly influences on the attitudes towards homosexuality. Many researchers conducted researches that related to gender differences and their attitudes towards gay men and lesbians.

Gender. Gender belief system is the pattern of masculine or feminine behavior of an individual that is defined by a particular culture and that is largely determined by a child’s upbringing (Answers.com, 2006).

Kite and Whitley suggested that men rating the gay men more negative than women, but they were same in the rating of lesbians. Within the male and female, women made approximately equal rating of lesbians and gay men, but men’s rating of lesbians were more positive than rating of gay men (as cited in Louiderback & Whitley, 1997).

According to Kite and Whitley study, it is because people who have strong gender belief system have more negative attitudes towards homosexual because homosexuality violates the norms of that belief system. Also, men held more traditional sex-role attitudes than women. So, in the perspective of men, male should be act more masculine and aggressive. They also strongly hold the traditional sexual orientation which is heterosexuality (as cited in Louiderback & Whitley, 1997).

Beside that, a study (as cited in “Schellenberg, Hirt and Sears” 1999.), it also showed that male hold more negative attitudes towards gay men than lesbians, and, they also hold more negative attitudes to homosexual compare with female.

Different attitude towards homosexuality is the impact of personal factors. But, the social factors also have certain level of impact on the attitudes towards homosexuality.

Social Factors that Influence Attitudes towards Homosexual

Media. Dissemination of information about homosexuality in marketing, television shows, and public opinion polls, will affect the attitudes of public toward homosexuals no matter it is accurate or inaccurate.

The information of “homosexuals will lead to AIDS” has strong impact on attitudes towards homosexuality. The perpetuation of homophobic attitudes such as the treatment of people with HIV, “moralistic interpretations of people with AIDS,” certain conceptions about the methods of HIV transmitted, media representation of AIDS, and even the way in which medicine’s “objectivity” reinforces a moral view inimical to gay men, lesbians and bisexuals (Anderson, Fakhfakh, & Kondylis, 1999).

Many of the researches have approved that some of the factors influence attitudes towards homosexuality. There are also some of the researches conducted by researchers to approve whether the stereotypes of people towards homosexuality is correct or not.

Social differences. Social differences in the tolerance of homosexuality are quite large. This can help to explain why people living in different social circles have different perceptions of what ‘the average Australian’ thinks.

For example, 70 years old had left school at the end of year 10, and who holds strong religious beliefs and attends church regularly would rate homosexual behaviors at just 1 point out of 100 or “always wrong” (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

Stereotypes towards Homosexuality

Characteristics. Normally, people would like to believe that gay men are effeminate and lesbians are tomboys while there are some homosexual people who fit these stereotypes. But, actually they are not representative of all homosexual people. So, the stereotypes of characteristics of homosexual people are not correct at all (Tozeland, Loewen, & Monteith, n.d.).

Duration of relationship. Studies indicate that people would have the stereotypes that homosexual person will not involve in long-term, stable and close relationship with their partners. But, it is not unusual to find homosexuality couples who had been together for over twenty years (Tozeland, Loewen, & Monteith, n.d.).

Homosexual parents. Some people believe that children of gay or lesbian people are more likely to grow up to be homosexual as their parents. Beside that, people also believe that these children will grow up without appropriate ethical values. In fact, homosexual parents would like to teach their children the values of kindness and charity because they are the victims of hate and discrimination in society (Tozeland, Loewen, & Monteith, n.d.).

According to Family Research Report (2001), children who have homosexual parents would be expected to do less well than kids in general in school, on the job, in marriage, raising their own kids, and others. Normally, children of homosexual parents cannot do well in sex identity, language skills and mathematics fields compare to children of heterosexual parents. But, children of homosexual parents hold strongly social study than children of heterosexual parents.

However, they have tries to be successful in life. So not every child with homosexual parents would be expected to be ‘a failure,’ nor would every child raised by a homosexual parent be expected to fail. Likewise, not every child rose by a married mother and father would be expected to succeed (Family Research Report, 2001).

Religion. The vast majority of the world’s churches take the stance that homosexual acts are a sin. To cite an example of a religious viewpoint, the Roman Catholic Church in a passage from its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, states, “As in every moral disorder, homosexual activity prevents one’s own fulfillment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God.” Homosexuality is labeled as a “moral disorder;” it is not regular or acceptable (The Scientific Debate on Homosexuality, n.d.).

