Category: Free Essays

The black report on Inequalities in health care was introduced by the Department of health in the UK by Health Minister, David Ennals in 1977. It wanted to point out why the NHS had failed to reduce social inequalities in health and to investigate the problems. He would do this by analysing people’s lifestyles and their health records from different social class backgrounds. It found that the overall health of the nation had improved but the improvement was not equal across all the social classes, and the gap in inequalities in health between the lower and higher social classes is widening. It seemed that some of the main causes of this were class and ethnicity.

Social Class

The black reports main focus was centred on social class. The report stated that both upper and middle class individuals had a better quality and standard of living than lower class people. Below are four types of explanations the black report gave for the differences in illnesses and life expectancy within social classes.

Artefact explanation studies the relationship between health and social class, age, profession, and views the relationships between social classes.

Natural or social selection: this explanation suggests that physical weakness and poor health conveys little social value as well as low economic.

Cultural explanation suggests lower social classes have less healthy lifestyles due to lack of exercise, eating unhealthy fatty foods and smoking. They have less money to provide themselves with healthier diets.

Material/structural explanation focuses on poverty, poor living conditions and environments. Studies in these areas confirm that social factors are the main causes which contribute towards ill health.

Ethnicity

According to the 2001 census 8% of the UK’s population is of an ethnic minority, which represented an increase by approximately 50% in the decade 1991-2001. The majority of the ethnic minority was Indians, Pakistanis and mixed ethnic backgrounds.

In many population groups, whether they are grouped by ethnicity or religion have many differences in ways of illness behaviour and seeking help with beliefs and health queries about an illness.

In some ethic groups, some diseases are more common than others, e.g. men from Indian backgrounds are more susceptible to cardiovascular illnesses. As a result of these statistics it has prompted further investigations into the detection of cardiovascular disease and the risk factors within ethic groups.

The two social groups that are being compared are social class and ethnicity. These two groups affect health related issues and explain sociological perspectives, patterns and trends.

Social class and patterns of health and illness

Social class is an intricate issue that comprises of status, wealth, culture, background and employment. The association between class and ill health is far from being straight-forward, there are many influences on health and one of them is social class. This is demonstrated by multilevel analysis (a method of assessing health inequalities using several different factors) which shows health inequalities even between households living in the same street.

Poverty and inequality in the social order have consequences on the social, physical and mental well-being of an individual. The following two factors are closely connected.

The infant mortality rate (IMR) children born to underprivileged parents are at more risk than that of a child born to more privileged parents. People from a higher social class are much less likely to die of illnesses such as cancer, heart diseases and strokes and would be likely to live longer compared to others.

The Black Report – which was introduced in 1980 – studied the health differences of people by dividing the population into five social classes and offers information on how social and environmental issues of health and illness and life expectancy are related to one another.

“There is overwhelming evidence that standards of health, the incidence of ill health or morbidity and life expectancy vary according to social groups in our society especially to social class”. (Stretch, B, 2007, Pg361).

One possible explanation is that higher social classes can afford to pay for private healthcare. Their level of income is much higher which then also results in a better lifestyle and accommodation. People who were in less paid jobs meant they had poor housing and a reduced amount of money to provide food and heating.

According to the above table from the Office of National statistics, life expectancy in the United Kingdom increased by approximately 20 years for both males and females between the periods of 1930-2009. Life expectancy in 1930 for males was age 58 and 63 for females, a 33% increase has occurred since then putting life expectancy up to age 78 for males and now a 30% increase for females to age 82. Life expectancy was at its highest in England between the periods of 2007-2009

The increase in life expectancy was mainly due to the decrease in infant mortality rates (deaths under the age of 1 year old). From the period 1930-2010 there was a 93% fall which was recorded as the lowest.

There is also a difference in health between different ethnic groups. According to the 2001 Census Pakistani and Bangladeshi men and women in England and Wales reported thehttp://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmhealth/286/28608.gif

Age-standardised limiting long-term illness: by ethnic group and sex, April 2001, England and Wales

highest rates of ‘not good’ health.

Women were more likely to rate their heath as ‘poor’ compared to men across all the groups identified in the chart above, apart from white Irish and those from other ethnic groups.

Reporting poor health has been linked with the use of health services and mortality. Pakistani and white Irish females in England had higher doctor contact rates than females in the general population. Males from Bangladesh were three times likelier to visit their doctor than males from the general population after standardising for age.

According to the January 2007 report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups generally have poorer health than the rest of the general population, it was proposed that the poor the position of socio-economic BME groups is the main reason which is motivating ethnic health inequalities. A number of strategies have aimed to challenge health inequalities in recent years, although to date, ethnicity has not been a continuous focus.

Race, culture, religion and nationality can have a major impact on an individual’s identity. There are many different levels of identification within ethnic groups; many see themselves as British, Asian, Indian, Punjabi and more.

Health inequalities are differences in health status that are influenced by variations in society. Influential factors on health may include lifestyle, wealth, housing conditions, discrimination and health services. These factors over periods of time could be passed down through generation through maternal influences and could affect infant and child developments.

The Health Survey for England showed that BME groups are more likely to report ill health and that ill health starts at an earlier age than White British individuals.

Patterns of ethnic differences in health are varied, and connected with a lot of factors for example:

Some BME groups experience worse health than others. For example, surveys commonly show that Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Black-Caribbean people report the poorest health, with Indian, East African Asian and Black African people reporting the same health as White British, and Chinese people reporting better health.

Patterns of ethnic inequalities in health vary from one health condition to the next. For instance, BME groups tend to have higher rates of cardio-vascular disease than White British people do, but lower rates of many cancers.

Ethnic differences in health vary across age groups, so that the greatest variation by ethnicity is seen among the elderly.

Ethnic differences in health vary between men and women, as well as between geographic areas.

Ethnic differences in health may vary between generations. For example, in some BME groups, rates of ill health are worse among those born in the UK than in first generation migrants.

Sociologists try to describe how society ranks itself but there are many different philosophies for this, which often clash with one another. Some of these philosophies include Marxism, Functionalism, and Interactionism. Each sociological perspective has different views.

The Marxists theory is an explanation of how society works, how and why history unfolded and an account of the nature of capitalism. The theory believes that society is in conflict between two classes.

Functionalists argue that society is organised much like the Human Body. Everything must function correctly in order for society to work as a whole, just like every organ in the body must function correctly in order for the body to work as a whole.

Another classic view is Interactionism. We can liken Interactionism to a play; everyone must play their respective roles in order to create a successful performance – in society everyone must do their jobs in order to create a successful society. This approach is much like the functionalism viewpoint.

The Biomedical Model is mainly used by physicians in diagnosing diseases. This approach concentrates on physical processes such as physiology, biochemistry and pathology of a disease. This model signifies freedom from any disease, infection, pain or defect is considered as being healthy although this model doesn’t take into account social factors of an individual, and the diagnosis is a result of the doctor and patient negotiation.

The biomedical model considers the body as a machine and if a particular part of the body isn’t functioning, it must be corrected in order for the body to continue to work properly.

The Social Model of health is based on how society and the environment affect everyday health and well-being. Influential factors may include social class, household income, education, occupation, poverty and poor housing could lead to ill health such as respiratory problems. The social model aims to encourage society to provide better housing and to fight poverty to help prevent future ill health in individuals.

The focus of these models is to explain why health inequalities exist and continue to be a problem. The key cultural explanation places emphasis upon extreme consequences of behaviour such as poor nutrition, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, drugs or lack of exercise. Inequalities in health will be reduced when society make healthier personal and behavioural choices.

Socio- model of health is:

The state of health is socially constructed resulting historical, social and cultural influences that have shaped perceptions of health and ill health.

The root causes for diseases and ill health are to be found in social factors, such as the way society is organised and structured.

Root causes are identified through beliefs and interpretation for example, from a feminist perspective, root causes relate to patriarchy and oppression.

Knowledge is not exclusive but has a historical, social and cultural context as it is shaped by these involved.

The biomedical of health is:

The state of health is a biological fact and the norm.

The body is a machine and ill health results from dysfunction of that machine.

Ill health is a deviation from the norm.

Ill health is caused by biological factors such as viruses, bacteria, genetic characteristics or trauma.

The cause of ill health is identified through the process of diagnosis, considering the signs and symptoms.

Individuals play little or no part in the interventions to restore the body to health.

There is no consideration of the individual’s interpretation of health and ill health or social factor that may contribute to ill health. Finding a cure is a greater concern than preventing ill health.

Culture plays an incredibly important role in the cause and reasoning of mental health. Cultural beliefs can shape the way people identify stress and the way in which they seek help. Indeed, in some cultures, people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders can also present with physical/psychosomatic symptoms.

As Britain becomes more culturally-enriched, striving for a melting pot of nations and ethnicities as opposed to a salad bowl of clearly defined ethnic groups, our society is slowly adapting.

There are many cultural factors which can influence mental health, for example, Asians; in particular immigrants, language, age and gender can be a contributing factor.

The knowledge of English is an important factor which influences access to care. Asian languages are not usually spoken outside of the ethnic group. Age is another factor, the younger a person is when they migrate the better chance they have of adapting to living in that particular country. Also gender contributes; men seem to have acculturated quicker than women though this may change as more women enter the working environment.

According to the traditional belief system mental illness is caused by a lack of harmony, emotions and sometimes caused by evil spirits. Social stigma, embarrassment, and ‘saving face’ often prevent Asians groups from seeking behavioural and professional health care help.

The table below shows the health beliefs and behaviours of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese cultures.

Table 2

The term ‘mental illness’ was made more popular at the beginning of the 1900’s by physicians, social reformers and former asylum patients. They wanted to reduce the stigma that was linked with the word mental illness; they felt that it caused prejudice against asylum patients because it implied isolation between the mentally sick and well, healthy patients.

The labelling of mental illness is stigmatising too many, it makes people think that mentally ill people are a completely separate group from ‘people like us’. Society seems to overlook the fact that they are simply just ordinary people who have severe emotional difficulties which they are failing to cope with.

Misconceptions of this label can be fuelled by things such as the media and describe the mentally ill as being dangerous and violent people. Stereotypes like these seem to be contradicted by people’s experiences of mental health, which than can affect not only themselves but their family, friends and even work colleagues.

The use of the word ‘mental illness’ could be very misleading, it could be seen that the majority of mental health problems are caused by biological or medical factors. Whereas, in fact, mental health problems result from complicated interactions of biological, social and personal factors. For example someone who is vulnerable to depression but has a strong social support could make them less susceptible to becoming severely depressed.

Reducing stigma that is attached to mental health issues has been a main focus for several groups, but in order to change this stigma, attitudes of the general public need to be changed first. The media could help this by reporting more positive aspect of mental illness, for example; peoples recovery and modern treatments which are available.

Delivering better care for patients could be helped by further training for mental health staff; this could lead to less negative attitudes from the public which would help patients to be a part of society giving them a better everyday life.

Before the start of industrial capitalism, in a pre-industrial societies work is referred to as a general way activities directed at satisfying the human need for survival. Which were all non-industrial, work such as hunting, gathering or farming. Starting in the 18th century and continuing into the 19th century work has become regular paid employment. The simple rural lives were exchanged by mass production of goods. Industrialisation led to urbanisation, it changed the medieval customs, beliefs and ideals. The term ‘industrial revolution’ is used to describe this transformation. Industrial Productive activity involved Factory systems and mechanisation powered by energy sources that is undertaken outside the home in a building or factory, Where workers has to work as industrial labourers under hazardous conditions. Karl Marx argued the capitalist who are the owners of the means of production, must essentially exploit the workers for maintaining the existence of the structure and organisation. The capitalism is a system based on profit, within the capitalism the workers are given a paid wage enabling them to survive. It is necessary that capitalism continue to grow, to give the mass population the surplus wealth. It depends on continual growth and, therefore, it makes sense to give the mass of the population surplus wealth for enable them to buy goods; ‘the more goods they buy, the more the system can produce.’

