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This paper delves into the world of Islamic and Muslim culture and its effects on the Saudi Arabian woman in terms of education and leadership. Access to justice and the structure of the government of Saudi Arabia is used as an example of how road blocks are put in place politically for Saudi women. Economic, educational and religious leadership are discussed in-depth with ideas of how to bring social change for women to gain educational and leadership roles in Saudi Arabia. Muslim and Islamic social norms, and their impact on Saudi women, are discussed within this examination. Political leadership and the lack of women inside of the world of the Saudi government provide greater insight to this review.

Saudi Arabia is a desert country spread over 864,000 square miles. There are no rivers or lakes. The clusters of townships are seen around a few oases and seashores. Big cities, like Riyadh, Makkah, Medina, Dhahran and Jeddah, enjoy all the amenities of well-planned modern metropolitan cities. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, headed by the Al Saud royal family, with a council of ministers. Saudi Arabia’s strong roots in religious and tribal histories has made it what it has become today. By the 1970’s Saudi Arabia had become a dominant in the realm of international finance and a significant political power in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has emerged as the fulcrum of the Middle East political juggernaut. This meteoric rise unleashed tremendous forces which reverberated in every aspect of life of the nation; social, economic and political. The nomadic tribes, which roamed the arid deserts, camping from oasis to oasis, struggling to survive, suddenly found themselves wallowing in wealth. Townships with modern amenities began to mushroom in the barren biblical land. The impact of the sudden economic boom unleashed by the oil bonanza struck Saudi society like an avalanche. Initially, Saudis were baffled by the rapid socio-economic undercurrents, but soon took control of the situation and adapted themselves to the new environment, without swerving from the trodden path of Islamic tradition. Saudi Arabia is occupying the larger part of the Arabian Peninsula and is the world’s leading oil producer and exporter. The kingdom is the center of the major places of importance for Muslims from all over the world. In this case, it houses two of the most holy cities of Islam: Mecca and the medina. In Mecca, approximately two million pilgrims meet every year for the annual pilgrimage. The total population for the country is approximately twenty six million people with about seventy percent of the population constituting of foreigners who work on temporary permits (Kathleen, 1991). About ten percent of the population consists of the Shi’a who are discriminated against in hiring, education and government processes the recent past, Saudi Arabia has made some progress in women’s education and employment. However, “gender discrimination is built into Saudi Arabia’s governmental and social structures and is integral in the country’s practice and interpretation of their particular version of religious teachings” (Anders, 1998). For women, access to employment activities is very limited, with minimal enjoyment of the full benefits of citizenship or adulthood. This limitation has caused a call for change and the reformers are actively working on forming the democracy of the country. The international community is also working in close collaboration with the reformers to help in the administration of justice and the equality of gender in Saudi Arabia (Sameena, 2005).

In my study, I aim to explore the discriminative judicial and government systems in the country with the inequality in the gender treatment to describe the leadership roles of the women in the Saudi society. I will also show how the various isolation methods that Saudi women undergo hinder them from experiencing leadership roles.

Access for Justice and the Indiscrimination in the Saudi Society

The Saudi system is set up in a form known as the Sunni-Islam state version which is a conservative form of government in terms of interpretation of the Muslim faith. In the judicial and government system of the country they make use of the Islam law that is comprised of a defined gender inequality. In this case, the women are subjected to strict and tight legal instructions and there are restrictions on their personal behavior in comparison to men (Colin, 2005). There is no equality for women despite Article 8 of the Saudi law which states that, “Government in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is based on the premise of justice, consultation, and equality in accordance with the shari’ah law” (Sameena, 2005). However, the individual interpretations favor men rather than women resulting in a hierarchy system that also privileges notables and good connections over ordinary citizens and outsiders (2005). In this case, the young defer to the elder and the women have to defer to the men. This system in itself creates a biased and self-centered form of society with a poor scripture. For the outsiders, foreigners are treated differently depending on the country of origin and the race, too (Kathleen, 1991).

Women cannot act as lawyers, and for one to have access to justice she must work under a male lawyer where she is forced to offer up most of her confidential information regarding financial and family matters to the lawyer and the judges. A single man’s testimony in the court is the same as for two women (Sameena, 2005). In most cases, the women rely on their husbands and this denies the women personal justice and the ability to access power and leadership positions since one cannot experience power without justice.

The Saudi Woman and Economical Leadership

One of the major factors that has shaped the Saudi Society, is the economic situation. However, Tucker (1993) disagrees with the notion that a modern capitalist economy and its extension to almost all areas have resulted in many positive changes for women in Saudi Arabia. She argues that pre-capitalist urban occupations were already open to Saudi women of all classes, from midwifery and entertainment to holders of important real estate. Economic changes of the modern period did not improve or raise the levels of women’s participation in public life. In the Saudi culture, serious life begins with marriage, which can be for many, an escape from family pressures and economic difficulty. Because males are seen as the protectors and supporters of women and are, therefore, considered indispensable, families pull all their resources together (material and emotional) to ensure that their young daughters marry appropriately.

Women of Saudi nationality are not allowed to access benefits from the government. In the case where a Saudi woman marries a non-Saudi, she then cannot pass the nationality to her children. Consequently, in 2002, women had no right to obtain the national identity card without the order from the mahram, but they appeared as nationals from the state records that included her as a member of a particular family only (Kathleen, 1991). When this was the norm, widowed and single women had a hard time gaining leadership of their families and also in obtaining other benefits of their own and from the state subsidies (Cordesman, 2003).

Saudi women do not have the right to the sign contracts or to control financial assets and in this instance, women are made to “lick the boots” of the males. As a result, women are denied the economic leadership and mainly depend on their husbands for economical support. The women cannot be integrated in the development processes and this greatly impacts them due to their reduced influence in policy making and changes in legislation (Colin, 2005).

In a way, the Saudi law is observed as assuring gender equivalence with the balance of the prescribed duties and rights for both men and women in relation to each other. Consider for example, the case where the daughters retain half as much inheritance as the sons and they are being taken care of by their husbands (Colin, 2005) .Women retain property after marriage and in this case, the husbands have the right to protect the woman and hence the women have no obligation to spend their acquired wealth on the men’s behalf. The married men have the full responsibility for their family needs. And in case a woman conducts herself in an immoral manner, the man of closest relation is punished on her behalf (Helen, 2007).

The role of women in Saudi Arabia is becoming more significant in both political and economic terms as more and more women hold positions of leadership and civic prominence. The educational levels of the women who have made significant contributions on leadership hold positions as founders of organizations and range in their education: from holding bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees. Some of these women hold voluntary positions and others hold paid positions that entail career commitments.

Special emphasis on higher education is a salient feature of Saudi educational policy. Established in 1975, the Ministry of Higher Education embarked on a long-term master plan to enable the Saudi educational system to provide the highly trained manpower necessary to run the country’s increasingly sophisticated economy (General Presidency of Girls Education, (2000)). The primary objective was to establish new institutes of higher education throughout the country.

The Kingdom has given priority to quantity and quality expansion of education in the last five to seven-years development plans. Despite the low percentage of Saudi women working in the labor force in the Kingdom compared to advanced countries, it is the unavailability of working sectors open for Saudi women – usually limited to education and medicine – which has caused some saturation in these sectors. The Saudi government is planning to undertake a study of the role of women in the country’s economy (The Kahleej Times, (2005)). Some of the goals expressed by Saudi Arabia’s 8th Five-Year plan (2005-2009) are to enlarge the scope of economic activities available for women. One of the steps being considered to realize the goals as set forth in the Plan is to take a look at current regulations and see what needs to be done to modify or eliminate them to open the economy further to women. Other parts of the plan focus on long term policies needed to support females who want to work. The objective is to lower the unemployment rate for women. In keeping with this objective, the plan wants government and private organizations to provide counseling for women for whom the novelty of employment may be stressful. The Saudi Plan goes beyond employment to address the entrepreneurial and investing ambitions of the country’s women. According to the Times many Saudi females have access to idle funds, which they could be using not only to provide employment for themselves–as traders–but also as an asset to the Saudi economy as a whole. Saudi Arabia is considering changing some of its restrictive policies directed at limiting the participation of women in the country’s economy.

Women and the Religious Leadership

To better understand a Saudi woman’s position, one must learn a great deal about the culture and religion. One should also understand Islam, its history and culture. The word Islam is an Arabic word meaning peace, submission and obedience. In a Muslim community, the people are to follow God’s commands and live a moral life. Saudi women who are working and serve society should be careful to follow an Islamic way of life.

In the modern society, wearing a hijab, which may cover a woman’s head or her whole body, remains part of Muslim culture in Saudi Arabia and also worldwide. Most Muslim women dress modestly and in Muslim countries even the most successful business women will cover themselves with the hijab. Many of the women welcome this practice as they feel it prevents them from being bothered by co-workers or strangers. Some modern Muslims in non-Muslims cultures, however, choose not to cover to attract less attention rather than deal with discouragement about it. Whichever the case, the wearing of a hijab should be intended to please God and should not be done in a mandatory or pressurized manner (Cordesman, 2003).

Before Islam, in the Arab world women had no rights to own any property, inherit, divorce, or even choose their marriage partner; the father was usually the one to decide or a male relative. With the advent of Islam, women were given the aforementioned rights and their status changed to that of a dignified human being, deserving of respect and honor. The Islamic view about women is that men and women are equal in their origin and their rights. According to the history of Islam, women have political rights, can participate in public affairs, run a business, choose their husbands and even inherit properly. In regard of women’s education, a woman in Islam is not required to contribute financially to the family, which may explain why some Saudis consider education to be worthwhile and necessary for males and less for women. The Quran, which is the source of Islamic jurisprudence, contains no verse that deprives woman the right to be educated In fact, the word Quran is derived from the word ‘reading’ and the first quranic verse calls on the devoted to read and write. There are no barriers to women acquiring knowledge in the Islamic faith as long as there is no mixing between the two genders.

“Many Muslims believe that men and women are equal in matters of religion and education, and that every instruction given in it applies equally to male and female” (Kathleen, 1991). The role of women in the family and upbringing of children play a major part in the Muslim culture. Muslim culture takes this instruction a bit further to where the women are allowed to worship at home as the men and the boys worship at the mosque. As a result, despite the active role of women in religion, Saudi women are denied access to any management roles and leadership positions in the country’s religious institutions (Kathleen, 1991).

A battle between culture and religion has arisen, as Islam allows women the right to education and a separate income from their spouse. And as Arab women continue to seek education and work, society’s expectations hover over them, giving more strength to those who oppose such actions.

Saudi Women and the Education Sector

Education is a central aspect of family and community life. Parents are deeply involved in their children’s education, and the close links between home and school serve to reinforce the structure of the community and the nation.

The education of Arab women started long ago, dating back almost 1500 years, when the wife of Prophet Muhammad, Khadija, owned her own caravan and was her own employer; a successful one at that. However, after the Prophet’s death, the status of women slowly began to decline, and by the early 1900’s, Arab women’s status had been dwindled down to that of oppression and non-education. Because of this, several feminist women movements arose in the 1930’s and 1940’s, the most famous one led by Huda Sha’rawi in Egypt (Sidani, 2005). Even though these feminist movements helped encourage Arab women to get back on the rise in society, only a handful were able to achieve that, as many countries such as Saudi Arabia still held the status of women back.

Women’s education in Saudi Arabia started informally with the Kuttab schools that taught the fundamentals of Islam and the basics of writing, reading, and arithmetic. By 1945, King Abdul Aziz, the country’s founder, had initiated an extensive program to establish schools in the Kingdom. Six years later, in 1951, the country had 226 schools with 29,887 students. In 1954, the Ministry of Education was established headed by then Prince Fahd as the first Minister of Education. The first university, now known as King Saud University, was founded in Riyadh in 1957.

In 1943, the first private girl’s school was established in Makkah by a group of people in the private sector who wanted to teach their daughters basic reading, writing and mathematics (Al Salloom, 1991). When public elementary education for girls began in 1960, there were only 15 school buildings, with a total of 127 classrooms and 518 female students. Public education at the intermediate and secondary levels for girls followed in 1963 with four school buildings for the intermediate level, and one for the secondary level (Al Salloom, 1991). As Saudi families started to realize that educating their daughters posed no threat to family life in the traditional role of women in society, the attitude towards females’ education changed.

Female students enrolled at all educational levels and more schools were opened. From 1970 to 1990 the number of female students enrolled in higher education expanded from 400 students to 48,000 (Ministry of planning, 1990). With the rapid expansion of educational facilities and enrollment, the numbers of Saudi females were teachers and school principals (General Presidency of Girls’ education, General Administration for educational research and statistics, 1992).

Today, Saudi Arabia’s nationwide educational system comprises many universities and colleges, including thousands of primary and secondary schools. Open to every citizen, the system provides students with free education, books and health services. Although women’s education was founded 40 years ago, which is not a long time when compared with other countries . the system of women’s education is making progress and developing continuously.

Women in Saudi Arabia are known as the biggest part of the population. Till 10 years ago women were not accepted as a part of the working community. This demonstrates the lack of working sectors open to Saudi women, as well as the transportation issue, and people’s attitude towards employed women.

Jobs available for Saudi women are very limited and are mostly in education, health, and administration. Women can work and attain jobs in any setting as long as there is no exposure to men. Because of this cultural and religious rule, women need to have their own independent social and educational organizations. Society allows women to fill top administrative positions in women’s colleges in order to manage the college effectively. Women have a privileged familiarity with the issues in their education. But education for Saudi women is regarded as being of secondary importance to taking care of the household and family.

There are few jobs available for well-qualified women in Saudi Arabia. The main reason for this is that women’s education did not start alongside men’s education. Women’s education was subject to negotiation with religious and social traditions.

In 1993, King Fahad, introduced new provisions for the Higher Education Council and the University System. The objective was to enhance the efficiency of Saudi universities by offering programs in new fields, encouraging greater cooperation among Saudi institutes of higher learning and increasing involvement of the teaching staff in the operations of facilities. Many female students study in universities that accept both male and female students and also at colleges set up exclusively for women.

To complement their studies in universities in the Kingdom, Saudi students have the opportunity to pursue graduate and post-graduate degrees in specialized fields abroad. Supported by the government scholarships, thousands of Saudi students are enrolled in universities outside the Kingdom, mainly in the United States.

The beginning of women’s higher education was similar in Saudi Arabia and the United States, in that both countries, at one point, denied women access to higher education and women were considered as comparative newcomers to equity of opportunity in education. This brings light to addressing another issue involving higher education and the Saudi woman: women don’t have the right to make decisions and set policies concerning their higher education. To some extent, they may manage and organize their day-to-day departments, operations and resources but all major decisions affecting them-such as hiring, planning and evaluating are still made by men. What makes this problem more complicated is the lack of communication, face to face between men who are high in administered hierarchy and women who occupy lower administrative levels.

For the graduate female students, there are minimal chances for them to advance in the job markets and this hinders the women from rising up into a leadership position in the education sector. The lucky few women in leadership positions in the education sector have intensively proposed for the subsidiary vocational education to allow for the women participation in the government agencies and employment opportunities but this falls on deaf ears (Helen, 2007).

The nature of female leadership roles and women leaders’ experiences are influenced by the essential framework of the concerned social structure and its ideological basis that determines sex roles, organizational structure and practices and the power relations” and, in the broad perspective, the women are segregated and marginalized and thus they are denied the educational leadership (Anders, 1998).

As a result of information on teacher’s job satisfaction and principal leadership, behavior in Saudi Arabia is limited, and it is necessary to look at research conducted in other countries for information that could help bridge the gap between preconceived notions about the Arab world and the reality of the conditions encountered by women in that part of the world.

Cultural Factors Influencing Saudi Women

The shaping of societies in general is dependent on cultural and traditional factors, as well as economic and political systems. In Saudi Arabia, society culture and traditions play a major role. Culture predominantly influences women’s’ roles in Muslim society, because of the emphasis placed on women’s status and acceptable behavior as outlined in the Quran. Runty (1981) believed that no matter what form the political system took, no matter what level of education women attained, no matter what traditional values governed employment, Saudi women would not play major leadership roles in modern day economics because cultural factors have impeded their development. There are a number of factors that have impacted the Saudi women’s status and their position in society. The economy, the importance of the family unit, the educational opportunities available, the degree of encouragement women encounter in their pursuit of education and work, and the degree of urbanization attained are all important factors that shape a society and mold many of its beliefs and values (Fattah, 1981).

Saudi Arabia’s culture and traditions are different from the United States and are used as a basis of comparison for two reasons: first, Saudi Arabia and the United States are young wealthy countries that continue to progress (Al-Shaman, 1993); and second, to see if Saudi Arabian secondary school teachers’ levels of job satisfaction are different from that of secondary school teachers in the United States.

Limited information on Saudi female teachers’ job satisfaction and principal leadership behavior in Saudi Arabia is available, thus it is necessary to also look at research conducted about male teachers. Benton and Halloran (1991) indicated that men have reported a higher degree of job satisfaction than women, but more recently differences have diminished, due in part to more equal opportunities for the employment and advancement of women.

An empirical study conducted in Qatar by (a country adjacent to Saudi Arabia that shares its religion and culture) Al-Sheikh and Salamah (1982) revealed that the difference between male and female levels of job satisfaction is not significant. A similar study conducted in the United States by Windel (1991) also found no significant difference between male and female teachers’ job satisfaction.

Although the Holy Quraan does not state that men and women should be separate in the field of education and labor, traditionally, to ensure a stable family life, women are not permitted to mix freely with men (AL-Hariri, 1989).

It is easy to speculate that the differences in levels of job satisfaction between Saudi female secondary public school teachers and their counterparts in the United States may be due to cultural factors such as the attitude towards women’s education, the fact that education is segregated by gender, and the regency of education for women

Despite growing acceptance of women’s education in Saudi Arabia, education for women still faces conservative attitudes from many Saudi citizens. Such conservative thinking focuses on women building the traditional roles of wives and mothers and may cause fear that education may weaken these roles. These conservative attitudes towards women’s education are not related to the influences of Islam , but may be part of the traditions of the Saudi Society (Al-Rawaf & Simmons, 1991). In addition, women receive fewer formal courses in school administration and in-service training than men (Al-Shakhis, 1984; Al-Shaman, 1993; & Marza 1991).

Women administrators receive inadequate training; as a result, female school principals are less qualified in leadership behaviors and supervision than their male counterparts are. Teachers should have a chance to use what they have learned in education courses. They also should be involved in the planning and decision-making process regarding curriculum, time use, classroom instructions, method of instructions, resource allocation, and procedures for students’ evaluation. Including them as active participants would be an excellent first step in enhancing their job satisfaction.

Women and Society

There are many different aspects in understanding and exploring the Saudi Arabian culture, particularly the role and status of the women. In Saudi Arabia, women have been given idle lives to lead and are limited within their homes.

