toptermpaper.com

This paper discusses unemployment in the family. The research paper looks at the causes of unemployment, from the loss of a job, the loss of a job due to being laid down, un renewed contracts, early retirement or the closing down of industries. Unemployment is caused by illness, where a person becomes terminally ill or is advised by the doctor to leave the job due to health reasons. Bad business practices are a cause of unemployment, with people losing their businesses to repossession due to loans. The major cause of unemployment is a poor economy as it affects all areas of out lives. The paper has gone further and discussed the steps families take to manage unemployment whether they are direct or indirect, and the effects unemployment has on the family. It further discussed the measures the family should take to deal with unemployment and the unemployment period. From revising their budget, canceling or rescheduling payments on cards, job searching and community involvement. The paper has discussed the role the government plays in the alleviation of poverty.

Introduction

Unemployment is an increasing issue in the family, with topics like food, shelter and clothing having being in the centre stage, unemployment is now a topic of discussion in the family. The loss of lively hood is not common to the bread winners but it is also felt by the young upcoming professionals, those who are seeking jobs for the first time. Unemployment is not restricted to those who have been working but it also applies to those who were self employed and have lost their businesses for one reason or another Heidi (2008).

The ongoing discussions on unemployment solutions have been centered on economic growth, but while this may help, questions are raised on its fastness in saving the family. The reason why the family is at the centre on unemployment issues is because it is the basic unit of a society. Therefore if any societal discussions and solutions are found for unemployment they should be able to assist the family structure. All members of a society are all members of one family or another; there this paper focuses on the issues of unemployment and the family.

Hypothesis

The purpose of this paper is to understand the causes and the effects that unemployment has on the family. Unemployment impact greatly on the life of individuals, it affects on all aspects of a person. The impact of unemployment on an individual affects the family as well and the society at large. It is for this reason that practical and applicable solutions to unemployment should be found. The finding of ways for the family members find ways to handle employment in the current situation is important.

Objectives

The main objective of this research paper is the study of the finding on equitable solutions to the causes of unemployment in the family. The paper will be handled in terms of specific objectives as follows.

Discuss the causes of unemployment in the family

Discuss the effects of unemployment, the direct and indirect practices the family has on unemployment.

Discuss solutions to unemployment for the family

Causes of Unemployment

In many families the parents are the providers of the daily bread, in the single house hold it is the single parent who provides for that family. There are families too where only one of the spouses works to provide for the family. An adult child can also work to provide for the family. The sources of income in the family come from employment, either a white collar or from manual work. Self employment is another source of income, where an individual or a family own and run a business Britt (1994) .

The loss of a job is a cause of unemployment, when an individual is fired, they loose their income. People can be laid off from work with or without benefits, when one looses a job for bad conduct or violation of an organizations rule they can be let go without benefits depending on the organizations principles. In case an organization goes out of business, is taken over by another business or a case of a contract ending the employees can receive benefits West (1994). The loss of business might mean that the benefits might come from the compensation from the bank or a government intervention in case it’s a big organization as it tries to bail it out .Sickness too can cause unemployment especially in cases of prolonged illness, or a case where one is advised by their doctor to leave their work for health reasons.

Individuals loose their income if their business close down, are declared bankrupt or are too sick to work. Wrong investment plans also cause unemployment; a bad decision can cause one to miss an opportunity of employment. Taking out a loan on the business and failing to pay causes for a bank take over and the close of the business Cantor (1985). Taking a loan on the mortgage of the house, failing to pay is even a serious problem, since one will loose the business and even the home. The main factor in these scenarios is the economic reasons.

The recent economic crisis has caused real financial strain on the society. With prices of fuel, transportation and raw materials go up, this cause production costs to go up, if production is expensive then the goods and services prices also go up. A bad economy means that at the same time people have little or no money in their pockets and the little they have they are holding on to it. This means that the rate of consumption of products and services goes down. Businesses then have to cut back on production reduce the working hours and even lay down employees; some businesses have even completely closed to cope with this situation Barling (1990). The lying off of employees has caused unemployment, in the society and eventually in the family. Therefore economic problems are a cause of unemployment.

The other factor to consider is that as people get laid off, then the employment rates also reduce. Those looking for jobs will have to make do with walking the path of looking for a job with people who have been working and are now laid off. They have to contend with competing for the few jobs with those recently unemployed, the risk being that for those jobs available. These jobs may be seeking someone with work experience, and those who have been in the job market and are searching get this chance since they have the experience compared to the fresh graduate. While people are being laid off and others trying to get employment, there is a class of individuals that many leave out. We tend to look at the young and forget about the older generation, those who are working and still have time on their retirement Linker (1983). When an economy crushes it takes down with it everyone, those who are remaining a few years to retire can also be affected. In the process of job cuts, organizations also reduce their retirement age. Taking this lot of the mature, yet still can work home. They still get to enjoy the benefits of the retirement.

Effects of Unemployment, Direct and Indirect Practices to Deal with Unemployment

The first effect is the loss of a source of income, the loss of a way to make money is the cause of loss of money. When this happens whether or if the person was aware of it, when it finally hits home that they have no income they experience shock. In a situation where they knew the problems at work and the possibility of the loss of the job, it does not come as a surprise. They may have even been trying to look for another job in the process. A business man, who had a loan and was experiencing poor business, causing him to make late payments on the loan, may be expecting the loss of his business Twitter (2002). The sick patient, who finds out that they are terminally ill, is expecting the loss of the job. They experience shock after when the truth sinks in, and they realize that they no longer have a source of income.

When unemployment happens, and they start looking for another job to no avail, and they have to use their savings, that is when they realize the effects of the loss. When they make the realization their attitude and personality changes, the fact that their savings are running out fast, they have no income is a trying time for them. They take time to unjust from the routine of working and going to work, they find is hard to watch how they spend, since it takes time to unjust Berry (1997).

The loss of an income has an effect on the whole family since, the attitude and the state of mind of the unemployed also affects the way they interact with others in the family. The fact that they have to watch their spending, and that they can no longer enjoy the luxuries they enjoyed is a demotivator.

Unemployment means the loss of a source of income, implications of this on the individual and family is that, they can no longer make payments on a few things that they enjoyed before. It becomes a luxury to eat out, take the car; they have to take the bus or train. Family vacations are reduced or even not taken in the end; trips to the store are reduced. They have to change their eating habits too, where they used to enjoy rich up to three meals a day, with some families enjoying several courses in a meal, they have to make do with less courses and fewer ingredients. The children are especially affected if they have to do with eating from the cafeteria at school while they were used to having money for lunch Kalil (2005).

As one or more of the providers has lost their job, and the circulation of money in the home has reduced with benefits reduced or cut, tensions get high. The family breaks up as tensions get high, they may be living in the same house but they are not in talking terms, each family discussion turns into a fight Berry (1997). The reason is that the unemployed member of the family is insecure; he or she does not know what to do with them. Their self esteem goes down, a low self esteem means that the individual is on edge, they become testy, and cannot interact properly with other members of the family. The family members are also at a loss, while they may want to assist them, they may not know how to as they are difficult to deal with.

On the other hand the lack of the luxuries may cause members to blame the provider for loosing their source of income, they also turn edgy as they become insecure, they cannot deal with the fact that now they have to make do with less. The limited budget, the choice the family has to make on what is to be left out of the budget is a trying task, a housewife who has to reduce or stop her visits to the spa, shopping and lunch meetings may get testy. The family splits up on items to be incorporated and left out of the budget Britt (1994).

Families have been known to split up and break up when the loss of income happens, when there is no any other source of income in the near future. The process of looking for another source of income is a hard one, if they are emotionally beaten they may not be enthusiastic in the job hunt, the move to another part of town or city may warrant the break up of the family. The break down of communication at this time because of tensions may also cause the family to break up Heidi (2008).

The family may have to move to another part of town or the country as they search for income, or as they move to a less expensive house. The failure to pay for mortgage or the repossession of their house causes them to move, either with family, friends or they even become homeless West (1994).

These major changes in the family are a strain on the family members; they cause deviant behavior in the family member. They lead to members turning to alcohol, extra marital affairs and even divorce. The children in this kind of situation turn to crime as they associate with the wrong group, in their search for happiness outside the house they make wrong decisions. Unemployment also causes depression to unemployed and the members of the family, their failure to secure another job, the constant tension in the family, cause depression Kalil (2005). Where depression is experienced and if it is not treated early it can lead to suicide, sometimes the family members would want to help but the lack of money means that they cannot afford professional help for their loved one. The family seeks ways of burying the shame of a change lifestyle and cope with their new situation. It is the search of ways that causes them to behave in socially unacceptable manner.

During this unemployment period there are practices that families get into to reduce and to manage the effects of unemployment. These can be classified as direct and indirect practices. The direct practices are the immediate actions that effect, for example a family will decide to immediately change their budget, and they decide to unjust their budget to accommodate their new lifestyle. They also decide to change the menu to be a more economical; they may turn to canned foods Trotter (2002). The family also decides to reduce consumption of energy in the house, by cutting down on shower time, stop the use of bathtubs, change lighting bulbs t the more energy saving bulbs, make us of one car if they have two. They also may decide to stop the use of the pool for those who have it, to cut back on cost of maintaining it. Family vacations are also reviewed, with priority being put on visiting family members and parents. At the same time they also can cut back credit card spending, or even completely scrap the use of the cards.The whole purpose of making these changes is to effectively make use of their savings before the next source of income is found Heidi (2008).

The other step taken is the immediate search for an alternative source of income, this may entail looking for employment through advertisements or they use friends and relatives to get another job. They may decide to get self employment to seek income. When a family has settled in their new lifestyle are they able to handle unemployment. If the problem persists do they result to drastic measures, selling of household items, the second or all the cars, they may decide to move in with their relatives as they sell the house. They may move to a house with cheaper rent.

At this desperate stage is when the patience of the family is tried, at this time many couples are known to break up. Children drop out of school because they lack fee or are chased away for misconduct. This is period were unfaithfulness is experienced; this period also can lead to divorce. It is this time when tensions are high and the family is braking up, that desperation leads women to prostitution, men to crime, suicide is experienced and family members are known to kill each other.

Solutions to Unemployment in the Family

To effectively deal with unemployment in the family it is important first to learn the management of the family’s resources. There are many steps the family can take to deal with period. The first step to take immediately after a job loss is stock taking or assessing the situation. This is meant to list down all the expenditures and the resources present it helps give one a clear picture of the financial position of the family.

The second important step is the application of benefits; those who are unemployed are eligible to unemployment benefits. After assessing ones position financially, they should apply for unemployment benefits. These benefits will assist the family in bringing in some income, this mostly helpful as it helps with the basic and most urgent needs like food and utilities. Application for benefits early will help them receive them early too, and at this time they will have come to terms with the loss of income Barling (1990).

A very important step is the contacting of creditors; this is meat to inform them of the loss of income and the possibility of delayed payments. This is important because creditors are willing to unjust the payment schedule or payments for those who can pay. This step is important because failure to do, and the over looking the fact that you might make it, in the eventuality that one doesn’t, then he or she destroys their credit rating.