Marx was one the first social theorist to examine in to the conditions of work in factories that were emerging during the industrial revolution, looking at how the transition from self-working craftwork to working for a boss in a factory resulted in alienation and deskilling. For Marx capitalism created the world of work then turned it against the workers, not only workers were prevented from realising themselves but they developed a system where work became the cause of alienation and exploitation. Max used the term alienation to describe what it were like to be wage workers under industrial capitalism. He used four type of alienation in factory workers: first alienated from the objects of their work as job becomes repetitive and automatic. Second workers are alienated from the activity of working; they are forced to work for them. Third Workers are alienated from the chance to determine what it is to be human and finally Alienation from other workers, not having to spend time with people you enjoy and are forced to work with people even if you like them or not.

Braverman similarly mirrored most of Karl Marx’s writing and applied it to work in the twentieth century. Braverman claimed that many jobs in the capitalist economy were subjected to a process of ‘deskilling’; this is where professional knowledge becomes replaced by machines and automation and tendency toward specialisation of task. He describes this as the period of monopoly capitalism. ‘Taylorism’ exemplified this managerial strategy’.

At the beginning of the twentieth century Henry Ford combines the organisational innovation of taylorism, which introduced special machine tools that standardised production in a continuous flow in the form of assembly line. It was used on a large scale and using semi-skilled workers. Workers had one task each that they had to repeatedly do which is why they did not need to be particularly trained. However, he has been criticized for his idea; Ford’s mass-production system. The regulation theory explained that as a capitalist production system, Fordism is alienating and involved deskilling; therefore, Fordism is unable to overcome workers dissatisfaction. Another argument is that it is unable to overcome consumer dissatisfaction. Both arguments concludes that during 1970’s Fordism was in crisis. Many solutions were adopted to solve the crisis of Fordism with a development of wide range of better quality products with neo-Fordism, McDonaldism, and post-Fordism.

Also the process of de-industrialisation began around 1970’s with a decline in employment among the manufacturing and industrial jobs and an increase in employment in service sector jobs. However, de-industrialisation was not just about the end of particular jobs but the dismantling of social and cultural relations in some societies. For example, manufacturing employments were sites of masculine occupational cultures and part of working class male identity. De-industrialisation was evident to large number of unemployment in industrial areas in the UK which led to a crisis of masculinity for working class men. On the other hand theorist such as Bell (1973) saw this as a positive way in ‘The coming of Post-industrial society’. He argued that it will be less alienating than in industrial societies. Class may also lose its power as knowledge and professional will have power rather than the anachronistic industrial ruling class.

When people are unemployed, they get involved in the labour market. Labour markets works through the interaction between workers and employers. They try to understand employers demand and workers supplies by looking at pattern of employment, income, wages or often pattern of racism and sexism that are existing in society. These patterns of discrimination have led to what is called dual or segmented labour markets. Trade unions are part of fight against such processes in our society. They provide an important function for millions of workers. They protect workers from being exploited and making sure they have fair wages and working conditions.

While work occupies a main role in our lives, its social significance extends beyond our personal identities and daily activities. It is closely involved with other social institutions, social structures, and social processes, especially social inequality.

Ever society is subject to change. These social changes occur due to many reasons and factors, but we may note a number of social changes taking place in our society in the recent period, which is, mainly, due to the rapid technological advancement and progressions.

And in all of these social changes occurred, the emancipation of the women is the one of the biggest and the most significant social changes occurred in our society. Now, we see a phenomenal change in the entire social and cultural settings, as more women joining the men’s world with more zeal and passion. The participation of women into all socio-political, educational, economical, and development affairs is being increased at the fastest pace.

‘Women’s emancipation is an integral part of the political program of socialism’. (Lupri, 1983, 296) As a major part of an extensive social engineering process, women are being pushed strategically into the outside world by design be it a field like sports, politics, military services, or legislative assemblies etc.

Women are becoming independent economically, thus giving an alarming rise to family break-ups, single parent phenomenon, mentally disturbed kids and a social breakdown altogether. The whole human race is in danger, and today’s mothers utilize all available means to restrict the number of children and multiply their total income, as well as social evils to further degrees

Children are the real sufferers. Today’s women, still, want to be labelled as mother; its other matter that they don’t to play the role of a mother. Kissing a baby’s cheek once or twice a day can be easily performed by a puppy or programmed robot then why do children need these type of frequently disappearing mothers? Part-time mothers, most of the time, are rented to take care of little children by full-time working mothers. These working women, performing the role of mothers simultaneously, are too busy in their daily schedules and spend most of the time at work and mainly rely on babysitters and child-minders. Out of such time-bound restricted motherhood, the incoming generation is in absolute danger and jeopardy, but where are our social scientists and supporters of women’s rights? The rise of career-oriented selfish mothers is just start of a massive destruction. For their own rights, women yell and cry at the top of their voice. On the other hand, today’s women have become extreme violators of children’ rights, giving minimum rights to their children as proved by terribly decreasing breastfeeding trend among these women.

‘Understanding that women of any society make grand impacts on their family and surrounding community, women’s stories must be tracked as primary considerations of the development needs and changes of any society’. (Foster, 2011)

This social change is nothing, but social degradation. Now we can easily see an increased number of mothers doing some paid work outside their homes when their babies are still in their infancy stages being less than a year old. In 2009, according to a research report published in UK, seventy per cent of British mothers of nine-to-12-month-old babies were doing some sort of paid work outside their homes as compared to only 25 per cent in 1984-85. What value addition these women are offering in the present world, except bringing up a package of social evils with them when step out of their homes?

Being a hockey, cricket or squash player, these enlightened women are, also, playing with the nature. Recent achievements, though much little in nature, has attracted more fans from the opposite sex to endorse their permanent stay in the outside world. And by pushing these women in every walks of fields, we are creating a masculine woman with a pretty female physique, but behaving like a man from head to toe.

‘Many women remain dissatisfied with the results of women’s access to political life, usually on the grounds that formal equality with men has not netted women an equal share of wealth, power, and prestige’. (Fox-Genovese, 1998)

More women are joining the outside word day-by-day and more sexual crimes are being committed against these women. The nature of crimes against women remains the same, though the ratio of these crimes is increasing like a storm. It means more exposure of women in the outside is directly related with more crimes committed against women. The media world, on the other hand, is ruled by the women as they get more coverage then hairy masculine faces. Being a women, especially an attractive one, needs no more qualification and degrees. These women are heavily paid to show their faces on the screen and they spoil the total image of women in general.

The term ‘gender balance’, in its actual meaning, is ‘gender replacement’ which, in fact, refers to creating imbalance in the working environment by replacing men by women in the main workforce. More employment positions are being created for women, while highest ratio of unemployment among men is pushing them to commit suicide in the end.

Now, it has become a favourite and most chanted slogan to title women as superior and great creatures. As a result of such misconception, every next woman mistakenly considers herself a great creature without even knowing what she is, really, offering for the betterment of the society. Being a woman doesn’t mean that she is, really, a great creature than man. Greatness requires a disposition of human dignity, character, and sacrifice and, without showing these attributes, no man or woman can be ever titled as being a great one.

The wicked tactics, employed to promote representation of women in our society, are easily noticeable through mass media. The entire media portrays working women as a most sublime and supreme form of womanhood. Terms like ‘super mom’, ‘super woman’, and ‘girl power’ are now included in everyday jargons of daily life.

The clumsy women unable to represent their own homes now represent the country on a global level. Most of these women, in the same way, are totally incapable of managing an 80-yards house, but still dream for ruling the entire roost. Our women are doing whatever they can but not doing what they, really, should. They try to appear like a pure woman, but in order to seize rest of the world they have, successfully, transformed themselves as ditto social replica of man.

Heart-ravishing beauty of social butterflies, flying from one corner to another in many parties and get-togethers, further multiplies a never-ending respect for the womenfolk. They are looking for appreciation and admiration for everything these gentle souls physically possess and socially contribute.

One wonders how easily men are accepting this social change. Representing women in every section of society like sports etc. is a part of social castration process or, in simple words, an attempt to castrate the society. In form of a social change, we are, now, experiencing a well-designed feminization of our society, bringing more and more women in the mainstream world by using all frequently-repeated pretexts and engineered justifications. In fact, we are, speedily, heading towards a social and ethical anarchy.

In 1978-1979 the Chinese government installed an ambitious program of market reform following the economic stagnation of Cultural Revolution. In mid 70-80 china was home of quarter of the world’s population who were having just 7% of world land. More than two third of the population were under the age of 30 years. The baby boomers of the year 1950-1960 were entering their reproductive years. So it was getting important to control the population for the economic reform and to an improvement in living standards, so they introduced one child policy. (Massachusetts medical Society, 2005)

This policy consists of different set of rules and regulations .government governing the size of families, sometimes late marriages, child bearing and family planning. This also restricts to couple to one child for one couple but it still allow few cases like twins, rural couple , ethnic minorities and couples who are both only one children themselves. By this policy china controlled more than 250 million births between 1980 and 2000(BBC September, 2012) and about 400 million by 1979-2011(People Daily online, October 2011)

This policy is a controversial issue within and outside the china, because how it was implemented, good and bad consequences of the negative social concerns. Due to this policy there were other problems and concerns rose which are against human rights. Forced abortions were increased, female infanticide and under reporting of female birth. These are the main reason of gender imbalance in china, but still after the survey done by Pew Research Center roughly 76% of people living in china accept this policy.(Pew Research Centre ,2012)

As now we know about the policy and its implementation, merits and demerits, so now I have to take a clear stand is that policy is ethically justifiable or not and I will go with that is this policy is not ethically justifiable but there are a lot of examples which are proven that with this policy china has controlled population of country so I will be comparing both of the sides of the policy with final conclusion against this policy.

First I will discuss about the demerits of over population. Over population is a condition where an organism number exceed the carrying capacity. This is a direct link between human population and its environment. The main reason for the over population is increase in birth and decline in mortality rate. The current population of china is 1319175364 which make china the first most populated country of the world. (US Census Bureau, 2012) China represents a full 20% of world population so every one in every five people on the earth is a Chinese.(Washington Institute of China Studies ,2007) So due to over population because other different problems also like:

Healthy Living – this is the one of the main concern of the people who is living there because the health resources are limited like fresh air, fresh pure clean water, and greenery which people all people are not getting.

Equal opportunities-people living in china to them when comes to access some of the things like public sector jobs, examinations few people don’t get those opportunities because either they are not rich enough to support or some other factors.

Access to medical treatment- as china is growing up faster the amount of people getting sick and getting congenital disease are also increasing which is also directly related to the cost of treatment, government can’t provide those expensive treatments to everyone so a lot of poor people die because of no access of hospital or clinics.

Controlling big population- it is not an easy job for the government of china to control 1.5 billion people; police always have hard time when there is any riot, national events going on.

Traffic problem. Due to over population need of vehicles on the road is increasing which is creating big heavy traffic jam on the road, and government always try hard to provide public transport but due to more number of passengers travelling that also become hard.

Good quality higher education- As families had more number of children at their home which sometimes is also a problem i.e. children can’t get good higher education reason behind this is education nowadays is expensive and parents can’t afford all their kids the same education.

Violation of human rights- like different activities happening often in china which violate human rights like female feticide, gang rapes, abortions.(Bridgeport.edu ,2012)

So now I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of one child policy.

Advantages

The growth of the population decreases: if there was no one child policy in china the population of china must be 2.4 billion today.

By this Chinese people are getting more benefits like: Free/cheap health checkups.

Their kids are getting god or best education.

Women get extra three month maternity leave.

Parents have good bond with children, like it will be easy to divide time with one child and it makes it easier to know each other and needs.

Disadvantages

They don’t have any siblings and there is nothing like cousins called in china because everyone is child of the family.

Forced Abortions: As we all know abortion are legal in china but having forced abortion is against human rights.

Female Infanticide: People kill their daughter because they think they will have only one child and if that’s a female then who will take family business and bring up family to generations.

87% of all married women use contraception and abortion which is also not healthy for the female’s health condition.

Ethical Perspectives

The one child policy raises many ethical concerns one individuals own liberty, collective rights and state sovereignty. We all understand that will less population there will less environment degradation and pollution but according to me whose rights are more important individual or collective? This one child policy in china asks questions towards the individual rights and collective rights in the community. As per Locke’s view in any of the society an individual have the basic human right and more important their negative liberty and rights or the freedom to have choices for self development without other interference.(William Uzgalis “John Locke”,2006)

This one child policy provide community growth which may provide higher quality of life i.e. can be serve malnutrition, good care of medical illness and social and economic problems are uncommon.