People believe that Christians are disagreeing homosexuality. Some religious groups interpret certain biblical passages as injunctions against homosexuality, while others view these passages in the light of historical context, much like slavery. Actually, many Christians were condemning discrimination and prejudice. They welcome and affirm homosexual Christians into the body of Christ, with unique gifts to offer (Tozeland, Loewen, & Monteith, n.d.).

Beside to conduct researches to reveal the stereotypes of people towards homosexuality is correct or not, there also a research on how the public opinion towards homosexuality among different nations.

Public Opinion toward Homosexual among Different Nations

In study of Societal Attitudes towards Homosexuality (2006), it showed that the result of acceptance homosexuality in Africa and the Middle East are tend to strongly disagree. But, major Latin American countries such as Mexico and Brazil accept homosexuality.

At Australia 1999, the result showed that 28% of people think that sexual relations between two adults of the same sex are not wrong at all, 15 % think that it is wrong only sometimes, 9 % think that it is almost always wrong, and 48% think that it is always wrong (“Attitude towards homosexuality in 29 nations,” n.d.).

According to Robinson (2003), Apoll by the Gallup Organization from United State has conducted a research of acceptable of homosexuality in the public. The result showed the percentage of the survey result: “do you personally believe that it is acceptable or not acceptable for gays and lesbians to engage in same-sex behavior?” as in 1982-JUN, there was 34% people accept homosexuality and by 1992-JUN, there was an increasing percentage which is 38%. In 1992-MAR, there was 44% and by 1997-APR, there was 42%. In 1999-FEB, there was 50 % and by 2001-MAY, there was 52%. There was 51% in 2002-MAY and 54% in 2003-MAY. It showed that the percentage of acceptable towards homosexuality in the United State is increasing by year of 1982 to 2003.

The Pew Research Center’s 2003 Global Attitudes Survey found that, people in Africa and the Middle East strongly object to societal acceptance of homosexuality. But there is far greater tolerance for homosexuality in major Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. Opinion in Europe is split between West and East. Majorities in every Western European nation surveyed say homosexuality should be accepted by society, while most Russians, Poles and Ukrainians disagree. 51% of Americans believes homosexuality should be accepted, while 42% disagree (as cited in “Societal Attitudes towards Homosexuality,” 2006).

Significant of This Study

Based on the above introduction, one can see the important of understanding of students’ attitude to homosexuality.

Firstly, according to Lisa Lamar and Mary Kite (1998), it said that males have more negative attitudes towards gay men and this is due to gender roles factor. However, Schellenberg, Hirt & Sears (1999), found that males who study in Arts and Social Sciences have more positive attitudes towards gay men. So, this study want to know UTAR Psychology course students’ attitudes towards gay men is affected by gender roles or the faculties that they have chose.

Second, according to research of Brownell, he found that religions are related to negative attitudes towards lesbian and gay men. Malaysia have many types of religions include Islamic, Buddhist, Indian, and others. This study wants to know are there having differences of attitudes between religions in Malaysia or not. This will make us know more about how the attitudes of different religions people towards lesbian and gay men. This can reduce conflict or make different religions people can communicate easily.

Third, Many students have confused or varying opinions on homosexuality. It is important for all students to come to terms with what they currently think and feel about homosexuality (Tozeland, Loewen, & Monteith, n.d.). This study want to let them conscious about their attitudes towards homosexual and let them decide they want to change it or not.

Beside that, through this study, students of psychology course can more concern about issue of homosexuality and conduct or do further research on it. The further research can help public know about homosexual such as why homosexual, what reason to make them become homosexual, and others. Once public know more about the homosexual group, they might change their attitudes towards homosexual as well as reduce their discrimination perception towards homosexual.

This study will determine whether the result of this study same with the result of previous researches or not.

For this study, it should make a clear distinction of attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women with divide the “homosexual” to “lesbian” and gay men”. For example, many of previous research conducted research by using the term “homosexual” but do not divide the term “homosexual” into “gay men” and “lesbian women”.

Research Questions

For this study, it will explore the gender influences on attitudes towards homosexuality among university students. We would like to understand more about the gender differences of acceptance of homosexuality among university students.

Beside that, this study will determine whether the result is same with the result of previous researches or not.