In Saudi Arabia, girls are socialized from their early years to obtain a domestic role that fits their gender roles. For girls in Saudi Arabia, becoming a mother is the norm and is the biggest goal of her life. She is raised to believe that she should aim to be a “good mother” and that it is her responsibility to devote her time to her husband and children. The education of Saudi women must be supported by the state. The women of Saudi Arabia have become one of the fastest changing elements of society.

Women’s rights groups in Saudi Arabia are not functional and that is why women, including foreigners, are not allowed to drive motor vehicles in the public facilities. The women are also not supposed to ride on motor vehicles with strangers. One should either be accompanied by a close relative, an employee or the employer (Helen, 2007). Though justice cannot be practiced by one’s own hand. This law denies women the right to make use of a taxi as a means of transport in the absence of the husband or any close relative. Women also cannot make use of motorbikes and bicycles in a public scene (Colin, 2005).

A Saudi woman cannot be admitted into any hospital without the consent of family members of male genderThis, in addition, includes the denial of both domestic and foreign travel of women on solitary basis. However, women are finding other means of maneuvering through this rule in the business industry through the intensive use of the internet (Anders, 1998).

Both legal and social controls combined with the legal sanctioning in the religious practices limit a woman’s freedom of movement in the country. From the government perspective, this is aimed at protecting the women as a necessity while others perceive the laws as a way of accelerating and empowering the male and their dominance in the society, (Helen, 2007).

In this case, a woman should be in the locality unless under the company of the mahram (a male guardian in relation to you) and secondly, the woman is not allowed to have a direct physical contact with a male outside the relation of the family. The society is dominated by males and in this case, most of these boundaries take effects. For the foreign women, the employers usually pick their passports and this localizes the individual to the town of residence. This hinders the females’ dominance and their publicity in the public domain and locks the women out of leadership roles, (Colin, 2005).

Women of the Middle East have long been viewed as an oppressed group. From the desert sands of Saudi Arabia to the mountainous lands of Afghanistan, Arab women have faced many hardships in their society. While the role of a woman is meant to be nurturing and domestic, many have moved on to a more modern view, and have taken on the role as educators and laborers. Arab women threaten the traditional family structure by doing so; however, for many it is a sacrifice they are willing to make, as they see that the world has more to offer than just household chores and childbearing.

Women and Political Leadership

The participation of women in the public domain, including the political arena, is very limited in Saudi Arabia. Unlike other Arab Gulf women, Saudi women still face an uphill struggle to gain political and social rights and need the consent of male guardians for almost everything, including obtaining a passport and travel.

The hierarchical system of the Saudi government does not allow for democratic voting. Saudi Arabian political leaders are, therefore, hiding behind false religious pretexts by withholding many rights from women. It is a violation of their own religious beliefs and practices. Other Islamic countries, such as Egypt, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, allow women to vote and still maintain their traditional and religious practices.

The country does not contain any political parties, thus the absence of elections. Women are becoming more active in reform but their efforts are marginalized. The extent of reform is determined by the ruling family (Cordesman, 2003).

Alyousif attributes the lack of a political role for Saudi women to educational decisions. “Very few Saudi women major in political science, and this major used to be closed to women. By restructuring some of the universities and providing the major [to women], we are establishing the beginning of a new era in which young women study politics academically before applying it on the ground.” However, a careful analysis of the powers female Saudi officials possess shows that their positions are superficial. For example, Princess Dr. al-Jawhara bint Fahd al-Saud was undersecretary of education for women’s colleges for 10 years before becoming president of Riyadh University for Women in April 2007. And yet, in a conference on women’s rights, she told hundreds of women that as undersecretary she “did not have the necessary powers to make decisions, even though this position is the third highest ranking in the Ministry of Education” ( Nora Alyousif, 2007).

The country lacks the basic freedoms for even the civil society to take part in the leadership. It is very hard to start new organizations and even more so the women groups, due to their co-option by the government. I would recommend the existence of political parties in the country with free elections since this would foster democratic growth in the country (Anders, 1998). The media should be free to express their ideas and women rights agencies should be supported to help in the equality of gender, promote the growth of the economy and the active participation of women in the exercising of political power (Kathleen, 1991).

Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to examine the family and societal factors that influenced Saudi women in their pursuit of leadership po

It has been argued that, women have been excluded from the study of work, and that, when they are studied, the analysis has often been distorted by sexist assumptions (Acker, 1977; Acker

and Van Houten, 1974; Brown, 1976; Kanter, 1975, 1977; Oakley, 1974). Prior to the industrial revolution, the family economy operated as a cohesive unit; typically all family members, regardless of age or gender, were engaged in productive labour (Tilly and Scott, 1978). Given gendered expectations, along with a gendered opportunity structure (Browne and England, 1997), we, therefore, assume that

Women would benefit from arrangements providing the most family-related resources and

Supports in terms of both economic capital (e.g. income, security) and social capital (e.g. less time on the job, a supportive supervisor). Wethington and Kessler (1989) found women with high employment commitments were more vulnerable to distress (see also Mirowsky, 1996). Nowadays women have more freedom in choosing the path for their future and they may decide whether or not to combine career with having children. Women’s increased share of the labour force has prompted businesses to respond to their family needs by providing ”flexitime”, or flexible work schedules (Wiatrowski, 1990). Bergmann 1986 highlights that middle class women are having fewer children; their labour force participation is now less responsive to their position in the family cycle. In fact as stated by Robinson, 1988 Women still do much more housework and family care than men, but the hour’s women spend performing these duties have been declining, particularly among younger women. The entrance of women of all ages into the labour force in the second half of the twentieth century has created another period of structural lag (Moen and Yu, 2000). However although there has been effort done to increase diversity, female employees still face the glass ceiling when it comes to the top management jobs. The glass ceiling is according to Maume,2004 a failure of women or a certain minority groups in climbing up the corporate ladder, despite seeing the top jobs but still not reaching them due to the discriminatory barriers.

The expectations from the women’s family and from the society may sometimes affect the decisions of women in their career objectives which may act as a barrier. The society sometimes treats women differently. Sometimes often careers are cut short because of for instance maternity leave which takes women out of the workplace for months at a time where the company needs to move on. However, over the last years there was a change in the perspective that women are not as effective as men and this was highlighted in the Economist “Men -Tomorrow’s second sex”. A One Chief Executive Officer of a large Mauritian multi-national stated recently: “Women have done really well here and moved on. I’ve never come across sexist views. There are some really good assertive women role models here. Women want to progress and people’s attitudes have changed”.

Women in hospitality

Woods and Viehland (2000) found that although practitioners and researchers were concerned with females’ status in hotel management, only a few empirical studies examined this topic. Whether the issue has been scrupulously studied or not, relevant literature clarified that it was widely debated (Mann and Seacord, 2003; Del Sesto, 1993). In UK, the tourism sector was one of the area where there was the fastest growth and in the 80’s three quarter of this growth was women’s who were the most represented mainly in partime jobs ,insecure, low status and clerical post.

Recent years have seen an emergence of studies that explore mobility, the role of women in the labor force and the expansion of the internationally hospitality workforce (Baum et al…,2007 ; Devin,Baum,Hearns,Devine2007a,2007b;Matthew&Ruhs,2007).Today tourism presents both the opportunities and challenges for gender equality and women’s empowerment. (Global report on women in tourism 2010). Females contribute a significant proportion of the labor force in several countries awareness of the factors and the constraints that might affect their participation is increasingly required for their managers ( Burrel et al,… 1997). The participation and involvement of women in tourism sector is being encouraged and women’s participation has increased directly and indirectly in tourism industry also Boxall and Purcell,2003 states that the career ladder within hotels is predicated on the conventional employment models of continuous employment and linear progression.

(Bagulley, 1990, Hicks 1990; Jordon 1997 ; Wood 1992) Identify that the tourism and hospitality sectors are dominated by women and managed by men; in fact it is very common as the service sector is largely populated by women and they are more present especially at the lower level. Women are important to the hospitality labour market ( Doherty 1997).

In many of the literature review it has been observed and declared by many authors that women are key participants in the tourism labour market ( Ashley,Roe and Goodwin 2001;Jameison 2003) ,although there is a belief that women tend to be disadvantaged in this sector as few women occupy the senior executive positions and those that do receive less pay ( Iverson,2000 ; Jordon 1997 ; Ng and Pine 2003 ; Skalpe,2007; Zhong and Couch,2007). However, we can put forward “assertion was that girls are now outperforming boys at every level in school and closing the gap at university level”. Women in fact predominate in the growing service sector, while men are trapped in declining heavy industries – the sugar industry is an example (In Mauritius) – and that employed men are no longer attractive marriage partners. (Tulsidas Naraidoo, 2011)

It has been found that women are more likely to fill part time roles , 54% of female working in the sector work part time, compared to 46% of man-according to women case for change-executive summary 2010. Beyond the rapidly increasing numbers of female entering the workplace (Mc Dougal & Briley 1994), we cannot neglect women’s contribution in tourism development as for instance nowadays the proportion of women graduated in the sector is increasing at a rapid rate. Women are acknowledged as key participants in the tourism labor market (Ashley, Roe and Goodwin 2001; Jamieson 2003).

According to Kate Purcell the “women’s jobs” fall predominantly three categories:

“Contingently- gendered jobs” which happen to be mainly done by women but for which the demand for labour is gender-neutral.

Women work in such jobs as a result of employers’ pursuit of economic advantage rather than gendered preferences; they want cheap workers, and women – particularly, married women seeking part time work – have historically been available for employment for lower average rates of pay than men; partly reflecting their status as “component” rather than “breadwinner”. Crompton and Sanderson[8, pp. 155-8]

“sextyped jobs”, where sexuality or other attributes assumed to be sex-related are explicit or implicit parts of the job specification

In the hospitality industry it is a cliche that ” the right kind of personality” is a more important employment prerequisite than formal qualifications[13,14]. Where Filby’s[16] finding that “personality” tends to be used as a synonym for sexual attractiveness and/or gender-specific tacit skills and attributes. He was told by a male manager he interviewed that recruitment of female staff was informed by “a height for weight principle” It has been noted that for some front house jobs it is essential to have “a certain type of woman” which, when pressed, he defined as “ideally between 21 and 26, with long legs and a good figure”. This is because the “the customers expect it”. This remark was highlighted by many other authors as Adkins [17, p. 109]).

“Patriarchally-prescribed jobs” where patriarchal practice determines and prescribes appropriate job incumbency.

Patriarchal prescriptions, though, is a distinct and equally powerful tendency, deriving from largely unarticulated understandings that male dominance in the home and in the public sphere and women’s dependency are normal and that these norms derive from “natural” differences between the sexes.

Bell and Newby have identified that there is thee is the deferential dialect” between male and female often, as reinforcing women’s economic dependency on men by providing opportunities for “component waged” jobs[10] which the HCTC[3, p. 37] note, without irony, “appeal to women who wish to combine the opportunity to earn an income with their domestic responsibilities”. The more higher level and very well paid the post is, the more likely it will be filled by a man, even though , women may be greater in number in the industry.

“Gender roles play a great role for women’s low involvement in direct tourism business in one hand and on the other hand many employers of this sector think that women cannot continue the job due to their social and biological reproductive responsibilities. Such attitude of the employers about women may be due to the discriminative nature of the patriarchal system of the society.”

Tourism provides good opportunities for female employees’ contribution and participation in the tourism employment. Women’s entrepreneurship as well as their leadership is important. Female employee in the tourism sector earn low pay and they are sometimes under utilised and under represented. However tourism offers positive pathways to the female success in tourism.

The global report on women in tourism 2010 by UNWTO and UNIFEM (now UN Women) findings were as follows:

1. Women make up a large proportion of the formal tourism workforce.

2. Women are well represented in service and clerical level jobs but poorly represented at professional levels.

3. Women in tourism are typically earning 10% to 15% less than their male counterparts.

4. The tourism sector has almost twice as many women employers as other sectors.

5. One in five tourism ministers worldwide are women.

6. Women make up a much higher proportion of own-account workers in tourism than in other sectors.

7. A large amount of unpaid work is being carried out by women in family tourism businesses.

Research indicates that religion, culture, and society can influence women’s employment (Constance 2005; Feldmann 2007; Foroutan 2008; Read and Oselin 2008; Read 2004) and also a good example is in the context of Malaysia, Amin and Alam (2008) also found that religion significantly influenced a woman’s decision regarding employment. However religion may not be the only factor discouraging women of working in hotels but also poor employee facilities and the absence of childcare facilities available in the country (Dayal and Didi 2001).

2.2.1 Women contribution to the hospitality industry

Women are acknowledged as key participants in the tourism labor market(Ashley, Roe and Goodwin 2001; Jamieson 2003).

The tourism sector is very labour intensive; it provides different jobs opportunities from high skilled jobs to unskilled jobs. However “Women are often concentrated in low status, low paid and precarious jobs in tourism industry” as quoted in the global report on women in tourism 2010. According to Garavan etal., 2006;Woods and Viehland, 2000, senior managers are predominantly male; women middle managers are in housekeeping, front desk, personnel and training and conference and banqueting, whereas male managers are in finance and control, property and security and purchasing the latter more likely to lead to the general manager’s job also as stated in the report of the fifth UNWTO international conference on tourism statistics the apparent rate of women in the sector seems also to be related to the cultural issues, especially for employment in housekeeping, laundry, food preparation, guest services and so on. Many countries have a high presence of the feminine labour force in tourism this is because of the high demand of unqualified workers, especially for young women. Initially in the other hand females describe themselves much less satisfied than males in the hospitality sector. In America more than 50 % of the people who are employed in the tourism sector are women. According to Edgell, one in every fifteen people all over the world is employed in tourism sector and half of them are women. In the third world women constitute the basement of employment in tourism sector because they may work part-time, seasonally and without full salary. However, the industry plays a very important role for the education and independence of women. Since tourism is a hospitality industry, the role of women is looked upon as significant and the trend of women participation is considerably increased since the mid of 70s. According to World Tourism Organization, in tourism business 51 percent are women (MOT/UNDP, 2006).

Barriers face by female employees in hotels

Even though women are important for the tourism sector, barriers to the advancement of female employees continue to persist; literature has singled out society’s stereotypes and prejudices against women in positions of power (Catalyst, 2002, 2005). In fact a number of possible barriers to women’s career advancement have been identified (Brownell 1993), including:

the glass ceiling based on gender discrimination

lack of role models

an absence of mentoring opportunities

exclusion from informal networks

gender discrimination and sexual harassment

(Knutson and Schmigdall, 1999)

From Richard Martell and Christopher Parker view it is stereotype which acts as a major barrier to women, they stated that women “lack characteristics most needed to succeed and consequently were often judged to be less qualified than men”.

However from the executive summary of the case for change: Women working in hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism 2010, identify five other key barriers which according to them appear to be most significant in preventing women advancement to senior roles in the sector:

the difficulty of combining work at senior roles with caring responsibilities

a dominant masculine organisational culture

preconceptions and gender bias

lack of networking and exclusion from informal networks of communication

Lack of visible women in senior positions.

What can be noted is that all the authors’ writings upon the barriers that stop women advancements are quite the same basically. It resemble in the sense that for example the lack of example of women at senior post, the stereotype at work or even the lack of networking. There is a serious need today to establish what kinds of work women may perform and if there are any barriers to their full integration and to identify policies and practices which might be helpful for employers who wished to make better use of their female workforce. (Tulsidas Naraidoo, 2011). ). However Woods and Kavanaugh (1994) according to whom gender discrimination was an invisible barrier that kept women from reaching top positions in many management circles

There are other barriers identified also for instance: Other authors have cited the old boy network (Brownell, 1994a; Diaz and Umbreit, 1995); Women may have to work twice as hard and do twice as good a job in order to warrant a promotion (Brownell, 1994b, Gregg and Johnson, 1996). Moreover Sekam 2000 sited that for family reason as well as organisational demands become to both working women and their organisation that fail to tap the full potential of experienced women thereby becoming less productive themselves. Family constraints is another barrier that women can faced it can be perceived ad a function of a female’s commitment to and actual involvement in duties associated with parental ,marital and homemaker roles on one hand and the amount of support she receives from her spouses and relatives on the other ( Chin-Ching 1992).Sometimes in some countries in hotel industry part-time or of informal work is the flexibility it can give to women who may be required to spend more time working in the home (with family or care responsibilities). (ILO report). On the other hand some research indicates that religion, culture, and society can influence women’s employment (Constance 2005; Feldmann 2007; Foroutan 2008; Read and Oselin 2008; Read 2004).

2.3.1 Segregation in the hospitality industry

The theories of occupational segregation on women’s employment were first presented in depth by Hakim (1992). In fact the tourism industry has shown a wide adoption of segregational occupation (Crompton and Sunderson 1990). In the industry women frequently carry out the most undesirable and lowest status work ( Adid and Guerrier 2003; Korczynski 2002) Many authors have identified the factors which contribute to the professional marginalisation of women. The interlinked factors include gender stereotyping ( Heilman,2001) ; a lack a role model , mentors and peers for women in the workplace ( Noe,1988) and ‘the glass ceiling’ ( Davidson and Cooper,1992; Reich 1995).

Problems of gender domination include women workers crowded into a narrow range of jobs, lack opportunities for promotion and development and insufficient opportunity to develop a broad range of skills (Gardner and Plamer 1997; Haganand Jensen 1998). The Global report on women in tourism 2010, states that gender stereotyping and discrimination means that women mainly tend to perform job such as cooking, cleaning and hospitality.

Vertical and Horizontal sex segregation has been shown to exist in the hotel industry ( Ludkins 1999). As in most organisations and occupations, there are male and female occupational groups vertically and horizontally segregated throughout large hospitality organizations and hotels themselves, reflecting economic and power differences. Many studies of gender segregation have focused on international country comparisons (Jensen et al., 1988, OECD, 1999) and industry and cross sectoral comparisons (Game and Pringle, 1983; Pringle, 1988).

Segregation by gender results in individual costs to women workers in terms of narrower range of employment choices and opportunities along with lower pay but there are also broader economic and social costs. It is contended that gender segregation of the workforce inhibits flexibility in responding to pressures of structural adjustments and prevents expanding national skills bases resulting in a less competitive economy. (OECD, 1991)

The sexual division of labour resulting in the domination of industry sectors, organisations and professional by one gender is argued to be a major factor shaping workplace relations. (Game and Pringle, 1983; Burton, 1991)

In general, gender inequality in the labour market is closely connected to educational and professional, both vertical and horizontal, segregation. The labour market is divided into women’s jobs and men’s jobs, and women find it hard to access managerial posts. (HCT ILO REPORT). Stockdale (1991, p.57) has defined occupational sex segregation as existing where the jobs, that women do are different from those done by men ( horizontal segregation) and women work at lower levels than men in the occupational hierarchy ( vertical segregation).

It is still the case that relatively few women achieve management roles in the service areas and as a consequence few make to general management positions. This segregation within the management ranks impacts adversely on the pay of women managers and their influence in this field. Tulsidas Naraidoo, 2011.