Communitarians: As we all know china is a communist country so they have only one people’s party ruling the whole big nation. The communitarian argument is derived from Jean Jacques Rousseav “Communitarian argue the survival of the community must be protected because individual member depend on it for their self identity, the organization of collective action and the production of public good’s” So this lighten the view that state of nature as they have not yet developed the capacity to reason . So a communitarian would for the individual thinks, thoughts, individual rights and autonomy for the benefits of the community. (Modern China, 465, 1987)

Utilitarian Approaches:

It is an ethical theory in which there are basically more happiness and reduced suffering which is based on the word utility. So as per china one child policy people’s behavioral choices are counted and those choices reflect their course of action. By increasing the pleasure and minimizing the pain china is using utilitarian approach perfectly.

International Human Rights:

China’s one child policy is seems to be based on utilitarian approach. They argue that policy is installed according to the fairness standards as every family is entitled to have one child and in addition to this those families are getting financial incentive like bonus, better housing options and three months maternity leave which as per rule to international provisions of human rights but on the other side as per policy only one child is allowed per couple so communitarian would be against of those who claim individual reproductive right against the policy of single child.(American Political Science Review,2001)

Western & Asian Preferences of Individual Rights:

China one child policy is mostly offended by the violation of human rights and laws. They argue that as western countries have their own official languages as a mean to protecting communal harmony and Identity similarly Chinese government has the right to implement of population related policies is the responsibility of each and every country and should take a stand into account the economic, social and environmental diversity with respect to all religious and ethical values at international conference on population & development in (cairo 1994). This policy also disturbs the fundamental human right of every couple to decide freely the number and spacing of their children. Chinese government relative this policy as “Duty to act responsibly in a manner which will benefit their family and community as whole” (Population and Development review, 1996)

Success and flaw of China’s One Child Policy

China’s population is both the country’s greatest weakness and strength. China is world 3rd largest economy and 2nd largest exporter. The more population in china makes it cheap labor which attracted a lot of foreign investment. This policy accelerated china’s economic growth in past 2 decades which also helped to create highly educated skilled and more efficient work force.

It was reported in 2001, there were almost 20,000 forced abortions and sterilization occurred to the people of Huai ji in Guangdong province of china because those people were not following the rules of this policy.(Telegraph Media Group,2012) After that in 2002 china stopped the physical force to force for the abortion, but still there are news on regular basis of abortion and violence. Even there is news about the killing of the babies during the pregnancy of eight months or it’s more horrifying of killing of baby during labor in birth canal or immediately after birth.

Tons of thousands of children with birth defects, disabilities are handed over to state funded orphanages that often have poor facilities which now become house of adoption of girls for the rich western people. In 2001 there was official 55,000 adoptions registered. So what do you think are these children guaranteed a better life but I am pretty much sure that they will lose all traces of their Chinese identity? (Wei Guo Zhang, 2006)

In addition to this one child policy also disturb the male -female birth rate ratio. The sex ratio in main land china is 118: 100. So this means there are 18 extra boys for every 100 girls born which compared to global natural baseline of 103:100. Even the state population and family planning commission admit this problem and think this will create big problem in coming future i.e. finding partner by the time they will reach adulthood or reproductive age. As according to survey there will be 30 million more men than women in 2020. (BBC, 2012)

Since 90’s there is other problem rising weather this single child will be over pampered. There have been seen many over pampered children in society with poor social communication and cooperation skills.

As in upper text I mentioned about the over pampered children, so now here I am going to focus on the policy positive and negative effects of single child . As per (Quoss and Zhao,1995) parents are usually the most important socialization agents in their young age. This gives an impact on their child to learn about social relationship. In addition to this parent- child relationship are complicated cultural, ideological, political, economic and social factor but main can be psychological, cultural and structural to understand parent child relationship. It is assumed those children are the empty vessels which are filled with parent’s socially defined values. So mostly children learn from parent’s attitude and behavior. If child is not recognized as an active social person this means he is influenced by parents. These changes in the family structure and size have some major effects i.e. shorting of family tree, weakening of cooperation in the groups and the changes in the way how parents treat their children.

According to Cardwell wealth- Flow theory (1982, 1976) the wealth from younger to older generations is related to high fertility rate same as wealth flow from the older to the younger generation is related to low fertility rate. But in China they have only one child there is nothing like that seen which either improve or spoil the parent -child relation. The nation’s one child policy has lead to the reduced number of births which have highlighted children value in the family and caused more flow of family resources towards that only child. China’s successful implementation of population control policy shortened the way to Cordwell’s equilibrium of wealth flow and birth rate declination.

Population and Socio Economic Development

This over growing population even one child will be creating big problems by 2040. There will be four main challenges faced by Chinese population.

Agriculture : Food challenge: It will be a problem of producing sufficient grain for the expending population, as country is growing faster, people are moving to cities and no one is doing more agriculture and because of population explosion there will not be enough spaces to grow crops which will give Chinese community a very hard time in upcoming years.

Employment Challenge: It is one of the main signals to economic performance which is correlated with income distribution, poverty and social stability. Before rural people used to depend on agriculture but now it’s hard to depend as living standards are getting high and 40% of rural labor are not fully utilized or they are under employed and need to be re employed.(Taylor and Banister 1991 ; Shen and Spence 1995)

Urbanization challenge: fast pace industrialization and urbanization will be a drastic change in rural-urban population shift. The speed of urbanization was very slow in 1970’s as compared to other developing counties (shen, 1994). A large number of towns and small cities are immerged to bigger cities. Old cities are rapidly expanding .Shanghai. increased its urban area from 141 to 230 square kilometer; rapid urbanization resulted in the arable land available

Homosexuality In china Associated with One Child Policy.

There is also one other problem arising in china because having a single child and that child being homosexual. Homosexuality is legal in china since 1997, but this created a lot of problems in Chinese local community. Chinese couples try and do a lot of efforts to have a son in their family and what if that son is homosexual that can be a big major tragedy in the family. Many gay and lesbian commit suicide because it’s not much common in there.

Zheng estimates there is about 27-30 million homosexual people living in china from which 18-20 million are gay man and 9 to 10 million are lesbian women. So homosexuals are not accepted by social customs at home or at work place. This creates two other different problems:

They don’t have freedom to enjoy their personal life -> It is seen that gay man and gay women get married to each other as ‘homowives’ under a formal union they have normal marriages but allowing each other to conduct their homosexual relation outside.

Many stories came up how gay man starting loving each other. some said they can’t find the right female partner so they changed their self to homosexuality or bisexual and other say the girls don’t want to leave parental house as they are the only daughter who want to stay with family.( The New York Times,2012 )

The Effect of China one child policy 30 years

To control the population china government and Chinese people did very hard work and much sacrifice to limit the population growth with one child per family. So in condition to hold this population growth there is a heavy reliance on long term contraception with IU device and sterilizations together accounting for more that they don’t have any other options except which they heard from health workers recommend for family planning. This helped in 25% decreased in abortion rates.

This policy is reduction in the total fertility rate before between 1970-1979 the fertility was 5.9 to 2.9 but after this it’s less stabilized at approximately 1.7.

There are some signals that may be the traditional thinking for boys will change. As a survey done by National family and Reproductive Health reports say 37 percent of young urban women said they have no preference with the sex of the kid either its male or female but on other side 45 percent said the ideal family is one boy and one girl.

Ratio of old age Dependency

The rapid decrease in birth rate with stable and improved life it led to increased proportion of old people in the community. In 1965 the population of 65 year old people was 5% in 1982 which now is 7.5 percent which is expected to be 15 percent by 2025. (World Bank, 2012) That’s one reason in urban areas the couple who themselves are single children are allowed to have other second kid.

The future of china’s one child policy:

The Chinese government is facing an important challenge, first will be the need to balance the basic population right of reproduction with population growth. 10 million people are adding to Chinese population every year which is equal to the population of Belgium.

Relaxation of this policy can be considered because of baby bomber are getting older, but increased wealth and freedom is not allowing government to relax this policy.

End of Cheap Labor: Professor Cai Feng- a Chinese labor economist estimated there will a downfall in the labor force by 1.5 percent points by 2015 and will decrease further in 2016-2020. A fast pace decline of the labor force will cause shortages and rapid increase in wages which will be weaken the china’s export industry in the international marked effecting economic growth .(BBC,2012)

Conclusion:

The people republic if china and its one child policy remains an international concept as in means of regulation, human rights, birth and fertility, national duties, ethics and principles. In 30 years of this policy china have created dramatic results of controlling population and limiting total fertility rate at 1.7 births per women. It also helped to control the problems which can be occurred with over population. On the other side this policy also created drastic effect on highly unbalanced sex-ratio between male and female. Many couples can’t find the suitable match for each other. There is an increase in female infanticide and more use of contraceptive methods. An increased social and economic demand on small families due to aging is also common. According to Xinhua the national press agency of china ” china have paid a lot of political and social cost for this policy but still it resulted in social conflict, high administrative cost and let to gender imbalance too(Xinhua, 2012).

My reaction to this one child policy is that they should not make it very strict at the starting. Second child in family bring the fine of $3500 which is almost equal to the income of 10 year of a poor farmer. Many Chinese women commit suicide under the pressures of one child policy(Amnesty International,2012) . Some rich people who can afford $3500they have two kids in family which is not equal to other resident of china. For poor if they can’t pay the fine they have to pay their fines with 200kg of rice. Families in Guangzi province are afraid of breaking rules because they are already poor and this gives them hard time paying the fine. This is the reason of disturbance in sex ratio. I think Chinese government should educate people to the benefits of having lesser children but not to force them for abortion. Couples should have their own freedom they whether they want children or not.

The Government should educate people and promote to have more female babies to equal the uneven sex ratio. There is a high divorce rate involving women whose one child turn out to be a girl however the laws have changed by those women have to suffer physical assault at home.

It is clearly see there are many advantages and disadvantages of china’s one child policy but when it comes to health, law and ethics it is not justified because of many dilemmas on the ethical ground.

Many experts have investigated differences between men and women in terms of behavior, group, and individual traits since early 1900s and have identified much dissimilarity between the two sexes. Few of the differences are identified in early years while others emerge in adolescence or late childhood. In his book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, John Gray (2002) states: “after all, we are unique individuals with unique experiences” (9). The differences among individuals appear in intelligence, personalities, physiological and psychological differences, gender etc. Gender is the sole representative of the differences and similarities that exist between males and females. It is a fact that the differences between the two genders are more evident than the similarities between them. However, this fact cannot be ignored that there exist some similarities between them as well. There are differences and similarities between men and women in terms of their physical strength, brain size and structure, and behavior and thinking.

According to a renowned psychologist Carol Tavris, “the similarities between the sexes in behavior and aptitude are far greater than the differences” (Crooks and Baur 120). Therefore, this fact cannot be ignored that men and women have many similarities. In a meta-analysis carried out in 2005, more than 7,000 research studies on cognition, group and individual traits were analyzed which showed very less differences between the two genders (Hyde, 2005). One similarity between the two genders is that both have the same hormones which function in the same manner. Sometimes, men have a higher level of resting hormones called androgens whereas; women may have different types of reproductive hormones however, these reproductive hormones are the same utilized by males for production of sperms. Thus there is an overlap between male-female endocrine processes.

Similarly, the brains of both male and female function in the same manner. Although, the brains of both the sexes vary in size, the basic function of the organ across the sexes remains the same. Female brain may react differently to different stimuli as compared to male brain but that difference is across individuals rather than genders. Another similarity between the two sexes is the similarity between genitals. It is a common understanding that genitals in male and female are different due to their appearance however, the fact is that both the genitals are produced from embryonic tissue. The clitoris and labia are produced in sixth or seventh week, before which both the organs are physiologically developing in an identical manner. In the same context, men and women exhibit almost identical sexual behavior in most parts of their lives. Studies have stated few differences in both sexes in terms sexual activity of both sexes. Both genders almost have same amount of sexual activity in the similar kinds of manners throughout their lives.