The research questions in this study are as follows.

First, are there any gender differences in the attitudes towards lesbian and homosexual?

Second, is there any gender difference in their knowledge of homosexual?

Third, are there any religion differences in their attitude towards lesbian and homosexual?

Fourth, is there any religion difference in their knowledge of homosexual?

CHAPTER II

METHOD

Participants

118 Psychology students from year 1 to year 3 in University Tunku Abdul Rahman were selected as the sample of this study. Simple random method was used in the selection.

There are 82 females and 36 females. All of the students who participated in the survey are simple random sampling.

Materials

Questionnaire. The survey conducted using questionnaire (see Appendix 1). All participants completed a 4 pages questionnaire consisting of two sections. Instructions accompanying the questionnaire guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality.

The first part is about the respondents’ demographic such as gender, age, year, race, and religion. The second part is about respondents’ attitudes toward lesbian and gay. There are 32 questions in this test.

In this test, the first 4 questions are asked about the general attitudes towards homosexuality such as a) I know about homosexuals, and b) Sexual orientation is caused by genes, but not the environment (see appendix 1). Question 5 to 18 is asked about the attitudes towards lesbians such as a) Lesbians just can’t fit into our society, b) exual relations between two female is wrong, c) Female homosexuality is a sin and, d) Lesbians are sick (see appendix 1). Question 19 to 32 is asked about the attitudes towards gay men such as a) I think male homosexuals are disgusting, b) Male homosexuality is a perversion, c) Sexual relations between two male is wrong and, d) Homosexual behavior between two men is just plain wrong (see appendix 1).

Participants had to rate on the Likert Scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree) according to their attitudes towards homosexual which include lesbian and gay man.

Software. SPSS for Windows (12.0) was used for all statistical analyses.

Procedures

The survey was conducted by using simple random sampling design. A sampling frame, which is the numbered name lists of students from Year One to Year Three Psychology class at UTAR was obtained from the Faculty General Office.

All the name of the students were mixed and came out with a new name list (see Appendix 2). A sample size of 118 was selected.

The simple random sampling was conducted as follows:

A starting point in the table of Random Numbers in the Appendix 4 was chosen using a finger stab. The stab came down at column 6, row 15 at the entry 13916.

As the sampling frame ranged from 1 to 301, the left three numbers in each set of five were used when drawing the sample. The number “0” was ignored if that number over 301. The numbers to be included in sampling were been identified by moving across the table from left to right every alternate line started from up and down. The numbers got were highline in yellow color (see Appendix 3).

We distributed the questionnaire to the samples that have been selected by simple random method through UTAR lecturers. The survey took between ten to five-teen minutes to complete and then collected back by lecturers after the respondents completed it in the same day. Instructions accompanying the questionnaire guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality.

CHAPTER III

RESULT

Reliability Test

There were five dimensions in the questionnaire. First, the dimension of “Negative Attitudes toward Lesbians”, it consisted by 10 questions which is from question 5 to question 14. The Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.81 after questions 5, 7, 9, 13 were deleted (Table 1, pg 16). Therefore, the mean of these 6 items was calculated to represent the respondents’ negative attitudes toward lesbians.

Second, for the dimension of “Positive Attitudes toward Lesbians, it consisted by 4 questions which is from question 15 to question 18. There were 0.49 alphas when question 16 was deleted (Table 1, pg 16).

For the dimension of “Negative Attitudes toward Gay Men”, it consisted by 10 questions which is from question 19 to question 28. There were 0.87 alphas when question 20 was deleted (Table 1, pg 16).

For the dimension of “Positive Attitudes toward Gay Men”, it consisted by 4 questions which is from question 29 to question 32. There were 0.64 alphas and none of the questions being deleted (Table 1, pg 16).

The reliability alpha of the question 1 to 4 was 0.01 alphas. So, these 4 questions cannot compute as one dimension and will be analyzed individually (see Table 1, pg 16).