During this period it is important to look for a job. As one embarks on a job hunt it is important to study the job market. Job markets and requirements by employers change, this is because there are so many diverse requirements that an employer is looking for a multi skilled employee. It is important at this time to revise ones skills and try to match them to the job market. This is the time to go back to school or acquire training certificate that will match with your work experience Cantor (1985).

As they search for a job it is also advisable if a job is long in coming by, it is good for them to reconsider and think of a self employment venture to get involved in. they can either join a relative or a friend and assist in their work, this is very important in that it gives them a sense a being needed. Apart from feeling needed it also boosts their confidence, reduces stress, depression in them and in the family. It gives them something to do and occupy their minds with; it is while they are out working on odd jobs that they get ideas of getting an income. They then should consult with family members on their ideas and professionals so that they do not make a poor investment decision Britt (1994).

These steps are important to the individual and the family members as they help prevent negative consequences as a result of helplessness or depression. A positive reaction and positive steps taken in the management unemployment helps them reduce medical costs that would have been sort if they fell into depression. Getting involved in community projects and activities also helps in occupying their time, getting involved in the church, or the local care centre, the recreation centre, as a volunteer or the local gardening committee Kalil (2005). These gestures are meant to give them a sense of ownership, that the society still needs them and the alleviation of boredom.

A positive mind during the period of unemployment is a healthy tool in the fight of unemployment. A positive mind is created from the feeling we have when we get support from our family and friends, when our neighbors still want to associate with use after a loss Berry (1997). A positive is required in order for the unemployed to find another source of income.

This new source of income apart from a new job could be a business, a positive mind will help them think and make good plans that assist them in decision making. They should seek the help of family members whether it is financial aid or ideas, to even labor as they set up their business. These simple yet important steps should be undertaken by the unemployed and their families. It is important fro them to take personal responsibility for their present situation, whether they are in it out of their own fault or that of others Linker (1983). These measures should go hand in hand with measures the government and local authority is taking to alleviate unemployment.

The government on its part tries to alleviate unemployment by improving the economy, they bail out organizations. They encourage investments in order to create jobs, at the same time providing benefits to the unemployed. They provide these benefits through social welfare that gives unemployment benefits, to food stamps. The social structures set up, like that of the unemployment office helps the unemployed find jobs. All measures taken by the government are meant to help save the society from the effects of unemployment.

Conclusion

This paper has covered in detail the causes of unemployment, the effect it has on the family and the actions the family takes to deal with unemployment. it has been seen that the first steps one takes after losing a job determines the kind of situation they will be in during this period of unemployment. Family support is very important to the unemployed; they either make or break the individual. This is the period where with a positive attitude one can change their lives positively, the loss of a job may mean the beginning a o new era, one in which they rediscover themselves as they improve their situation, a period of self discovery leads to self employment and even a very successful career in a field of their dreams. The most important factor is that of positive living and positive steps to handle unemployment.

Work Cited

Barling, J. (1990). Employment, Stress, and Family Functioning. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Berry, A.; Mendex, M. T.; and Tenjo, J. (1997). “Growth, Macroeconomic Stability and the Generation of Productive Employment in Latin America.” In Employment Expansion and Macroeconomic Stability under Increasing Globalization, ed. A. R. Khan and M. Muqtada. London: Macmillan.

Britt, C. L. (1994). “Crime and Unemployment among Youths in the United States, 1958- 1990.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 53( January):99-109.

Cantor, D., and Land, K. C. (1985). “Unemployment and Crime Rates in the Post-World War II United States: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.” American Sociological Review 50( June):317-332.

Heidi, R. Unemployment Effects emotions, Family Relations. C & G publishing, 2008

Kalil, A. Unemployment and Job Displacement: The Impact on Families and Chilren. Ivey business journal 2005

Liker, J. K., and Elder, G. H., Jr. (1983). “Economic Hardship and Marital Relations in the 1930s.” American Sociological Review 48( June):343-359.

Piggott, J., and Chapman, B. (1995). “Costing the Job Compact.” Economic Record 71(December):313-328.

Trotter, L. The Impact of Unemployment on our Society. Helium publishing. 2002

West, C. T. (1994). “The Problem of Unemployment in the United States: A Survey of 60 Years of National and State Policy Initiatives.” International Regional Science Review 1 and 2(16):17-47.

“One of the greatest investments which we can make is to invest in health; for there is no other investment like itaˆ¦.Health is life insurance, success and happiness”

-Mahatma Gandhi

The wise woman tradition seeks to heal the whole individual. The primary techniques involve nourishing the woman through storytelling, simple ceremony and dietary herbs. The “mysteries” of a woman’s body – puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, lactation and menopause – are seen as times of power and growth. Menopause is an opportunity for conscious change, not a disease to be treated.

The change of life. The end of fertility. The beginning of freedom. Whatever people call it, menopause is a unique and personal experience for every woman. The joy of menopause is the world’s best-kept secret aˆ¦.in order to claim that joy a woman must be willing to pass beyond the monsters that guard its gate. As you stand at the brink of it, it can appear that only darkness, danger and delay lie beyond. But as thousands of women from all cultures throughout history have widespread to each other. It is the most exciting passage a woman ever makes. As a third of a woman’s life will be in her postmenopausal period, it is essential that she understands and manages this period, makes some adjustments and enjoys optimum health.

Puberty and menopause are mysteries that every woman experiences. Puberty seems to be about beginnings and menopause about endings but both encompass death and birth, loss and emergence. Puberty is the end of the child and the beginning of the fertile women, whereas menopause is the end of the mother and the beginning of the wise elder (Crone). Puberty and menopause are both necessary for maturation and both are times of physical, emotional and spiritual upheaval.

There is another viewpoint, one that does not see supplemental hormones as a useful or healthy. One that does not see women as victims of menopause, It is called the wise woman tradition. From this view, menopause is seen as normal, healthy and scared not just for women but also for society as a whole. The focus is on nourishing the whole woman, supporting her ability to produce the hormones she needs rather than offering so- called replacements. Menopausal women are encouraged to honor and respect their changing bodies and to use menopause as a time for intense introspection and personal growth. Postmenopausal women are understood to be critical to the health of the culture. Menopause is seen not as a disease but as a survival advantage.

Menopause is derived from Latin words “meno” means months and “pausia” means halt respectively. Menopause really marks the end of a woman’s period of natural fertility. Menopause is often defined as the permanent cessation of menstruation resulting from loss of ovarian follicular activity and the absence of menses after the climacteric changes of amenorrhea as evidence.

This menopause affects the health of the women not only physically, also psychologically, socially. They are likely to suffer more from the stigmatization and attitudes of ageing after the reproductive phase. In addition, when they enter into this menopause phase they experience low social status and decreasing sexual desire due to the advancing age. They lack in terms of income, status, power relative to men. Moreover, women’s physical and mental condition during this stage of life will have a significant influence on her later years of life (David & Norman, 2000).

As women age, there health will be influenced by many factors such as career, changes in the home life, dietary pattern, physical activity, economic status, her society and the environment. The normal process of aging and these changes together with hormonal changes in the reproductive system affect the welfare of women.

In 1990, 476 million of postmenopausal women were reported throughout the world, in which 40% live in the industrialized world. It is predicted that total number of postmenopausal women in 2030 will approximately 1200 million in the world and the proportion of those living in the developing world will increase to 76%. In East Asian region the available data from 1989 to 1992 postulated the percentages of population above 45 years of age is ranged from 15.3 to 24%. (WHO, 2002)

Women in India go through menopause just as women do elsewhere in the world. India has traditionally ignored women’s health issues including menopause but now exciting changes are taking place. Indian women face many social and cultural challenges in their life. The symptoms of menopause may vary from woman to woman. As per the Indian menopause society (2008) the average age of attaining menopause for Indian women is 47.5 years. Indian women who is living in rural area 72 % are having general body aches and pains which is mainly impairing their quality of life.

Various studies have proved that the last three decades of female life are dominated by two categories of health disorders greatly impairing the quality of their life. These two categories are gynecological disorders and postmenopausal problems. Women needs all types of health support after reproductive phase mainly for menopause, but regrettably these services are not available to most of them, in rural settings (Bhattacharya, 2006)

It is evident that most of the health services are focusing towards women of childbearing age and she receives less attention even from the public health care services once she travels out of the childbearing age. Menopause is a vital point in one’s life where the woman faces number of health problems. As ageing and menopause together over burden the women’s health, it is necessary to open up our eyes towards this population. Previously most women did not live long enough for the symptoms to become fatal. All of this adds up to a unique and growing challenge for the public health care services, since most of the women at this age group don’t have spouse to care for them are living alone with the health problems that have not been adequately addressed.

Society has only been facing the issues of life beyond the menopause for a comparatively short time. Research is now focusing on factors that completely influence the physical and psychological aspects of menopause and ageing. Women today are expected to live 1/3 of their lives after their reproductive years, or one-half of their adult life. In that case, preventive health care and healthy life style habits and practices can only be the great support to improve the quality of life in their later years (Young kin & Davis, 2004).

SIGNIFICANCE AND NEED FOR THE STUDY

Menopause signals the end of an era for many women. It concludes their ability to reproduce, and some women find advancing age, altered roles, and these physiologic changes to be overwhelming events that may precipitate depression and anxiety (Kessenich, 2007).

With the increasing of life span women in western cultures, most women can expect to live one third of their lives after the reproductive years. As women age, many experience transitions that presents challenges, such as changing health, work, marital status, that require adaptation. Nowhere is this truer than with the changes associated with menopause. In the United States most women undergo menopause during the late forties and early fifties; the median age is approximately 51 years (Andersons 2007).

In India the average life span of women was 31 Years according to the census conducted 4 Years after independence, in 1951, which had considerably increased to 61 years by the year 1991. This means that women will live approximately a quarter to 1/3 of her life in postmenopausal phase. By the year 2025, it is estimated that approximately 165 million women will be in the age group of above 60 years. (Indian menopause society, 2006). With the increased life expectancy, today’s women however must adjust to the challenges in rest of her life.

The popular belief that an early menarche predispose to a late menopause is not substantiated. Unlike menarche the average age of menopause remained about the same since the middle ages. It encompasses the period of changing ovarian activity before menopause and the few years of amenorrhea.

One of the major physiological events in a women’s life is menopause. Cessation of menses, which usually occurs between the age of 45 and 55 years, is universal, obvious, and unpreventable. The hormonal changes of the climacteric, primarily the decline in ovarian estrogen production, manifest in the menopause. When women approach menopause their menstrual cycle begin to change and becomes irregular which is a sign of unpredictable ovulation that cause irregular release of the hormones estrogen and progesterone leading to symptoms associated with menopause ( Krantz, 2007).

Although all women have similar hormonal changes with menopause, the experience of each woman is influenced by age, cultural background, health type of menopause, child bearing desires and relationship. Women may view menopause as a major change in their life, either positive, such as freedom from troublesome, dysmenorrhea or the need for contraception or negative, such as feeling “old” and loss of child bearing ability.

A report by a non Governmental organization in Gujarat was revealed that most of the women were having less understanding about menopause and also they did not pay much attention to it.”For many women, menopause represents freedom from social and religious constraints and from sexual harassment” (as cited in Bhavadam, 1999).