Some psycholinguistic experts believe that both men and women tend to communicate in a similar fashion. For example, men and women who belong to the same social or communal background possess same kind of vocabulary. Moreover, men and women with comparable educational background have the same intellect in problem solving, reading comprehension and task completion. Experts also believe that both sexes reason alike, interrupt conversation at almost same number of times, are equally prone to disclose personal information, and are equally assertive.

On the other hand, many experts believe that brains of male and female are completely different in form and structure. This difference occurs due to sex hormones at a very early stage of the development of fetus. Studies of the female brain show that females have language functioning in both the sides of their brains (Sonawalla ). In men, language functioning seems to be present in the left hemisphere only, although males have brains 10% larger than that of females (Greenberg, Bruess, and Conklin 295). The gray matter present in a male brain is also 6? times more than that in a female brain but female brain has white matter that is 9? times greater than that of a male brain (Carr 36). There are also differences between the cerebrums of both the sexes, due to which women are able to score higher in verbal skills while men score higher in mathematics and spatial skills.

Since the brain structure in males and females are quite different, there tend to be differences in behaviors of the two genders as well. Women tend to communicate more efficiently and effectively than males, due to their language functioning, therefore are able to establish better human relationships than men. Men, on the other hand, are more isolated, less-talkative and task-oriented. Women are able to take care of themselves and form friends, or “tend or befriend” even in times of stress, whereas men do not possess this ability and respond with “fight or flight” (Franzoi 186-88). The reason for this behavior is rooted in hormone difference between the two genders. Women are also able to express their emotions and feelings better than men, which helps them in creating strong bonds with other people. They are more social than men due to their language skills and their ability to connect to others. Apart from this, men have stronger spatial abilities than women. However, when it comes to physical alarming, both the genders are physically alarmed when threatened; the only difference lies in the response of that threat where men react with more aggression than women.

Men and women also differ in a number of ways in their physical characteristics. Women tend to enjoy a longer life-time than men; they outlive men by three to eight years. According to some, this statistics is true for women around the world, except in some countries, such as Bangladesh and India, where men outlive women (Daniluk 263). The diseases in men and women are also different. For example, women are more prone to breast cancer and reproduction disorders than men. The skeletal structures of both men and women are also different. Women have shorter built than men and usually have shorter heads, legs and longer trunks as compared to men. Women also have smaller lungs and a larger stomach, appendix, liver and kidneys than men. In physical strength, men are 50% stronger than women (Francis, MacRae, and et al 110-11). The heart rates of both men and women are also different and a woman’s heart beats eighty times in a minute as compared to a man’s heart, which beats 72 times a minute (Steinach 38). The lung capacity in females is also lesser than in males; it is approximately 20 – 25% lesser (Harris 344). Women are more capable to withstand high temperatures than males, due to their metabolism, which slows down lesser than males.

In conclusion, it can be stated that men and women share different responsibilities and tasks and might seem to be different in many ways, but still as human beings, they share many similarities. As Amy Patterson – Neubert (2004) says, “For the most part, men and women use, and strongly prefer, the same ways of comforting others – listening, sympathizing and giving thoughtful advice.” Both the sexes are similar in terms of hormonal activity, brain functionality and sexual activities. However, some experts believe that brain form and functionality if both males and females are completely different. Evidence also states that males and females are similar to each other in terms of the way they communicate and approach a task. On the other hand, various studies state that due to differences in brain structure and functioning, women are more talkative than men and are able to express their emotions more easily. Similarly, physical characteristics of both genders are also profoundly different, which enable the sexes to carry out different tasks with different levels of efficiency.

Today we are going to discuss the similarities and differences between two societies, Turkish and Saudi Arabian, from the cultural and moral point of view. Firstly it is important to get familiar with these definitions.

Culture is the way of life, shared beliefs, values, customs and behaviours, that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.

Norms specify the type of behaviour that is considered appropriate and normal in a society. For example, norms of dress give guidelines on what to wear. Norms are set of rules that vary from society to society. A change in society leads to new ways of behaving and therefore culture and norms are always changing.

Values are general rules and principles that tell us what is good, important and worth striving for in our society. Values lay down general principles and guidelines.

Inequality concerns differences in access to scarce resources when one group is better positioned than the other in society. Social inequality involves voting rights, freedom of speech, education and many more. Inequality is present in every society, even if it is said that all members in society are equal.

Both countries share similar history, culture and values. Religion in particular plays a big part in people’s lives. The major religion is Islam, the second largest religion in the world. In Saudi Arabia, Islam is the only officially recognized religion and other religions in the country are not tolerated. Turkey is more democratic in this way. While in Turkey state and church are separated, religion in Saudi Arabia influences every aspect of social and political life. Even the legal system is based on sharia (Islamic) law. The forms of punishment in this country are, according to some organizations, against human rights. For example, theft is punishable by amputation of the right hand. Flogging is way of punishment for offenses against religion, drunkenness and gambling. The death penalty is the highest form of punishment in the country and is used for a range of convictions including the distribution of drugs from abroad. The death sentence was also practiced in Turkey, but it has since been reduced to thirty years imprisonment. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden in both societies (a view strongly linked to religious beliefs), and is punishable by lashing, prison or death.

Inequality, in both societies, is most distinguished between men and women. Saudi women suffer discrimination in a range of areas within their daily lives. For example, women are not allowed to drive cars or ride bicycles on public roads and the driving age of 25 is one of the highest in the world. Saudi Arabia is also one of the four remaining countries that have not granted women the right to vote. Women cannot travel abroad without the permission or presence of a male guardian (mahram), and also have to be accompanied by a close male from the family (father or brothers) when outside of house. As chastity and sexual modesty are very highly valued, women can be arrested for socializing with a man who is not a relative and may be charged with prostitution. In public, dancing, playing music and showing movies is forbidden. Women make up just 5% of the workforce in Saudi Arabia, which is the lowest proportion in the world. A woman’s status within the family is high, especially in the roles of mother and sister. However, their rights may continue to be restricted, for example, it is believed that women should stay at home, caring for their husbands and children. Most marriages are arranged and polygamy is permitted up to four wives.

Similar attitudes towards women had existed in Turkey, but in 1926 new reforms brought changes to the position of women in society. Polygamy was abolished and it is very rare nowadays. Along with religious marriages and divorce, child custody became the right of both women and men. Education levels of women have increased since the reforms and many Turkish women are able to access education, have jobs and careers. The right to vote was granted in 1930.

Although the position of women outside of family has changed significantly, inside it remains more or less the same. Husbands remain at the head of family and woman must have their permission to work or their approval if going out. Both Saudi Arabian and Turkish societies place huge value on the family and take their responsibilities seriously. Families tend to be large and the extended family remains close.

Significant inequality also exists between women from different sectors of societies. Women in these two states have different life styles and rights. For example, abortion in Turkey is legal up to ten weeks, while in Saudi Arabia it remains illegal, except in situations where the mother’s life may be at risk.

The norms for public behaviour in Saudi Arabia are extremely conservative. To ensure that these standards of conduct are observed, the Saudi religious police can arrest foreigners for improper dress and other alleged infractions, such as consumption of alcohol. Turkish women no longer have to wear the veils and long garments, whereas in Saudi Arabia it is still required by the old religious beliefs. While alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia, it is allowed in Turkey. In Turkey, Friday is considered a normal working day, regardless of the fact that to Muslims it is considered a holy day. Saudi Arabian’s continue to acknowledge this tradition – most shops and other public places are closed on Friday and individuals practice their prayers. All Muslims pray five times a day and during the holy month of Ramadan they must fast from dawn to dusk (this includes eating, drinking and smoking). According to Islam, the left hand is considered unclean and reserved for personal hygiene.

To conclude, Turkey is now considered a secular state, the first ever Islamic society to be considered as such. In contrast, Saudi Arabia’s unique culture makes marks it as a distinguished Islamic country. People in these countries are extremely proud of their culture, heritage and nationality.

Bibliography
M. Haralambos and M. Holborn (2008) Sociology , Themes and Perspectives
http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingglossary/g/normsdef.htm
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/courses/122/module1/culture.html
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1012.html
http://www.enjoyturkey.com/info/culture.htm
http://www.eastwestinquirer.com/Islamic%20Turkey%20Versus%20Islamist%20Saudi%20Arabia.htm

In this piece of writing I will look at how women were treated in Hinduism in the historical context, and how Sikhism and the Gurus in the religion changed the situation, and affected the status of women. I will also look at how Sikhism is still not perfect after all these years and how even still there is some inequality between men and women. Also I will talk about some examples of how inequality is shown to girls in today’s society.

Hinduism was the religion that dominated India and the Punjab at the time of the gurus. Historically speaking, in Hinduism women were taught that they couldn’t get liberation from the cycle of Samsara, so they were excluded from leading religious ceremonies. They were taught that they couldn’t become one with God, and wouldn’t reach Mukti. Women and girls were regarded as the property of men (Paraya dhan); therefore divorce was impossible for a woman to initiate. Girls were not educated, as they were seen to stay at home, and look after the house and the children. They could not get a job, whereas men would be educated and would earn money for the family. Many Hindu women were sold to Islamic foreign countries as slaves. Baby girls were murdered by their parents (female infanticide) as they were too expensive to bring up and didn’t bring any money into the family. Also, because they were seen as the property of their husband, widows were expected to throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands (sati) as they were seen as having no further use in the society. This patriarchal society treated women worse than animals! In addition, the birth of a daughter in the family was not an occasion to celebrate; it was humiliation.

The Gurus lived in a time when women were only there to serve men. They were meant to stay at home and look after the family and house. Women were not allowed to work nor have any means to live independently. Sikhism therefore changed the situation, and the gurus taught that everyone is equal regardless of colour, race, beliefs, or sex. They taught that everyone is born equal and that everyone contains the divine spark: ‘everyone has the same form, everyone has the same soul’ (Guru Granth Sahib). Sikhism not only practices equality between the sexes, but also between religions and races. This idea was revolutionary in India at the time. The idea had never been introduced before and it was a drastic change in ways of thinking and behaving. Many men didn’t convert to Sikhism because of the fact that Guru Nanak believed in equality. They wanted to own women as their property, and they wanted to maintain that figure of superiority. Women were treated as a prize, and only treated as a servant or for entertainment. Guru Nanak sent out his sister to become a missionary, (Religious worker), however many people opposed this, as they still believed that women should be excluded from religious activities. Some people argued that men and women are different biologically and so act differently. Women are naturally the people to stay at home and care for the children because they are programmed to do this (The natural argument). Others argued that men and women carry out different roles in society because this is what they are taught to do. Young girls help their mothers with housework, while boys spend time with their fathers. In this way, boys and girls learn to ‘conform’ to the stereotypes. This was the nurture argument. The Gurus changed the situation for women by insisting that women as well as men could achieve liberation from samsara. Guru Nanak’s action of sending out his sister to become a missionary changed many people’s views about women, and led to the introduction of women becoming granthis and members of the gurdwara committee. The gurus accepted the right of women to lead any religious or public service. They changed the situation for women by permitting them to become members of the Khalsa and go through the exact same ceremony including wearing the 5K’s, just like men. The Gurus also encouraged the participation of women on the battlefield. They gave women the name Kaur (princess) which originated from the same caste in Hinduism as Singh (lion). The gurus banned dowries which was money given to the groom or his family by the father of the bride. They banned sati as murder. Widows were now not allowed to throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. The gurus began a Sikh wedding hymn which is called the Lavan. This stresses equality within marriage. Another way that the gurus and Sikhism shows equality is by insisting that men and women worship in the same prayer hall and then prepare and eat Langar together. Both male and female are encouraged to perform sewa, which is service to others, in all three ways (tan, dhan and man). Also both men and women sit at the same level in the Diwan hall. The gurus expected girls to also be given an education, just like boys. The guru’s teachings on the role of women are in the Guru Granth Sahib. In one part it says “We are conceived and born from women. Woman is our life-long friend and keeps the race going. Why should we despise her, the one who gives birth to great men?” Guru Hargobind declared, “A woman is the conscious of man” from his respect for women.