2.3.2 Sexual issues in hotels.

Urry’s[18] observation that such the service and commercial industry involve the sale of an experience, where the quality of the social interaction, including the visual presentation of interactive service workers, is an intrinsic part of the service itself. If women are routinely seen as (indeed, employed as) sex objects, what implications does this have for their career development opportunities, as individuals and as a category? Interactive service jobs in hospitality, tourism and leisure, exemplify occupations where gender (and indeed, sexuality) are explicit aspects of the job. In fact tourism is associated with freedom and relaxation that have traditionally been visualized in marketing and PR with images of attractive young women. (HCT ILO REPORT). Woods and Cavanaugh (1999) stated that almost one-quarter of both males and females agreed that most women in the hospitality industry had been subjected to sexual harassment at work. The ILO report that women are, more often than men, faced with precarious types of jobs, violence at work, stress and sexual harassment. It is a fact that when working in the hotel industry the service worker must be “socially attractive and friendly with the customer” . An author even gave an example of a young girl who was told on starting waitress to “wear her skirt as short she would feel comfortable”.

The main characteristics of the sexual issues are obviously the sexual harassment on the place of work that is at the hotels. Woods and Kavanagh (1994) found that hospitality managers perceive sexual harassment to be pervasive within the industry.In many customer contact roles in the service sector, “sexiness” is a part of the role itself, the “job flirt” is encouraged as a part of the service style (Hall, 1993) and there may be a thin line between “selling the service” and “selling sexuality”. The hospitality industry can be susceptible of having incidents odf sexual harassment due to the “ambiguity of hospitality service” , that is , the odd working hours as well as the conditions of work.

2.3.3 The gender role stereotyping perspective in hotels.

Stockdale (1991, p.57) assumption about the segregation and stereotype “the assumption that people in particular jobs and the jobs themselves have the characteristics of only one gender”. Women in the hospitality industry are widely employed in subordinate jobs for their nurturing and/or sexual attributes. Moreover differential treatment of women has been reported in recruitment, pay and career development prospects (Brown, 1979). The reason for the different treatment is the gender role stereotyping perspective. In fact women have been socialized to adopt attitudes and behavior that are in conflict with the demands of a successful managerial career (Schein, 1973, 1975; Terborg, 1977).

Sinclair (1997) found that women have been excluded from some occupations within the tourism industry due to traditional ideologies of gender and social sexuality which is very stereotyped.

Stereotyping can have negative impacts to women’s advancement in the workplace, since negative stereotypes of women influence how their workers perceive them, how their other colleagues perceive their work, their selection for further training and development, and finally, the rapid pace they move in their career. Athought there are such stereotyping in the industry, studies show that female students are more committed to careers in hospitality and tourism and seem to better fit success in this sector than do their male classmates and colleagues (Kuslavan and Kuslavan, 2000; Burke et al., 2008). The female employees must be able of “wearing two different hats – one at work and one at home”

2.3.4 Breaking of the Glass Ceiling in the Hospitality industry.

The term was earlier used by Morrison et al. (1987) in their fascinating book Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Can Women Reach the Top of America’s Largest Corporations? That gave new insight to the issues women face in their journey through the executive echelons of the corporate organizations and Maume 2004, stated that glass ceiling is the failure of women and other minority groups in climbing up the corporate ladder, despite seeing the top jobs, but still not reaching them due to discriminatory barriers, is what many think of as glass ceiling. There have been many studies about the breaking of glass ceiling of women in each and every industry. Cotter et al. (2001) profound description of the term as a specific form of generic inequality existing at the apex of hierarchy contradicts others (Reskin and Padavic, 2001; Maume, 2004) claiming its existence in lower levels and working class jobs.

Cotter et al. (2001) three criteria for the glass ceiling occurrence suggest that it occurs when despite similar credentials women (and minorities) face barriers in their career advancements, it also occurs when due to limited promotional prospects; women are discouraged from the initial placement on the job ladder, thus raising men’s numbers to survive till the top levels and lastly, while organizations may be willing to pay out high salaries to women, they still hesitate to place them in positions where they can make an impact on organizations profitability, therefore, glass ceiling is created.

The glass ceiling as in every industry affected also women in the hospitality industry. It has been highlighted by many authors that the industry is a female dominated industry however it is manage by men. Among the reasons for the glass ceiling phenomenon such as the lack of role models, mentoring, networking options, and the complexities of the dual role as working woman and housekeeper (Crampton and Mishra, 1999), literature has singled out society’s stereotypes and prejudices against women in positions of power (Catalyst, 2002, 2005). According to Frank (2006 do find evidence that gay/bisexual men suffer from glass ceilings comparable to those faced by heterosexual women (p. 485). Existing management resistance must be offset by the multiplier effect of more female role models advancing beyond the glass ceiling.

2.3.5 The promotion issues in hotels.

Like the retail services, tourism and hospitality are sectors which are highly dominated by women however managed by men (Bagguley, 1990; Hicks, 1990; Jordon, 1997; Wood, 1992) Sometimes men get more privileged than women these differentials were reinforced by differences in fringe benefits, with men in the commercial hospitality sector significantly more likely than women to be entitled to valuable “perks” such as company cars, free or subsidized meals, low-cost housing, private health insurance, company share ownership schemes and product discounts. . Many authors tend to attribute the finding that males are promoted more frequently and rapidly than equally qualified females to the influence of gender based stereotypes (Owen and Todor, 1993; Cordano et al., 2002; Tomkiewicz et al., 2004). The hospitality business, therefore, provides fewer opportunities for promotion that are sufficient to meet the expectations of females (McCuddy et. al., 2010).

2.3.5.1 Women in management level in Hotels

Ludking (1999) notes the lack of women in general manger positions despite the high percentage of women in college and university hospitality programs. Although women are now graduating in higher numbers than men from educational institutions (Fagenson and Jackson, 1994) and more women are entering the paid workforce (Hind and Baruch, 1997) and taking up managerial roles (Parker and Fagenson, 1994), the poor representation of women at senior management level continues.

Pursuing a managerial career in every industry requires skills and competencies imparted to men as a social group. Employees and managers holding this type of stereotypic view are likely to perceive women as ineffective managers in job positions incongruent with females’ more traditionally passive gender role. (Schein, 1973, 1975, 1978; Rosen and Jerdee, 1974; Powell and Butterfield, 1979; Brenner et al., 1989; Schein et al., 1989; Schein and Mueller, 1992; Schein et al., 1996; Heilman et al., 1995; Powell et al., 2002). It is not hard to find in the western context where patterns of gender inequality persist in leadership positions even with women’s increasing visibility in the lower echelons of management (Weyer, 2007). Ezell et al. (1981) measuring the effects of having being supervised by a woman on perceptions of female managerial competence found significant differences only in the area of the motivation of a woman to manage. In the present study, direct contact could not help in suppressing gender stereotypes. By June 1996 only three of 72 Hong Kong Hotels had female general managers (Pine 1997). Woman’s desire for advancement into a senior-level leadership position becomes more difficult because of the prevalent ”traditional role” assumptions (Schaap et. al., 2008). Moreover, research conducted in the U.S.A. indicates that, even in America, a disproportionate low number of highly educated females attain executive status in the industry (Li and Leung, 2001). The career ladder within hotels is predicated on the conventional employment models of continuous employment and linear progression (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). Some literatures state that the recruitment and selection processe may not be transparent. Both may be likened to an invisible web that works against women (Green and Cassell, 1996; Lan and Wang Leung, 2001; Rees and Garnsey, 2003).

2.4.1 Harassment at work

An additional negative aspects to women’s work in hotels is that they are subject to high level of sexual harassment from both guests and peers due to their low status and low-educational levels ( Poulston 2008). Research by Eller (1990) clearly indicates that more men and women experience sexual harassment in the hotel industry than do individuals in society-at-large. Today in many hotels there are a high level of female employee of gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

2.5 Inequality issues in hotels.

“Research shows the different ways in which tourism can contribute to economic growth, poverty reduction and community development. However, less attention has been paid to the unequal ways in which the benefits of tourism are distributed between men and women, particularly in the developing world.” Gladys Acosta, UN Women Director for Latin America of the newly-establish UN agency UN Women, pointed out that women’s contribution to the tourism sector is often invisible. According to Purcell and Quinn (1998) that it is a fact that in the early career stages, female hospitality graduates received lower pay, fewer fringe benefits and less intrinsic job satisfaction. However Woods and Kavanaugh (1994) according to who gender discrimination was an invisible barrier that kept women from reaching top positions in many management circles. There also continues to be wide discrepancies in remuneration between the genders (MunE? oz-Bullo? n 2009; Tugores 2008. The hospitality sector has an important role: it should respect the equality of men and women; they should promote human rights and more particularly the individual rights of the most vulnerable groups, notably children, the elderly, the handicapped, ethnic minorities and indigenous people. ILO report (Development and challenges in the hospitality and tourism sector 2010). Kinnaird and Hall (1994) comment that women fulfill the majority of jobs in tourism, especially those which are poorly paid, low skilled and part-time also it is to be noted that in the tourism sector unskilled or semi-skilled women tend to work in the most vulnerable jobs, where they are more likely to experience poor working conditions, inequality of opportunity and treatment, violence, exploitation, stress and sexual harassment. (ILO ) Carli and Eagly (2001) observe that, although women’s status has improved remarkably in the twentieth century in many societies, women continue to lack access to power and leadership compared with men (p. 629).

ENGINEERING is a male dominated profession. Despite the differences in the representations of women in engineering in different countries, it is characterization and conception as a `masculine profession’ remains the same (Uhi, 2003). Women are a minority in this field at both the academic and the professional level more so than in other specialized professions because of social and technological barriers for them. Moreover, it is still generally considered as a profession only for men (Kazemi, 2000). Being a female myself I have and I am still struggling for promotions and became of this I would like to explain this topic further.

It’s my story that’s why I’m so interested in it aˆ¦aˆ¦..

My ambition as a young petroleum engineer was to be a professional engineer with excellent technical knowledge in my line of specialization.

At my first job with Eni Oil Company as a petroleum engineer, I had to put in enormous efforts in learning the basic concepts of petroleum engineering and to prove myself. Working at the city offices far away from the field work was completely a waste of time and I was not able to gain the experience that I needed because field work is the source of almost infinite knowledge on well performance, field management, relationships, drilling, completion, product measurement, and data gathering. It provided with contacts that were crucial to good job performance on every oil well. But I was not allowed to work at petroleum fields because of the Arabic culture which prevents the mixing of women with men in an isolated place. So if I decided to work in oil fields to improve myself I will lose my family and I will be outcast of the society more over I will not be able to get married and start a family. That was absolutely disappointing. This is one of the reasons why I have chosen this research topic so that I can explore the answer for this problem so that my government can take some actions to rectify this problem.

Literature Review:

Engineering is the backbone of the technology that drives our world, and the participation of women in dominantly male professions access to high education and professional type of career are poorly represented in engineering (Carnel, Oldenziel and Zachmann, 2000).

At the beginning of the twentieth century it was unusual for women to enter higher education while few took up professional training. It was even more unusual for them to contemplate becoming scientists and engineers. Since then it has been progress, but it still has been made very slow. Today the image of women’s role in the realm of science and engineering become more and more clear but still form only a small proportion of those engaged in practising and managing engineering (The rising Tide, 1999).

This fact should be evaluated in relation to the gendered culture of technology. Technology has never been neutral in terms of gender (Wajcman, 2001) and has been constructed culturally and historically as masculine (Cockburn, 1999). It should be noted that this argument does not presuppose the idea that technology has to be masculine in its essence. Technology has always been a site for continuing discursive struggles on meanings, images and representations. The history of technology provides cases of fields which were crowded with women in the beginning but developed into `naturally’ masculine domains. The current configuration of technological occupations shows that women `operate the machinery’ instead of `managing technology, developing it is use or maintaining or servicing it’ (Cockburn, 1999). In other words, women work as operators pushing the buttons or the keys and work on the machine without knowing what is going on inside of it.

This gendered segregation in technical professions points to the fact that the dominant discourse in technology is masculine. One of the ways through which the masculine discourse of technology constructs and legitimises itself is the naturalisation of the constructed differences between men and women; emphasising especially the male competence, female incompetence in technical knowledge and skills.

Nevertheless, as Cockburn (1999) argues the low number of women in the fields of technology and engineering cannot be explained by theories that argue that there are `essential’ difference between women and men

Women and men are equally represented in College Education but more important are differences in types of education. (Khatib, 2009) argues that at very early in the school boys express more interests in science and mathematics, and girls excel in verbal skills, which resulted in over representation of men in fields of hard cord science discipline and engineering and women in education and humanities.

But who is better student? If occupational aspirations by sex and different success in mathematics and hard sciences can be seen very early as a result of modelling traditional behaviour pattern, it can be expected that women in engineering are not as good students as their male colleagues having lower grades and longer period of studying. Female students are better in both dimensions they have higher grades and shorter period of studying. In another words women who want to make career in engineering have to do much better than men and are much higher motivated (Khatib, 2009).

It can be argued that women’s entrance into a technical field and engineering is not an easy task. For women to cross into male work is to transgress gender rules and to invite penalties. It involves abandoning women’s traditional values and concerns (Lloyd, 2003)

In Libya the pattern of engineering being a male dominated field repeats. Engineering departments have the lowest percentage of women both as students and professors. In 2002, there were 9,650 female engineers in Libya, comprising 13.6 per cent of all engineers (Alfateh University, 2002). This percentage is the first lowest in all professions in all sectors. When the distribution of female students and professors within Alfatah university engineering programs is assessed, the ratios likewise favour men. The percentage of female students was 12.6 percent in engineering departments in 2002, while it was 45.8 per cent in Literary Sciences, 13.9 percent in Medical Sciences, and 27.7 per cent in Social Sciences in the same academic year. These percentages reflect the distribution of women in academia. And also it has been reported that women are more greatly represented in some engineering departments more than others. at Alfateh university (which is the first and the biggest university in Libya) for the year 2002-2003, the percentage of female students was: 35 per cent in architectural and civil engineering, 32 per cent in chemical and nuclear engineering, 23 per cent in computing engineering, but only 10 per cent in petroleum engineering, These ratios clearly illustrate that a substantial gap exists between petroleum engineering and other departments. Petroleum engineering has been always considered as unattractive department, Moreover there is also a fact that exploration and production of oil and gas is frequently seemed as an un-charmed, dull activity.

The interesting fact in the case of Libyan that women in academic life do not report having faced any discrimination throughout their university education and academic lives. On the contrary, they claim that they `received fair and equal treatment in the academic world but this completely different for women engineers in professional life. There are many obstacles which deter talented females from working as professionals or make it difficult for them to achieve their full career potential.

“Petroleum Engineering is an applied science more than theoretical. to be a good effective engineer you should work in the oil and gas fields which are always located far away from the civilian life in the desert and also on an isolated sea platforms. Digging wells connecting pipes and drilling bits by your own hand measuring the pressure and temperature in the well heads and also being able to deal with the everyday exploration and drilling surprises. In other words you must be following the process of exploration and drilling oil wells step by step from the beginning to the stage of the oil flowing from production pipelines” (Cunha, 2004)

Cunha (2004) also argues that there is no other way to be a successful petroleum engineer and to gain the required and essential experience in the professions of oil industry this might be suitable for male engineers but it is not permitted for the females in Arab societies( Shaban,2006). According to Shaban (2006) there are several factors for this Prevention which can be summarized in three main reasons. The fist factor is the Islamic religion which prohibits the mixing of women and men, especially in isolated places like oil fields. Another factor is the Libyan society which is a conservative society, has strong social ties and special traditions that deny women’s work for long hours outside which might extend for weeks in the case of working hours in the oil fields. Finally the Libyan law, which does not allow any sensible person to carry out actions or statements contravene Islamic religion and Libyan customs and also does not allow women to work at any kind of jobs which do not commensurate with their physical and psychological abilities .

Therefore, female petroleum engineers would not have the opportunity to work at the oil fields and as a result will not be able to gain the required expertise and knowledge to be successful engineers.

Soltan (2008) indicate that in 2007 the proportion of female engineers working at the in the Libyan oil and gas companies had reached 71% of the total graduates from Libyan universities, while 19 percent preferred to leave oil sector and they engage in the education sector.

He also illustrate that all this percentage is working in the company’s offices which mainly located in Benghazi and Tripoli the main capital cities in Libya. This surplus in the number of female engineers lacking basic experiences and low in competence has led to neglect them in direct or indirect way, moreover they became unreliable even to do the simple tasks. Soltan (2008) argues that the cost of training engineers at college is very high. Therefore if the female engineers are underused or lost to the workforce, this represents a financial lost to the nation.

However the management type which can be classified as Telling style which mean high directive and low supportive style this kind of managers with high amount of task behaviour, telling subordinates what, when, and how to do it with minimal support relationship behaviour (Northouse, 2007). This style of management contributed effectively to isolate and ignore the female engineers.

The present study is based on main two questions which are: What are main difficulties that the Libyan female faced in petroleum engineering sector? And how advantages can be taken of this wasted workforce? This question branches into several other questions as follows:

Petroleum engineering does it suitable for females in general according to their physical and mental body structure?

Dose Libyan society accept women to be working on desert isolated petroleum fields? What are the effects on the female social life?

Why females in Libya chose to study Petroleum engineering? Do they know the consequences of this diction on their future?

The purpose of the proposed study is:

Focus on the main difficulties that the Libyan female faced in petroleum engineering industry.

Find out the reasons why Libyan females choose to study Petroleum engineering?

Find out solutions for these difficulties and an attempt to find a way to take advantage of female petroleum engineers.

Research Design

A survey study will be conducted aiming to achieve the objectives of the study. Quantitative data will be collected through online questionnaires for a sample of Libyan female engineers and individual online interviews for some Libyan oil companies’ managers and supervisors.

Online questionnaires and interviews are have several advantages such as: instant communications access worldwide, acceptable to those reluctant to participate in face to face interview, extremely economical on time, response is at interviewee’s convenience and finally no transcription required. For all these reasons and the researcher decided to conduct online researches and also because the respondents live far away from the researcher.

Population and Sample

The research in this study will set in Tripoli city, in the north of Libya. In Tripoli, there are a huge number of petroleum companies, including Libyan and multinational companies.

A wide sample from female petroleum engineering will be taken to find out their own opinion and also from petroleum companies managers and supervisors to obtain the best solution for the research problem.

Research Tools

Questions for focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, as well as questionnaire provided by researcher were translated into the Arabic language to be make the by the questionnaire easier to understand and corporate.

Data Analysis

Quantitative data will be analyzed by the SPSS 9.0 software program.

There are various reasons to why I got into this field perceived to be more of a man’s job. Entrepreneurship was my dream career since childhood and I went through school determined to realize my dream. My marriage has not interfered with my career. In fact, my family has been very supportive. When I decided to join this field, I wanted to prove that women to can defy the odds and succeed in this male-dominated area. In addition, this career is perceived to be well rewarding.