Cultural messages also influence individual women’s perception of menopause. Many women have accepted, whereas other see menopause as the first step to old age and associate with it to the loss of attractiveness, physical ability and energy. In addition to the physical changes some social and psychological changes also occurs which may affect the wellbeing of the menopausal women. In cultures where postmenopausal women gain status, such as India, the Far East, and the south pacific Islands, depression among postmenopausal women is not observed (Shifren & Schiff, 2007)

A study conducted by Sivakami & Shyamala (2005) based on the National Family Health survey – 2 data has shown that the age of menopause is different across different states of India. Around 11% of women are found to be in menopause who belongs to the age group of < 40 years, unlike developed countries where women pierce in to menopause during their fifth decade of life. In Indian women are experiencing menopause from their early forties itself, thereby they are exposed to more period of postmenopausal time and its associated problems. Hence it is much needed to concentrate on the health of the menopausal women to improve their quality of life.

As the average life expectancy for women increases, the number of women reaching and living in menopause has escalated. Most of the women may expect to spend more than 1/3 of their life will be in postmenopausal period. It is usually marked by the changes occurring after menopause (Curran & Bachmann, 2006).

Many women pass through the menopause without untoward symptoms. These women remain active and in good health with little interruption of their daily routines. The ability cope with any stress involves three factors: the person’s perception of the event, support systems, and coping mechanisms. Nurses can play a major role in assisting menopausal women by educating and counseling them about the multitude of options available for disease prevention, treatment for menopausal symptoms, and health promotion during the time of menopausal change in their life, and nurses can help to make this opportunity as a reality (Kessenich, 2007).

Dr.Meeta Singh on world menopause day held in New Delhi said that even though awareness about menopause is growing, most Indian women have a history of self-denial and neglect. A prepared module an information brochure about the menopause was given to the women in India and feedback was taken from the women about their perception about menopause and it was found that most of the women were not very well knowledgeable about menopause and legends such as menopause being a ‘disease’ rather than a natural phenomenon were gladly believed. It was found that even educated women believed that ill health was a part of menopause (as cited in Lal, 2006).

Health care professional should bear in mind that, the postmenopausal women might be reluctant to raise questions about some problems spontaneously. However, menopause is period of time where the women need to focus on herself and her needs. The first step is to make her understand about the physical and emotional changes that may be ahead for her (Borrego & Forteza, 2005). So it is important to address the health issues faced by menopausal women also should be encouraged to seek healthy life styles and medical help to take charge of their health.

International menopause society (IMS), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated October 18 as world menopause day. In observation of the day, the IMS and council of affiliated menopause societies launched policies that support researchers and research in the area of menopausal health. The public health care system does not acknowledge the special health needs of older women. There has been extensive research on menopause in the West but in India, only a few institutes have recognized the potential of research on the subject (as cited in Bhavadam, 1999).

Research to assess the quality of life during postmenopausal period may help in improving and maintaining the good health of the women. As the menopause occurs at a deliberate time when a woman’s social support can be withdrawing, research is considered necessary to find out is preventive health care can have a major impact on a woman’s quality of life.

Women residing in rural area are either unwilling to seek medical help, unable to get services from the private sector or they just ignore their postmenopausal problem. Therefore, the investigator had an intention to assess their quality of life among the women who are from the rural area to improve their quality of life by administering a self instructional module on coping strategies.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

A descriptive study to assess the quality of life of postmenopausal women and in a view to develop self-instructional module on coping strategies in selected rural area at Madurai district – 2010.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the study are

1. To assess the quality of life of postmenopausal women

2. To find out the association between the quality of life with selected demographic variables of postmenopausal women such as age, family income, type of family and occupation.

3. To develop a self-instructional module on coping strategies

HYPOTHESIS

H1- There will be a significant association between the quality of life and selected demographic variables of postmenopausal women such as age, family income, type of family and occupation.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS
Quality of life

In this study, quality of life refers to the perceived level of satisfaction felt by the postmenopausal women about their life in terms of physical, psychological, environmental and social domain assessed by using WHOQOL-BREF standardized scale.

Postmenopausal women

In this study postmenopausal woman, refers to who has attained menopause and the last menstrual period is not less than 1 year and not more than 5 years and who belong to the age group of 45 to 55 years.

Self-instructional module on coping strategies

In this study it refers to well planned written information for the postmenopausal women, which they can read by themselves and understand the definition of menopause, health problems, and strategies in reduction of menopausal problems.

ASSUMPTIONS

Qualities of life during menopausal period vary from individual to individual.

Satisfaction in all four domains contributes on good quality of life.

Change in quality of life is more common among postmenopausal women.

A community health nurse being a unique number of the health care team can identify the menopausal problems and can further give them the guidelines to cope with the problems.

DELIMITATIONS

Study was limited to the women who were unable to verbalize all their problems.

Study was limited to the women who are willing to give the written information

Study was limited to the women who were more than 55 years of age.

PROJECTED OUTCOMES

The result of the study would help the investigator to assess the quality of life of postmenopausal women in rural area and increases understanding about the quality of life among postmenopausal women. The study findings will be helpful for the investigator to prepare a self-instructional module on coping strategies to be adopted by the postmenopausal women. It would be helpful for the nurses to identify the kind of support, guidance and counseling, education needed for the clients attaining menopause.

The caste system is one of the oldest forms of social stratification and even though it may be prohibited by the law, the political divisions continue to exist in the minds of the people leaving many oppressed. Before the caste system, India had four groups or divisions already established: the Negrito, Mongoloid, Austroloid and Dravidian. It was during the Aryan invasion around 1500 BCE when the caste system was created. The wordA casteA derives fromA the PortugueseA word castaA , meaning breed, race, or kind. In this system, the citizens are divided into categories or castes. Varna, the Sanskrit word for color, refers to large divisions that include various castes; the other terms include castes and subdivisions of castes sometimes called subcastes. Among the Indian terms that are sometimes translated as caste are jati, jat,A biradri, andA samaj. There are thousands of castes and subcastes in India. It follows a basic precept: All men are created unequal. Each category or jat has a special role to play in the society as well as a unique function: this structure is a means of creating and organizing an effective society.

The caste system in India is primarily associated with Hinduism but also exists among other Indian religious groups. Castes are ranked and named. Membership is achieved by birth. Castes are also endogamous groups. Marriages and relationships between members of different castes, while not actually prohibited, face strong social disapproval and the threat of ostracism or even violence. To illustrate, in a notorious case in August 2001, a Brahmin boy and a lower-caste girl were publicly hanged by members of their families in Uttar Pradesh, India for refusing to end their inter-caste relationship. [1]

The first of the four basic Vedic books, which are considered the source of Indian wisdom, is the Rig Veda- a collection of over 1,000 hymns containing the basic mythology of the Aryan gods. The Rig Veda contains one of the most famous sections in ancient Indian literature in which the first man created, Purusa, is sacrificed in order to give rise to the four varnas.

The varna of Brahmans emerged from the mouth. They are the priests and teachers, and look after the intellectual and spiritual needs of the community. They preside over knowledge and education. The varna of Kshatriyas emerged from the arms. Their responsibility is to rule and to protect members of the community. They are associated with rulers and warriors including property owners. The varna of Vaishyas emerged from the thighs. They are the merchants and traders and those who look after commerce and agriculture. The varna of Sudras emerged from the feet. They are the laborers.

Castes or subcastes besides the four mentioned include such groups as theA BhumiharA or landowners and theA KayasthaA or scribes. Some castes arose from very specific occupations, such as theA GarudiA – snake charmers – or theA Sonjhari, who collected gold from river beds.

Each caste is believed by devout Hindus to have its own dharma, or divinely ordained code of proper conduct. Brahmans are usually expected to be nonviolent and spiritual, according to their traditional roles as vegetarian teetotaler priests. Kshatriyas are supposed to be strong, as fighters and rulers should be, with a taste for aggression, eating meat, and drinking alcohol. Vaishyas are stereotyped as adept businessmen, in accord with their traditional activities in commerce. Shudras are often described by others as tolerably pleasant.

The existence of rigid ranking is supernaturally validated through the idea of rebirth according to a person’s karma, the sum of an individual’s deeds in this life and in past lives. After death, a person’s life is judged by divine forces, and rebirth is assigned in a high or a low place, depending upon what is deserved. This supernatural sanction can never be neglected, because it brings a person to his or her position in the caste hierarchy, relevant to every transaction involving food or drink, speaking, or touching.

The Rig Veda mentions how the four varnas were created but it does not mention the concept of untouchability. “The idea of an Untouchable caste aˆ¦ is not in the Vedas or the law books, which list only fourA varnas.” [2] It is a part of the system that has been created by society itself.

Untouchables are the fifth group. They are considered unworthy that they fall outside of the caste system. In 1950, the term Untouchable was eradicated under India’s constitution, and untouchables are now formally referred to as the Scheduled Castes. Gandhi referred to untouchables as Harijan, which means “people of God”. Politically active untouchables feel that this term Harijan might evoke pity rather than respect, and prefer the term Dalits, which means, “oppressed”.

Dalits are descendants of the ancient Dravidians of India who lost their language and were subjugated due to the linguistic and socio-cultural oppression by the perpetrators of the caste system. While Dalits in Tamil Nadu speak Tamil, their brethren in other parts of India speak different Dravidian or tribal dialects or languages that arose due to mixtures of Tamil, Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, such as Hindustani (Hindi).

As an Indian is born into the caste system, they are supposed to stay with that caste until death. What a person in each of these varnas can and can’t do, is prescribed in detail in the laws of Manu, written by Brahman priests at least 2,000 years ago. The laws of Manu are inscribed in Indian culture. Umashankar Tripathy, a Brahman priest, says, “Manu is engraved in every Hindu” [3]

Untouchables or Dalits obviously live also by a certain set of rules. The occupations of people in caste systems are hereditary and dalits perform jobs that cause them to be considered impure and thus “untouchable” and for little or no pay at all.A They are restricted to occupations such as landless farm workers and peasants, and forced into washing clothes, beating drums, cutting hair, cleaning latrines and sewers, working as a leatherworker (they work with animal skin which makes them unclean), street cleaners, and manual scavengers. Manual scavenging refers to disposal of human waste by hand, using only the most basic tools, typically a brush, a tin plate and a wicker basket. Scavengers also dispose of dead animals. Millions of Dalits work even as slaves. They mostly have no opportunities for better employment.

Dalits live in the most congested and cramped slums in villages, towns and urban areas consisting of huts or ghettos which are damp and cramped. They live in the most insanitary conditions with no access to public health and sanitation amongst open sewers and open air toilets. There are no state sponsored public housing rights or public health rights in India. Most Dalits are forced to live in isolated areas. Even after death, grave sites are segregated. The best housing is reserved for the upper castes; the government provides separate amenities for each neighborhood, which are segregated on caste lines. Dalits are usually left with the worse of the amenities or none at all. Over 85% of Indian Dalits own no land and are dependent on landlords for work or land to rent; those that do own land may find it difficult or impossible to enforce their rights; workers rarely receive the statutory minimum wage.