Equality is now central to Sikhism because of the gurus. The Gurus taught that Waheguru (God) is neither male nor female; therefore in today’s society women have equal rights to men. Women are allowed to hold any office in the Gurdwara. This includes becoming a Granthi, a Ragi, and/or a member of the Khalsa. According to Sikhism, males and females are two sides of the same coin. They are considered to have the same souls and are seen equal in service, devotion, bravery and sacrifice. According to Hinduism, women and men have different roles and responsibilities. As a young child the female will stay in custody of her parents. When she gets married she will become the property of her husband, and then when she will have sons she will become the property of them. The role of a woman is always given very high status in Hinduism, so they are expected to be good mothers and wives. Some Hindus have a traditional point of view, and they believe that women should stay at home and look after the family. They believe that women should be protected by men because they are not independent. Other Hindus are less traditional, and therefore education is becoming more popular in females.

In Sikh society gender discrimination is not allowed, however this equality has been difficult to achieve. Parents sometimes treat boys and girls differently and may have different rules for one. Girls are more likely to do better in education, so some teachers in schools might treat boys and girls differently. Women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, and they’re more likely to be victims of ‘date rape’ and ‘drink spiking’. Even if both the husband and wife work full-time, the woman often does most of the house-work. Women are much more likely to give up work to take care of the children and home. Women’s salary levels are on average 25% lower than men’s. Women are less likely to be promoted and only 10% of managers are women. Because of this women are more likely to be poor – single mothers are one of the poorest groups in society. And finally, nearly all of Britain’s 6 million ‘carers’ are women – most are unpaid and their work is invisible. Even though the gurus taught that everyone is equal, Sikhism is still not perfect after all these years. Some Sikh women would say that although the gurus raised the status of women in society and gave them new, more meaningful roles, the situation in Sikhism still isn’t perfect. Why? They say that it is still rare to see female granthis, and there are few women serving on Gurdwara committees. The dowry is still paid, but just in a lesser form. The milni, which is a simple ceremony where both families exchange well wishes on meeting each other, is dominated by the male relatives. Girls are still expected to stay at home looking after the family when they are married. And giving females the name Kaur still expresses a deep rooted idea that girls/women are expected to be prim and proper, and treated in a different way to men. So although the Gurus put across such powerful messages of equality, men are still sometimes seen superior to women.

Overall, the gurus played an extremely big role in preventing inequality between the sexes. Before the gurus’ teachings, women were treated appallingly. But soon after the teachings that women were equal to men, views on women changed and they were respected more. However Sikhism and also other religions are still not perfect. There is still some difference between the genders. Though now, the role and status of women has greatly improved.

Why is the concept of social facts so significant for Durkheims work? This essay will set out to explore Durkheims concept of social facts, and will seek to explain the importance of these facts in relation to his work. Durkheim identified a group phenomena within society which he claimed could be studied independently. These phenomena referred to the different acts that we all engage in within society, such as values, beliefs, and laws that we follow, he referred to these as social facts. (Giddens, 1971)

Durkheim called social facts things as they acted outside of the individual, they emit pressure upon an individual to act in a particular, predictable way. As Durkheim put it: A social fact is identifiable through the power of external coercion which it exerts or is capable of exerting upon individuals (Durkheim, 1938) Durkheim saw this as being passed on through socialisation in children. These beliefs are what can govern our behaviour within society, and ensure that all within it behave in well established ways in order to maintain social order.

A social fact is defined in two ways; first is that they are external to the individual, and secondly they have some sort of control over the individual, such as a law that the individual knows exists and therefore certain behaviour will result in some sort of penalty.

Social facts were an important aspect of Durkheims work, as he was attempting to see a role for the social which was distinguished from the psychological and biological aspect of life and the individual. He identified that these facts are rooted within society in group beliefs and values; they are not something that affects us in a psychological or biological way, such as eating and sleeping, as although these are done by all within society they are a natural biological process. (Morrison, 1995)

Durkheim identified two different types of social fact; material and non-material. Durkheim saw material social facts as stemming from institutions such as religion, the governments, and law institutions. These are the physical structures within society that exert influence on individuals within society. The nonmaterial social facts come from areas that form our moral codes, beliefs and values which do not have a physical presence. Durkheims view was that sociologists should study these social facts in an attempt to find the cause and also the functions of them; whether they are used to pass on values to children to maintain social order, or as a form of control for the institutions. (Durkheim, 1938)

Durkheims theory of social facts was initially a breakthrough, as it gave way to study entire societies rather than just the individual. Durkheim developed the idea of studying social facts thorough many studies of his own.

Durkheim theorised that through the study of statistical data it would be possible to view society in an objective manner. One of Durkheims most famous studies was the study of Suicide. He sought to explore this as a social fact, and not one which most consider to be a very personal, if not very anti-social act.

He saw suicide as being a social current which are characteristics of society, but may not be as stable as other social facts such as citizenship and work.

The social currents in the case of suicide are shown as suicide rates, a statistical representation of social facts according to Durkheim.

Durkheims study showed that there was a pattern within suicide rates amongst different societies and different groups within those societies. This pattern was clear amongst different societies and although the pattern changed, it stayed apparent across all societies that he studied. (Durkheim, 1951)

One of the main patterns that emerged was in religion. Durkheim saw religion as a social fact, which was a controlling factor amongst those who followed it. Therefore to have a pattern amongst suicide emerge due to this control was a breakthrough in terms of his research within social facts.

Durkheims research illustrated that there was difference in suicide rates within Protestant and Catholic countries and communities. There were a higher number of suicides within Protestant society then Catholic ones. All branches of religion have a negative view of suicide and condemn it in various ways, therefore Durkheim theorised that there must be some other factor within these two that causes the difference in suicide rates, such as social organisation and family structure. In further studies Durkheim finds that when a family is more integrated the suicide rates drop. (Durkheim, 1951)

Durkheims studies led him to believe that differences in suicide rates can be attributed to the degree of integration into society and the regulation of society. Durkheim considers the degree to which collective sentiments are shared (Ritzer, 1992) to be the key to the level of integration. As Catholics have a more integrated society and family then Protestants this can be the key attribute as to why Protestants have a higher suicide rate; the main difference being the social organisation between the two religions and how this differs greatly. Durkheim also acknowledged that those who have larger families are less likely to commit suicide then those in smaller families. As Catholics are renowned for having large family organisations this can be seen as another cause for the differences in suicide rates.

The conclusion that Durkheim came to from this study is that the social suicide rate can be explained sociologically. He argued that different groups within society have different consciousness and it is these that can produce different social currents which lead to a difference in suicide rates. Durkheim claims that by studying these different groups within society some of the differences can be analysed which then means the effect on suicide rates can be seen, and also changes within the society in the collective conscious can lead to a change within these currents in society, which again can lead to a difference in the suicide rate patterns within these different groups. (Durkheim, 1951)

Durkheims Suicide study was groundbreaking in the sense that it showed how social aspects of life can be used in order to explain the actions of individuals as opposed to the psychological and biological causes. The study illustrated Durkheims ideas behind social facts and showed how suicide rates can be an expression of the social currents that can affect the social facts that occur within society.

Durkheims method was seen as radical at the time as it made sociology a standalone subject amongst the social sciences. With his method of research and his theories he managed to distance the social from the psychological and biological and be seen as a true subject in its own right. The empirical studies that he did showed that social facts based on the collective conscious couldnt be categorised within psychological or biological as they existed outside of the individual conscience.

The work he did was important for anthropological studies as well as sociological ones as many researchers after him gathered empirical research of social facts in order to explain different social phenomena.

Durkheims work and method of analysis paved the way for analysis today as his method is still used. Social causes are now recognised within causes of suicide and are often used in new studies of suicide rates. Durkheims work helped researchers in understanding the social factors that can help explain the phenomena of social facts, and how a social explanation now needs to be found when studying different aspect of society.

Durkheim had created a theory based around the collective conscious which he had reinforced with his social facts, and with this he had created a way to study the effect of these social facts on social phenomena. The methods he had created had completely revolutionised the way in which research could be conducted, and the theories could interpret the behaviour seen in difference societies. He had made way for different thinking in regards to anthropological research and made it possible to study entire societies instead of an individual lost within a society. Many theorists since Durkheim have developed further his ideas in their own research into social facts and explaining the difference causes for behaviour within our society.

What particular significance do media systems have for the construction of national identities? How far, if at all, is it possible to have a (sense of) National Identity without the media?” The link between the news media and national identity regularly focuses “on explicit, stereotypical representations of nationalism in news coverage of appropriate subjects such as international politics, sport and war” (Brookes, 1999, Abstract, para, 1). However, changes in cultural and structural levels have resulted in dramatic shifts in national identity which makes “the study of nationalism and identity become an important topic in social science” (Javadi and Javadi, 2008, p. 112). The focus of such studies is often how the media contributes to the development and/or reshaping of such identity.

This essay will attempt to define the terms ‘nation’ and ‘national identity’ and discuss how far these concepts relate directly to geographical location and/or political boundaries. It will look at the relationship between the media and national identity and explore its extensiveness and what it means for the concept of national identity itself. Additionally, the issue of whether national identities are ‘real’ or ‘perceived’ will be addressed as well as whether the concept, or indeed, the ‘experience’ of national identity is a media-dependent phenomenon. Other issues that will be discusses include the elements that may contribute to an individual’s sense of national identity and what an absence of (national) media would mean for the concept of national identity and the sense of belonging to a particular nation.

Concepts of ‘nation’, ‘nationality’ and ‘nationalism’ have all proved difficult to define and analyse. Anderson (1991) notes while nationalism has had noteworthy persuasion on the modern world, “plausible theory about it is conspicuously meagre” (p.3, cited in Berhe, 1993, p. 2). Seton-Watson (1997) concludes that while “no ‘scientific definition’ of the nation can be devised; […] the phenomenon has existed and exists” (p.5, cited in Hoyle, 2001, p. 6). Hadley (2004) adds that even thought there is no agreement on its evolution “most [theorists] on nationalism believe it to be an essentially modern phenomenon, appearing in the late eighteenth century in Europe and North America” (National Identity, para, 1). According to Hadley (2004) the debate over nationalism is dominated by three theorists – Hobsbawm, Gellner and Anderson.

The recognition of political rights in a sovereign state was the basis for Hobsbawm’s definition. He explained that the masses were connected to state region which “was embodied through a centralised government. If nationalism was a modern invention, so were nations: the nation-state was the result, rather than the origin, of a nationalist discourse” (Hobsbawm, 1990, p.28, cited in Hadley, 2004, para, 2). Gellner’s definition was rooted in his belief that nationalism was an essential function of industry. He argued that “because industry required skilled labour, a common vernacular, and high rates of literacy, the need developed for a national ‘high culture’ promoted by a state run educational system” (Gellner, 1983, cited in Hadley, 2004, para, 2). Hadley (2004) explains “like Hobsbawm, Gellner sought to dispel teleological notions of the nation as eternal [and reiterated that] nationalism was a modern invention, created in response to the needs of a new economic system, even it represented itself as a natural, historical phenomenon” (para, 2).

Anderson (1983) advanced the theory of the nation as an ‘invention’, and saw “nationalism as a process of ‘imagining communities’” (Hadley, 2004, para, 3). “Nation-states are imagined because members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each live the image of their communion’ (Anderson, 1983, p.15, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 6). Anderson (1983) explained that “the decline of universal religious paradigms and the rise in print capitalism allowed for this ‘cultural construction’ to flourish in […] eighteenth century. The mass consumption of newspapers and novels enforced a common vernacular, linked a populace to urban centres, and encouraged common participation in a shared (imagined) culture” (cited in Hadley, 2004, para, 3). Additionally, Anderson (1983) implied that printing press improvements did more than industrialisation to promote nationalism. But as Hadley (2004) notes “despite their differences, all three of these prominent theoreticians identified nationalism, and by association the nation-state, as a phenomenon of the last few centuries” (para, 3).

However, it has been suggested that time may not be the most practical indicator for classifying nationalism or national identity (Hadley, 2004). He explains that this is because nationalism is dependent on a varied number of past factors. Further national identity cannot be labelled as ’embryonic nationalism’ because “not all national identities function within nations” (Hadley, 2004, para, 6).