2.) Describe anything in your background that led you to seek a job in trade.

My background was a major influencing factor. My parents always encouraged me to study hard in school. They also offered me financial support without raising an eye brow. I was interested in attending career workshops for women that were instrumental in shaping my career path since I learnt skills that helped me to start and run a business of my own successfully.

3.) How did you hear about the apprenticeship program or nontraditional jobs for women? (For example, women’s advocacy group, subway ads, media from friends, family, presentations at community meetings)

I heard about the apprentice program from career workshop in my hometown. The workshop meeting was preceded by prominent heroines who had fought many odds in life to becoming who they were in their careers. Women were informed of how they are supposed to stand for their rights and pursue job careers which are perceived to be done by men since they can do better.

4.) Did you encounter any barriers when trying to get into the trades? Describe.

Yes I encountered a lot of problems especially at school and in other places as well. For instance, I lost many friends in school when they realized my determination of becoming an entrepreneur rather than getting employed into other peoples’ jobs. Some people also tried to convince me to choose other careers which are perceived to be better for ladies but I always challenged their ideas. In the university we were very few ladies in my class and this was somehow frustrating to me.

5.) Did you know anyone in the trades that helped you decide to go into that trade?

One of my neighbors was an entrepreneur. We were friends and used to encourage me by saying that entrepreneurship is the most interesting career field one can be. I realized this was true after I got a job. This is a career where one has to work at will without pressure from bosses. It has been a fruitful career to my life. I choose to spend gains of my business how I like and this makes me enjoy my work all the time.

6.) Is construction work “men’s work?” Why / why not?

No. Construction work is for all people regardless of gender. In complex construction work there must have services like consultancy, architectural, surveying services in which women can perform well in. People should stop taking construction work as it is perceived to mean. Construction does not only imply building but all activities carried out to get work done. Women should know that they have a right to engage themselves into construction work.

7.) How are you perceived as women in a non-traditional job? Is there an image of “women in the trades?” Please Describe.

There is woman imagery in the work place. For instance, clients may come and specify that they want services of a woman claiming that women do excellent work. Women in these jobs are perceived to be heroines in the society. This perception makes many clients to like jobs done by women more than those done by men. Contrary, some criticize women’s work claiming that women do works in a hurry.

8.) Have there been any men (or women) who particularly helped you during your training or on the job- without them you would have left or perhaps wouldn’t be where you are today? Please describe.

Yes, there are people who have supported and encouraged me in my job as well as during my career training. My parents supported me during the course training through finance means and encouragement as well. At my work place, working colleagues have been of much help because much of the successes have resulted from team work. These people have been of much help to my career and without them I could not have made it to what I am.

9.) What has been the most difficult part of your apprenticeship/job that you didn’t expect?

The most difficult time in my career life is when my business was in need of capital from outside sources after making huge losses. We suffered a financial loss when the business had to settle a due debt. It was a desperate time in my career and made me feel like I could quit the business. Luckily the business had some assets which we sold and enabled us to settle the debt. Afterwards we managed to raise capital through borrowing from friends.

10.) What has been the best part of your apprenticeship/job that you didn’t expect?

The best part of my career is when business succeeded after going through difficult challenges. For instance, the financial year which followed the financial hitch the business managed to make a huge profit which enabled us to settle all the debts we had.

11.) Do you perceive that women of color experience treatment that is different from other women trade? Please explain.

As a woman of color job personally I have experienced the perception as a superior woman that others in other trade fields. Personally I do not tolerate that though it always happens. For instance, in social meetings people call someone by jobs title which attracts the attention of other attendants. Many people refer using job titles as a show of respected though to the person being called it may appear to be humiliating.

12.) Do you notice that different types/kinds of work is given or allocated to tradeswomen of different race-ethnicities?

Racism is seen to take its course in jobs allocation. In color jobs white women always have better chances than women of other different races. There is an ideology that makes a white woman to be perceived as more perfect in her working than woman of another race and this one makes people to give more credit to the white ladies. This is a culture which has deep roots and we need to work harder in order to get rid of it.

13.) What advice can you give to other women thinking about entering the trades?

I would advise women thinking about entering into trades to have a feeling that they are about to make an important step and challenging as well. Women need to stand for their rights. We need gender equality in the trades and we must kill the ideology that makes people believe there are jobs that a woman cannot do. Women can do anything that is done by men as well.

14.) Often, people say women don’t go into trades because it is too hard physically. Describe how you’ve adapted to the physical aspects of the job.

Many women are said not to like physical jobs. This is a belief which discourages women from taking jobs that are physically tiring. I adapted to the challenges of my job by accepting it, hard work and determination. I also had to train myself on how to manage my time perfectively. This did not come all along smoothly. One has to be patient and prepared for upcoming challenges along the way.

15.) Why do you think there aren’t more women in the trades? What needs to change to get more women into the trades?

The reason to why there are a few women is because of the culture and beliefs of the society. Many women in the society are said to believe that certain jobs are only for men because they are physical and demanding. To change this perception women have to be educated and informed that they can do well in these jobs as well as men. Those who are thinking of getting into these trades need to be encouraged and trained so that they acquire the needed skills.

16.) Do you consider your trade to be good career choice for women- why/why not?

Yes I consider my trade as a good career for women. Women have equal intellectual capabilities with men and they can perform well in this field.

17.) Do you see yourself continuing in the trades as your career? Why or why not? If you had other options for work would it include another trade job or an entirely different career? Did you ever feel like quitting? Will you continue to work in the trades as a career?

Yes I shall have to continue with my trade as my career since I chose it as a life career. It is a rewarding career to my life and has helped me improve lives of others as well. I have never felt like quitting my career even when things are hard for me. I shall work hard to advance my career as much as I would to ensure its growth

Part Two.

Questions and Answers for Men.

1.) How and why did you enter into the trades (pressure from your family, through a family contact, your choice, your interest, etc.)?

I chose trade career by myself. I developed an interest in trades’ career during my childhood. My dad was an entrepreneur and I always admired his working environment.

2.) What do you think women bring to the trades?

Women bring gender equality and stiff competition into the field. This is healthy since it creates a good reputation of the trades’ career to the public and makes each individual to work harder so as to run through the stiff completion.

3.) Did you go through a specific training program (for example, second chance, vocational school, etc.)?

Yes I attended a special training school where I acquired special skills for trading. Nowadays it is not possible for a trader to perform well in this field where we have stiff competition.

4.) Do you feel comfortable working with women in the trades? WHY / Why not?

Yes I am comfortable with the presence of women in the trade. Women are capable of carrying out trade careers. What one needs is proper time management and determination to survive in the trade. Women are hardworking and perceived to doing their work carefully sometimes even more than men.

5.) Is construction work “men’s work?” Why / why not?

Construction work can be carried out by everyone irrespective of the gender. Women are said to have the same capability as men. The only problem is that men do not let women enjoy these careers since they claim that these jobs take much of their family life time. People need to discard beliefs and ideologies that discourage women from taking construction but rather encourage women to do so.

6.) What has been the best part of your apprenticeship/job that you didn’t expect?

The best part of my job is when I received the annual award for the trades’ man of the year. This came as a surprise since I had perceived that stiff completion I was experiencing would bar my trade from winning.

7.) Why do you think there aren’t more women in the trades? What needs to change to get more women into the trades?

The reason to why we have a few women in the field is the ideologies that women cannot perform well in trade careers which many people take as men’s’ jobs. To contain the situation I think we have to encourage women to pursue these careers.

8.) Do you notice that different types/kinds of work is given or allocated to tradeswomen of different race-ethnicities?

Racism also plays a part in jobs allocation to women in the trade career industry. White ladies are believed to perform better in trade management but this is not true because any woman can do it perfectly irrespective of her race.

9.) Did you know anyone in the trades that helped you decide to go into that trade?

Yes my dad was in the trade before me. My dad encouraged me to take initiative of making trade as my career. He introduced me into the career by offering me financial support and encouragement

10.) As a gender bias begins to break down how would you describe the feelings toward women workers especially during low employment times, like now?

Low employment rate should not put women away from jobs. The few available job vacancies should be shared fairly among the gender.

11.) Has the credibility of the business changed with women entering the trades?

The entrance of women in the field expanded the size of the market. I think many customers and clients believe in products done by women.

12.) Describe anything in your background that led you to seek a job in the trades (for example, did you always have an interest in fixing things, working outdoors, etc.)

I always had the interest of helping my dad in his work during my childhood. This helped me in building the interest and adapting the trade environment.

13.) What advice can you give to other women thinking about entering the trades?

Women should take challenge and have confidence in themselves. They also need not to be discouraged by ideologies that certain jobs are for men instead they should take these ideologies as traditional and now time has come for a woman who can do whatever a man can do. Women need to know we are in era of hard working people where everybody has to work hard to earn a living and improve the growth of our economy. Everybody should encourage women to do whatever they like.

This essay will seek to describe the issue of women in sports, and discuss the reasons for this, with relevance to some of the concepts covered in this course. It will also go on to discuss the improvements and positives observed in recent years, and explore some other possible measures to improve the situation in the future.

2. Background

In Ancient Olympics, competitive sports were masculine affairs. While males compete to show their prowess, women were prohibited to even watch competitions, much less compete.

Quite simply, even in this day and age of supposed equality and meritocracy, sport still remains a male domain, especially on the community level. Even with improved opportunities and treatment, there is still an invisible barrier between sport and the everyday woman. In the next section, this essay shall explore some of the reasons for this situation.

3. Reasons

3.1 Introduction to Gender Ideology in sports

The concept of ideology is one that we take for granted, or rather, something we do not even think about. It refers to the ideas and explanations we have been given since young, to explain personal and social life. We have been using our ingrained ideologies to make decisions and judgments ever since we could, without ever questioning or knowing them. In addition, Taylor (1994) mentioned that our identities are formed based on dialogical relations with our significant others. In other words, the complexities of our identities are not formed through cultural identification alone (monologic model) but through the interactions with people who are important to us.

Gender, even more so than race or class, is a pivotal organizing factor in social life. While a person’s sex is decided by physical characteristics such as genitalia, gender is a social construct formed and shaped by the society (James A. Banks).It is the fundamental way humans classify each other. Thus, we are especially reliant on gender ideology and it is extremely influential on how we organize our thoughts, actions and lives, and how parents bring up their offspring. The deep-rootedness of gender ideology means that everyone makes decisions based on it, from children, teenagers, parents to people in power.

Gender ideology plays a big role in how sport has been carried out throughout the ages. The idea that men are supposed to be strong, aggressive, fast and competitive is reproduced in many sports. Conversely, women are not encouraged to play sports because the above traits are not associated with women (women’s athletics: coping with controversy). Thus, a woman exhibiting the above traits would be going against the gender ideology that most people submit to, and this would make her an anomaly. A woman would have to cope not only with her community seeing her as ‘not feminine’, she also has to deal with lack of resources and financial support because her politicians also have the same ideology and do not support women in sport. Fortunately, the situation has considerably improved from the past.

3.2 Gender Ideology: dominance and stereotypes

The fact that males are the dominant group is also accepted by most as part of their understanding of gender ideologies. This is correspondent to John Clammer’s point that social inequalities are seen as ‘natural’ and hence not to be tampered with.

Thus, sport has also suffered as a consequence of the dominant group pulling the strings and the subordinate group accepting it as it is.

In the catalogue of marginality as discussed in Tatum (1997), gender is one of the categories of dominance and subordination. The dominant group, in this case male, are seen as the norm for sports. This element of identity is therefore taken for granted, giving males the power and authority to ‘control’ females, who are members of the subordinate group. As a result, the inequities go unnoticed by the males. Furthermore, the stereotypical representations of the males may lead females to focus on their difference from the ‘norm’ and lose belief in their own abilities and equal rights to sports.

Tatum’s point about the catalogue of marginality is also relevant to the situation. Members of the dominant group, in this case males, take it for granted and do not notice the inequities. Whereas Tatum says that members of the subordinate groups, in this case females, further focus on their difference from the ‘norm’ and lose belief in their abilities and equal rights to sports.

People’s submission to gender ideologies has led to the persistence of certain stereotypes. A simple example would be the one where girls are supposed to like pink and boys are not supposed to. This can be seen from the fact that the majority of girls’ schoolbags are sold in pink color, and boys’ bags can be in any other color but pink. This may seem harmless enough, but consider it that people also submit to the idea that ‘boys like to do sports, girls do not’. Or worse still, ‘boys need to do sports to become manly, but girls do not need to, thus they do not need to do sports’. This is a common idea perpetuated by many, unknowingly, due to their deep-rooted gender ideologies. As parents give a football to their sons and a doll to their daughters, they are again passing on the wrong message to their children. Although some may argue that parents are giving these gifts based on their child’s interests, research has shown that girls and boys between the ages of six and nine are actually equally interested in sports. (XXX, intro section)

The ideas that women are weak, vulnerable and susceptible have also led to other myths preventing women from taking part in sport. The media, another institution controlled by the dominant group in society, males, have assisted in perpetuating the following myths about women who play sports – that they become unfeminine, develop eating disorders, suffer more knee injuries because of weaker female anatomy, and become lesbians. (XXX, intro section) These myths may sound ridiculous to the women of today, but these were real reasons women in the past were prevented from taking part in sport. And definitely, there are families around today who are not supporting their daughters’ sporting interests due to the fact that ‘women are weak’ and should not be partaking in vigorous activity. Even within the sporting arena, less rough and less demanding sports were created for women e.g. netball and softball. In the case of netball, basketball was deemed too aggressive and manly, thus, a non-contact sport where players were not allowed to touch each other and leave their boundaries was created for women.

Even if girls do persevere in sports, they often find themselves playing with boys and in the minority (need paraphrase). Based on the above circumstances mentioned, girls lack opportunities to play and develop motor skills. As a result, the rate of girls (by age 14) dropping out of sports is six times higher than boys.

In such situation, boys do not positively reinforce the participation of girls. Clammer (?) hypothesized that reinforcing of the category race as the dominant mode of social classification is a product of the dominant ideology in Singapore. In this case, males are being reinforced

Reinforcing of male as a dominant force in sport reinforces gender as a dominant mode of social classification.

The creation and reinforcing of race as the dominant public mode of social classification is itself a product of the dominant ideology or political culture, which is strongly Chinese in its characteristics.

3.3 Gender ideology: Trivialization of women in sports

The media, as described above, is another controlling arm of the dominant group in society, and has a big part to play in the trivialization of women’s sports. Up till as recent as the 1990s, horses and dogs were accorded more column inches in US sports pages than women. And even now, 90 percent of all sports television hours are devoted to men’s sports. Women’s events are seen as less important and are less likely to be covered by the media. Only in major competitions such as the Olympic Games, or ‘feminine’ events such as ice-skating and gymnastics, do we see the achievement of female athletes. And there is a lack of inspirational and positive stories about the triumph of female athletes. All too often, male reporters sensationalize stories of women athletes who challenge men, of women athletes being stabbed or abused, or of women athletes dying from eating disorders.

Another way both the media and spectator trivialize women’s sport, is seeing it as second rate because women do not have the same power and speed as men. People who persist in such ideas feel that since women cannot perform to the same physical standards as men, they do not deserve the same support. This is an example of how members of the dominant group dictate what the norm for humanity is (Tatum). Although top women athletes have also excelled in their sport through discipline, skill and finesse, some are still not according women with equal recognition. Charles Taylor’s point of misrecognition comes into focus here. In this case, those who are trivializing women’s sport are not giving equal respect and dignity to women, though like men, they are also human beings. Women’s efforts in sports are being misrecognised as inferior and not worthy of appreciation.

3.4 Gender Ideology: ‘New’ factors

The gender ideologies that privileged sport as an exclusive male domain and resigned women as weak are not as strong as in the past. However, gender ideologies about the general role of men and women in society are still hampering the progress of women in sport today. Consider a household in this day and age; typically, both husband and wife would be pursuing careers. And still, it is the wife who is the one who has to shoulder the responsibility of childcare and housekeeping. This means, during her limited free time, a working mother who may have the interest and inclination towards sports has to sacrifice her time for her household instead (Teo, 1999).

The male in the household still has more freedom for athletic and leisure pursuits, due to the longstanding ideology that women are the housekeepers.

4. Improvements and positives

As aforementioned in portions of the essay, the situation has improved considerably over the years. The global women’s movement over the past thirty years has helped to challenge the traditional roles that women have and weakened male control over women’s lives. The movement has also emphasized that women’s lives are enriched when they develop themselves physically and intellectually. These ideas and changes have aided in emancipating women especially in developed nations, encouraging them to participate in and pursue sports. (sport in society)

Specifically in the sports arena, there have also been leaps of improvement in the quest for equal rights. In the United States, since Title IX was passed in 1972, women have had a legal basis to push towards equity in college and high school sports. Of course, equity is still not a reality in terms of facilities, programs, funding, and media coverage. But there has been encouraging signs; participation, peer, and self-acceptance of women’s sports have all increased in the past 10-15 years. (women, sport and culture).

To cite a recent example, the Pakistani women’s cricket team won Pakistan’s first Asian Games gold medal in eight years – an achievement that would not have been possible if women in the country did not have decent access to sports (Chang, 2010). This milestone points to the need for even better reform of ideologies and better opportunities for women in developing countries.

Achieving gender equity through a multicultural education

Multicultural education is a reform process which features the importance of all students despite gender and other social categories having equal opportunity to school (Banks). Stereotypical gender differences in sports have denied girls’ participation in physical activities. In physical education context, a PE teacher has to understand that the dynamics of gender can influence one’s knowledge of students. Failing to do so may result in simplistic prescription of pedagogy (Grant). Teachers being aware of stereotypical perceptions of females in sports can correct the misconception amongst girls that sports is not for them. This can be done through modifying their teaching approaches to encourage girls in class that they can also excel or benefit in sports.

5. Conclusion

Although sport participation and the acceptance and support of female athletes has increased exponentially since the late 1970s, future increases are not a given And even now, the reality is that women in some societies still struggle against the traditional gender ideologies that hamper their participation in sport. In developed countries, gender inequities still exist in support, funding, and sport-related jobs. To further effect change, the gender ideologies that are related to sport must be put out onto the table and examined, before any subsequent action can be taken. (sports in society).

Multicultural education is a platform for achieving greater gender equity in sports.

The underrepresentation of women in IT is a research section that has received much attention in recent years. Extant research has examined several factors that contribute to and/or increase the widening gender gap. Information technology abbreviated as (I.T) according to Information Technology association of America can be described as” the study, development, implementation, support or management of computer based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware” (Answer co-oporation, 2012). From the above, it can be deduced that Information technology deals with information handing out and knowledge management processing. In the early 60’s and 70’s, places like banks and hospitals knew about information technology, and understood then as the procedure used to store information.

However, in recent times I.T has now become a familiar name. It is an Industry that uses computers, software programs and communication materials to retrieve, store transmit and secure data. Developing and developed countries rely on I.T to ensure rapid progress. Businesses and organizations also rely on the field for maximum output.