Furthermore, in past decades, Dalits in certain areas (especially in parts of the south) had to display extreme deference to high-status people, physically keeping their distance–lest their touch or even their shadow pollute others–wearing neither shoes nor any upper body covering (even for women) in the presence of the upper castes. In northern India for example, untouchables had to use drums to let others know of their arrival. Even their shadows were considered polluted. In the south, some Brahmins ordered Untouchables to keep at least 65 feet away from them.

Untouchables are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places. The higher-caste people do not accept food or water from the untouchable because it would transmit the pollution permanent and inherent in the person of the untouchable. Thus, untouchables are not allowed to drink from the same wells, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls. They are not allowed to touch people from the four varnas or caste groups. They are not allowed to enter houses of the higher varnas especially in which the chula (the small earthen stove) is located. [4] In public occasions, they were compelled to sit at a distance from the four varnas. They are also denied education, freedom of expression, and many other rights the higher classes have.

Dalit children do not have access to education due to the lack of mandatory and universal primary and secondary education in India. Even in rural areas where there may be schools, Dalit children are ostracized, oppressed and stigmatized from attending school. Thus, few Dalit children progress beyond primary education and they are often made to sit at the back of the class. Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits, according to the International Dalit Conference. Dalit Children are also subjected to atrocities such as sexual abuse in rural areas, physical abuse and murder just as adult Dalits are. They have a high level of malnutrition and ill health. Some are ordained into temple prostitution as a part of religious rituals for exploitation by non-Dalit men of the village or town.

Dalit women do all the back breaking work society expects Dalits to do, such as manual scavenging, farm labour, stone breaking, etc., and in addition they have to bear domestic responsibilities as mothers and wives. Dalit women suffer double discrimination as Dalits and as women. They are exposed to sexual abuse at the hands of the so called “caste” Hindu men and also men who work or state authorities such as the police. They are frequently raped, gang-raped, beaten and tortured or forced to walk through the streets naked as punishment as an act of reprisal against male relatives who have committed some act worthy of upper-caste vengeance. Atrocities such as rape of Dalit women in police custody, bonded labour and physical abuse are common in India.

The chastity of women is strongly related to caste status. Generally, the higher ranking the caste, the more sexual control its women are expected to exhibit. Brahman brides should be virginal, faithful to one husband and celibate in widowhood. By contrast, a sweeper bride may or may not be a virgin, extramarital affair may be tolerated, and, if widowed or divorced, the woman is encouraged to remarry. For the higher castes, such control of female sexuality helps ensure purity of lineage–of crucial importance to maintenance of high status. Among Muslims, too, high status is strongly correlated with female chastity.

Many thousands of Dalit girls are forced into “marriage” to temples or local deities in south India, often before puberty, sometimes in payment of a debt. They are “married” to temples under the guise of the religious practice Devadasis, meaning “female servant of god.” They are then unable to marry and become unwilling prostitutes for upper-caste men, many eventually being sold into brothels. TheA BadiA Jat is regarded as a prostitution subcaste. Women and girls are routinely trafficked into brothels. Perversely, and hypocritically, untouchability does not seem to apply to prostitution and customers are mainly men from the upper castes.

If, because of any reason, there was a contact between an untouchable and a member of the Varnas, the Varna member became defiled and had to immerse or wash himself with water to be purified. In strict societies, especially among the ‘Twice Born’ (the three top Varnas) the touched ‘Twice Born’ also had to pass through some religious ceremonies to purify himself from the pollution. If the untouchable entered a house and touched things of a Varna member, the Varna members used to wash or clean the places where the untouchable touched and stepped. A twice born Hindu is a male member of one of the three upper castes who has completed the thread ceremony. The thread ceremony is a Hindu initiation ceremony, similar to a Christian confirmation or a JewishA Bar Mitzvah. A thread is given to the boy and it is thereafter worn over the left shoulder or around the waist. The thread has three strands, representing the threeA gunasA (qualities):A satyaA (truth);A rajasA (action); andA tamas(inertia). SudrasA and Dalits are excluded from the thread ceremony and cannot become twice-born.

Horrific and unbearable are just a few words that come to mind when thinking of the abuse towards Dalits. More than 160 million people in India are considered achuta or untouchable. Human rights violation against these people known as Dalits is extremely prevalent although obviously illegal. Laws have been passed to prevent the abuse of the Dalits and NGO groups have been established to protect these people. However, that doesn’t limit the crimes. The enforcement of laws on both local and nationwide scale designed to protect the Dalits is lax if not nonexistent in many regions in India. Often times, especially in rural areas, where the practice of untouchability is the strongest, police officers even join in the abuse of the Dalits.

Nearly 50 years later, another event gave rise to a mass of conversions by the untouchables. A man from their “class” became educated, and then dared to try and watch a festival that the upper class men took part in. The untouchable was soon discovered and called a “dirty untouchable” and then killed. When the dead man’s family tried to report the murder to the police, the police turned them away because they were untouchables. Eventually the police gave in and investigated the murder, later convicting a young man, but that did not satisfy the people. They were tired of being treated so poorly, and soon decided to abandon the Hindu religion and chose a new one.

Other headlines about crimes victimizing the Dalits are as follows: “Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers”; “Dalit tortured by cops for three days”; Dalit ‘witch’ paraded naked in Bihar”; “Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool”; “7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash”; “5 Dalits lynched in Haryana”; “Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked”; “Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits.”

Fear of public humiliation, beatings, and rape keep India’s Untouchables in their place. Statistics from India’s National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in 2000 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. [5] Every hour two Dalits were assaulted; every day three Dalit women raped, two Dalits murdered, and two Dalit homes torched. Majority of crimes go unregistered, because the police, village councils, and government officials often support the caste system, which is based on the teachings of Hinduism. Many crimes go unreported due to fear of reprisal, intimidation by police, inability to pay bribes, or simply because people know that the police will do nothing. There will be no punishment for the criminals; no justice for the victimized. Amnesty estimated that only about 5 percent of attacks are registered [6]

Hundreds of thousands of Dalits have already renounced Hinduism, generally by conversion to Buddhism or Christianity, sometimes in mass ceremonies.A Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a Dalit leader, lawyer, and politician,A famously led several hundred thousand Dalits in converting to Buddhism, saying “I was born a Hindu, but I will not die one”. Conversion is not a panacea, however, and converts to other religions, especially Christianity and Islam, have suffered continued discrimination. Some converts have lost “reserved” occupations on the grounds that they are no longer members of scheduled castes and converts are not counted as Dalits in the Indian census.

Amidst the oppression and hardships, Dalits still have social life which is expressed through dance and music. They’re dance and music are full of fiery spirit, spontaneity and humour without the inhibitions and rigid classical structure that characterizes Hindu music and arts. Dalit songs celebrates life but laments their life conditions, while frankly exposing the realities of life, in a style full of humour and sensual zest, by using simple instruments and vocals. In modern times, Dalit poetry and writing by social and political activists have taken centre-stage amongst the educated activist community.

Despite the harsh treatment that the untouchables are receiving, there have been certain attempts to help them. The elimination of untouchability became one of the main planks of the platform of all social reform movements of India. Reform movements and humanitarian acts such as those started by Buddha, Ramanuja, Ramanand, Chaitanya, Kabir, Nanak, Tukaram and others were established but they hardly had any effect on the people’s treatment on the untouchables. [7] The Hindu state also enacted laws to punish those who rebelled against their intolerable conditions. The social oppression of the untouchables had religious sanctions.

The British listed the poorest (principally Dalit) subcastes in 1935, creating detailed lists of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The 1948 Indian constitution, thanks to its architectA Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, reinforced this classification, for a system of affirmative action called reservation. The concept was that these measures would help the poorest to escape poverty and oppression.

Reservation is an attempt by the Indian national government to redress past discrimination. The constitution reserves 22.5% of national government jobs, state legislature seats, seats in the lower house of the national parliament and higher education places for members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Unfortunately, this policy has not been implemented in full. Less than half the national government quota had been filled in total in 1998 and less than 15% of “reserved” public sector jobs. An unspoken policy discriminates in favor of upper castes, particularly Brahmins. Dalit representation in university teaching posts is less than 1%.

New economic forces, education and nationalist movements had different impacts on the treatment of the people on untouchables. Because of new economic forces, railways and buses were introduced, thus, bringing touchables and untouchables together. Modern industries established in India recruited their labor supply and labor market from both touchables and untouchables, who further worked at the machines in physical proximity to one another. The workers also fought together during labor strikes. [8] Because of education, whether liberal or technical, their economic conditions somewhat improved and different sections following different occupations began to merge, on class basis, with groups of other castes following similar occupations. The new bonds were based not on caste but on common occupation and class. This very slowly began to dissolve the mass of the untouchables into groups such as factory workers, teachers, clerks, merchants, mechanics, or manufacturers. New economic bonds between the touchables and untouchables following the same economic activity started weakening the prejudice of untouchability. [9] Finally, nationalist movements also contributed to the benefits received by the untouchables. For example, the Swaraj struggle demanded the democratic alliance of all castes and communities in India whose vital interests lay in the political independence of the country. The nationalist movement contributed towards the dissolution of old distinctions. The social reformers were moved by humanitarian and national considerations when they crusaded against purely social evils. [10]

The Untouchables is a topic that touches on many sensitive issues relevant to every society; not only to the Indian society. One prevalent issue that the Untouchables have driven out is that of being an outcast. Perhaps many of us, if not all, can relate to the feeling of being unable to belong and just longing to fit in. Perhaps in high school, we tried out many roles and sought the group we most felt at home in. For the Dalits, life is high school taken to the worse extremes. From birth, they are ostracized. They are placed outside of society; and seen as less than human. They are given roles that they must play, and follow a certain set of rules for the rest of their lives, or suffer the consequences. In our society, to be treated as an outcast in this manner is simply unimaginable. It would seem as though one would go through life apart from society; apart from people. It would be as though one isn’t a person at all; that one would be less than a person; less than even an animal.

This sense of inequality was seen many times over history, in many different societies, and many are still relevant in today’s society. Divisions were brought about by differences in gender, creed, and race, to name a few. Wars have been waged; rallies have been set into motion; and lives have been lost, with regard to all these issues. With all that has happened in our world’s history, India’s society learned nothing to deter from inequalities problems. The Dalits are maltreated and discriminated against. The maltreatment for Dalit women are even harder hit. Their people experience the never-ending cycle of poverty.

The caste system was built and based on the idea that each caste or jat has a special role to play in the society but shouldn’t an individual have the right to choose what role he/she will play in the society? Is the caste system the best way to achieve an organized and effective society? It is understandable that breaking away from the caste system would be difficult or something very hard to get used to. India has lived through all these years with the mentality that all men are unequal and there will always be untouchables or Dalits. It has become a part of their lives and is embedded in them.

There is very little pressure for change, especially within India: it is said that the majority has an interest in perpetuating caste discrimination. [11] Protests by Dalits themselves are rare: for many Dalits, day-to-day survival may be a higher priority. [12] To quote Human Rights Watch: “The solution lies in concerted international attention to assist national governments in this important and long overdue work.” [13]

If you take a look at our society, even without the caste system, you will see that this never-ending cycle of poverty is also a major problem in the Philippines, and one question still stands, that is, “How can one break free from poverty?” Poverty is a problem, because those experiencing it, the poor, are marginalized. They can barely afford or sometimes cannot afford basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. Yes, in India, as well as the Philippines, there have been programs, laws to aid and support these people. However, it is in the implementation of these laws that fail to solve the problem.