Estel (2002) describes national identity as a special case of collective identity:

This does not mean an objective, i.e. systemic, connection built by human beings, but its interpretation by the members of that collective – hence it must be socially shared, the binding knowledge being the key factor. National identity then means a socially shared and binding knowledge in the form of an officially prevailing conception of itself in a certain nation being imparted through certain institutions (p. 108, cited in Javadi and Javadi, 2008, p. 113).

Smith (1991) argues that identity operates on two levels, the individual and the collective which are often confused in discussions of ethnic and national identity. He adds that the broadest subtype of collective cultural identities is the ethnie or ethnic community (cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 11). Connor (1993) agrees:

If we look at today’s countries, many of them seem to build their perceived internal similarity on a premise of shared ethnicity. A subconscious belief in the group’s separate origin and evolution is an important ingredient of national psychology (p.377, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 10).

Eriksen (1993) explains that characteristics such as perceived likeness while at the same time being different from other groups (ethnic) are central to ethnic communities (cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p.10). “[They] have a common collective name, a collective historical memory, common cultural traits, a ‘homeland,’ a myth of common descent, and a strong sense of internal solidarity. This element of fictive kinship, which is at the heart of ethnic affiliation, is also at the heart of feelings of nationhood” (Smith, 1991, pp. 21-22, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, pp. 10-11). National feeling according to Connor (1993) is not effected by “‘what is’ but ‘what people perceive as is’” (p. 377, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 11). “The nation-as-a-family metaphor is not a rational feeling, but rather an emotive one; it is a bond beyond reason appealing ‘not to the brain but to the blood’” (Connor, 1993, p.384, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 11).

National identity and the extent of its existence is also said to be composed of strong linked history and joint choices (Parekh, 1994, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 15). “It is a dynamic structure of affiliation, with strong foundations in the past but susceptible to change in the present” (Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 15). Additionally “nations base their claim to statehood on assumptions of a shared cultural heritage, which are in turn most often based on assumptions of shared ethnicity. The latter assumption has less to do with a reality of common ethnicity than with a myth of common ethnicity which is cast over multi-ethnic communities to turn them into politicised ‘national’ communities” (Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 12). The multi-ethnic composition of present nation states has made it hard, among all constituents to characterise one joint notion of national identity.

Nation states according to Das and Harindranath (2006) were developed in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Using economic, legal, armed forces and processes that were administrative in nature, nations fused “often disparate populations into a single ethnic community based on the cultural heritage of the dominant core’ (Smith, 1991, p.68, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 14). This is an example of Smith’s dominant ethnie model which is present in countries like Burma where “the dominant Burmese ethnic community has heavily influenced the formation and the nature of the state of Burma (now known as Myanmar), rather than the Karen, Shan or Mon ethnic groups” (Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 13). Smith (1991) goes on to say that “other cultures continue to flourish…[but]… the identity of the emerging political community is shaped by the historic culture of its dominant ethnie. […] reconstructing the ethnic core and integrating the culture with the requirements of the modern state and with the aspirations of minority communities (pp. 110-111, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 13). Marginal or minority cultures are then formed with the remaining ‘non-dominant cultures’ (Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 13).

Smith (1991) also notes that “there are some multi-ethnic states where discrepancy in inter-ethnic power is marginal enough to allow for a state along the lines of the supra-ethnic model, where the emphasis is on political rather cultural unity” (p. 112, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 13). However, Das and Harindranath (2006) states that because examples of this are limited, this achievements of such a framework is questionable. An examples of this is Nigeria where efforts to construct a supra-ethnic states resulted in power residing with three major ethnic groups (out of 250) (Das and Harindranath, 2006). Connor (1993) argues that “a people who are politically and culturally pre-eminent in a state (even though other groups are present in significant numbers) tend to equate the entire country with their own ethnic homeland, and … to perceive the state as an extension of their particular ethnic group” (p. 375, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 13). Oommen (1990) suggests “once a multi-ethnic or poly-ethnic state emerges it becomes a reality-in-itself. The coexistence and interaction between the different nations or ethnic groups produce certain emergent properties which give a new meaning and a collective self-identification to the constituent units” (p.35, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 13). National identity, according to Das and Harindranath (2006) is born out of this “collective self-identification of a people with a nation-state” (p. 15).

Elements of “unity and permanence” are said to be involved in the development of such of recognition formation of such identification (Melucci, in Schlesinger, 1991, p.154, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 17). The latter suggests “that the nation has to be seen as persisting through time, well into the past and future; it has to be seen as beyond time” (Connor, 1993, p.382, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, pp. 17-18). But Das and Harindranath (2006) argues that “such an imagining of the nation as beyond time takes national identity partly into the realm of non-rational, making it an emotional identification rather than an intellectual one” (p. 18).

The issue of building definite ‘sameness’ within nation-states and the development of nation-building then comes to the forefront and most nations look to the media to play its part in the creation of a ‘national’ culture and a ‘national’ community (Das and Harindranath, 2006). Herein lies the question, why the media? Das and Harindranath (2006) explains:

Considering how much of our knowledge of the world comes from mediated communication, either through people or through the mass media, this is likely to be a primary source of influence on our structures of identification since we cannot accomplish very abstract levels of identification (as with a nation-state) by exclusive reliance on our own direct lived experience or face to face communication of others (p. 18).

Anderson (1983) notes that “media have typically been institutional products of nations and, as such, play a fundamental role in their maintenance” (pp. 24-25, cited in Terzis, 2005, p. 1). Terzis (2005) explains that “in most countries national broadcasting in its early forms (especially before its commercialisation, when it could not afford the stratification of its audience), has made possible the transformations of individual dramas, performances, activities, memories, into fictions of collective national life for millions of individuals who may never interact with one another” (p. 1).

According to Smith (1991) it is imperative that nation states have “a measure of common culture and civic ideology, a set of common understandings and aspirations, sentiments and ideas that bind the population together in their homeland. The major agencies through which this socialisation is carried out are the mass education system and the mass media” (p.11, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 19).

But Melucci (1989) disagreed with this suggestion and noted that “to simply be aware of something is not to identify with it; identification comes from the making of an emotional investment” (1989, p. 35, cited in Das and Harindranath, p. 17) where individuals see themselves in others. Further, Das and Harindranath (2006) go on to say that “in addition to being aware of the existence of nation-states therefore, I must also be aware that there are many of them, that the one I live in is different from the others, and that I belong to a particular one because of my similarity with others of that nation-state. I can then be said to possess a national identity. My identity is therefore not just ‘Indian’ but equally not French, not Thai” (p. 17).

Terzis (2005) suggests that present national media play a significant role in “two processes of national identity building – […] [firstly] as tellers of national myths [in the role of] […] ‘engravers’ of national symbols upon the nation’s memory and presenters of national rituals (elections, celebrations, etc)” (p. 1). Terzis (2005) notes that the work of the media is focused on the “similarities among the group members” (p. 1). “For media producers, the prominence of national identity in the media content is encouraged by the knowledge that they are constructing news for a national audience with which they share national membership” (Entman, 1991; Rivenburgh, 1997 and 1999, cited in Terzis, 2005, p. 1).

Secondly, the media constructs and strengthens the “relational opposition of ‘us’ and the ‘others’” (Terzis, 2005, p. 1). “One of the areas of media content to which such nationalist discourse today is very high, is news and especially the coverage of foreign affairs. Comparative international news research shows the significant role of the media in perpetuating a world view that consistently favours the home nation perspective on world affairs” (Rivenburgh, 1999; Sreberny-Mohammadi, 1985, cited in Terzis, 2005, p. 1).

Das and Harindranath (2006) note say that “one prominent pattern that emerges in the images of nationhood is the definition of ‘national’ and ‘anti-national’ by the media, the ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’, the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ (p. 19). This demarcation is key especially where diversity is synonymous with nation states (Das and Harindranath, 2006). An example of this is the British case in which Scannell and Cardiff (1991) identify how Scottish, Welsh and Irish music were basically treated as secondary to ‘British’ music which the BBC had associated with being ‘English’ music (cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 19) – a clear example of how the dominant ethnic group is promoted by the media in a multi-ethnic state (Das and Harindranath, 2006).

National identity has also been maintained for those living outside of their respective nations, through new and evolving forms of media and communications such as the internet. This tool can transmit information essential to maintain national identity, especially for those who have left their country of origin. Appadurai (1990) points to technology and highlights “the relatively globalising influence of electronic media” (p. 229, cited in Smith and Phillips, 2004, p, 4). Virtual national communities are created by the internet and have often provided people scattered around the globe with a way to maintain their national identity without having a physical nation state. However, Poster (1999) warns about “the technology-level effect of the Internet suggesting that it subverts national identity. By eliding national information boundaries and encouraging the more active, interpersonal and uncensored exchange of information, the Web arguably works to enhance both global and local identities within a post-national and cosmopolitan context” (cited in Smith and Phillips, p. 4). Smith and Phillips (2004) also suggest that if Poster (1999) is correct in his suggestion “then the internet will have an impact on national identity that is diametrically opposed to that of traditional media (print, radio, television). In other words internet use might be associated with lower levels of national pride and the endorsement of cultural frames that are critical of national identities based upon ‘the old ways’” (p. 4).

Nonetheless, Chaney (1986) points out that “the mass media […] engender a ‘we-feeling,’ a feeling of family, among the community, providing continual opportunities for identification with the nation […]” (p. 249, cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 20). Das and Harindranath (2006) agree and add that “the media enable entire populations to participate in the everyday life of a country-wide community, uniting individual members of the national family into a shared political and cultural rubric” (p. 20).

But Das and Harindranath (2006) also point out that the media as agencies of socialisation, “can also be harnessed to divisive purposes which might have the consequence of impeding the construction of a national identity […] or of undermining the force of one or more elements of the symbolic repertoire of nationalistic ideology” (p.19). Terzis (2005) notes “in some cases, nationalist views and provocative views have provoked some of the world’s worst massacres […]” (p. 1). One such example is major role the Hutu radio/television station in Rwanda, RTLM played in 1994 Rwanadan genocide where thousands of Tutsis were slaughtered by another tribe – the Hutu. Terzis (2004) explains that the RTLM repeatedly broadcasted messages which maligned Tutsis and called on Hutus to rid the country of them. Ethnic hate and xenophobia being spewed from national media has also contributed to brutal cultural conflicts in Yugoslavia (Terzis, 2005). While these may be extreme cases, Das and Harindranath (2006) states that “the simple fact of establishing the homogenising tendency of national media is not an adequate base from which to conclude that audiences are homogenised [since advocacy does not always mean acceptance]. [In cases where] the national image promoted by the media [is not accepted] it does meet with resistance from sections of the populations” (p. 21).

While some resistance is severe as in the cases of Rwanda and Yugoslavia other populations use organised forms of resistance where the marginalised groups in a nation state find peaceful ways of “[asserting’ their own identities” (Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 21). One such example is the Ernabella Video and Television (EVTV) project in Australia. This was a video project developed by leaders of the Ernabella aboriginal community in 1983 to counteract the slow disappearance of their own cultures and traditions which was being influenced by programming from ‘outside media’. The project became a television channel, which was furnished with programming developed by and for aboriginals that helped them to build their own identity among the scattered Australian aboriginal population. “Very few people today remain unaware of or free from the influence of the all-pervasive juggernaut of Western culture. It is encouraging then, that some groups at least have been able to meet this global force head on, and to produce as a result new and powerful forms of television which are uniquely their own,” (Batty, 1993, p. 125).

Another form of resistance is through readings where the concept here is that media audiences interact with media texts in extremely complex ways. Ang (1990) says that “studies have uncovered significant differences in the way audiences from different ethnic backgrounds produce diverse readings of an episode of a soap opera, suggesting that social identities affect interpretation of media messages” (cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 22).

Media texts can therefore no longer be thought of as binding each member of the audience evenly into a particular interpretation; the meaning of the text, rather, is open to negotiation between the text and the viewer. Differences in interpretation are not, however, the result of a failure of communication, but are rather the results of differences in the lived experiences and mental words of audiences. Where cultural realities are different, there is a likelihood of different interpretations (Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 22).