Over the years, people have effectively adopted and embraced information technology in all sectors and works of life, and it contributes a significant quota to the development of the economy of most countries. Furthermore, it is quite remarkable to note that the foundation and practise of Information technology around the world is a contribution of both the male and female counterparts, and this is quite evident in most developed countries such as the United Kingdom, The United states of America and China. It is quite the opposite in seemingly developing and under-developed countries as statistics which would be presented in the latter of this report shows that women are significantly under-represented across the field.

I have carefully carried out a search of literature on participation of women in the industry; also I have examined the women who had made their mark in Information technology. Moreover, the research points to the fact that women’s participation in I.T has drastically dropped over the years across the field, despite efforts to attract and keep them in the field.

This information presented is a rigorous social science review which would give the reader in-depth background knowledge of where Women participation in the industry started and provides accurate statistics across the United Kingdom, Europe and Africa gotten during the research on this subject.

INTRODUCTION

Information Technology is rapidly changing the world; it has significantly changed the way we do, the way we communicate with people all over the world. I.T has also advanced the teaching system used in all learning and teaching institutions as well as the way we protect ourselves. People are better informed, and the method of disseminating quality information across the world has improved. The gradually transforming of the IT industry into a household name has been an labour of both male and the female gender who have worked relentlessly to the acceptance of the field; particularly in high developed countries who support the practise of information technology in all fields of life.

However, inequality between women and men has persisted in hiring and retention of women at all levels of information technology (I.T), this accounts from the few number of girls who have had an understanding of computer modules in schools, to the low percentage of women/ females who take up any IT course as an undergraduate level and more visibly the lack of female in excellent organisational and academic positions. What seem to have been a common ground and industry for both gender has now become a seemingly man’s world due to the low participation of women in this sector.

Gender indifferences in IT careers seem to be affecting the competitiveness of companies globally. It posited that given the current labour shortage in the IT industry, it has become more critical than ever to reduce sources of leakage in the IT career paths of women. Figures so far indicate that the proportion of women in IT has dropped from 40 percent of the IT workforce in 1986 to about 29 percent at the end of 1999 and is still dropping (Andrea & Kvasny, 2004).

This report presented, suggests that stronger representation by women in technical roles would help to resolve troubling human capital deficit, and will refine and extend the scope of technological applications, products, standards and practices; which will improve the society. It also shows the continuing under-representation of women in the Information technology sector. This report consists of figures and graphs.

It will also discuss the contributions of women from 1842 when we had the first female programmer. It also shows the steady decline in female participation and activities over the years.

AIMS OF THE REPORT

Tell a valid account about the current situation of women participation in the industry.

Provide a comprehensive summary of the key barriers to women’s participation in technology.

Provide promising practices and for addressing these barriers.

Suggest ways to evaluate and improve working conditions for women in technology.

HISTORY AND CONTRIBUTION

An extensive research done on this subject, it is quite obvious that women have been of high repute in this field; it is publicized in an article by Anita Borg: Women participation in Information technology can be traced back to 1842; when the first woman programmer Ada Lovelace who studied mathematics at her young age designed a document that elaborated on her idea that the analytic machine an plan by Charles Babbage, might be used to compose complex music, to produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and scientific use. These notes contained a specification for the first computer program. This note can be described as an algorithm encoded for processing by a machine. She also suggested that the machine that could manipulate symbols in accordance with rules and that numbers could represent entities other than quantities characterize the underlying change from calculation to computation. Years after she wrote her article, her ideas were implemented in developing the first computer, which over the years has transformed to the desktop and laptops. With her contribution in helping to analyze Babbage’s invention, she is referred to the analyst of Charles Babbage’s analytical engine and the first computer programmer. (Borg, 2002)

Furthermore, between the1970 to 1980, Dr Adele Goldberg who has a PhD in Information science combined with Alan Kay in developing the object- oriented programming language Smalltalk-80. This programming language was then used to model the windows, icons, menus and pointers interface at Xerox PARC which is a method for today’s graphical user interfaces. With this contribution, she is accredited the co-founder of the Smalltalk-80 programming language. (Borg, 2002)

Anita Borg a computer scientist also played a vital role in introducing women into the field of computer technologies by developing Systers in 1987. It was an electronic mailing list exclusively for women in the information technology. It also provided a framework that helped women who were in the field develop themselves, share and solve challenges they faced in their respective organizations/ workplace.

In 1997, she later established the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology which aimed at encouraging young women to go into the technology industry. Having put all her energy into trying to encourage women into the technology industry, she is highly regarded as the cause of introduction of women to the field and a mentor of young women in the career. (Borg, 2002)

STATISTICS

Although, science and engineering disciplines such as Mathematics had existed over the years and dominated by men, Computer science can as well be traced far back to 1960 when it started up as a recognized academic discipline. Quite a handful of women had taken up careers in information technology. The report shows that the percentage of women in the field increased to its highest by 36%; 1985 to 1991, but it slowly drops to 25% between 1991 down till 2008; this suggest that there has been a significant difference in the position occupied by women in the industry compared to their male counterparts.

Fig 1.0 a chart showing the degradation of women in the industry

Image available at: http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf)

Despite the increasing number of computing jobs, interest in these majors and careers has steadily declined over the past decade. Statistics show that more males have attained bachelor degrees and employed in the industry. However, female students who are enrolling in computer science and graduating with computer science degrees in the industry is steadily diminishing with only a few holding top positions in organizations. Mary Lou Roberts suggests that if the current trends continue, by 2018 the industry will only be able to fill half with its available jobs with more male candidates holding bachelor degrees in computing and information sciences (Roberts, 2007).

Fig2.0 Graph showing the difference between men and women taking up a level in I.T

Image available at: http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf)

Furthermore, the data in this study clearly indicate women are not well represented in the sector that constitutes the growth mechanism of most highly developed and developing countries.

Consequently, the Anita Borg foundation relentlessly tries to encourage more young women to take up a career in the industry as well as provide more to make it an fair industry for both the male and female sexes

FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

An article by J.Cohoon and W. Aspray, argues “Information technology/ computing remains a heavily male dominated area even after twenty-five years of extensive efforts to promote female participation” (Joanne & William, 2012).

Most popular discussion and research focuses on the increasing numbers of women as users of information technology with a strong emphasis on their use of the Internet and World Wide Web; several efforts have been geared to attract more women into the industry, so as to reduce the dominance of the male sexes who have taken up more careers in the industry. However, as reported by Cheris Kramarae, these efforts have not brought up the expected result, and specific factors are attributed to be responsible for the gender inequality and large disparity in the industry. ( Cheris, 2003)

This section of the report reveals the factors that have been responsible for slow reduction of women representation in the industry. These factors would be discussed in the following sub-headings:

LABOUR LAWS AND REGULATION

In some of the middle-eastern and north- African countries, such as Jordan and Sudan. The labour laws and regulations which were originally meant to protect women have turned around to have adverse effects on women’s participation and contribution to the industry and the willingness of employers to hire females into the industry.

Some of the laws and regulations are listed below:

Law: Regulation 55 of the Jordan law states that “family allowances should not be paid to female employees for her Children if the father is still alive or not retired except in a situation of permanent disabilities

Impact: there is unequal treatment of women in the area as well as her dependants and this gives women the notion that women are secondary breadwinners of the family. (Danna, et al., 2010)

Law: 1996 Labour Code (Article 69) states that the Ministry of Labour can determine the industries and Job prohibited to women.

Impact: this limits the women’s freedom of choice of courses to study at the university as well as the careers to take up in the university. It fails to protect women and thus, exposes women to Jobs that may be quite risky. (Danna, et al., 2010)

Workplace-PLACE ISOLATION

In some workplaces and offices, Women who are chief executives in offices are often separated from other female workers who are under the ladder and require appropriate mentorship or sponsorship, and this affects their retention and advancement. In The Athena Factor, one-third of women in private-sector SET jobs said they felt extremely isolated at work. In the same study, 40 percent of technical women reported lacking role models while nearly half reported lacking mentors, and 84 percent reported lacking sponsors or someone who would help make their accomplishments evident throughout the organization. This particularly leads to feelings of isolation, and these feelings become more pronounced as women move up the corporate or academic ranking (Gibson, 2012).

Furthermore, in some I.T industries as well, the job roles of the women are different from that of the male counterparts. This has negative effects on women as they often have no male counterparts to share ideas and problems with; either relating to their career challenges or matters outside the work place experience, hence, forcing them to either quit their job roles or change their direction of career away from the technology industry.

Also, Women are left out of board meetings and taking key decision in most organizations as they sometimes are considered as un-important and their ideas or contributions would not count towards the development of the organization. They are left to their offices and only informed about the new policies,

Fig3.0 Graph showing the effect of the work-place isolation factor on women.

Image available at: http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf)

STEREOTYPING

Over the years, women have cultivated fears and anxieties in taking up a career in the technology industry as they often consider it as a highly technical field and complex academic subject. Furthermore, they have developed the notion that Engineering, sciences and technology is a man’s field. This therefore has reduced their sense of competence and trust. This can and most times negatively affect performance, confidence, and risk-taking behaviour. Stereotype has been a serious threat, and this majorly has made employers, supervisors, or co-workers incorrectly assume that these behaviours or lack of confidence are the result of personal characteristics of the employees themselves. These senses of un-importance and anxiety have undoubtedly ensured that these employees are not able to live up to their full potential and in most cases make them to leave the office for sense of inferiority.

GLASS-CLIFF EFFECT

This situation occurs when they seem to be promoted too early or put in charge of tasks they do not yet have the expertise or the ability to carry out. This often happens as supervisors, managers, or organization leaders try to meet diversity requirements. Meeting these requirements in this way, however, unconsciously sets these employees up to fail and is detrimental to the long-term interest of the company, to the employee’s own interest, and to future efforts for hiring and retaining diverse employees. When these female practitioners fail in the various tasks they have been assigned, it sets them up and gradually reduces their confidence and self-worth, causing them to either resign or choose another career.

These factors mentioned are responsible for the decline and reluctance of young women to take up a career in I.T. It has also discouraged those with a degree in computing from taking up a career among the various opportunities in the field.

WAYS TO ENCOURAGE WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

A growing body of evidence demonstrates the importance of gender balance in leadership including improvements in organizational performance and corporate governance. Hence, there is the need to establish practices that would attract more women into the industry and increase the overall output from the Technology sector of the economy.

This section gives in details specific practices which would increase women’s participation in the industry and further enhance the output of the few who are still practicing. These practices are listed in the sub-headings below:

Establishing Fair and Clear Promotion Criteria

It is necessary to note that the basis on which men and women are judged as successful should be made even during promotion. Both men and women strongly value teamwork and realize that collaboration is essential for success. Providing an balanced working environment and opportunity is critical to retaining women in the industry. This is because in most organizations and industries, the males are quickly promoted to managerial and supervisory positions while the women kept at their primary roles take a longer time before they get promoted to managerial positions.

When there is an open framework for promotion for both genders, women would give more efforts into their jobs, and this apparently would bring out the best in them.

Introducing effective mentoring

Mentoring is a vital practice can help female employees develop the skills and confidence they need to take on more senior roles and give their full potentials at their various place of work. It is not about the mentor teaching a specific skill; it is about creating a reflective learning environment through conversations between mentors and mentees. This would allow the younger staffs gain the confidence and the ideas they need to explore issues and develop solutions. Seeing someone like themselves in a position they pursue, will improve their workplace experience and give them Job satisfaction.

Improve workplace culture

Another practice most organizations and industries have not paid care to is that of providing a good working condition for the female employees. This can be achieved by providing an on-site child support to carter for nursing mothers, giving them more allowances and defining a good salary payment plan. Furthermore, providing gender specific training in leadership skills for women in the organization would provide tangible benefits. It gives a clear message to them that the industry views them as leaders and is making an investment in them, boosting their confidence and morale. Organizations which practice excellent workplace culture appeal to, and benefit, men and women, employees and manager.

CONCLUSION

It is quite distinct from this report that Women are relevant and to the industry. Records show that they have contributed immensely to the introduction of information technology and computing in this present age. This information document Ada Lovelace designed an algorithm used to design the first computer and have transformed to the various systems we have today.

Furthermore, in 1893, Henrietta Swan Leavitt joined the Harvard “computers”, a group of women engaged in the making of astronomical data at Harvard. She was instrumental in discovery of the Cepheid variable stars, which are evidence for the expansion of the universe.

Hence, it would be a tremendous step if these practices mentioned above implemented as this would boost the overall output from the field and send a message to the young women taking up a degree in universities that a lot awaits them in the field. It would also give them a sense of belonging and support coming into the industry.

Bibliography

Andrea, T. & Kvasny, L., 2004. Recruitment is Never Enough. Retention of Women and Minorities in the IT workplace, 22-24 April.

Answer co-oporation, 2012. What is Information Technology. [Online]

Available at: http://wiki.answers.com/What_is_information technology

[Accessed 24 November 2012].

Borg, A., 2002. Women in Computer Science. [Online]

Available at: http://cssu-bg.org/WomenInCS/anita_borg.php

[Accessed 04 December 2012].

Danna, p., Ghoshesh, H., Darawazeh, N. & Sabaggah, A., 2010. Factors affecting Women participation in the Private Sector. [Online]

Available at: http://www.almanar.jo/AlManarWeb/

[Accessed 03 December 2012].

Gibson, R., 2012. Factors affecting online mentoring acceptances by women professionals. [Online]

Available at: http://udini.proquest.com/view/factors-affecting-online-mentoring-goid:304819169/

[Accessed 02 December 2012].

Joanne, C. & William, A., 2012. Women and Information Technology. [Online]

Available at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/women-and-information-technology

[Accessed 25 November 2012].

Roberts, M. L., 2007. Why the Number of Women in IT Is Decreasing. [Online]

Available at: http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh011507-story02.html

[Accessed 04 December 2012].

19th January 2013 a Talk-show is going on in Dr.Bansi Dhar Sr.Sec.School campus. Its an open conversation session between students and dignitaries belonging to various fields, a Writer, an RAS Officer, an Advocate and a Film Maker. A student of class VI stands up and puts up a question “When will the time come, when girls are going to move about freely and safely in evenings?” The question haunted me whole day. Eleven years old kid has presented a picture of India through her small question that gender inequality still persists in free and democratic India leave apart the gender sensitization.

Gender Sensitization to me, simply means feeling of empathy for opposite sex. Gender and sex too, have a thin line of demarcation between them. When we talk simply about the biological difference between a male and a female, we are talking in terms of sex but when we talk with reference to the social, cultural and economic status of both, we talk in terms of gender.

Women in India still suffer from Gender inequality because of the lack of gender sensitization on part of males. Many of us blame that degradation of values and ethics amongst the youth is the root cause of such problems. These problems are directly or indirectly related to the lack of gender sensitivity be it the case of eve-teasing, domestic violence or the case of brutal rape. The blunt truth is whatever has percolated in young minds has finally been given to them by their socio-cultural environment which mainly includes their family, school and peers. A major part of the responsibility for developing gender sensitization rests on the shoulders of family members and educators. They are the one who can kindle the feeling of gender equality in young girls and boys and develop the empathy for each other. I strongly believe in what David O’Mckay quotes “Women are created from the rib of man to be beside him, not from his head to top him, nor from his feet to trampled by him but from under his arm to be protected by him, near to his heart to be loved by him”

It shocks me when a girl child in talk show innocently asks, “Girls are physically weaker than boys, how can they fight against them?” Physical weakness of a female can never lead a male to empower her if he is sensitive enough to realize that within her delicate and physically weak body resides a tender heart which cares for him as a mother, a sister and also as a wife. But this realization comes from how he has learnt to treat a female from his surroundings at home and at school.

At home, he has been observing throughout his life, a mother following the instructions of a dominating father, a sister being scolded for not looking after him properly or not carrying out the household jobs properly in her mother’s absence.

In the present scenario, even females seem to lose their gender sensitivity towards males. Working on many fronts at the same time, getting no care and appreciation in return, frustrated from earning no respect in family and society, their outburst comes in the form of separations, broken families or as live-in relationships searching for complete freedom for oneself.

There is an urgent need to develop a family atmosphere where all members of the family enjoy an equal status, are equally respected and taken care of irrespective of their gender and are treated with empathy. As Gloria Stienem says, “We’ve begun to raise daughter more like sons, but few have the courage to raise our sons more like daughters.”

CBSE serves as an excellent forum for the society to develop Gender Sensitivity amongst pupil by its philosophy of co-educational school where girls and boys grow up together in a friendly manner, feeling each other’s biological and emotional changes while passing through the age of adolescence. They learn to respect each other’s feelings and understand their psychological needs.

Adolescent Education programs of CBSE, inclusion of Life-skills in curriculum, evaluation of students in co-scholastic areas on the basis of attitudes and values are some of the significant measures taken up by CBSE which are going to serve as important factors in evolution of Gender Sensitivity in Indian Social Environment.

Some major changes are to be made at school front too. We as Educators can make a difference by developing an atmosphere in the school, where a child naturally absorbs values and ethics as he/she grows up from a kindergarten kid to a senior secondary youngster. This would not only make the students duty conscious but also protective and caring towards others. Boys should learn through their school environment, that they are not made to empower any of their girl classmate make her realize that she is physically weaker than boy but to be their saviours and protectors in any unsafe situation. Girls should also be trained to be equally caring for their male classmates without losing their self-esteem.

In present scenario school curriculum should focus on empowerment of girl education by creating awareness amongst girls regarding psychological and physical changes of adolescence. They should be educated regarding domestic violence and sexual abuse so that they could face these challenges and share them with their parents and elders. This empowering education in the schools would reduce the creation of masculine norms in boys, to set themselves as different in nature from girls to engage in ‘sexual conquests’. This is the need of hour to give education which could create awareness in students regarding our social and moral issues.

Nicholas D.Kristof says – “In the 19th Century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In 20th century it was battle against totalitarianism. We believe that this century the paramount of moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world”. If his prediction comes true the day is not far when the little girl child of my school will find an appropriate answer to her question that how will girls fight with boys being physically weaker to them and would see my imagination of a gender sensitive India taking its shape gradually but surely.

It’s all about Humanity,

Living together in tranquillity

Where no one is powerless or powerful

Submissive or Aggressive

Then it’s a land of beauty

Where women gets an equal dignity

(52)

Gender Sensitization in School
Mousumi Bhaduri
English Teacher
Texmaco D.P.S. International School
Indonesia

The heinous crime that was committed on December 16th,2012 at Delhi has been a rude eye-opener to the gender inequality that still exists in Indian society. On the one hand we have women occupying prominent positions in society and in many professional areas earlier considered as exclusively male domains ,on the other hand even in the capital city cases of violence against women are still rampant. One cannot help but wonder at this strange paradoxical situation!