For most Western people, the single action that has the best chance of making a difference would be to raise awareness of the problem, repeatedly bringing it to the attention of individuals, politicians, media, diplomats and above all the Indian government. [14] The lack of will to change and unity among people (in India, as well as the Philippines) is one important problem in breaking away from poverty and making a change. Therefore, the caste system or these political divisions continue to live in the minds of many, leaving millions of untouchables or Dalits trapped in a world of oppression and poverty.

Change is something much called for in the Indian society, in our society, and in many others around our world today. We can study the oppressive Dalit cases time and time again. We can feel disgusted, depressed, and down reading about them, and we can wonder, “can their lives ever change?” It isn’t enough to read and wonder, in order for change, action is a must. In retrospect, there isn’t much radical action one can take for the Dalits when still in second year college in the Philippines. However, we believe there is much we can do in the future, for our society, as well as others. In the words of Mahatma Ghandi, “be the change you want to see in the world”.

Max Weber, known as the father of organization theory, founded the bureaucratic centralization theory. Despite of the study on this issue made by others prior to him, the theory did not pronounce its existence as a systematic one until Web. This theory advocated bureaucratic organization and many people considered it is a most ideal structure with industrialization. As a traditionally organizational mode suited for industrializing society, bureaucracy could exist reasonably. But along with the development of modern society, its drawback has been exposed day by day. Research (Turner & Factor, 2009) showed that the rational official system could not have an active response to the post-industrial society because of its abuses since 1970s’. Consequently, most western advanced countries started the administration reform against the officialism. It is time to reform bureaucratic system and modern people nowadays pay more and more attention to explore and solve these major issues and select the essence of new management to develop our administration.

Bureaucratic management thoughts

Max Weber is a famous sociologist, political economist and the founder of the bureaucratic centralization theory. Weber’s bureaucratic organization theory has profound influence on the entire western society and even the world since it birth (Turner, 1993). Weber’s bureaucratic centralization theory is one of the biggest impact theories throughout the 20th century. It can be say that web’s bureaucratic centralization theory is a milestone in the history of organizational theory that it marked the classical theory become mature and perfect. However, in the period of Weber’s, there are apparent split between Germany’s economic structure and the political and social value system that the economic structure could be easily controlled by industrial system and bureaucratic rule. In the meanwhile, culture value system and political structure is still influenced by traditional semi-feudal society values and bureaucratic conservatism. Web profoundly realize that the characteristic and defects of this system and analyzed thoroughly about the reason of features and defects, thus he put forward the bureaucratic centralization theory (Kasler, 1989).

Weber gave an extremely high praises to modern bureaucracy, he thought the emergence of modern capitalism is inseparable with the bureaucracy although entrepreneurs possess means of production. Market freedom, rational technical, predictable legal, free labor and commercial of capitalist is also the necessary condition of existence and development of capitalist. If people want to optimum use of the industrial organization of capitalism forms they must rely on the predictable judgment and management (Weber, 1978).

From 1960’s, along with the rapid development of bureaucratic organization, scholars of western management, social field and even political field make a great criticism and rethinking of these bureaucratic organization. Since 1980’s, in the most typical bureaucracy of public management field, from Britain to the United States, from Australia to New Zealand, it launched a global reform movement called the new public manage movement. In the business world, there is a powerful sound that government or enterprises must abandon bureaucracy since the emergence of a new management mode, for example, humanized management, network organization, virtual organization and learning organization.

Bureaucratic in modern management

Since the 18th century, bureaucratic has achieved great success in western society that the formal rationality and technical design are fit for their society. However, in contemporary developed countries they all entered the post-industrial society and the bureaucracy emergence several different degrees of ills on in or outside adapt. Because of its own defects and the development of the change modern social environment, the organization mode of the bureaucracy is also facing a crisis and the bureaucratic organization also exist some disadvantages.

First, bureaucratic organization’s rigid and closed. Bureaucracy organization use hierarchy temperance type of organization form to maintain the authority of organization, use the scale and level of organization to reflect the superiority of bureaucratic organization, therefore, it leads unrestricted expansion of the organization’s size (Andreski, 2010). As Weber said people will hold their position and use their deliberate to climb the peak of bureaucracy hierarchy. But at the peak it inevitably at least has a kind of not purely factors of bureaucratic system. Meanwhile, the technical and mysteriousness of bureaucratic organization make it become a closed system that separated from the social environment (Downs, 1967). So bureaucratic organization became lack of flexibility, more and more inflexible and can not adapt to the rapid development of the information society changes thus it showed overall non efficiency.

Second, bureaucracy advocated impersonal, rationalized and institutionalized spirit that hampered personal growth and personal mature, in a certain extent it influence the efficiency of the unity and organizational members (Levin &Sanger, 1994). The worker of bureaucracy only do things routine nature, they will lose their affection and finally become a person that has no spiritual experts and no emotion enjoyment. Individual’s freedom is encroached by technological advances and organizational goals, people’s personality and passion will be depressive, the man’s work has become increasingly meaningless and no humanized.

Third, the inverted of purpose and means make former rationality enter the erroneous zone. Organization rule and program is mean to achieve organization’s efficiency and means. But because the ego inflation of bureaucracy organization and the pursuit of their own interests make the purpose and means of bureaucracy organization inverted. Bureaucracy constantly improves its method for achieving its objectives and means increasingly become the purposes of management.

Forth, from the practical perspective analysis, bureaucracy led to widespread bureaucratize and corruption problem. Personal become a part of machine and any flexible behavior is not allowed in the hierarchy principle of machine built by organization division and differentiation. This will inevitably leads to the bureaucratic disease such as egotistical socialist and red-tape, bureaucracy will be fully development but the problem of bureaucracy will be more and more serious. Especially when people analysis the theory of Max Weber and bureaucratic centralization theory people will find some problems that many bureaucrats abuse public power and abuse power for their own interests even though these theory reflect strict rationality and science technology center of socialism, so that in the world most countries suffered bureaucratize and corruption problem when they practice bureaucracy (Morgan, 2010). As that point, people can say that bureaucratic organization is the breeding the hotbed of bureaucracy and corruption.

The more influential theory the more question will come from all parties. A cosmopolitan theory must undergo repeated criticism and temper. Weber’s bureaucracy born with the noise of great industrial machine and it made a brilliant influence on industrial age. Bureaucratic organization appeared various problems in actual operation performance and most people put blame eye to Weber’s theory. Meanwhile many people thought bureaucratic organization will be ended at 1950’s or 1960’s (Bennis, 2009), but the life of bureaucratic organization still not over.

If people can observe and study cautiously, they will find an interesting fact that those so-called alternative bureaucracy things, whether new theory or practical mode, not only abandon away bureaucracy but also perfect repair the bureaucracy. But there are some academic theories that do not direct conflict with bureaucracy corroded quietly with foundation of bureaucracy (Andreski, 2008). In a practice management, the new public management reform of government field and the management revolution of enterprise management have no fundamentally impact on bureaucracy. On the contrary, these reforms basically focus on improve performance, reduce cost and use rational method and without a reform is focus on negative the level of division, reduce rational factors and against professional skills. However, since 1960’s, the new reform of bureaucracy as it is for swab machine dirt, remove the machine sundry, polishing, tighten parts and add some oil that make machine appear shining. So human beings can say because the Weber’s bureaucracy, people established a research organization and unprecedented paradigm of management. Future management after Weber’s is actually perfect, enrich and development this bureaucracy paradigm. So far, the new organization theory although had some breakthrough bureaucracy paradigm, but is still cannot become a new paradigm to alternative Weber’s. Furthermore, those reform practices who try to abandon the bureaucracy have become new branches of this paradigm and those critical theories of bureaucracy are added Weber’s theory on advocate rationality (Wood & Watermn, 1994). So bureaucracy paradigm of Weber’s is still dominated the whole world.

Conclusion

Weber introduced bureaucracy to emphasize rule, ability and knowledge, which in fact offered an efficient and rational administrative system to society. An ideal administrative organization should be based on rationality-legal rights. The more it reduced the personal, irrational and unpredictable factors, the more it developed in Weber’s view. Although the polity, economy and culture of modern society has changed a lot compared the Weber’s age, but the basic idea of his age still applies to today’s organization. Certainly, bureaucratic organization is still cannot easily replace of organization in the management of government’ department, large social group and enterprise (Rosenbloom, 1995). However, people must be fully aware that the bureaucracy that developed on the industrial age already exist many problems and it becomes overstaffed, severe waste and low efficiency. Therefore, people must reform part of bureaucratic system, such as fully exert government officials’ subjective and adaptability, decentralized government’s power, pay a more attention to rationality, train rational spirit, play the advantage of bureaucracy technology, form a organization concept that respect knowledge and talent, establish a cheap and efficient government organization.

In todays society when you look at the different family structures, many families have changed over the years. These changes include divorce, fathers staying home while the mother works, increased single parent homes and more. Though there have been many changes throughout the family structure, the black family structure is an unusual entity unlike all other family structures. The structure of the black family has historical and unique roots. African Americans have experienced a lot from being denied their rights to be treated fair and times of enslavement. Even with the many struggles that African Americans has been through, there is still something out there today that affects the black family. Many people outside the African American culture and who do not understand the black family structure will say that it’s the family structure within the black family that is negatively affecting African Americans. The problem the black family is trying to figure out whether the black family is a pathological entity, in other terminology the family structure is the starting place of many issues negatively affecting African Americans.

In any circumstance before answering any questions to whether African Americans are negatively affected by the family structure, you must understand the black family. When understanding the black family you are able to recognize other extensive cultural patterns that exist in today’s society like poverty, divorce, health care, and more. People must also understand that not all black families are the same and many black families come from different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. You might even have to trace back to times of slavery to understand what it is that might be affecting the family structure and African Americans. In the following reading by Eugene D. Genovese, examines a widespread of myths about the black family during the time of slavery. In Genovese article he discovers that despite significant constraints on their ability to hold out normative relations roles, those responsible for legal bond formed inspiring norms of a basic family. They had also gone into the post-emancipation era with a strong admiration for the family and a fairly steady family foundation. Genovese also points out that slaves back then created remarkable norms of family life. “Genovese argues that many families became indifferent or demoralized, but those with a strong desire for family stability were able to set norms for life in freedomaˆ¦” (Genovese, 26). In the following reading by Genovese there is no evidence that suggest that it is the family structure that negatively influences African Americans.

When talking about black families, there has always been somewhat a struggle for African Americans to attain success in America. Many black families come from a long life of suffering such as a life of poverty, and other obstacles that some black families may face throughout life. Though many black families have achieved some type of success there are still those who still struggle in society and are trying to live each day one at a time. The good thing about most black families is they have not let majority of these obstacles destroy the stable environment from which they come from or living in. However the questions that still is being asked is, whether the black family is a pathological entity, in other words the black family structure is the starting place of many issues negatively affecting African Americans? Many people will say that the black family structure is the reason for many issues within the African American home or community. In today’s world majority African Americans are faced with countless troubles that exist because of many outside factors such as economic issues and things that have happened in the past life of African Americans. And as we continue to go on life we see many of these issues still affecting black families still today. Many of these problems that exist are the reason why African Americans are negatively being affected. There are many other reasons other than economics and the past, such as their environment and education as well. In the end it is important to truly understand the reasons behind what is truly the cause of many issues negatively affecting African Americans.