In conclusion, Smith and Phillips (2004) note that “although the established literature lacks firm evidence of individual level ‘media effects’ it nevertheless suggests with some confidence that there is a strong, positive tie between media consumption and individual level national belonging. Drawing largely on historical and textual analysis methods, the claim has been established that the media have been foundational over the past three centuries in the shaping, distribution and institutionalisation of identities. The classic texts on nationalism repeatedly argue that the media have played a key role in nation building” (p. 2). Additionally, Das and Harindranath (2006) state that “the idea of a one-culture-for-all does not work and attempts at enculturation of diverse people into a mainstream culture are inevitably resisted through social movements at the peripheries of the mainstream” (p.21). Martin- Barbero (1993) further suggests that the area of communications provides a forum where conflicts over identity can be fought (cited in Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 21). “The media is therefore the site where states explore routes to uniformity within their nations and are simultaneously the site which assists non-mainstream groups to explore and announce their distinctiveness” (Das and Harindranath, 2006, p. 21).

Sex-selection is the attempt to achieve a desired sex by controlling the gender of the offspring. The selection can be accomplished through pre- and post-implantation of an embryo, as well as at birth. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) and Microsort technique are two new technological methods used to achieve the embryonic sex selection. Prenatal sex discernment, a blood test to test the fetal DNA after the seventh week of pregnancy, is performed after implantation. Microsoft technique is the process where the sperm is sorted to increase the chance the egg is fertilized by a sperm which carrying the desired chromosome. A more precise and accurate, but also more expensive and invasive technique is PGD, a method where the embryos are created and analysed outside the female body or in test tubes before implanted into the female’s womb. The genetic disorders at the embryonic stage are screened using PGD. Unfortunately, many American clinics offer PGD as a way to choose their baby’s gender by implanting only the fertilized eggs of desired gender into the mother’s uterus. Unfortunately, sex selection is illegal in most parts of the world. Several countries like Canada, Australia and also the United Kingdom all have banned the use of PGD for sex selection for nonmedical purposes. In other words, PGD is only justified if a couple has the family history including any sex-linked genetic disorder.

Sex selection has raised a lot of arguments whether parents should allow to choose the gender of their future child or not. Before that, what is the factors causing gender selection? Most of the parents are hoping and praying for a baby of a particular gender. First, Male offspring is desired due to the cultural factors. There are a variety of factors causing males more economically and socially valuable than females. For example the property inheritance and the family name of the male heirs, and the workforce can contribute more to the income of once family.1 Women, on the other hand, require the expensive dowries and leave the family upon marriage which are unproductive investment. Since there are many arguments in gender selection, there also rise up the controversy regarding to the abortion or the female infanticide. Although sex-selective infanticide and sex-selective child abandonment is illegal in most parts of the world, they still exist in some countries. The development of ultrasound scanners which can use to determine the sex of unborn children in womb led to the sex-selective abortion, especially in China and India.2 Due to the cultural factors and also the single-child policy in the 1980s and 1990s, male is the only child that ensured or determined by most of the families. In 2000, 120 boys were born in every 100 Chinese girls. 3 Similarly in India, the illegal ultrasound scanning and also the sex selective abortion of female fetus are widespread.4 The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) study indicated that “there are 112 boys for every 100 girls born in Albania, while the figures stand at 110 and 109 boys per 100 girls in Kosovo and Montenegro, respectively”.5 Besides, the president of

1 Miller, B.D. (1997). The Endangered se: Neglect of female children in rural North India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2 Greenhalgh, S. (2008). Just one child: Science and policy in Deng’s China. University of California Press.

3 The Economist (2011, April 7). Add sugar and spice.

4 Lakshimi, R. (2013). Study: Sex-selective Practises May Be Common in Families of Indian Doctors. The Washington Post.

5 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

the population Research Institute, Steve Mosher also provided some important information on sex-selection abortions in the United States through an article at National Review.6 Dr. Sunita Puri who wanted to find the reason on why many immigrant Indian women in the United States were so eager to know the gender of unborn children and went through abortion if they found out it was not the gender they wanted. Surprisingly, 89% of the women conceiving girls wanted for abortion and nearly half had aborted girls before.7 Sex selection has raised a lot of arguments whether parents should allow to choose the gender of their future child. Another root problem led to the famous gender selection is from the couples with one or more particular gender of children, in which they has an intensified to have another gender of the child. There was a case of a Scottish couple, Mr and Mrs Masterton who had four sons and lost their only daughter in an accident. They were preparing to challenge the HFE Authority in judicial review due to its refusal in granting the fertility clinic the licence to select the right gender on their embryo to have a girl.8

There are some points and its corresponding argument in whether the parents should allow to choose their future child’s gender. First, the incidence of infanticide can be prevent through gender selection. Some of the cultural places still have high incidence although that it is important of having at least one of the particular gender of the child. So, we can prevent the trauma and stress of not having a desired gender of the child which might have negative cultural connotations. The advance of technology doesn’t enable us to find which gender the child is. Thus, some couples will be disappointed, then, they abort it and try to conceive again. So, wouldn’t it be perfect for the person to choose instead of aborting it until they get the right one? Furthermore, the abandon of children is the most common consequence of the gender selection.9 Some of the parents are willing to throw away their children or hating them because of the undesirable gender. In the past, infanticide was seen the only solution if the infants did not have the desired gender that the parents want. But, now, with the advanced medical technology, many parents are going to have an ultrasound scan to determine the sex of the baby. As the ultrasound test and abortion became more available, the trend toward more boys than girls accelerated steadily after 1986?.10 A former medical director from the country’s largest abortion provider had mentioned that it was common for the women to decide to terminate their pregnancies because of the gender of the baby.11 Besides, the Dr Vincent Argent had a same opinion and he believed that some of the doctor felt it is reasonable and had arranged the terminations relating to the gender of the foetus.12 The performance of the abortions for the purpose of sex selection is widespread, especially those in South and East Asia like China and India. In India, parents are often willing to pay for an abortion if

6 Mosher, S.W. (2011). Sex-selective Abortions Come Home. National Review Online.

7 Puri, S., Adams, V., Ivey, S., and Nachtigall, R.D. (2011). “There is such a thing as too many daughters. But not too many sons”: A qualitative study of son preference and fetal sex selection among Indian immigrants in the United States. Social Science & Medicine,72(7): 1169-1176.

8 London: HFEA, 2003; www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/final_sex_selection_main_report.pdf

9 Jha et al. (2006). Low female[corrected]-to-male [corrected] sex ratio of children born in India: national survey of 1.1 million households. Lancet, 367: 211-218.

10 Lafraniere, S. (2009). Chinese bias for baby boys creates a gap of 32 million. The New York Times.

11 Newell, C. and Watt, H. (2012). Sex-selection abortions are “widespread”. Telegraph.

12 Newell, C and Watt, H. (2012). Paragraph 2.

it is a girl. Although sex selection test and abortion have been banned for 15 years in India, the figures still state that there are 750,000 girls are aborted each year.13 From an article, Harsh reality of India’s unwanted girls, some Indians believe it is much better that a girl is killed before born rather after.14 Although they know it is a sin to abort, they still turn themselves as a blind eye to let the growing incidence of gender selection. Well, the counterpoint of this is the population of course might become imbalanced if most people just choose a particular gender. These imbalances are harmful because it will interrupt or damage the gene population. The imbalance is expected to steadily worsen among people of childbearing age over the next two decades and could trigger a slew of social problemsaˆ¦. “If you’ve got highly sexed young men, there is a concern that they will all get together and, with high levels of testosterone, there may be a real risk, that they will go out and commit crimes” says coauthor Therese Hesketh.15 An investigative research published in the British Medical Journal, attributed “the imbalance almost completely due to the decision of couples to terminate female fetuses. About a million female fetuses are terminated and 10 in thousands of girls are missing.16 Most of the Chinese families in China preferred sons which directly increased the rate of female fetus abortion due to the one-child policy. This policy not only increased the abortion rate, but it also led to a gender imbalance. A study has found that there are currently 32 million more boys than girls under the age 20.17 A similar situation is happening in India too.The data shown that 914 girls are aborted in every 1000 boys in India.18 The termination of female fetuses is not occurred because the parents do not want and love their daughters, but due to the social reasons making them prefer sons.19

Second, the parents should have their own freedom of choice. Why shouldn’t the parents to decide their own child’s gender, given that no harm is done to others in their decision? The article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: ” Men and Women of full ageaˆ¦ have the right to marry and to found a family”. 20 With this right, it should understand and cover the right in making decision on how one family should be built up. Besides, why should a family having a large number of one gender be expropriated of the chance to have a different gender of a child if the technology exists? As the director of the Fertility Institute states: ” these are grown-up people expressing their reproductive choicesaˆ¦ are really happy when they get what they want”. 21

13 Prasad, A. (2007). Harsh Reality of India’s unwanted girls. BBC News.

14 Prasad, A (2007). Part 2: Dowry burden.

15 Strickland, E. (2009). Sex-selective Abortions in China have produced 32 Million extra boys. The Discover.

16 Leung, M. (2011). A structural model of sex selective abortion: the effect of one-child policy on sex ratio imbalance in china. University of Minnesota and Washington University in St Louis, p.1-49.

17 Zhu, P.W.X., Lu, P.L., and Hesketh, T. (2009). China’s excess males, sex selective abortion, and one child policy from 2005 national intercensus survey. BMJ, 338.

18 Lakshimi, R. (2013)

19 The Economist. (2011)

20 U.N General Assembly. (1948, December 10). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieves from United Nations.

21 Stein, R. (2004). A Boy for You, a Girl for Me: Technology Allows Choice. The Washington Post.

Well, there is the argument where the freedom of choice is important but it should not be conferred at the unconditional love for one’s children. According to the Georgetown professor, the sex selection is a ” threat to the main value of parenthood that usually expressed by the commitment to unconditional love”.22 As Harvard professor Michael Sandel notes, “consider the father who wants a boy in hopes of having as a son the athlete he had never been. Suppose the son isn’t interested in sportsaˆ¦ what sorts of expectations will burden a child who has designed with certain purposes in mind?’ 23 So, the children should be loved whoever they are, not because they are who we wanted. For that reason, parents should be encouraged to love their children equally regardless of gender, and the freedom of choice should not be allowed in this regard.

Third, the other argument point regarding to the sex selection should be allowed is with sex-specific, the genetic diseases can be prevented. Some family are carriers of the known sex-specific diseases, it is obviously by gender determination can ensure that the disease will avoid from passing to the next generation or their child. Nearly most of the sex-linked diseases are either more serious among one gender or more common in one gender. For example, haemophilia, HIV, colour blindness, and muscular dystrophy are more common to a male suffering from one X chromosome.24 While, the disease of the immune system is most commonly affected by women.25 Therefore, the Microsoft technique used in sorting the sperm carrying the Y and double X chromosome to determine the gender as well as determining the genetic disorder is carried out. This technique is not harmful to the human genes. Statistical data has shown that over 1200 babies have been born using this advance technology.26 On the other hand, 100% accuracy is not happened for all technology in determining the genetic disease that carries on. Therefore, the medical costs should be considered together with medical benefits. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis involved the embryo development outside the womb and then tested for gender. Only the desired gender is implanted in the womb and how about those are not of the desired gender? All the undesired embryo is destroyed. Over a dozen of embryos or human life has been created with the purpose of destroyed, it’s also a kind of abortion. The data shown that by using the gender selection technologies, the accuracy rate for choosing a girl is 93% and 82% go to the boys which inevitably most of the selections go for males.27 Thus, most of the couples are so keen to have a child with particular gender and unwilling to take the risk of having one of other gender. Although the Microsort technique is harmless to the parents, some scientists like Lord Winston expressed the fear that the technique will damage the sperm and genetic mutation might be more likely to occur.