The title of this article is Gender Sensitization in school. At the very outset one may be tempted to ask some pertinent questions.What is the need for gender sensitization in today’s era? Can anyone deny the importance of boys and girls? The answer is obviously ‘No’.Are boys and girls considered equally important in remote areas or even in urban society? The answer to the last question is ‘Certainly not!’ According to me, society has a hypocritical attitude towards girls. We still hear cases of female foeticide and sex determination tests in rural and urban areas respectively.In affluent and educated classes even today such discrimination exists albeit in a milder form.If the daughter is given the opportunity to pursue higher studies in India, the son is inspired to obtain a degree from abroad. Why this discrimination between boys and girls?

Next to God we are indebted to women, first for the life itself, and then for making it worth living. -Bovee

School is a miniature society. We find children of different socio-economic groups in school. Socialization with the outside world begins at school. Children spend their formative period at school. In fact school is the best place where children can be taught not to differentiate between genders.Such children by the time they become adults,they will have instilled in their minds positive and non-differential attitude or treatment towards the other gender. As mature and balanced adults they will propagate the ideas of gender equality in society and to the future generation.The attitude of mutual respect between genders will then be consolidated; we can then hope for a more civilized society-in the real sense of the term. (Can we call a society ‘civilized’ where barbaric incidents like what happened to ‘Damini’ occurs frequently?)

If you educate a man you educate a person, but if you educate a woman you educate a family. -Ruby Manikan

Schools can take several measures to sensitize gender (equality) such as those given below:

Schools should employ staff who believe in and practise gender equality.

Schools should follow curriculum which is pro-girl child.

Moral Science education should be introduced as a regular subject at all levels and students should be examined in it like other graded subjects.

Female students should be encouraged to participate in activities which are similar to the activities in which the male students participate.

The course material should have the underlying theme of mutual respect between girls and boys and the same should be conveyed through the lessons.

Interactive sessions in the form of group discussions, debates and plays between boy and girl students should be conducted on the theme of gender equality under the supervision of teachers.

The school should fulfil its duty towards society by counselling parents and also other members of society to develop a healthy and positive attitude towards the female child (while not disregarding the male child).

Schools can felicitate female students publicly or during school assemblies for their extraordinary achievement in curricular and co-curricular areas. This would help girls to overcome the feelings of inferiority and help them to be confident.

Biographies and autobiographies of famous women should be included in the curriculum in order to inspire the female students to build their lives and career on similar lines.

Schools should encourage girls to be aware of their rights and duties, instill a sense of confidence in them,inspire them to be financially independent and impart training to them in self-defence.

Schools can definitely play a vital role to bring about a transformation in the mindset of the people towards the girl child and promote gender equality.A country can be called truly developed only if each male citizen treats each female citizen with respect,regard and equity. No other development is as important and crucial as the development of human values in society.It is time we all pondered over it.

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Sensitivity of Gender

Jeevan Jyothi Public school

Thalikod, Pattikkad, P.O.

Thrissur

Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.

Sensing that the ordinance prescribing harsher punishment for offenders is not enough to prevent crime against women the government on Monday unveiled 27 measures. It also issued instructions to initiate strict action against police personal found to be either displaying bias against women or neglecting their supervisory responsibilities while registering complaints of sexual offences.

One of the tests prescribed by our ancient law givers for judging the crime situation is that the situation is fine if a young, beautiful girl laden with gold ornaments can walk at night on the streets without fear of getting robbed or molested. By this test the crime situation in the country and particularly in Delhi, is very disturbing.

The brutal gang rape of a young girl in a Delhi bus resulting in death has ignited widespread public anger and outrange throughout the country. There has been severe denunciation of the police for its failure to secure safety security of women. The fact cannot be gainsaid that crimes against women at present get a low priority in police work.

There has been an enormously increase of crimes against women not only in Delhi but also all over the country according to the available statistics. However these statistics are misleading and only reveal tip of the iceberg. A very large number of cases are either not reported to the police, or if reported, not registered.

So gender equality is a must in the society, all the actions and policies by the government and public should be focusing on gender equality.

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Gender Sensitization in Schools

Dr. (Mrs.) Caroline Mathew

Principal,

Nirmala Sr. Sec. School, Port Blair,

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Introduction: Gender is a neutral word that stands for both male and female. Gender illustrates the role of women and men in a society that is determined by many factors that may arise out of social, political, economic and cultural situations and this has nothing to do with biological differences. It is the sensitization of gender in a society that determines the roles of men and women, their responsibilities, opportunities, privileges and expectations.

People are born with biological differences as male and female and then they learn from the society to be boys and girls and men and women. The society, which includes the family they live in, teaches them appropriate behaviour and attitude, roles and activities, expectations and identity and determines their gender roles. These gender roles differ from society to society. Many social, religious and cultural factors modify and regulate the roles of men and women in communities. Even though gender norms vary according to cultures and communities, it is found that women are subject to the dominant influence of men at every level of society. The inequality of power in gender relations has negative consequences for women in all areas of their lives which at large affects the social and national development.

Need for Gender Sensitization in Schools: The school, classroom and teachers are all part and parcel of a society. In a society people may suffer from various problems such as poverty, gender discrimination, oppression, inequalities, gender biases and various other issues. Children in a school come from such various types of societies and in Indian societies we cannot chip away the reality of male domination. A father is the master of the house, irrespective of the fact that he may not be a bread winner. A male child is always given much freedom than his sister. When children come to school from such backgrounds, there are possibilities that there may be gender discrimination between peer groups or by teachers. Hence there is a need for gender sensitization in schools so that children become aware of their roles in the society as future men and women.

Gender Issues in Schools: All schools face some or other gender issues from time to time that teachers may be confronted with sometime in their career. When young boys and girls study together in a classroom situation, it is quite normal to have some or other gender issues. This does not mean that only co-ed schools face all gender problems. Schools with only boys or only girls may also face various other problems. The problems may arise due to biological or social differences.

Many times it has been observed that boys try to dominate, tease or even look down upon girls as inferiors. It is also true that some girls are very dominating and would not bend down to boys. When there is a class competition between boys and girls, there is literally a row in the class. If the girls in the class are academically better than the boys, the boys try to pacify their ego by teasing or passing comments on the girls. It is not necessary that all the time it is the boys who create the issues; many times girls may also be instrumental for some gender issues in the classroom.

The present day problems also arise due to nuclear or single child families. Earlier when there were joint families, children learnt to live with each other, sharing and caring for others. But today the scenario has changed and these children from nuclear families do not understand the values of sharing or caring. They are self centred and give least importance to others. Such children in a classroom situation are unable to cooperate with others and sometimes there may be gender issues in the class.

Sometimes teacher’s deportment may also lead to gender issues in a classroom. It has been observed that some female teachers are very supportive for boys or some male teachers are very sympathetic towards girls. Sometimes the case may be the other way such as female teachers showering a lot of sympathy towards girls or male teachers being very encouraging towards boys. The teachers’ such conscious or unconscious behaviour affects children and leads to gender problems in a classroom.

Gender Biases in Teaching and Learning Settings: There are many factors that lead to gender biases in a classroom. It may be due to the subject being taught, the teaching learning materials used or teacher-pupil interaction. Sometimes the lesson being taught in the classroom or the examples being used by the teacher may lead to gender biases. Gender biases may also be through the questions asked by the teacher to the girls or boys, the question asked by the girls or boys to the teacher, the recall questions, open ended questions, time allocated to the boys and girls to answer these questions etc. Gender biases may also arise due to the feedbacks of teachers given to boys and girls in the way of positive or negative reinforcements, judgemental statements or sometimes when they just remain neutral, they may promote gender discrimination. At times, the tasks and responsibilities allotted to girls and boys may create gender biases. Boys are usually given responsibilities and work that needs more physical energy while girls are given such responsibilities that may not need much physical energy. The discipline towards boys and girls or the sentence given to boys and girls may also create gender biases. Even the language used by teachers towards students or the language used by students in a classroom may lead to gender biases. Sometimes the utilization of materials and tools by boys and girls in school such as books, computers, calculators etc., may also lead to gender biases.

Role of School in Gender Awareness and Gender Equality: A school is the first society for the students and a school plays a pivotal role in creating gender awareness and gender equality among its students. A student learns the basic lessons for life only in the school. Hence teachers have to play a crucial role in bringing this awareness among the students. First of all it is essential for the teachers to believe in gender equality and they have to put it in practice in the class. The teachers need to be conscious of their behaviour in the classroom while dealing with the boys and girls. They should try to develop a sense of equality and respect in the students for the opposite sex. By providing equal opportunities to both girls and boys and by not discriminating them on the basis of their gender, the teachers can develop mutual respect among the girls and boys for each other. Class activities or competitions in classrooms should be carried out in combined groups and not on the basis of sex. Ample opportunity should be provided to both boys and girls to work together and study together in a congenial atmosphere in a classroom so that they are sensitized about gender equality and they understand the importance of both the sexes in social circumstances. Both boys and girls should be taught to appreciate and respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Conclusion: There was a time when the role of men and women were defined differently in our society as SHE was confined to the hearth and house while HE was for the fields. Today the scenario has totally changed as people are proud of their mothers, wives or daughters who walk hand in hand with men in all walks of life. But it is also true that still there is gender discrimination in some pockets of our societies. Sexual harassment can happen at work places, institutions, in the family or on the streets and the Delhi rape case is a bitter example. If schools play their roles well in gender sensitization, then the evils of gender discrimination can be uprooted from the society and there is no doubt that we should be able to create a society where there would be gender equality in true sense.

(55)

Towards Understanding Gender: Gender Sensitization in Schools
Mrs. K.V.KAMALA SUNDARAM
TGT (ENGLISH)
KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA, NO.2
TAMBARAM, CHENNAI-73

The response to the query on gender is inevitable in the innumerable forms and applications that one has to fill from the moment one breathes in into this world and till the time one bids adieu once for all. Do we ever realize the significance of that word whenever we write it? Have we realized the socio-economic, cultural, political and intrinsic value of the term “gender”?

The natural difference is reiterated and underscored through the selection of names, the clothes and the toys for the baby depending on the sex of the baby. Not to be overlooked is the fact that the Gender difference ‘alarm button’ is activated at the fetus stage and female fetus is simply washed down with a blissful nod of the pragmatic and prejudiced people. Thus the “natural difference” has gradually turned into discrimination resulting in inequality and suppression. The prevailing inequality a woman faces from “womb to tomb” is pathetic and goes beyond words.

But a single sad and sadistic event has shaken our conscience and made us wake up to the realities that slap our faces.

The time has come for the (hu)mankind to recode the gender roles, gender attitudes and gender equity and equality. The time has come for the (hu)mankind to reaffirm its faith in values like justice, equality and amicable co-existence in harmony with nature.

Roles and attributes

Gender roles are realities in almost everyone’s life. They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. The roles conform to the anticipations of the domestic, social, religious and cultural tenets of that period and region. The infants are brought up to conform to their gender-based stereotyped responses and reactions.

The accepted stereotyped roles expect the man to be brave, confident, ready to face the ordeals of life with determination and ease. As the sole breadwinner of the home he commands respect and the natural head of the family. At the same time the woman is expected to be kind, modest, weak, take care of home and children, obedient and patient; man is knowledgeable and skilled and the woman is affectionate and benevolent.

A sketch of a home generally depicts the man reading a newspaper sitting on an armchair and the woman making a garland. The advertisement of an insurance company talks about the plans for daughters’ marriages and sons’ higher studies.

The delineation of gender roles should help the world to co-exist in harmony, play complementary roles and enhance the quality of life. On the contrary what one finds is discrimination against women, oppression and suppression and gender inequality.

Gender equality

Gender equality refers to equal access to social goods, services and resources and equal opportunities in all spheres of life for both men and women. Gender equality should assure equal participation of women and men in decision-making, equal ability to exercise their human rights, equal access to and control of resources and the benefits of development, and equal opportunities in employment and in all other aspects of their livelihoods.

Self-help groups, NGOs, Social Development Groups, various countries and International Organisations including the UN have been striving for women empowerment. Creating a space for women in public life through education and employment, ensuring the safety and dignity of women, glorifying women achievers, giving importance to girls’ education ,legal sanctions against social evils like dowry system and child marriages, celebration of Women’s Day etc. are few of the strategic steps which try to establish the gender equality.

Need of the Hour

The plethora of news reports on violence against women both at home and at public, the growing intolerance and insensitivity to the very existence of this co-being has sent signals of alarm across the globe. The cleansing of this deep malaise requires determined and well-planned strategies. Hence, Gender Sensitization has become the highly prioritized issue of the day.

The different nodes of social transactions & interactions namely, movies, television, music, books, peers, parents and teachers teach and reinforce gender roles throughout the lifespan. Especially, the home and the school should play a responsible role in moulding the young minds towards gender equality and building mutual understanding and dignity between the two genders.

The school holds the key

The students spend their impressionable years at school. A comprehensive school programme which addresses the gender issues will make a positive impact in the young minds. The schools should take care of the concept formation on gender issues, habits and practice which promote and instill confidence in the theories of gender equality.

What can the school do?

Gender sensitization could be realized through

Inclusion of the concepts through Curriculum

Instilling the values through co-curricular activities

Initiating community based activities involving the triangle of parents, teachers and media.

Providing an ambience in the school campus to nurture mutual gender -understanding.

Training the teachers to understand the challenges and planning their activities.

Inclusion of the concepts through Curriculum

Graded concepts based on gender should be introduced through curriculum right from primary education.

The selection of texts and sketches should promote gender equality.

The “in-puts” given in texts need not project stereotyped roles for men and women. For example, look at the two sums given in a primary maths text book: Sum 1: Raman had 200 Rs. in his pocket. He spent 125 Rs. to fill petrol for his bike. How much money will be left with him? Sum 2: Kamala made 27 chappathis. Her children had eaten 13 chappathis. How many are left out? Why not Kamala ride the bike?

Upper Primary classes could have stories where women are protagonists.

Secondary and Senior Secondary sections could have lessons addressing the gender discrimination and class room activities could lead to discussions and debates on gender issues.

Instilling the values through co-curricular activities

Co-curricular activities would make a great impact in the minds of the young minds. Hence, the school and the educationists should explore the possible themes and related activities to promote gender sensitivity and complementing co-existence of men and women.

The themes may include:

mental agony & damage caused by violence against women

unnoticed and unpaid excessive load of work thrust on women

comforts and luxuries proffered to men and denied to women

the yeomen service rendered by women at home

great women achievers and the hardships they faced

need for women empowerment

exploration of opportunities for girls in this modern world

need for equality and pleasant co-existence

The activities may include : slogan writing, Fancy dress competitions, elocution, debate,

essay writing , story writing, poem writing, G Clubs etc.

Initiating community based activities

Children form their opinions looking at the elders. Much depends on adults and the role model that they portray in front of the children. Hence, initiating community based activities involving the triangle of parents, teachers and media.

Parents’ Meetings could be conducted with the themes of:

Needs & Rights of Girls

Issues connected with child abuse and protective measures to be taken

Stereotyping gender roles at home and how it affects attitude

Sensitizing boys at home positively

Media: print and visual media

Media both print and visual media play an important role in forming opinions and spreading messages. Hence, the schools and Education departments should invite and involve the national as well as local media in sensitizing gender based issues. Seminars, workshops and campaigns could be worthy activities.

Training the teachers to understand the challenges and planning their activities:

In their concern for education teachers pay a lot of attention to the performance of students in assessments and guide them on their employability. What goes unnoticed in classroom transactions and teachers’ planning their lessons is the more serious aspect of education – school as the place for social transformation.

Teachers are the most important factor or agent in bringing the social change. First they should change; they should wholeheartedly accept the need to make those changes

This is one of the most urgent actions to be taken up by the HRD and other Institutions of Education like CBSE. It is to be appreciated that our educational system has taken a serious note of the state of affairs and has started taking measures in this direction.

Teachers could pay attention to:

Not passing on notions of the stereotyped gender roles during class room transactions.

The teaching aids and posters in the room ensure gender equity & equality.

Making the boys realise that women empowerment programmes are the need of the hour and victimization should be avoided.

Teacher leaders could participate in panel discussions forums in mass media to emphasis the role to be played by media.

A society of well-groomed children with deep convictions about human rights will never violate them. This can ensure a safe and secure society for our future generations, more particularly for the female gender. We need to usher in a society that is devoid of prejudices, injustices, and maltreatment against a human being, irrespective of his/her gender. We can call ourselves a civilized society only when we reach that stage.

(56)

Gender Sensitization in Schools
Delhi Public School, Jalandhar

[email protected]

“Gender equality is about providing men and women with “equal conditions for realising their full human rights and their potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and cultural development and to benefit equally from their results.”

This is what the UN Charter states about equal

Indias economy has undergone a substantial transformation since the countrys independence in 1947. Agriculture now accounts for only one-third of the gross domestic product (GDP), down from 59 percent in 1950, and a wide range of modern industries and support services now exist. In spite of these changes, agriculture continues to dominate employment, employing two-thirds of all workers. India faced economic problems in the late 1980s and early 1990s that were exacerbated by the Persian Gulf Crisis. Starting in 1992, India began to implement trade liberalization measures. The economy has grown-the GDP growth rate ranged between 5 and 7 percent annually over the period and considerable progress has been made in loosening government regulations, particularly restrictions on private businesses. Different sectors of economy have different experiences about the impact of the reforms. In a country like India, productive employment is central to poverty reduction strategy and to bring about economic equality in the society. But the results of unfettered operation of market forces are not always equitable, especially in India, where some groups are likely to be subjected to disadvantage as a result of globalization. Women constitute one such vulnerable group.

Since the times immemorial, worth of the work done or services rendered by women has not been recognized. India is a multifaceted society where no generalization could apply to the entire nation’s various regional, religious, social, and economic groups. Nevertheless, certain broad circumstances in which Indian women live affect the ways they participate in the economy. Indian society is extremely hierarchical with virtually everyone ranked relative to others according to their caste (or caste-like group), class, wealth, and power. This ranking even exists in areas where it is not openly acknowledged, such as certain business settings. Though specific customs vary from region to region within the country, there are different standards of behavior for men and women that carry over into the work environment. Women are expected to be chaste and especially modest in all actions that may constrain their ability to perform in the workplace on an equal basis with men. Another related aspect of life in India is that women are generally confined to home thus restricting their mobility and face seclusion. The women face constraints beyond those already placed on them by other hierarchical practices. These cultural rules place some Indian women, particularly those of lower caste, in a paradoxical situation: when a family suffers economically, people often think that a woman should go out and work, yet at the same time the woman’s participation in employment outside the home is viewed as “slightly inappropriate, subtly wrong, and definitely dangerous to their chastity and womanly virtue”. When a family recovers from an economic crisis or attempts to improve its status, women may be kept at home as a demonstration of the family’s morality and as a symbol of its financial security. As in many other countries, working women of all segments of Indian society faces various forms of discrimination including sexual harassment. Even professional women find discrimination to be prevalent: two-thirds of the women in one study felt that they had to work harder to receive the same benefits as comparably employed men.