When the structure of the families starts to fall, especially in low income areas or even suburban areas, it’s because of outside factors that affect the family. When you think about the black family majority of these outside factors are not because of the family within, but economic issues affecting the black family. Those economic issues facing black families in today’s society include being without a job, home ownership, riches and the recession. Many black families are faced with economic issues that affect the household. “In 2009, for every dollar of wealth the average white household had, black households only had two cents” (Lecture, Economic Issues Affecting the Black Family Part 1 02/18). In looking at it in an economic point of outlook countless blacks are overrepresented in local and state administration jobs that are being removed due to substantial resources.

The economic issues that most black families are effected by are unemployment. Some unemployment is due to job discrimination. This is when specific job agencies or employers unlawfully point out job applicants based on specific characteristics. These specific characteristics may include the color of one’s skin, age, sex, disability, name, or even religion. Employment prejudice can also take place during work. It may involve someone not being promoted, transferred, and other opportunities. Some people may not know that “your employment employee rights are protected by whichever employment discrimination law-Federal, state or municipal-affords the most protection” (Lecture, Economic Issues Affecting the Black Family Part 2 02/21). However many blacks are still discriminated against during the job or in the process of trying to get a job. In today’s society many minorities including African Americans seem to face this issue more frequently. The fact that black males have a much higher unemployment rate than white males; this gender difference has a significant connection with a range of negative outcomes for the black community such as black families.

The unemployment rate also comes from blacks not being hired. The one reason that may sound unusual to some people is because of one’s name. Most black people with what may be perceived as having a black sounding name may have a less chanced of being hired then someone with w white sounding name. This would be known as name discrimination. A study conducted by Braverman, “found that employers engage in serious discrimination on name alone. White applicants were asked to attend an interview 50% more than black applicants” (Lecture, Economic Issues Affecting the Black Family Part 2 02/21). Because of this many blacks miss out on opportunities of work and can not provide like they want to for their families. This issue is a huge hurdle for black families’ especially African American fathers. When the father is not able to provide for their family, this affects everyone in the household. The family must try to live each day by any means necessary. And it not being able to provide for the ones you love which is one of the reasons that negatively affects African Americans.

In one of the following readings “Work without Work: Causes and Consequences of Black Male Joblessness”, the center for the study of social policy describes the black male as being “highly connected with a range of negative outcomes for the black population, along with the increase of single female-headed homes, crime rates, decrease in education, drug abuse, and mental health problems” (Work without Work, p291, 02/21). This goes to show the importance of employment and financial independence in progression of black men and black families maintaining a stable home. It is the U.S economy and society that has an effect on black men vanishing from the work force. When there is a majority of black men without the education and skills need to move ahead in the society today, affects black males and other African Americans as well.

Throughout life the structure of the black family will continue to change. And as the structure of the black family changes, African Americans will continue to change and grow as well. People will always argue that issues negatively affecting African Americans start from the structure of the black family. But, African Americans will become stronger, and there will always be that opportunity to achieve some type of success in life. There will always be obstacles that African American must face as well. Through each obstacle the black family must stay strong. And it is not because of the black family structure that is the root cause for issues that exist that affect African Americans, but outside factors such as society, education, and economic issues that African Americans must go through to achieve success.

This assignment looks at the Biomedical Model of Health, what it means, what its advantages and disadvantages are, and criticisms from other perspectives on health.

Definition of Biomedical Model of Health

In order to outline and assess the ‘biomedical model’ of health, we must first comprehend what it is, along with an understanding of the terms ‘health’, ‘illness’ and ‘disease’. The biomedical or medical (sometimes also known as the bio-mechanical) model of health, is a scientific measure of health and regards disease as the human body having a breakdown due to a biological reason. A patient is seen as a body that is sick and can be handled, explored and treated independently from their mind and other external considerations. The treatment therefore will be from medical professionals with appropriate knowledge, and must take place in an environment where medical technology exists (Giddens. 2009). A definition of ‘health’ from the World Health Organization (WHO – specialist to international public health for the United Nations) is: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (World Health Organization. 1946). ‘Illness’ is what a patient suffers when they experience a breakdown in the way they are feeling or thinking, and ‘disease’ is an abnormality with the body and its component parts and is diagnosed and treated by doctors (Pool and Geissler. 2005).

Biomedical Model Advantages

The biomedical model of health is present in modern Western societies. Since it looks mainly at ill health being caused by biological factors, including lifestyle choices like smoking, unhealthy diets and lack of exercise, this could be seen as “blaming car breakdowns on poor maintenance and lack of proper servicing, or on bad luck” (Browne. 2011). This model underpins policies and practice of our NHS and is basically what defines our health care services, as scientific approaches to health have replaced older, more traditional approaches. Medical practitioners have had many years of training, and the biomedical model maintains are the only people suitable to deal with our sick bodies. Hospitals and other clinical environments with specialist medical equipment, is where treatment should be given and received. Doctors have power in the biomedical model and are also able to maintain it. Blaxter (2010) summed this up with the following quote; “There is an association with the definition of health as equilibrium and disease as a disturbance of the body’s functions, with the purpose of medical technology the restoration to equilibrium”. Specific advantages of the biomedical model, are that the patient’s main concern is for the best possible treatment and recovery, and this model shows clear guidance in this regard. Furthermore, this approach is supported by scientific research, much of which is impartial and proved beyond reasonable doubt. Some disadvantages however are, that patients are known not as the individual person they are, but as their diagnosis. Both patients and healthcare workers dislike the loss of the ‘care factor’, as more emphasis is on the modern technology used. Increasing evidence also shows that holistic care can have improved health results in its own right (Pearson et al. 1986). Field (1976) and Blaxter (1987) see illness as a social construction, as they have observed how it is possible to experience illness without the presence of disease and have a disease without feeling ill (Blaxter. 2010).

The regulation of women’s bodies by controlling their sexual expression and reproductive capacity is now conducted through medicine, whereas in the past religion played this role. For women, a healthy body is tied to healthy sexuality and reproduction within the confines of lawful marriage.

Interactionists are interested in how doctors and patients negotiate a diagnosis (ie a sickness label). Byrne and Long found that there is a conflict between doctors’ and patients’ views of the ideal consultation (not surprisingly, doctors prefer short, doctor-centred consultations).

Talcott Parsons was a Functionalist, known for his ‘sick role’ theory in 1951 (cited by Moore. 2008). Functionalism looks at the separate parts of society and how these parts strive together to provide strength to the entire society, so an effective society relies on social structures working well together within social hierarchy. Illness is ‘deviant’ behaviour that disrupts society. Parsons argued that when people fall ill they no longer function in their normal role, they now have a new temporary role of being sick, and therefore need a doctor to confirm they are ill, give permission to take time off work or from their normal duties, and use their medical expertise to make them well again (this will of course, not be the case with chronic illness). Should the doctor not confirm your illness, you could be perceived as evading your responsibilities by making out you are incapacitated. Consequently, doctors have social control and this perspective fits well with the biomedical model. Each individual has a mutual duty to get themselves well again, with little empathy if their illness is self-inflicted, for example drinking too much alcohol. We can therefore see how functionalism supports the biomedical view, where the medical profession are the only ones capable of diagnosing and curing illness. (Browne. 2011)

Biomedical Model Criticisms and Disadvantages

Criticisms of the biomedical model are that overall health is linked far more to environmental and social changes, rather than medical influences (McKeown. 1979. Cited by Moore. 2008). An example of this was the improvements to sanitation and hygiene; water supply; nutrition and food processing procedures, and better housing conditions. McKeown also argues that whilst medicine is at times very effective, it is also ineffective in the way that a patient may recover initially, whilst leaving underlying problems still present. An example of this would be a patient who had a liver transplant due to alcohol abuse, but the reasons for abusing alcohol in the first place may not have been fully addressed. A further point is that ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary’ medicine, that is not approved by the British Medical Association but which could be of benefit to patients, is seen as inferior by the medical profession – but to not even consider it, is not in the patient’s best interests (Giddens. 2009).

Marxism is the movement founded by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Frederick Engels (1820 – 1895) and is the political economy view, in which it argues the same as the functionalists on the concept of social control, but with the important difference that medicine operates for the controlling groups within our society – Capitalists. Marxist beliefs are that the capitalist society profit is more important than the people and the health care they received. The aim of medicine is just to keep people fit enough to continue working for capitalists. Navarro (1976) suggests that pharmaceutical companies (who make billions) do not really want to find cures, as this would result in cuts in their profits. A recent newspaper article was written about this and headed: ‘With a pill for every possible situation, pharmaceutical companies see patients as no more than pound-signs’ (The Independent. 2012). Furthermore, the true social aspects and poor health are not being confronted by the government, and businesses are allowed to carry on making money from products that are damaging to health, like cigarettes and tobacco (Browne. 2002). A materialist view proposes that the population’s welfare suffers from an imbalance in income and lack of investment in resources such as schools, hospitals and housing, and this equates to reduced health outcomes (Bradby. 2012).

According to Bilton (2002), the feminist critique on health looks at how over the last century the male-dominated medical profession has introduced the medical model to menstruation, contraception, pregnancy and childbirth. There was obviously an appeal during this time in creating a medical market by the developing medical specialists. However, in times of religion and lawful marriage and before any medical intervention, these areas were seen as ‘natural’ and were being dealt with by the women themselves with support from female family and friends. Having a doctor present at child birth was of little use, as evidence showed their lack of knowledge around the process of birth, and that this basically meant that the medical intervention often put both child and mother in danger. “Feminists argue that only by breaking with the malestream of orthodox medicine can women regain control over their own bodies” (Bilton. 2002).

Ivan Illich (1975) defined ‘health’ very differently to the biomedical definition, in that it is the capacity to cope with the human reality of death, pain and sickness. Medicine is seen by Illich as positively harmful. Using the concept of ‘iatrogenesis’ (a condition caused by the medical profession or medical procedure), Illich argues that medical treatments fail to bring about cures and also cause more illness through ‘side effects’ (clinical iatrogenesis). An example of this in 2004, was when Leslie Ash (English Actress) became ill with MSSA (Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, a common bacteria that can cause a wide variety of infections) after being admitted into hospital. The Daily Mail reported:

“She believes the MSSA set in when doctors inserted an epidural needle to relieve the pain while they put a drain into her chest. The infection caused a large abscess to form, putting pressure on her spinal cord and paralysing her.” (Daily Mail. 2005).