Table 1

Reliability test

Dimension

Cronbach’s Alpha

N of Items

Items

Negative Attitudes toward Lesbians

0.81

6

6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14

Positive Attitudes toward Lesbians

0.49

3

15, 17, 18

Negative Attitudes toward Gay Men

0.87

9

19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

Positive Attitudes toward Gay Men

0.64

4

29, 30, 31, 32

I know about homosexual

Sexual orientation is caused by genes, but not the environment

I have ever thought to myself when I found that an attractive person of the sex was homosexual-“what a waste”

0.01

4

1, 2, 3, 4

I have ever said,” I don’t mind homosexuals, as long as I don’t have to see it” or something similar

Gender Differences toward Homosexual

Negative attitudes toward lesbians. The results of Independent t- Tests showed that there was no significant difference between gender negative attitudes towards the lesbian, t (118) = 0.08, n.s. , where the mean for the negative attitudes toward lesbian for male students is 2.60 ( SD = 0.81), and 2.59 (SD = 0.71) for female students (Table 2, pg 19).

Positive attitudes toward lesbians. The results of Independent t- Tests showed that there was no significant difference between gender positive attitudes toward the lesbians, t (118) = – 0.31, n.s., where the mean for the positive attitudes toward lesbians for male students is 3.29 (SD = 0.66), and 3.32 (SD = 0.54) for female students (Table 2, pg 19).

Negative attitudes toward gay men. The results of Independent t- Tests showed that there was a significant difference between gender negative attitudes toward gay men, t (118) = 2.24, p< 0.05, where the mean for the negative attitudes toward gay men for male students is 3.03 (SD = 0.83), and 2.72 (SD = 0.63) for female students (Table 2, pg 19).

Positive attitudes toward gay men. The results of Independent t- Tests showed that there was no significant difference between gender positive attitudes toward gay men, t (118) = -1.520, n.s., where the mean for the positive attitudes toward gay men for male students is 3.11 (SD = 0.80), and 3.30 (SD = 0.52) for female students (Table 2, pg 19).

Knowledge towards homosexuality. The results of Independent t- revealed that there was no significant difference between genders in their knowledge towards homosexuality.

For the “I know about homosexual”, t (118) = 0.82, n.s., where the mean for the knowledge towards homosexuality for male students is 2.31 (SD=0.82), and 2.17 (SD=0.83) for female students.

For the “Sexual orientation is caused by genes, but not the environment”, t (118) = -0.890, n.s., where the mean for the knowledge towards homosexuality for male students is 3.28 (SD=1.19), and 4.85 (SD=10.57) for female students.

For the “I have ever thought to myself when I found that an attractive person of the sex was homosexual-“what a waste” “, t (118) = 0.921, n.s., where the mean for the knowledge towards homosexuality for male students is 2.83 (SD=0.97), and 2.65 (SD=1.03) for female students.

For the “I have ever said,” I don’t mind homosexuals, as long as I don’t have to see it” or something similar”, t (118) = 0.403, n.s., where the mean for the knowledge towards homosexuality for male students is 3.97 (SD=0.61), and 3.92 (SD=0.76) for female students (see Table 2, pg 19).

Table 2

Gender differences

Dimension

Mean

t-Value

p-Value

Males

Females

Negative Attitudes toward Lesbians

2.60

(SD=0.81)

2.59

(SD=0.71)

0.080

0.94

Positive Attitudes toward Lesbians

3.29

(SD=0.66)

3.32

(SD=0.54)

-0.31

0.76

Negative Attitudes toward Gay Men

3.03

(SD=0.83)

2.72

(SD=0.63)

2.24

0.027*

Positive Attitudes toward Gay Men

3.11

(SD=0.80)

3.30

(SD=0.52)

-1.520

0.13

I know about homosexual

Sexual orientation is caused by genes, but not the environment

I have ever thought to myself when I found that an attractive person of the sex was homosexual-“what a waste”

I have ever said,” I don’t mind homosexuals, as long as I don’t have to see it” or something similar

2.31

(SD=0.82)

3.28

(SD=1.19)

2.83

(SD=0.97)

3.97

(SD=0.61)

2.17

(SD=0.83)

4.85

(SD=10.57)

2.65

(SD=1.03)

3.91

(SD=0.76)

0.82

-0.89

0.92

0.403

0.42

0.38

0.36

0.69

Note: * p<0.05

Religion Differences toward Homosexual

Negative attitudes toward lesbians. The results of Independent t- Tests showed that there was no significant difference between religions have negative attitudes towards lesbian, t (118) = 1.46, n.s., where the mean for negative attitudes toward lesbian for Buddhist is 2.65 (SD=0.76), and 2.42 (SD=0.67) for Chris

Recently, almost all cultures have witnessed increasing trends in homosexuality. As a result, more and more organizations protecting gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights have emerged. One factor that seems to affect the emotional and social development of gays and lesbians is the attitudes of society toward them (Bowen & Bourjeois, 2001).