A section of Indian women–the elite and the upper middle class– have gained by the exposure to the global network. More women are engaged in business enterprises, in international platforms like the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and have greater career opportunities as a result of international network. Freer movement of goods and capital is helpful to this section. But most women continue to remain marginalized as they are generally employed in a chain of work and seldom allowed independent charge of her job. Sharing of responsibility at work place or taking independent decisions is still a remote possibility for them. Economic independence of women is important as it enhances their ability to take decisions and exercise freedom of choice, action. Many of the workingwomen, who control their own income, do contribute towards the economic needs of family as and when required. They often participate in discussions at their work place and their views are given due weightage before any final decision. Workingwomen do use and spend their income at their own sweet will but sometimes permission of the husband becomes necessary for the purpose. However when it comes to making investments, they often leave it to their husband or other male member of the family to invest on their behalf. Many of them do not take decision even in case of important investments, like, life insurance, national saving schemes or other tax saving investments. Workingwomen do feel concerned about the economic needs of the family but when not consulted in such matters, they regret being ignored especially when they contribute monetarily towards economic wellbeing of the family. After globalization women are able to get more jobs but the work they get is more casual in nature or is the one that men do not prefer to do or is left by them to move to higher or better jobs. Globalization has indeed raised hopes of women for a better and elevated status arising out of increased chances to work but, at the same time, it has put them in a highly contradictory situation where they have the label of economically independent paid workers but are not able to enjoy their economic liberty in real sense of the term. India is the first among countries to give women equal franchise and has a highly credible record with regard to the enactment of laws to protect and promote the interests of women, but women continue to be denied economic, social and legal rights and privileges. Though they are considered to be equal partners in progress, yet they remain subjected to repression, marginalisation and exploitation. It has been advocated by many researchers (Amartya Sen, 1990) that independent earning opportunities reduce the economic dependence of woman on men and increase her bargaining power in the family. This bargaining power depends on the nature of work she is employed in. But the income earning activities increase the workload of a woman unless the man accepts an increased share in domestic work. Since globalization is introducing technological inputs, women are being marginalized in economic activities, men traditionally being offered new scopes of learning and training. Consequently, female workers are joining the informal sector or casual labor force more than ever before. For instance, while new rice technology has given rise to higher use of female labor, the increased work-load for women is in operations that are unrecorded, and often unpaid, since these fall within the category of home production activities. The weaker sections, especially the women, are denied the physical care they deserve. There is, thus, hardly any ability for the majority of Indian women to do valuable functioning; the “capability” to choose from alternatives is conspicuous by absence.

Although most women in India work and contribute to the economy in one form or another, much of their work is not documented or accounted for in official statistics. Women plow fields and harvest crops while working on farms, women weave and make handicrafts while working in household industries, women sell food and gather wood while working in the informal sector. Additionally, women are traditionally responsible for the daily household chores (e.g., cooking, fetching water, and looking after children). Although the cultural restrictions women face are changing, women are still not as free as men to participate in the formal economy. In the past, cultural restrictions were the primary impediments to female employment now however; the shortage of jobs throughout the country contributes to low female employment as well. The Indian census divides workers into two categories: “main” and “marginal” workers. Main workers include people who worked for 6 months or more during the year, while marginal workers include those who worked for a shorter period. Many of these workers are agricultural laborers. Unpaid farm and family enterprise workers are supposed to be included in either the main worker or marginal worker category, as appropriate. Women account for a small proportion of the formal Indian labor force, even though the number of female main workers has grown faster in recent years than that of their male counterparts.

Since Indian culture hinders women’s access to jobs in stores, factories, and the public sector, the informal sector is particularly important for women. More women may be involved in undocumented or “disguised” wage work than in the formal labor force. There are estimates that over 90 percent of workingwomen are involved in the informal sector and not included in, official statistics. The informal sector includes jobs such as domestic servant, small trader, artisan, or field laborer on a family farm. Most of these jobs are unskilled and low paying and do not provide benefits to the worker. Although such jobs are supposed to be recorded in the census, undercounting is likely because the boundaries between these activities and other forms of household work done by women are often clouded thus, the actual labor force participation rate for women is likely to be higher than that which can be calculated from available data. Women working in the informal sector of India’s economy are also susceptible to critical financial risks. Particularly vulnerable are the poorest of the poor. Should they become ill, lose their job, or be unable to continue working, they and their families may fall into debt and find themselves in the depths of poverty. At risk are millions of poor who depend on the income generated by one or more women in their household. These women do not have regular salaried employment with welfare benefits like workers in the organized sector of the labor market. Female workers tend to be younger than males.

According to the 2001 census, the average age of all female workers was 33.6 compared with the male average of 36.50. As per 2011 censusthere areover 1,219,300,00 people living in India, which makes it the second most populous country in the world, following China. Women are 48.50 per cent of the general population of India. There is a gender gap at birth. For every 100 girls born, there are 112 boys born; this gap is even wider in some regions.Of all ages, the gender gap is 100 females for every 108 males.In 2009-2010, women were 26.1per cent of all rural workers, and 13.8per cent of all urban workers. As per 2011 census women are an estimated 31.20 per cent of all economically active individuals. Women earn 62per cent of men’s salary for equal work and 26.20per cent of women compared to 9.0per cent of men cited a lack of role models as a barrier to advancement. In an effort to recruit more women employees, some companies are offering 25% bonuses for female employee referrals. India ranked towards the bottom of the 134 countries, with a ranking of 113, on the 2011 Global Gender Gap Index. Indian Women received 12 weeks paid maternity leave. India has a young workforce and population. In the next ten years, with both younger people and women entering the workforce, India expects to add an additional 110 million people to its labour force. In the next 40 years, India is projected to add 424 million working-age adults.

These data are reported by local employment offices that register the number of people looking for work. The accuracy of, these data is questionable because many unemployed people may not register at these offices if there are no perceived benefits to registering. In addition, the offices operate more extensively in urban areas, thus likely undercounting unemployment in rural areas. One would expect that as cultural impediments to work decrease, younger women would be the ones entering the workforce; older women who have never worked in the formal sector are not likely to start working later in life. Throughout the economy, women tend to hold lower-level positions than men even when they have sufficient skills to perform higher-level jobs. Researchers have estimated that female agricultural laborers were usually paid 40 to 60 percent of the male wage. Even when women occupy similar positions and have similar educational levels, they earn just 80 percent of what men do, though this is better than in most developing countries. The public sector hires a greater share of women than does the private sector, but wages in the public sector are less egalitarian despite laws requiring equal pay for equal work. There is evidence that suggests that technological progress sometimes has a negative impact on women’s employment opportunities. When a new technology is introduced to automate specific manual labor, women may lose their jobs because they are often responsible for the manual duties. For instance, one village irrigated its fields through a bucket system in which women were very active. When the village replaced the manual irrigation system with a tube well irrigation system, women lost their jobs. Many other examples exist where manual tasks such as wheat grinding and weeding are replaced by wheat grinding machines, herbicides, and other modern technologies. These examples are not meant to suggest that women would be better off with the menial jobs rather they illustrate how women have been pushed out of traditional occupations. Women may not benefit from jobs created by the introduction of new technology. New jobs (e.g., wheat grinding machine operator) usually go to men, and it is even rare for women to be employed in the factories producing such equipment. National Sample Survey data exemplify this trend. Since the 1970s, total female self-employment and regular employment have been decreasing as a proportion of total employment in rural areas, while casual labor has been increasing (NSSO, 1994). Other data reinforce the conclusion that employment options for female agricultural workers have declined, and that many women seek casual work in other sectors characterized by low wages and low productivity. Other agricultural work includes workers involved with livestock, forestry, fishing and hunting, plantations, orchards, and related activities.

Even if a woman is employed, she may not have control over the money she earns, though this money often plays an important role in the maintenance of the household. In Indian culture women are expected to devote virtually all of their time, energy, and earnings to their family. Men, on the other hand, are expected to spend time and at least some of their earnings on activities outside the household. Research has shown that women contribute a higher share of their earnings to the family and are less likely to spend it on themselves. Research has suggested that as the share of the family income contributed by woman increases, so does the likelihood that she will manage this income. However, the extent to which women retain control over their own income varies from household to household and region to region. Many women still sought their husbands’ permission when they wanted to purchase something for themselves. In northern India, where more stringent cultural restrictions are in place, it is likely that few women control family finances. Conditions of working women in India have improved considerably in the recent years. Ironically, despite the improvement in their status, they still find themselves dependent on men. It is because of the fact that man in patriarchal society has always wielded economic independence and power to take decision. Since the working woman earns an independent income in the same patriarchal set-up, where the basic infrastructure of society has hardly changed, though her own role within the same structure is passing through a transitional phase, it is but natural that she would remain vulnerable to exploitation even in her economically independent state. Society perhaps yet needs to accord due recognition to women to take the lead role and women, at the same time; need to be oriented vigorously towards assuming this role in the society.

1.2. Status of Working Women in India

Tapping its rich mine of educated female talent has been an important factor in allowing India to become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But recently this particular dynamo has been showing signs of strain. According to “Women of Tomorrow” a recent Nielsen survey of 6,500 women across 21 different nations, Indian women are the most stressed in the world today. An overwhelming 87per cent of Indian women said they felt stressed most of the time, and 82per cent reported that they had no time to relax.

The Nielsen survey’s respondents blame the difficulty of juggling multiple roles at home and work. Career opportunities for women in “the New India” are rapidly expanding, but family expectations and social mores remain rooted in tradition.

Not surprisingly, the most stress is felt among women between 25 and 55 years of age, who are trying to balance demanding careers with obligations at home. We discovered some of these pushes and pulls in our research for our upcoming book, winning the war for talent in emerging markets: Why Women are the solution.

Traditional family structures have a disproportionate effect on Indian women, even those who are urban, college-educated professionals, and especially for those who are the first generation in their families to have a career. Indian women are pulled by demands from relatives as they attempt to conform to the paradigm of “ideal daughter,” “ideal wife,” and “ideal daughter-in-law.” Among the many interviews conducted in researching the book, it wasn’t at all rare to hear of successful professionals who woke up at 4:30 a.m. to make breakfast and lunch for children and parents-in-law, put in a full day at work, then returned home to clean up after the extended family and prepare dinner.

Ambitious women often feel they have to overcompensate at work, too, to counter ingrained preconceptions about their commitment or competence. “There’s a sense that a woman is just working until she gets married, [that] she is not a long-term resource,” said one senior finance professional. But proving their worth by putting in longer hours or volunteering for business trips – the conventional methods to further one’s career – isn’t always possible.

Despite the technological prowess of India’s engineers and outsourcing firms, the country’s basic infrastructure isn’t sophisticated enough to support telecommuting and work-from-home arrangements on a widespread basis. Furthermore, flex time is rarely an option in a workplace culture that focuses on face time rather than results, says Hema Ravichandar, human resources adviser and formerly the global head of HR at Infosys. “Even in companies which have these facilities, it is not considered the right thing to do if you are serious about going up the corporate ladder,” says Ravichandar.

These stresses have serious ramifications for India’s continued economic growth. More than half (55per cent) of the Indian women interviewed have encountered workplace bias severe enough to make them consider scaling back their career goals, reducing their ambition and engagement, or quitting altogether, feeding into the very biases they grapple with and dealing a sharp blow to the country’s demographic dividend, a key factor in India’s growth which is experiencing its own stress.

Some Indian companies are taking steps to help these stressed women. For example, Infosys, the Bangalore-based info-tech powerhouse, offers the Infosys Women’s Inclusivity Network (IWIN). IWIN makes Infosys a female-friendly environment by identifying the stress points at which women tend to leave the organization and creating policies that help them deal with those stresses. Surveys showed that many Infosys women dropped out after getting married; the numbers skyrocketed after the birth of their first child and were almost universal after the second. In response, Infosys introduced a one-year “child care sabbatical” with the option of working part-time for the next two years.

Further discussions help women have a say in how their company can help their work-life balance. “Every year, we ask women, ‘What are three things you want us to do?’” to make Infosys more attractive to them and make it easier for them to do their job, says Nandita Gurjar, senior vice president and group head of human resources. “We do all of them.”

Women are critical contributors in finance, info-tech, pharmaceutical research, and other industries that are driving the growth of India Inc, Easing the stresses that prevent them from reaching their full potential at work is a smart way for companies to attract and retain key talent. Keeping women’s careers on track may not guarantee ongoing economic success but not doing so will surely limit it.

1.3 Work-Life Status of Women

Work and family life have been an integral part of a woman’s life. These two together form an integrated whole and therefore attract a lot of attention. The need to study the inter-linkages becomes all the more important with an increasing number of women entering the formal labour market. The very fact that they go out of home to work in a aˆzpublic space “poses all kinds of pulls and pushes upon home life which includes their aˆzwork” to maintain home and the family. A plethora of research has been conducted to ascertain the impact of a job outside home on the home life and vice versa or to understand the relationship between the two. Research so far has been emphasizing the conflict between the home and office life of a woman as a result of employment outside the home.

1.4 Objectives

After studying this Unit you will be able to:

Describe the Quality of Life and its indicators;

Analyze the importance of Work-life Balance; and

Discuss the significance of developing the strategy to strike a balance in work and life.

1.5 Definitions

In this section we focus on definitions of work-life balance and work-family expansion.

1.6 Work-Life Balance (WLB)

Work-life balance is not a new concept. The change in the pattern of work and the concept of the workplace after the industrial revolution in the second half of the 18th century gave a new dimension to the concept of WLB. As time progressed, nuclear families increased. A later change was the fading away of the “ideal home” in which the earning member’s spouse took care of the home. With improved education and employment opportunities today, most homes are ones in which both parents work because of necessity and the desire to augment incomes. The need to create congenial conditions in which employees can balance work with their personal needs and desires became a factor that companies had to take note of both to retain them as well as to improve productivity. It was a compulsion that they could not afford to ignore. Having realized that, companies started introducing schemes to attract and retain employees and improve their productivity.

Work-life balance is the extent to which individuals are equally involved in and equally satisfied with- – their role and their family role.

In his book managing work-life balance, David Clutter buck defines work-life balance as:

being aware of different demands on time and energy;

having the ability to make choices in the allocation of time and energy;

knowing what values to apply to choices; and

making choices.

Work-Life Balance does not mean an equal balance. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. Life is dynamic and not static. Each person’s work-life balance will vary over time, often on a daily basis. The right balance for each one today will probably be different from tomorrow.

The right balances differ when one is single and will be different when one marries or has a partner or if they have children. When one starts a new career versus when one is nearing retirement brings changes in work-life balance there is no perfect, one-size fits all, balance that one should be striving for.

1.7 Work-Family Expansion refers to the notion that: simultaneously engaging in multiple work and family roles is beneficial for the physical and mental relationship health of individuals. The quality of the roles, rather than the number of roles occupied or the amount of time spent in a particular role, determine the degree to which individuals experience the positive effects of participating in multiple roles.

1.8 Importance of work-life balance in women’s lives

Today’s career women are continually challenged by the demands of full-time work and when the day is done at the office, they carry more of the responsibilities and commitments to home. The majority of women are working 40-45 hours per week and the majorities are struggling to achieve work-life balance. Women reported that their lives were a juggling act that included multiple responsibilities at work, heavy meeting schedules, business trips, in addition to managing the daily routine responsibilities of life and home. “Successfully achieving work-life balance will ultimately create a more satisfied workforce that contributes to productivity and success in the workplace.” Employers can facilitate WLB with many schemes that can attract women employees and satisfy their needs.

Some of the schemes are:

Facilities for child care;

Financial planning services for employees who need them;

Flexi-timings;

Work sharing;

Part-time employment;

Leave plans – both paid and unpaid – to suit employee’s needs;

Subsidized food plans;

Insurance plans;

Counselling services for problems like managing work and the home;

Rest rooms, food preparation services;

Jobs with autonomy and flexibility;

Realistic workloads; and

Review of work processes to see if the burden on employees can be lightened.

(Source: http://www.indianmba.com/Occasional_Papers/OP183/op183.html)

1.9 work-life and family relationships

Edwards & Rothbard (2000) explain the relationship between work and family roles through a variety of linking mechanisms:

Work-family conflict or interference refers to simultaneous pressures from the work and family domains that are mutually incompatible in some respect such that meeting the demands of one role makes it difficult to meet the demands of the other role. Sometimes referred to as negative spill over, work-family conflict can take different forms and can originate either in the work domain or the family domain. Work-family conflict and consequent outcomes can be buffered by various coping behaviours. Some researchers have looked into how Asian women cope with these stressors, and Hall’s (1972) typology of coping provides a useful way to categorize these coping behaviours. Lo, Stone, and Ng (2003) found that the most popular strategy for coping in their sample was personal role re-definition (i.e., changing one’s own role expectation and not the expectations themselves, such as prioritizing time with children over grocery shopping [Lo et al., 2003]), followed by reactive role behaviour (i.e., assuming a rigidity of role expectations such that the person has no choice but to find ways to meet them), and finally structural role re-definition (i.e., changing the expectations imposed by an external source, such as flexible work scheduling or spousal negotiation of household roles).

Other studies have found Asian women to employ similar coping strategies. For example, Lee, Um and Kim (2004) found that married Korean women often coped by “working harder” in reaction to their role conflicts (a reactive role behaviour), which was associated with higher rates of depression compared to those who coped through other strategies such as negotiation with their spouse and prioritizing household tasks. Asian professional women may also cope reactively by lowering their career ambitions, as evidenced by an absence of women from the top levels. Ayree, Luk, Leung, and Lo (1999) framed coping behaviours in terms of emotion-focused coping (i.e. regulating distress created by the appraisal of stressors) and problem-focused coping (i.e. removing the negative impact of a stressor) and found that these efforts, in concert, positively influenced job and family satisfaction.

Several studies have also cited greater help from extended family or domestic workers in some Asian cultures, which can alleviate some of the burdens of work-family conflict. Enlisting the social support of husbands in domestic roles also helps to redefine structural roles, thus reducing work-family stress. Some studies have sought to explore the extent to which workplaces are accommodating structural role re-definition.

Unfortunately, in Asian societies, there is little dialogue between women and their employers with respect to work-family issues. This may be less true in societies with longer histories of egalitarian policies around gender and work. The following section will elaborate upon the implications for research and practice that extend to what is currently known about Asian women’s experiences with work and family.

Work – family accommodation refers to the process by which individuals reduce their involvement in one role to accommodate the demands of the other role. Work-family accommodation can be used as a strategy in response to actual or anticipated work-family conflict such that individuals reduce their involvement in a role that is less important to them. The reduction in involvement can take either of two forms: behavioral (i.e. curtailing the amount of time devoted to a role) or psychological (i.e. restricting the level of ego attachment to a particular role).