As medical treatments grow, an artificial need is created for them (social iatrogenesis). An example of this could be going into hospital to die, instead of staying in your own home. This in turn results in people becoming increasingly dependent on the medical profession for conditions they feel unable to cope with themselves (cultural iatrogenesis). This could include the ability to manage sickness, pain and death. (Giddens. 2009)

The social model of health sees illness and health in ways other than just scientific or medical facts. It looks at wider factors that can cause ill health: poverty; poor housing; job-related stress; pollution; deprived neighbourhoods and poor life choices. All of these factors can shape our physical and mental health, not just science. Health is seen differently between individuals and also depends upon culture and the society we are living within. What one person regards as being ill may not be what other people with the same or similar condition regard as ill. We have a choice about this, but only medical experts have the authority to class someone as ill. Social and environmental factors will show patterns within health. It has been shown that people from lower classes tend to make poorer life choices, for example with smoking, eating unhealthily and not exercising enough. This can be for a variety of reasons, often which lead back to financial restraints and the knock-on effect that this has. (Giddens. 2009). The lower classes are likely to be unable to afford the same access to facilities and choices as those who are of a higher class, and this can be within all aspects of society from leisure facilities to the medical treatment received. Cultural explanations for poor health basically blames the individual’s themselves, due to their poor life choices like smoking and drinking, as this can lead to numerous health conditions including cancer, heart disease and asthma. Although we should not take this as the whole picture, as some individual’s would make healthier life choices if they could afford to. The Black Report (1980) confirms that although cultural, behavioural and also genetic explanations play their part, it was shown in the study that there is a wide difference in health between the wealthy and the poor. Although health improvements are seen across the spectrum, the mortality rates on working age men is widening between the classes. (Moore. 2008). Illnesses within societies also change over time, for example we rarely hear about cases of German Measles (Rubella) any more due to vaccinations in the past for teenage girls, and also the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccination, which came out in 1988 and is advised for all babies around 11 months of age. We hear much more nowadays about ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and Anorexia. We need to realise however, that there are limits to the ‘social’ model of health. Medicine has greatly helped improvements in health through childhood vaccinations and we have seen cures from the medical profession with some cancers, for instance. However, it is clear that without social improvements, medical advances would not be sufficient.

Conclusion

It is evident that the biomedical model is the most dominant model of health and conflicts with the main opposition, the social model, as it doesn’t take into account the wide range of considerations, just the human body and its focus on the cure rather than prevention. Thomas McKeown’s (1912-1988) historical analysis on environmental factors is still relevant today.

It would appear that healthcare systems could review the way in which they work and include a holistic approach, including patient’s opinions being taken into account and choices given as to where recovery can take place, as this does not necessarily need to be in a hospital environment.

Gender differs in culture and personal circumstances, they shape the way men and women behave according to their society’s norms and values. Learning plays a major part in influencing gender roles, in what defines masculine and feminine, parents, teachers, friends, media, music, books and religion teach and reinforce gender roles throughout a lifetime. Gender roles are also shaped by the power of reward and punishment, as it’s used by some people to reinforce what they consider to be appropriate gender behaviour. In terms of influencing gender roles the influence of parents is significant as the family is the primary agency of socialisation. Gender roles are realities in almost everyone’s life. (Warnke 2008) This essay will discuss whether gender roles are determined by biological determinism; our genetics, or whether they are constructed by society; expectations in our environment. In addition theories explaining gender behaviours.

Freud and Parsons had theories based on Biological determinism which depends on the presence or absence of certain chromosomes, DNA, proteins and hereditary genes. Men and women have obvious biological differences- a man can produce sperm, and women can produce ovum, lactation and go through pregnancy and menstruation. Without those two different sexes reproduction would not be possible, and our biological sexes are needed for our society to progress.

A good example of this is the Bruce Reimer case. Bruce, an eight month old boy, underwent a circumcision that went terribly wrong, his penis was completely destroyed and with no hope of reconstructing the organ, his parents consulted Dr Money. Doctors and family decided Bruce would best function as a girl rather than a boy. He was surgically transformed into a girl, whom they named Brenda. From an early age Brenda felt she was a boy trapped in a girl’s body, she ripped off frilly dresses, rejected dolls in favor of guns, preferred to play with boys, and even insisted on urinating standing up. At fourteen she was so miserable that she decided either to live her life as a male or to end it, her father finally told her the truth. She underwent a new set of operations, assumed a male identity and later married and went on to become a father himself. Although Dr Money tried to apply the logic behind social determinism, Bruce revealed that despite dresses, social pressure, surgeries and female hormones he never looked, acted or felt like a female. (Colapinto 2000) This shows social factors do not always override biological factors in determining gender.

Social constructionism understands how gender roles are created by us in everyday lives. One sociologist, Margaret Mead, was one of the first to ground the distinction between the biological and social characteristics of men and woman based on her study in three civilizations. Each society displayed different gender role qualities. In one society both women and men were cooperative, in the second they were both ruthless and aggressive, and in the third the women were dominant and the men more obedient. (Mead 1935)

This shows masculine and feminine roles are learnt and shaped in cultural socializations and not inborn, biological specific roles (Bown, 2012).

Gendered behaviours are shaped especially in responses and reactions like in families, children and adult relations, workplace, groups, schools, media, texts, history, popular culture and social structures. During pregnancy and after birth people are divided into two sex categories, boy and girl, to which they received gender characteristics like colours, toys received as children by evasion, like football and trucks for boys, dolls and dresses for girls. In the course of her and his life the human being is then made into a girl or woman, boy or man. Many factors influence our behaviours such as education, social norms and values, stereotypes, identifications, images and traditions. Concept of woman and men are subject to change over time. What is to be feminine and masculine is historical defined. (Lavenda and Schultz 2011) These are all social contributors towards the way gender is shaped.

In the nineties relationships between men and women were followed by tradition and religious views, the natural differences between the sexes were emphasized throughout the influential years of childhood. In marriage young men would commit to protect and provide for the woman with whom they had agreed to spend the rest of their lives. Marriage was considered a lifelong partnership with Nuptial vows to be kept despite all obstacles. Although men and women had unity of purpose in progression with their lives, the roles of each were very different, women were expected to remain at home caring for the children, cooking and housework, despite any educational background or career she may have previously had. The husbands’ role was to provide financially for the family as sole breadwinners and to teach their boys to be courageous and brave, to be out in front, to provide, to be tough and to sacrifice, to perform heavy, physical work at an early age. Mothers educated their daughters to be gentle, modest, loyal, respectful and supportive, girls were assigned duties around the house assisting with cooking, sewing and cleaning. This behaviour reinforces the idea that gender roles are socially constructed.

Women were influenced to break away from the traditional gender roles with the emergence of icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Bell and Betty Friedan. They were very popular and influenced woman in various ways, their motivational work encouraged woman to break out of gender roles, be more independent, be inspired to take on a new role, empower woman to take control of their bodies and to fight for equal opportunities that lead us to the present- with equality between everyone, no matter their gender. (Penny Colman 1995) this is another example of how social construction defines gender.

Children, before they grow into adults, have been completely socially engineered and manipulated, generation by generation. Toys are the greatest influence in defining gender in children, as so often children are divided by stereotypes of toys. Children have a strong sense of gender identity and gender role expectations. Most two year olds know whether they are male or female and, by the age of four or five, not only do they develop gender constancy but often show rigid standards of what they believe is appropriate male and female dressing and behaviour. Young children appear to acquire gender roles stereotypes at about the same time they develop gender identity. Social construction has been pressed upon children from the moment they are born, so from an early age the signs of gender roles are already reinforced.

Many sociologists insist we now live in postmodern society; shaped by our personal experience, egocentric and mass media, rather than expectations of following a script. Roles in the family had some changes, couples now make decisions together, expressing opinions openly and encouraging mutually the male role in the home is progressing, men are now more supportive in the housework tasks and more child-centred. Male and female roles and identities, which were previously very distinct, are now much more blurred. Women are increasingly choosing to take on roles previously fulfilled by men. Most women and mothers are now employed and occupy 48% of the work force with both men and woman more likely to choose the careers they want. There may be more women in the workforce than there were before but there still exists some division and segregation between the sorts of occupation in which women tend to work and the sorts of jobs men have. Woman are often located in secondary labour market with unsecure jobs, low status, inferior work conditions, low salaries and lower chances of promotion, while men retained the primary labour market with high paid salaries, higher status, more secure job placements, good working conditions and easier access to promotion. This explains gender roles are socially constructed whether at home on at work.

.

Biological determinism (in detail) dont describe, discuss analyse this argument what is it? Biological determinism (in detail) dont describe, discuss analyse this argument what is it?

Paragraph 3. Social construction, feral children, children of deprived and a-sexual (media influences)

Then next few are optional choose two or three to talk about……

Family Masculinity/Femininity The body Work roles Media…..

Conclusion- shouldnt be too long just refer and summerise back to questiTo conclude, society was previously shaped by society norms and values. Children tended to follow parents footsteps. In postmodern societies, male and female roles and identities, which were previously very distinct, are now becoming blurred. People do not follow a fixed pathway, women don’t assume they will become mothers and housewives, men and woman are much more likely to choose what to do in their lives and which identities to adopt. The activities traditionally assigned to members of each sex may no longer be needed and the traditional division of labour by biological sex no longer is appropriate. The traditional gender role for males prepares men for a world that no longer exists. Men no longer are the sole breadwinners in most families, and their traditional place of dominance in society no longer is assured.

Change is occurring in the definition of gender roles and identity for both men and woman, with female increasing the participation in a world of paid work, increasing economical independence and viewed as significant consumers. Young females are becoming more self determined preferring to pursue careers and decline marriage and children, with this, woman are more likely to see consumption and leisure as a key factor in their identity, this suggests female identity is being redefined. Traditional ideas and roles of female identity are being abandoned and redefined, becoming a mother and housewife is less significant. And men defining their identity, by being in touch with his feminine side, taking on share roles with partner in housework duties and childcare.

We now live in a society where anatomy is not a destiny, the roles and functions once so preserved are now fading in the past, and replaced by society in which true masculinity and femininity are no longer taught or understood. It is impossible to argue that gender is socially constructed or biologically driven because there is evidence that argue for both ways. Society and culture can no doubt shape the beliefs and standards for a certain society, however we cannot ignore our fundamental biological nature.

In 2007, around 280 000 mothers gave birth in Australia and around 175 000 of these were working mothers who intend to work again. Consequently, there is a significant number of working mothers who require taking leave from work. There have been debates in Australia over a proposal of a statutory scheme that would offer paid parental leave to parents. The concern of paid parental leave has been significant because of the increasing women’s part on jobs, family income sources and children carers. Women’s participation in work has increased compared to the past. Female aged 25 to 34 years had increased from 45 to 70 per cent from 1978 to 2008 whereas men’s participation in the same age range fell by 4 per cent (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 5.6). There are three proposed objectives for a paid parental leave, such as the wellbeing improvement of families, especially child and mother’s health, associated with leave from work around the baby birth and secured financial during that period; encouragement of women to return to the workforce by the social welfare and tax system; and by the norms of community, having family time is the basic human rights for many people including fathers and the importance of caring and valuing children. This paper will discuss the major issues and models with regard to paid leave and the methods to assess these models.