Much research has been conducted since late 1970s focusing on the factors that affect heterosexuals’ attitudes toward gays and lesbians (Whitley, 1988). Gender, religion, education, as well as race are some of the factors that play a role in determining these attitudes (Whitley, 1988; Negy & Eisenman, 2005; Landen & Innala, 2002; Grapes, 2006). Studies conducted in the United States, Australia, Turkey, Hong Kong, Sweden and Canada have indicated that most attitudes towards gays and lesbians are negative in general (Negy & Eisenman, 2005; Landen & Innala, 2002; Hopwood & Connors, 2002; Schellenberg, Hirt, & Sears, 1999).

It is suspected that the prevailing attitudes in Lebanon are similar to those in the countries mentioned earlier. However, because of the lack of concrete research on this topic in Lebanon, it is necessary that a study be conducted in order to investigate the attitudes towards gays and lesbians among university students in Lebanon.

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes that students at universities in Lebanon have towards gays and lesbians. Since previous research have shown gender and choice of major to be of great importance in determining university students’ attitudes towards homosexuality, this study also compared the attitudes of male vs. female, as well as Social sciences and Art students vs. Natural sciences and Business students.

Review of the Literature

One of the main problems associated with homosexuality in the Middle East is the negative attitudes that Arabs have towards gay men and lesbians. These attitudes are further complicated by international politics which slow down social progress in Middle Eastern countries. As a result, strict Arab morality is imposed in these countries as a means of defense against Western trends that promote female nudity and homosexuality. However, these negative attitudes could not be generalized as “homophobia” because they are directly linked to political, social, religious and cultural issues (Whitaker, 2006). Contrary to what many people believe, the attitudes towards gay men and lesbians are rather negative even in western countries such as the United States, Australia, Sweden and Canada (Negy & Eisenman, 2005; Landen & Innala, 2002; Hopwood & Connors, 2002; Schellenberg, Hirt, & Sears, 1999). Previous studies on attitudes of undergraduate university students specifically indicate mostly negative attitudes, with fluctuations that depend on factors such as gender, education, religiosity, as well as, race (Whitley, 1988; Negy & Eisenman, 2005; Landen & Innala, 2002; Grapes, 2006; Jonathan, 2008). Because of the lack of empirical evidence on the attitudes in Lebanon towards gay men and lesbians, it is important that this study be conducted so as to set stable grounds for this issue. The purpose of this study was to measure the attitudes of undergraduate university students in Lebanon towards gay men and lesbians.

Hopwood and Connors (2002) examined the attitudes of undergraduate students toward homosexuality at a university in Australia. The first hypothesis was that homophobic males were most likely to be religious and politically conservative. The second hypothesis stated that levels of homophobia would be more prevalent among business majors than humanities majors.

The sample consisted of 104 students from two faculties; 58% were registered in a humanities class, while 42% were registered in a business class, and 65% of the sample was females. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire composed of three parts. The first part included The Heterosexual Attitudes to Homosexuals questionnaire which measured the attitudes of the participants toward issues such as befriending or social equality for homosexuals. The second part of the questionnaire measured the participants’ fear of AIDS/HIV with the use of the Fear of AIDS scale by Bouton et al. The third part involved the measurement of demographic variables intended to ascertain participants’ religiosity and political views.

The results validated the hypotheses tested in this research. Fear of HIV/AIDS seemed to be the most powerful indicator of homophobia among men, with a correlation of 0.64. Gender was also a predictor of homophobia; males exhibited more negative attitudes towards homosexuals than women. The results also showed that religious individuals expressed more homophobia than nonreligious ones. Last but not least, academic major aided in predicting homophobia; as hypothesized, business majors expressed higher levels of homophobia and fear of HIV/AIDS than did the humanities students.

In another similar study conducted by Schellenberg et al. (1999) at the University of Windsor in Canada investigated the attitudes of undergraduate university students toward gay men and lesbians. Comparisons were to be made on the basis of the participants’ gender, faculty, and year at university. One hypothesis was that participants enrolled in Arts or Social science faculties would have more positive attitudes than those enrolled in Science or Business faculties. Another hypothesis was that females were more likely to have positive attitudes than men toward gay and lesbian individuals.