Work-life compensation refers to efforts by individuals to offset dissatisfaction in one role by seeking satisfaction in another role. These efforts can take the form of decreasing involvement in a dissatisfying role and increasing involvement in a more satisfying role. Alternately, individuals may respond to dissatisfaction in one role by pursuing rewarding or fulfilling experiences in the other role. The latter form of compensation can be either supplemental or reactive in nature. Supplemental compensation occurs when individuals shift their pursuits for rewarding experiences from a dissatisfying role to a potentially more satisfying one, e.g., individuals with little autonomy at work seek more autonomy outside of their work role. On the other hand, reactive compensation represents individual efforts to release negative experiences in one role by pursuing contrasting experiences in the other role such as engaging in leisure activities after a fatiguing day at work.

Work- family segmentation originally referred to the notion that work and family roles are independent of one another such that individuals can participate in one role without any influence on the other role. More recently, segmentation has been viewed as an international separation of work and family roles such that the thoughts, feelingsand behaviours of one role are actively suppressed from affecting the individualaˆYs performance in the other role.

Work-family enrichment refers to the process by which one role strengthens or enriches the quality of the other role. Work-family enrichment also refers to work-family enhancement, work-family facilitation and positive “spill over”. All these terms describe the notion that a variety of resources from work and family roles have the capacity to provide experiences in the other role. Unlike conflict or interference, two mechanisms that ar

Ethics has consistently been a part of our society. It has continuously played a crucial role whether in the professional world or in our normal daily lives. According to the well known sociologist Raymond Baumhart, ethics consists of the guidelines based on the basis of what is right and wrong and people are expected to follow the right path. A few examples such as honesty, trust and equality fall under ethical behavior and it is required in order for all of us to have a peaceful environment. (Baumhart, 1987)

Importance of ethics in the business world

Ethics is equally essential in the business world because it highlights the responsibilities, the principles and the standards that business people along with its organization should follow permanently. Any business organization that lacks or ignores the ethical principles is expected to fail and may harm the company’s image in several ways. For example unethical behavior such as employees coming to work late frequently will reduce the productivity level for the company and this may also intervene with their profit which for many firms is the sole purpose. It is the top management level’s duty to ensure that all the current working employees in their company are aware of the ethical guidelines regarding acceptable behavior in order to prevent acts such cheating at work, socializing at some networking site rather than giving priority to your work, discriminating against an employee etc. Ethics is also considered one of the corporate social responsibilities along with economic, legal and philanthropic and they should be considered majorly important.

It should be dealt with seriousness because it covers human resource issues which refer to discrimination at workplace and it is extremely vital for the managers at top level to not differentiate between their employees based on how they appear or any other reason for that matter. Fairness is another part where the managers have to make sure that they are treating their employees with equality without any biased decisions taking place. Besides these reasons there are many more which just proves the point that ethics is really important for management to succeed in achieving their goals.

Women Discrimination

Gender Discrimination

Discrimination in today’s world can be defined as the “aˆ¦treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favour of or against, a person or a thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.” (Dictionary.com, 2010). Discriminatory behaviours are of many different kinds but they mainly entail some form of exclusion or rejection. One form of discrimination that has been seen from generations till today is ‘gender discrimination’ where either of the sex is considered weaker than the other.

Women Discrimination in society

In most societies and developed countries like the U.S. girls are usually given the freedom and encouraged to create their own lifestyle, since childhood. They are made to believe in themselves and that they can be as successful as boys in every work of life. However, the case is not the same for girls from other societies which are mostly from developing countries. They are brought up to believe the opposite where they are constantly reminded of the things they are not allowed to do. In most of the developing countries sons are regarded as insurance and hence their birth is celebrated with great joy. Whereas, when a girl is born she is considered as another expense and liability for the family. Since childhood, they are trained to do household activities and stay indoors, isolating them from the rest of the world. In some parts of India, a tradition prevails to greet the family of newborn girl by saying ‘The servant of your household has been born’. Women from such societies face issues like emotional and physical abuse, inferiority, having their families and society limit their opportunities and restricting them from living life up to their full potential. Discrimination against women is a very demoralizing reality that still exists resulting in millions of individual tragedies. Studies show that a country’s attitude towards women is directly proportional to its social and economic progress i.e. if one part of the country gets affected then the result of the affect is suffered by the whole country as well. Sadly, women fall weak and are not able to defend themselves in situations where they are being discriminated. For example many women have to face problems like dowry, negligence, infanticide and sex-selective abortion, physical abuse and labour and sex trafficking (Mullins, 2010).

Gender lines are drawn early in women’s life and they face exclusions from childhood and continue facing it through out their adulthood as well. This perspective of women and false belief that women do not belong in the high corporate world has risen as a result of women discrimination. There has, over time been a stereotype thinking that women are only suitable for restricted professions like teaching or best suited to be housewives. Studies show that during elementary school teachers give more attention and importance to boys in Maths and Science while girls are paid attention by teachers in subjects like Language and Art. This is because Maths and Science subjects are more academically challenging and to be taken in the field of medicine, engineering and architecture which are considered to be male professions. Studies also show that girls in middle and high school are discouraged to participate in extracurricular activities like sports or join debate clubs. Instead, they are encouraged to participate in after school volunteer work, social programs and more inert activities. Also, when making career choices, girls are pestered by parents into pursuing cliched female-oriented professions like teaching, nursing, care giving, retail and office administration. Studies carried by the Department of Labour 2007 statistics show that more women are starting businesses than men, more women are in the employees than men, and the majority of degree-holders are now women and yet they are only still dominating fields and industries that are considered suitable for ‘female’ (Wolfe, 2009)

Women discrimination is not always seen in developing countries alone but can also be noticed in developed countries. For example, one of the largest sex discrimination case seen in the history on the U.S. is the law suit filed against Wal-Mart. This suit was filed in the year 2001 by six female employees and by April 2010 it was reported to include more than a million females costing the retailer billions in damages. The women who filed the case claimed that they faced systematic discrimination at work.

The Wal-Mart industry

It is an American retailing industry founded by Sam Walton in1962 when he launched its first branch in Arkansas. His main strategy which found him early success in his life was to keep prices relatively low which lead him to earn a ranking as the richest man during the 1980’s. According to the Forbes magazine, it became the world’s largest corporation by revenue.

Walmart’s women discrimination case

Wal-Mart is being criticized for paying its female employees less than its male employees and also provide smaller salary raises to women and fewer promotions. It was reported that women at Wal-Mart were being steered away from management positions into lower-level jobs without much possible chances of progress like cashier jobs. Moreover, a woman who came looking for a job opportunity as a manager was reported to be told that she was not qualified for the management position as she was not able to stack 50 pound bags of dog food. It was also reported by The New York Times that around 33% of the women at Wal-Mart are company’s managers whereas the rest 65% consist of women working as hourly employees. Wal-Mart was account to be biased towards males (Goudreau, 2010).

Wal-Mart has around 700,000 working women that form its back bone and make it one of the largest private sector employers of women in the U.S. However, these employees face discrimination at work on advancement opportunities, job assignments and receive unequal pay. This discrimination towards women has been seen in all levels of the company i.e. from hourly working employees to senior management. Women earn 40cents less than what they should be earning equal to the other hourly male employees even though they have longer seniority and higher merit ratings than their male co-workers. A woman manager earns around $5,000 per year less compared to a male manager who earns $23,175 per year. Women executives also do not find themselves safe from discrimination at Wal-Mart. Women face systematic denial of advancement as men dominate the management ranks. They are stuck in the low paying jobs consisting of 92% cashiers and 76% sales associate. Wal-Mart’s competitors in the past have had more women managers than men compared to Wal-Mart. (UFCW, 2010).

Walmart’s case from Kant’s perspective

Wal-Mart’s case casts light upon the ethical considerations of women discrimination in the work environment. Whether it is illegal is still under trial, however, it is clearly an ethical issue. Businesses often face such ethical issues which occur due to many reasons even if they are unintentional. The market fluctuations, competition and profit-making orientation lead business owners and managers into behaving unethically without conspicuous intentions.

The issue of women discrimination can be analysed and evaluated using ethical theory. “Ethical theory is generally based upon moral philosophy and may be classified on many different dimensions, however, there are several basic ‘types’ of moral philosophy which are used in business ethics, such as egoism, utilitarianism, deontology, rights and relativism” (Bartlett, 2003: 224). Egoism and Utilitarianism are examples of consequentialist philosophies whereas, deontological approaches such as that of Immanuel Kant are an example of non-consequentialist philosophies. Kant’s theories are often associated with the duties, moral rights and respect of an individual. His theories say that “each person has both the right to expect to be treated according to universal moral laws and the corresponding duty to behave according to that law” (Bartlett, 2003: 224).

Kant’s theory proposes a ‘categorical imperative’ which is the particular moral law according to which people should act. It states that one should “act as if the maxim of thy action were to become by thy will a universal law of nature” (Kant, cited in Bartlett, 2003: 224). This means that an action can be set as a ‘categorical imperative’ making it a universal law and applying it to the maximum population to see what the result of that action would be if it became common behavior of the world. The morality of an action can be judged by applying the deontological approach which considers the rights, duties, truth and respect of an individual according to universal moral principles. It focuses on doing the “right thing”.

Sex discrimination or discrimination of women in particular can be evaluated using Kant’s theory. Applying the theory, the ‘categorical imperative’ or the universal rule can be set as “It is okay to discriminate women in business practices”. If this rule is applied universally, the effect of this action on the society or the whole world would be highly negative. Firstly, men would continue to view women as the weaker sex due to which they will not give them opportunities to work at all. If women don’t work they will have low motivation and high emotional stress which can affect their family lives. If all families became unhappy and stressed the whole society will be affected and may not prosper. Secondly, the household incomes would decrease drastically as women will not be able to support their husbands.

Furthermore, if women will have no career opportunities, they will stop their education and the literacy rate would go down. Labour supply in the market would decrease which would lead to a surplus in labour demand thus, creating a need for high wages and salaries which can become a major issue with employers. The overall employment rate would also decrease; affecting the world economy.

The result of discriminating women and discouraging their participation in work practices universally can cause serious harm to the society and the whole world overall. It questions women’s rights and respect along with man’s duty towards equality and fairness in the world. Thus, the universal rule will be contradicted and negated leading to the conclusion that, as analyzed through this theory and the deontological approach, sex discrimination is unethical.

Walmart’s perspective

On the contrary, when considering the case from Walmart’s perspective, it is important to understand that it is the senior management’s duty and responsibility to take every measure to ensure they assign jobs to employees who are most suited to do them and hold the capabilities required to accomplish the job. For example, Walmart has been criticised for refusing one woman a management position because she was unable to stack 50-pound bags of dog food hence, unqualified for the job. While many have protested against this act, it must be highlighted that there has been always a stereotype image of women as being the weaker sex and this incident helps illustrate that. Walmart managers understand that the business involves tasks that cannot be easily accomplished by women as compared to men. Also, giving women tedious jobs might be considered unethical by some customers and this could affect Walmart’s reputation as being harsh towards women and making them do jobs they are not fit for. Moreover, Walmart may have been scandalised by its competitors who are looking for ways to show the company in a negative light as it is successful and poses serious threat to smaller businesses who are unable to compete on the basis of price due to the exceptional low prices Walmart provides hence, looking for other methods of causing damage to their competitor.

Target Corporation and its ethical practices

One of the greatest competitions faced by Walmart is from Target Corporation; after Walmart, Target is the second largest discount retailer in the United States. Walmart and Target do business in quiet similar manner and have both very wide-ranging ethical and environmental policies in place. However in terms of practices, Walmart has solicited much more criticism than Target for breaching its ethical policies, the company has poor employment benefits, exerts pressure on suppliers, eliminates waste into the environment and as discussed earlier, practices gender discrimination to great extent. However, Target refuses to tolerate workplace discrimination and tries to create an environment in which everyone recognizes the value of diversity. According to national statistics the average company across the United States employs a staff that consists of forty-eight percent women; fifty-nine percent of Target’s workforce is women. In part with this statistic and the treatment of their female employees, Target has been honored as an organization with multiple national awards recognizing their commitment to gender diversity. In 2005, Target was named one of the “Top 30 Companies for Executive Women,” by the National Association for Female Executives. As well as in 2004, they were named one of the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers,” by the magazine, Working Mother. Therefore similar to Target, Walmart should also adopt policies against gender discrimination to avoid lawsuits which spoils the image of the company.

The questionnaires were distributed in different regions in order to target a large number of women with different types of lifestyles. The reason was to get different views from women from different horizons having different backgrounds.

Women from different age groups have their own opinion on women emancipation, and each segment needed to taken into consideration. This difference in opinion is mainly due to the gap between different generations as facilities offered to them were not same.

Youngsters were more easily accessible for the survey and were more interested in giving some of their time. They were more common to the term ‘Emancipation of Women’.

The interviewees were met at their workplace, on university campus and at their home mainly.

Women awareness of Emancipation

There was a high rate of positive response in the overall result. As illustrated above 68 % of the respondents were aware of emancipation. This shows that emancipation affects lives of many Mauritian women. Emancipated women show some confidence and are less submissive.

Youngest women were more aware of emancipation; this was proved by their high rate of positive response (81% for 18-25 age group and 87% for the 26-35 age group). Those who knew more about emancipation were mainly those who have been to school or those who are working, or women having an active social life. These women appear more confident and less submissive.

Although their numbers were lower, the elder women gave mainly negative answers. In fact, the 46-over group age gave more than 50% of negative replies in their answers. This is so as the elderly do not see that emancipation has an impact on their lives itself. They are already grown up enough to change their life styles. Some of them said that they devote their time in looking after their offspring rather than doing things for themselves.

All women who knew about emancipation were able to tell that it has brought many changes in the way women are living today. As illustrated above, 67 % of women believed that emancipation had an impact on women and only 33 % were against this particular view. Those who answered yes are mostly responding in accordance about what they are achieving in their lives through as an emancipated woman.

So women were asked to describe this emancipation in a word or short phrase. The most used words to characterise emancipation are given below:

Women are foreseen as a decision maker in the family. Whereas long ago they had only to agree to the will of their husbands, 13.6% of interviewers think women now take part in all important decisions like, what stuff to buy, or decision like having a baby or not.

Women emancipation has also bring along with it equality between women and man. This is why 17.6% of women interrogated believed that they had equal rights as man. Indeed, nowadays, according to the equal and opportunities act, specify that no discrimination should be made between men and women.

With 22.4% of women answering that emancipation made them independent, this was the highest rate obtained for the survey. Women feel that emancipation brought them freedom of movements and actions. They are now able to launch themselves in any field they want and make their own decisions.

8.8% of women think that emancipation gave rise to new laws protecting women rights. And these laws have been made by act of parliaments and enforced by courts. So any person, who is found trespassing the right of a woman, can be sued in court and risk fines and imprisonment.

Women have now evaluated according to 5.6% of replies obtained in the survey. This evolution can be noticed by women now dressing them differently but also act differently in the society. Women are now well known and express their views. Where long ago they had no social life, today women are able to participate and animate social groups.

In order to support the women emancipation, women education should not be neglected as it was long ago, where mainly boys were sent to school, while girls had to stay at home and do household jobs. But nowadays, more and more women are able to go to school, and the stereotypes of the past seem to have faded away. From results of the survey, we noticed that every woman interviewed went to school, and many even went through tertiary education. Results are illustrated in the graphs below:

Most women questioned were able to say that the quality of education being offered to girls at school has increased. This quality may be quantified by the fact that girls work better than boys at school. The table below illustrates values obtained from the Central Statistic Office.

Year
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Primary Completion

70.7

70.1

69.2

73.8

71.5

Male%

65.3

66.1

64.5

68.6

66.1

Female %

76.3

74.0

74.0

79.2

77.2

Certificate of Primary Education Pass Rate

66.2

67.4

68.1

68.5

68.6

Male %

60.1

62.1

62.3

63.1

62.7

Female %

72.7

73.2

74.5

74.4

74.9

For several years, we notice that girls work better than boys. This is due to the fact that equal chances are offered to both sexes. When questioned about the facilities offered to boys and girls, respondents replied that both sexes are offered same treatment.

The level of education involving women can also be illustrated by the fact that most respondents in the survey are well qualified women. More than one quarter of them has reached at least HSC level. However it can be noticed that female are more concerned about education and their future success nowadays due to the fact that they do not want to depend on any one. Career prospect has become the priority of almost all women.

The high level of education of women will therefore channel them for equal chances as men at work. They will have the possibility even to rule other men as they are qualified enough to do the job. Women are no more only housewives, while their husbands go to work to feed the family. There is growing motivation in women to have a job and be independent.

The majority of the respondent agreed that in major sectors of the industry, women are offered same chances as their male homologues. We can see women emerging in new sectors, and they are no longer present in the only sector which was mostly in industries. Long ago it would have been impossible because of stereotypes and prejudices which they will have to bear.

According to the study, 35% which forms the majority earns Rs 10000 to 20000. It shows that these women are not working in industries and fields as in such work they will not be earning this income. This shows that women has been emancipated in the job sector as at first it was industrialisation which gives rise to emancipation.

The emancipation of women has not only affected their life at work, but also their status in the family also changed.

As shown above, 89% of answerers think that women position in the family has changed. This is so as nowadays women are not the only one doing the entire task at home as they are being helped by the husband. 52% even answered that these changes were significant. Women have same power and same rights as their husband, brothers, or even as a family leader.

In the sample of people taken for the survey, we can see women participation as a decision maker at home in 71% of the replies. 21% even think that women are decision makers at home, because for them, generally, men only go to work, but it’s their wives who manage the budget for the month and even for the choices of equipments for the house.

When women were asked on the survey what changes emancipation brought to their lives, the most frequent answer was ‘being independent’. 25% of women think they are more independent while other frequent replies were ‘equality with men’ which came 20% of the time, and 18% think they are now decision makers. The most frequent answers have been selected and presented below.

Feeling more independent, women can now do all kind of activities apart from work and household tasks. So women are more involved in social groups. 53% of women interrogated practice any kind of social activity.

From results obtained from the survey, we notice that a slightly lower amount of women questioned being married. This value is smaller than if survey was done years before because of youngsters not getting married early in these days. They prefer a more liberal relationship before choosing whom to marry. The amount of forced marriage has decreased with women emancipation. Young ladies rights are more and more taken into consideration and they are able to choose between marriage and studies for example.

However, we notice that women do not practice enough sport, as we can see that only one third of women questioned actually practiced a sport activity. The main reason for this low rate is mainly due to lack of time. After work women feel that they have no time for sport as some attend tertiary education after working hours.

Sport has greatly contribute to revolutionise the status, image and even character of women, thus challenging a whole set of traditional and cultural attitudes about women’s position and role in society. With the increasing globalisation of sport, advances made in training and in women’s sport in general in Mauritius, encourage the development of new sports, increasing women involvement, and breaking down stereotypes. The impact of the Olympic Games in demonstrating the global participation of women in sport is highlighted. At every Olympic games, Mauritius had female representatives in the games.

From the survey, respondents were more than 4/5 saying that practicing sport was a new way for emancipation as it opens new doors and provide several alternatives to women to sound the world the way they like. Women are now able to become as good as men in sport.