22 Stein, R (2004). Page 4.

23 Stein, R (2004). Page 4.

24 Macnair, D.T. (2010). Fragile X syndrome. BBC Health.

25 Doe, J. (2000). Immune System Disorders. Time.

26 Genetics and IVF Institute. (2008). Microsort. Genetics and IVF Institute.

27 Genetics and IVF Institute. (2008).

However, one of the points against in sex selection is the pre-selection of sex uses costly medical care for frivolous purposes. The treatment required for gender pre-selection was initially designed to prevent the disease. But many of the patients using the treatment which is capable of conceiving healthy children. A director from the Genesis Genetics Institute said that “70% of patients would not have needed IVF, in other words healthy and fertile couples are choosing this higher risk, sometimes painful and also expensive treatment when they could conceive a baby naturally”.28 But, it still depends on the individuals to make decisions whether this treatment is worth or not. There is an evidence from parents who has gone through the treatment. They said that the sex selection of their children was not a frivolous or ridiculous purpose. Sharla Allen replied ” They are. They’re totally everything I could ever wantaˆ¦ but why aren’t having two daughters that will be just as wonderful as they are?” when she was asked whether her three boys had still not been enough for her.29 So, no-one is harmed in this treatment; thus, it should be the parent’s choice to have the treatment since they know the risks beforehand. On the other hand, the abortion rate can be reduced with this expensive medical technology. The abortion, especially sex selection, is illegal in most of the country. It’s same to India where most of the clinics doing illegal abortion were shut down. However, the reality is that sex-selective abortion is still happening behind the door. Thus, it is difficult to control and its not only restricted to the poor.30 There is an evidence that happened to Pooja who married to a multi-millionaire industrialist and had 10 years old twin girls. When she pregnanted another girl, his husband forced her to abort it even he was rich and afford to grow another daughter. She claimed that a girl would only take money with her to her-in-laws without bringing any wealth in.31 Due to the this negative mindset, sex-selective abortion becomes even worse from year to year.

Another debate points against the gender selection is the children should not be designed or created to specifications. Children are not pets or toys. So, they are no meant to be designed to let their owner more convenient. Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel argued that ” it runs the risk of turning procreation and parenting into an extension of the consumer society and it is also one step forward in designing baby”.32 The selection of eye colour, hairy ears or hair colour soon will be requested by the parents if the gender selection is allowed. That is only the beginning. This is because we are encouraging the false ideas of perfection if we allowing sex selection. Moreover, there has been no justification for supporting such indulgence at public expense. The gap will grow even bigger between poor and rich people, as the rich designer will want both their design and the appearance of their children to reflect their property or wealth. Let say, if a gay gene is discovered, would parents be allowed to eliminate embryos containing it? We should follow the idea that we appreciate on everything what we are given. Otherwise, the people will reject their own child more likely when they did not get whatever they want.

28 Gajilan, C. (2005). Gender selection a reality, but is it ethical? CNN Health.

29 Gajilan, C. (2005).

30 Lakshimi, R. (2013)

31 Prasad, A. (2007), Part 3: Tolerated Abortion.

32 Stein,R (2004). Page 1.

In contrast, parents have their own right to choose the gender to build up of their family if the technology is available. This can improve the chances of the child to fit into the dream of their family and they are more likely to get loved. Every individual can choose their own partners, and also have their freedom to choose the time of getting pregnant according to their age, wealth or prosperity.33 Parents sacrifice so much for their children. They invest a huge mount of their wealth and years of their lives in growing up their children. So, Isn’t fair that in return, they get to choose their child with the gender that they want? This is also an extension of the rights of reproductive field. But, according to the report of Nuffield Council on Bioethnics, an attitude of natural humility, where the parents accept their children is an important feature of parental love. The love the parents owe their children and not dependent on the characteristics of a child.34

Besides, it is a wonder or surprise process in having a child. So, the childbirth should not interfere with human motives. Some people have an opinion that the time of conception is decided by God and do not attempt to play with God. Dr. Mark Hughes, who helped in pioneering the procedure, intended it in preventing the disease of the gender, unfortunately, is not a kind of disease which has no illness and no suffering.35 Furthermore, many people view that there is no morally difference between the new technologies and the abortion where a potential life is taken away. In 2011, there are 196,082 abortions in England and wales.36 How many cases is the consequence of gender selection? The recent news or articles published that the illegal abortion on the grounds of gender might take place in Britain within immigrant communities by analysing the birth statistics.37 As we know, the termination of pregnancy based on the gender is illegal in the UK. But, the abortions of fetuses up to 24 weeks are allowed if the pregnancy was on ground of physical and caused psychological risk to the mother, or in cases the child was severely physically or mentally abnormal.38 According to the recent article by Elena Ralli, there are also evidence shown that the sex-selective abortion is spreading in Europe and the U.S. too.39 If the sex selection is legalized, it will cause the selective abortion became more common and parents will simply kill a human life legally because they want to choose the desired gender of their child. While, there are some arguments stating that the mystery of childbirth is not easy to shatter. Sharla Miller, who go for gender selection, denies the suggestion that it is like playing God. She believed that it is just like every procedure that medical can do for us.40 For example, when the elder child suffers from spina bifida, they fixed it out. Were they playing with God? Moreover, the gender selection is important and helpful for parents to plan their child’s future like choosing the clothes, naming etc. The sex selection happened in many countries and cultured by abandonment of unwanted babies or selection abortion. Everyone felt that this is a cruel and terrible waste of human life and also very dangerous for the mother. Obviously, many people strongly object the abortion on moral grounds. The development of new technologies in determining the gender in the early stage of pregnancy will definitely reduce and eventually stop the use of selective abortion.

33 Meek, J. (2001). Baby Blues. The Guardian.

34 Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Genetics and Human Behaviour (2002). The ethical context, Para13.78

35 Leung, R. (2004). Choose the sex of Your Baby. CBS News.

36 Harker, R. (2012) Statistics on Abortions. Page 2.

37 Mason, R. (2013). The abortion of unwanted girls taking place in the UK. Telegraph.

38 HFE Act 1990, Schedule 2, para 1ZB.

39 Ralli, E. (2013). Alarming rise in abortion of female fetuses in Europe. New Europe Online.

40 Leung, R. (2004).

After stating the arguments arising in whether the sex selection should be permitted and the most serious effect- abortion because of gender selection. So, what is your opinion on sex-selection? Should the parents be permitted to pre-determine their future child’s gender? In my opinion, sex selection should not be permitted to the parents to choose the gender of their future child. From my perspectives, gender selection is extremely bad for women. In other words, girls are discriminated by the social. As mentioned above, the cultural preferences for boys led to the male children are more likely to be educated and employed in good jobs which can earn enough income to support a family. Besides, boys are also expected by the families to contribute to the family’s well-being and take care of aging parents. Unfortunately, the girls were not only treated as liabilities rather than assets, they also did not have the same treatment in education and employment.41 But, these ideas were no longer establish in 21st century global culture. We know, of course, that women can also success in education and workplace if there is no sex discrimination and they are given the same opportunities as men. Furthermore, women can be the one to help in raising their families and communities out of poverty. Therefore, we should not offer the sex-selection services that support false and outdated aristocracy system.

Next, again sex-selection is not fair to women and even to the baby girl. We know, of course, conceiving a baby need man and woman to work together. It is actually known that the male plays an important role to determine whether the baby conceive is boy or girl. In other words, man is the one who produces heterogametic sperm which containing either X chromosome or a Y chromosome to decide the gender of their child. Why I argued that it is not fair to women? This is because a huge number of husbands keep blaming his wife for not conceiving a boy. What’s wrong with the women? Women only provide an immotile egg to let sperms (which decide the sex) to fertilise. Unfortunately, many husbands still push this responsibility to women and give pressure to their wife. The reason why the women felt that they were unable to ‘save’ their daughter because many women became the victims of family violence when they were carrying girls. Some had been slapped, bumped and shoved around by aggressive husbands and in-laws, or even kicked in the stomach in an effort to let them miscarry.42 While, some denied food and water in order to coerce them to abort their unwanted girl babies.43 Most women, who come to the fertility clinic to ask for help in conceiving a boy, are likely under pressure from her husband or her husband’s families to avoid from any mishap happened to them. It is not fair to let a woman to undertake this heavy responsibility. Although the reproductive technology today is able to help women free from coercion or pressure, it is actually bringing to the severe problem later on. It will turn to the continuous controversial if gender selection services are allowed. After helping in relieving the pressure of women from their husband, it comes to other problems where the imbalance sex population occurs. Due to this imbalance population, again more and more problems happened.

41 Pande, R., and Malbotra, A. (2006). Son preference and daughter neglect in India: What happened to living girls? Washington, D.C.: International Center for Research on Women.

42 Raj et al. (2011). Abuse from in-laws during pregnancy and post-patrum: qualitative and quantitative findings from low=icome mothers of Infants in Mumbai, India. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 15(6):700-712.

43 Puri et al. (2011). Pg. 1174

If gender selection is permitted, it will bring to the social and economic consequences. Although not every family prefers son over daughter, but it sure will lead to the imbalance of population. For example, the one-child policy which has a limitation on the number of children in each couple, causing the couples with strong son preference.44 Consequently, the shortage of women in China has disastrous and serious social effect. . For example, in China and India, many young men are unable to find a partner, resulting in the rising of sexual violence, prostitution, kidnapping and forced marriage.45, 46 In addition, due to the selfishness of the parents to have a male heir and abort the girl fetuses, it may increase the mental health problems and severely abnormal social behaviour among men as well as leaving some men unable to get married and having their own family.47 The sex-selection problem might lead to the marriage squeeze problem which is happening now in China. This problem has commonly happened between the uneducated male in rural area. A study indicated that 15% of uneducated men at age 40 were still single, whereas there are only 0.5% among those were university-educated men in the early 1980s.48 The percentage keeps increasing from year to year. The Chinese officials predict that ” after 2030 some 30 million young men will be unable to find a marriage age”.49 Besides, the sex-ratio imbalance in one country not only increases the crime, but also the number of sex workers with HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases. There is evidence that young single men with HIV positive are more likely to pay for sex.50 There are many negative consequences of sex selection which we can clearly know from some of the country like China and India. So, should the gender selection permitted because of one’s individuality?

Moreover, gender selection reinforces in oppressing and false gender roles. This problem is most probably happened to the population which utilizes gender selection technology after having one or more same gender of children. An evidence from the Slate article ” How to Buy a Daughter,” profiled a woman named Megan Simpson who was grown up in a family of four sisters and like to sew, bake, make up and so on and she wished to share these interests with her girl who can dress in pink. 51 The problem, of course not every little girl like sewing, baking or even dressing up in pink. That’s same go to the boys, not every little boy like sports, blue colour shirt. So, the relationship between the gender of children and their preferences is unpredictable, changeable and not exactly like what we think. Why we need to have a thought that which things are suitable for girls and which one is for boys? Is that good to allow parents to engineer their children based on their interests or the purpose of achieving the cultural norms? The sex-selection should not be allowed due to this reason. The child will be the one to suffer if their interests are entirely opposite with their parent’s wish or cultural norms. In this situation, obviously either the child or the parents will disappoint with each other.

44 Leung, M. (2011). Pg 12.

45 Christakis, E. (2013). Rape in India: A Result of Sec Selection? Time.

46 Dagar, R. (2001). Life enhancing mechanisms, life depriving outcomes: case of female foeticide. Chandigard: Institute for Development and Communication.

47 Leung, M. (2011). Pg 12.

48 Wang, F. (2005). Asia Pacific Issues. East West Centre.

49 Vermeer, E.B. (2006). “Demographic Dimensions of China’s Development,” Population and Development Review, 32: 115-144.

50 South, S.J., and Trent, K. (2010). “Imbalanced Sex Ratios, Men’s Sexual Behaviour, and Risk of Sexually Transmitted Infection in China”. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 51 (4): 376-390.

51 Sidhu, J. (2012). How to Buy a Daughter. Slate.

In conclusion, so far we have discussed the use of sex selection in a reproductive field, where it is practiced for the purpose of preventing hereditary sex-linked disorders. We see no reason why, if a method to determine the sex of a child before fertilization is developed, this technology should not offer to a couple who have good medical reasons and purposely want to choose the gender of their child. But, if an easy and efficient technique of ensuring the conception of the particular sex of the child became available, some couples would obviously hope to make use of it for the purpose of social reasons.51 Such decision will affect the family and the children involved and somehow would bring the implications to society. It is actually hard to predict, either in the short or long term, this practice effect on the ratio of the males to females within society. Studies have shown that the majority of couples would choose the boy as their first child. If this happened, it again raises the controversy where there is considerable evidence that the first child may enjoy more advantages over the younger siblings. Since there are difficult to predict the outcome of any such practice, we have not found it possible to amend the laws and regulation in the sex selection.

52 Cmnd 9314, London: HMSO, 1984.