This study’s sample consisted of 199 undergraduate students (101 males and 98 females) enrolled at the University of Windsor, who were hired so as to increase the chances that they would be enrolled in different faculties. Participants were asked general questions such as their year at college, their major, as well as their age and gender. Their attitudes were measured using the short form of Herek’s Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay men scale which was designed to yield a subscale which measures attitudes toward lesbians, and other that measures attitudes toward gay men.

The results of this study indicated that attitudes toward gay men changed as a function of the students’ faculties; that is to say that students in the faculties of Arts or Social Sciences had more positive attitudes than those in the faculties of Business or Science. Moreover, gender and year at university had a big role; women had more positive attitudes as compared to men regardless of their year at university. However, although new male students held negative attitudes toward gay men, these attitudes improved with the years spent at university. As for attitudes towards lesbians, gender and faculty played little or no role in determining the attitudes. However, the attitudes became more positive with the time at university.

Along the same lines, Negy and Eisenman (2005) studied the attitudes and affects of African American and White college students toward lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. More specifically, this study aimed to investigate how enculturation and religiosity might control the attitudes toward lesbian, gay and bisexuals. Because of inconsistent findings in the past, no formal hypothesis was made. Previous studies regarding African Americans showed that they seem to be more probable than whites to both see homosexuality as incorrect and to support gay rights laws. As a result, this study aimed to investigate African American attitudes while considering variables which may influence homophobia such as culture, religiosity, and sociodemographics.

The study’s sample consisted of 77 African Americans (22 male, 48 female) and 143 non-Hispanic whites (38 male, 105 female) who attended a public university in Southeast U.S. 90% of the African Americans and 94% of the Whites were exclusively heterosexuals, and 89% of the African Americans and 76% of the Whites were Christian. In order to measure the three variables mentioned previously, several questionnaires were handed out to the participants. Questionnaires included a Demographic Sheet which inquires the age, gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation of the participants. It also inquired the level of parental education as well as the years of education of the participants’ parents so as to infer the socioeconomic status of each. Moreover, participants’ commitment to religion was assessed based on two measures; one of which is the frequency of church attendance, and the second includes reasons for believing in a religion. The third questionnaire was a Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, constructed to measure social desirability. The fourth questionnaire was the Index of Homophobia by Hudson & Ricketts which measured homophobia among the participants. A fifth questionnaire was the Heterosexual Attitudes Toward Homosexuality (HATH) which measured attitudes and beliefs regarding gay and lesbian individuals. Finally, a sixth questionnaire, African American Acculturation Scale, was handed out to the African American participants only to measure how much African American respondents were absorbed into a traditional African American culture.

The results indicated that even though African American participants’ affective and attitudinal reactions to lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals may be more negative than those of White students’, this difference faded when regularity of church attendance, religious dedication, and SES were considered. So for both, African Americans and Whites, the three variables church attendance, religiosity and SES served as predictors of homonegativity.

Bowen and Bourgeois (2001) examined the attitudes toward lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals based on certain social psychology theories. They first hypothesized that having had more LGB acquaintances in the past would yield more positive existing attitudes. The second hypothesis was that respondents were more likely to rate their personal attitudes toward LGB more positively than their friends or typical students as a result of pluralistic ignorance. The third hypothesis predicted that students’ attitudes would change with regards to the residence halls (i.e students from the same residence hall would share the same attitude) based on the Dynamic Social Impact Theory. The last hypothesis stated that present contact with LGB individuals would yield more positive approaches regardless of the respondent’s past contact with LGBs.

Questionnaires were sent out by mail to 240 undergraduate students in two residence halls (6 Floors in building A and 5 floors in building B), however only 109 students completed them (48 females and 51 males). The questionnaire included only a Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Attitudes questionnaire made of a 7 point Likert type scale. Respondents were inquired to provide three responses: the first about his/her attitude toward LGB, the second about his/her beliefs about how friends would respond, and third they had to rate how they thought the typical student would reply. Respondents were also asked about the number of previous LGB acquaintances, as they were asked to indicate how many openly LGB individuals resided in their residence halls and on their individual floors.

The results of this study confirmed the hypotheses constructed at the very beginning. Respondents actually did represent themselves as having more positive attitudes towards LGB individuals than their friends and the typical student, proving the pluralistic ignorance theory. Moreover, consistent with the contact hypothesis, respondents who referred to as few as one or two explicitly LGB students in their residence halls or on their floor held considerably more positive attitudes than students who knew none. Some limitations of this study could be the small sample, the ethnic homogeneity of the respondents. Moreover, the low response rates could have been an indication of bias since it is possible that the students with more negative attitudes did not respond.

In an interesting research article by Landen and Innala (2002), the effects of a biological explanation on attitudes towards gays and lesbians in Sweden were examined. The purpose of this study was to test whether attitudes towards homosexuals differed between people who supported the biological explanation and those who supported a psychological explanation. Comparisons were also to be made between the attitudes of men and those of women, as well as between an old age group and a young age group.

A sample of 992 people was randomly selected from the National Registration and was sent questionnaires by mail. 668 out of the 992 people returned the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of ten questions that covered the participants’ beliefs about the origin of homosexuality, the integration of homosexuals in the society as well as homosexual friendships. Participants ranged between 18 and 70 years of age, with the median age being 44 years.

The results of this study supported previous findings that proposed that individuals supporting the biological explanation of homosexuality had more tolerant attitudes toward it (CITE). Moreover, the more participants were acquainted with gays and lesbians, the more liberal attitudes they held toward them. Also, the results of this study showed that women and the younger age group tended to have more positive attitudes towards homosexuals than those who believed in a psychological explanation of homosexuality. Out of the 668 people, a little more than half of them (51%) believed in a biological explanation, whereas the remaining 49% believed in a psychological explanation. This study supports theories of the prominence of positive attitudes among people who believed that homosexuality had a biological origin, as well as people who had more personal contacts with homosexuals (CITE).

In an attempt to inspect the prevalent attitudes towards homosexuals among Turkish university students, Cirakoglu (2006) aimed to examine the students’ beliefs regarding the causes of homosexuality. The study also aimed to compare how participants’ attitudes varied towards the labels ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’. Finally, the attitudes of participants who had had previous social contact with homosexuals were measured. Cirakoglu (2006) hypothesized that the label ‘gay’ would elicit the most negative attitudes, whereas the label ‘lesbian’ would trigger more positive ones. And, in relation to previous studies, he hypothesized that participants who had prior social contact with a homosexual would have more positive attitudes than those who hadn’t.

Participants of this research included 334 private university students (140 women and 194 men) in Turkey. Students were given questions regarding their demographic information, as they were also given a 50-item scale for the causes of homosexuality and a 19-item attitude scale. When asked about previous contact with at least one homosexual, 41.82% of participants reported having had contact with a homosexual.

The results of Cirakoglu’s study seemed to verify the hypotheses stated at the beginning. The label ‘lesbian’ seemed to elicit more positive attitudes than did the term ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’. It seemed that the term ‘gay’ triggered the most negative attitudes among the three labels (CITE). Moreover, men had rather negative attitudes towards homosexuals, unlike women who held more positive attitudes. As hypothesized earlier and in accordance to previous research, participants who reported having previous social contact with homosexuals held more positive attitudes than participants who reported no prior social contact. It is interesting to note that, participants who had no social contact with homosexuals seemed to believe that homosexuality stems from a psychological or physiological disorder; participants who reported prior contact, however, believed that homosexuality is a choice of lifestyle (CITE).

Since South Africa became the fifth country to legalize homosexual marriages in 2006, Mwaba (2009) studied the attitudes and beliefs of South African students regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriages. Even though South African law protected its homosexual citizens’ rights and bans any sort of discrimination against them, the general attitudes of students remained negative.

Mwaba’s sample was made up of 150 undergraduate students at a university in Western Cape in South Africa. These students were hired during a time of intense debate after the validation of homosexual marriages in 2006. The sample’s mean age was 18.3 years, 83% of which were females. Also, 68% of the sample students were Christians. An 18-item questionnaire was used to measure the attitudes toward homosexual marriages and homosexuality.

The results signified rather conservative attitudes among the sample, as almost 44% thought that homosexuality should be socially unacceptable rather than acceptable in South Africa. However, when it came to granting homosexuals equal rights, 41% only believed that the government was right in doing so, with the majority of the sample (59%) opposed it. 37% thought there was nothing wrong in discriminating against homosexuals, and 71% indicated that they thought the marriage of two people of the same sex to be strange. But overall, those who believed that homosexual marriages should be legalized were almost equal to those who were against it (51% and 49% respectively).

One of the factors that seems to affect people’s attitudes towards homosexuality is their level of education. In one of her studies, Grapes (2006) investigated the relationship between the level of education and the attitudes towards homosexuals and their rights. Grapes hypothesized that as the level of education increases, the attitudes towards homosexuals become more liberal. She also hypothesized, in accordance to literature, that females will have more tolerant attitudes than males.

Grapes obtained data from the General Social Survey which was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (Grapes, 2006). Her two independent variables were gender and level of education, and her dependent variable was the attitudes toward gays and gay rights. The attitudes were measured by choosing four specific questions that address homosexuality in the General Social Survey (Grapes, 2006). The sample consisted of 740 participants.

Consistent with previous studies, Grapes’ (2006) results prove that gender plays a big role in determining the attitudes toward gay rights and homosexuals. Females held more positive attitudes than did males. Moreover, Grapes established a multivariate relationship between level of education, gender and attitudes toward gay rights (2006). She found that males who had a degree lower than high school were 36% more inclined to be against equal rights for homosexuals. Whereas females with a graduate diploma are 28% more likely to be supportive of homosexuals’ rights than females with an education lower than high school (Grapes, 2006).

Congruently, Herek (1988) used a sample of 405 students to study what contributes to heterosexuals’ reaction formation to gay and lesbian individuals. First, he wanted to determine how heterosexuals’ attitudes were affected by gender. Second, he inquired about the contribution of social psychological factors to the attitude formation toward homosexuals. Last, he questioned whether attitudes differ toward lesbians and gays men (Herek, 1988).

Herek’s sample included 405 students (226 females, 179 males) from six different universities in the United States. The participants presented information about their religious backgrounds and how often they attend religious services, as well as the number of their gay/lesbian acquaintances. An Attitude Toward Lesbians and Gays (ATLG) scale composed of a 20-item likert scale was developed by Herek (1988). The scale had two ten-item subscales: half of which measure attitudes toward lesbians, whereas the other half measures attitudes toward gay men.

Herek’s results (1988) proved that male participants held more negative attitudes than females on both the ATL (Attitudes Toward Lesbians) and ATG (Attitudes Toward Gays) scale, yet they held less negative attitudes toward lesbians. Herek’s study also verified that attitudes toward homosexuals are influenced by participants’ loyalty to traditional gender and family values, as well as by the level of their religious commitments and previous experience with gay men and lesbians (Herek, 1988). Last but not least, and in accordance to the Pluralistic ignorance theory in Bowen and Bourgeois’ study (2001), participants who held negative attitudes were likely to presume that their friends had similar attitudes towards homosexuals.

Likewise, attitudes of undergraduate university students toward gay men and lesbians were investigated in a study conducted by Engstrom and Sedlacek (1997). The study aimed to investigate whether heterosexual college students at a southeast university held negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Moreover, the study investigated the type of situations in which negative feelings toward homosexuals were expressed (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1997).

The study’s randomly selected sample consisted of 224 heterosexual university students; half of which were males, and half of which were females. Engstrom and Sedlacek (1997) administered the SAS Sexual Orientation Survey to measure the students’ attitudes toward gays and lesbians. The survey contained a likert-type scale ranging from one to five; it consisted of ten statements that covered personal, social, and academic situations. Three different forms of the survey were produced and mailed to participants: one referred to “student” (with no specified sexual orientation), the second referred to “Gay male student,” and the third referred to “lesbian student,” (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1997).

Engstrom and Sedlacek’s study confirmed that male students’ attitudes were more negative toward gay men than toward lesbians. It seemed that participants displayed more intolerant attitudes in situations where they must interact with gay males in public. Moreover, despite the fact that women hold more negative attitudes toward lesbians, in this study, females had surprisingly more negative attitudes toward gay males (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1997). However, and despite the negative attitudes toward homosexuals, participants seemed to be infuriated at the thought of the physical assault of a homosexual. This study gives insight as to how and in what situations stereotypical attitudes could be formed and allows further implications for practice (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1997).