Paid parental leave provides benefits for parents, especially for mothers. From the mother’s point of view, paid parental leave allows her to take a longer leave from job than she could otherwise have afforded and to enjoy extra financial assistance. However, problems arise with the paid parental leave. The first major issue is that the mother’s attachment to the job might be deteriorated along with extended period a home; her skills will decline and as a result will create obstacles to her return (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 5.17). Moreover, the impacts of paid leave on labour market also broaden beyond parents too. For instance, paid leave affects employees’ wage rates and may discriminate against women because employers alert that female employees might have children in the future. There are incentives for discrimination on women if paid parental leave actually increases the costs to the employers. The absence of employee inflicts costs on employers, this may include leave administration costs, hiring and training replacement costs which will reduce the productivity level (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 24). However, on the employee side, the incentives to stay inside labour force and to choose occupation and employer are determined by the costs and benefits of these choices, which unnecessarily a monetary value. People outside the labour force get welfare transfers and benefits from untaxed work that they do, but they might be marginalized socially and economically. However, people inside the labour force get wages and benefits from parental leave and childcare rebates, but it might be difficult to balance between the importance of caring and working.

The second issue of paid parental leave is concerned with the impact of paid generosity and leave duration. More generous payments increase the financial support for women and encourage them to return to work. On the other hand, greater generosity increases the length of leave from work. At some circumstances, the employment benefits are eroded by excessive absence from work which would reduce work skills and productivity. Moreover, female labour wages would increase slowly if female labour supply increases while demand is not following due to the paid parental leave (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 5.2). Employers might also reduce wage when excessive absence from work increases costs for employers. Therefore, the productivity, wages and female labour skills rises as long as the duration of leave is not excessively long.

Third issue is the paid parental leave concerns with the equitably issue. In principle, paid leave should pay attention to the fairness in both horizontal and vertical dimensions (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 1.19). Horizontal equity refers to individuals and families in similar economic situations and being treated similarly whereas vertical equity refers to individuals and families in different economic situations and being treated in a different manner. However, equity is difficult to achieve in practice. People will be treated differently for different situations and it is inevitable. For instance, paying paid parental leave to working mothers may be seem as equitable but not equitable for women not working in the legal labour force. Replacement wages paid by employer seems to be more equitable for low income earners than a government-funded scheme that pays the minimum wage.

Fourth major issue of paid leave in Australia is that only one-third of women labour force is eligible for the paid leave because women in Australia is highly segmented and in part-time employment, all of which are reducing female’s eligibility to paid leave (Baird, M., 2002). Fifth issue is the payment of parental leave. A payment equivalent to their minimum weekly income is justified if the objective is to assure their demand. However, full income payment is justified if the objective is to assure their social and economic independence (Frank, M., p.317). The final issue is regarding the funding source. There is an argument over which parties responsible to fund the leave as small employers cannot afford and thus women will be discriminated in work force.

Australia has the lowest level of women labour force participation in the OECD (AEU Federal, p.2). If women labour force is declining, this will raise the inflation and reduce productivity and there will be a shortage of labour supply. Thus, women with paid leave tend to return to work than those without and will push-up the labour supply. To illustrate the paid parental leave, it is important to compare the different parental leave models in different countries. The Swedish parental leave system is seen to be a good model because of its commitment to developing equality between men and women and because of its generosity of payment. The Swedish allows parents a twelve-month of absence from work in regard to birth and parents – either father or mother – receive 90 per cent untaxed of their salary for their first nine months of leave (Allen, J.P., p.248). Whereas in Germany, parents are allowed to take leave for a shorter time of period only compared to Sweden because women in West Germany have not entered the labour force as many as other industrialized countries. Only women are eligible to receive the leave payment and that also depends on their incomes. However, the United States is among the few industrialized countries that do not provide employment benefits, including sickness benefit, health insurance benefits, and paternal benefits. Therefore, to compare the equality issue between these three countries, the paid parental leave provided in Sweden and Germany helps female labour force to enter and remain at work, whereas female labour force tend to exit the labour force in the United States. Sweden is the most generous in paid parental leave and should be considered as a model in Australia whereas the U.S. fails to provide equality and support for parents and children.

There are several models with regard to paid leave. First, 52 weeks paid parental leave starts with 26 weeks paid leave now, 39 by 2012 and 52 by 2016. Second, 26 weeks basic paid maternity and supporting parent leave as follows: (i) Basic Paid Maternity Leave (BPML) provision in which Australia should provide paid basic maternity leave of 24 weeks for all working women, and (ii) Basic Paid supporting Parent Leave (BPPL) provision in which Australia should provide basic paid partner leave of 2 weeks for all supporting partners. Third, the paid partner leave: ‘use it or lose it’ in which partners who do not use their paid leave will not be able to reallocate it to mothers. This system induces fathers to take leave efficiently. Fourth, the existing paid maternity leave. Fifth, the basic payments through employers in which government provide payment similar to employers for employee and taxable. Payment through employers is desirable because all factors of employment will not be missed out. Sixth, the simultaneous leave in which parents can take leave simultaneously. Finally, the provision of rights to be protected from discrimination and the rights to return to work after their leave (Hill and Pocock, p.11).

There are two methods to evaluate financial of paid leave and they have to be implemented simultaneously to provide the most effective paid leave policy. First, the income of financial contributor should not be affected. Second, the method should not create negative economic incentives. For example, an employer pays for his employee’s leave and financial method encourage the employer not to hire a female worker who would likely to take the leave (Frank, M., p.319).

To summarize, paid parental leave is a system that provides benefits for mothers who give birth to achieve specific social and economic outcomes. There are three proposed objectives for a paid parental leave, such as the wellbeing improvement of families, especially child and mother’s health, associated with leave from work around the baby birth and secured financial during that period; encouragement of women to return to the workforce by the social welfare and tax system; and by the norms of community, having family time is the basic human rights for many people including fathers and the importance of caring and valuing children. To help inducing the benefits of paid parental leave, it is necessary for financial assistance for mothers in order for them to spend time with their newborn babies, rather than just taking financial assistance, limit their leave and exit the labour force. The paid leave system has particular objectives that are valued differently to individual. In order to deliver those objectives efficiently, the system should provide incentives for mothers to increase the absence time from work to be with their child and to return and remain to the workforce. Parental leave would be a crucial system to encourage labour market efficiency and would represent the equality between men and women in the workforce.

Due to its purchasing power, the family is believed as the most important consumers buying unit by many marketers (Dalakas & Shoham, 2005). Therefore, a great number of previous studies have been done to understand how a family makes purchasing decisions over the years. As new social trends, the structure of family has changed dramatically in the past three decades in most countries in the world (Brace et al, 2008). The family is convinced as composing by parents and unmarried children in traditional mind. However, in the modern society, the definition of family has moved from only couple and children to family household. According to European Community Household Panel, a family household is a group of people who live together, share the bill and housekeeping arrangement (Askegaard et al, 2006). In view of most marketers, changes in family structures provide marketing opportunities. As the differentiation of the composition, families’ need and demand is diversified than before.

Changes in family structure and modern family

Family household types in modern society are diversified, such as single parent families, reconstituted families, unmarried cohabitation families, traditional families, couple with no children families and roommate family households. The reason of diversified family household type is that unmarried cohabitation, delayed marriage and delayed childbirth are trends for young people in the recent years. Furthermore, there have been increases in the proportion of the return of mothers to the workforce and the number of divorces and a decrease in the proportion of “intact” family unit (two biological parents and their dependent children). It is known that 76 per cent of UK children in 2004 lived in a family unit headed by a couple (UK Office of National Statistics, 2005). But, this official data does not differentiate families by couples who are intact or step parent. Also, it is acknowledged that 83 per cent of children in step parent families or single parent families live with their natural mother (Brace et al, 2008). Therefore, most of single parent households are headed by females.

Although the family types are diversified in the present day and age, intact families, step parent families and single parent families are three major types of composition for modern families. Haskey (1998) indicated there has been an obviously decline in the intact or traditional family household type and step families are more prevalent than single parent households. People are remarrying more often than before, and male is more likely to reconstitute a family than female. For example, step families are the fastest growing type of family in the UK (Mintel, 2005). There are totally 35 per cent British parents live as a non-traditional family unit. Concretely, 19 per cent of British parents are single parents. 16 per cent of British parents have children with ex-wife or ex-husband and now reconstitute families with new partners and the children (Mintel, 2005).

Family structures have changed, which influence family decision making. Thus, some researchers argue that family communication has become more open and democratic (Belch and Willis, 2001). Particularly, the role of women has changed in the present society. The changes include education, increasing number of double-income families and the advent of career women. Further to say, these changes have impacted on family buying decisions and the role structure between family members. An increasing number of women are contributing to the incomes of their families and more women are motivated to succeed in their careers. For instance, nearly 60 per cent of women in New Zealand are employed in the workforce (Beatty & Lee, 2002). This is much higher proportion than before.

Some previous studies indicated that a person’s power to make family purchasing decisions depends on his/her ability to satisfy his/her marriage partner’s needs (Beatty & Lee, 2002). Therefore, the more a husband contributes to the resources of the family, the more the wife will accept the husband’s buying decisions. In the same way, if the wife contributes significantly to the family income, then the wife’s impact on family buying decisions would be greater than in families where the wife does not provide income to the family. It does not mean the person who contributes a dominant income to his/her family must accounts for the completely dominant position in the family buying decision making process. It is more likely that there is more equality in double-income families. Therefore, a wife’s occupational status has an obviously effect on the family decision making.

The prevalence of women working outside the home is not only because of the necessity to help the family in finance, but also because of the changes in social and cultural trends. Therefore, women obtain more power in some families which both family members will make decisions jointly. This type of family is more likely to be called modern family and it has a more democratic influence structure. In contrast, a traditional family has a more dictatorial husband and the decisions are made more autocratic.

Family life cycle

There are many factors influence family buying decisions. Despite the family type and women’s role in the family, family life cycle (FLC) also significantly affects the family purchasing decisions. The family life cycle describes the changes that occur in family and family structures as they progress over time (Askegaard, 2006). The FLC shows the changes in both the family income and family composition over time. As the time passed, the needs and demands of families tend to change. Therefore, their preferences and behaviours will be changed. Families in similar stages of the life cycle share similar demographic, financial and buying characteristics. In contrast, families at different life cycle stages show different interests, needs and demands and use different communication strategies (Lee & Levy, 2004).

Children’s roles in family buying decisions

Since 1990s, the growing awareness on children’s role is largely because of children’s steadily increasing impact on family buying decisions and increasing spending power (Caruana & Vassallo, 2003; Dalakas & Shoham, 2005; Fan & Li, 2010). Many previous studies pointed out that children have became an extremely vital consumer group which influences family purchases of various products in many ways (Burns et al, 2007; Caruana & Vassallo, 2003). Thus, many marketers recognize children as a primary market, an influencing market, and a future market. For example, children in the USA directly spent over $60 billion and influenced over $380 billion of spending by other members of their family per year (Chou & Wut, 2009). In Australia, the adolescents’ market is estimated to be worth about $3.9 million, and in New Zealand the market size is about $800,000 (Wimalasiri, 2004). Therefore children are increasingly attractive targets for marketers.

Children as independent consumer

In the contemporary world, as primary market, children have increasing spending power in terms of being independent customers. They are seen as different from previous generations. Today, children are more connected, more direct and more informed. They have more personal power, more money, more impact on family decisions and attractive more attention than their parents and ancestors. Most of teenagers receive allowances from their parents or eldership. Also, a great number of adolescents have income from jobs. Past study showed 51.1 per cent of the high school students admitted that they get an allowance from family members in the USA and the median amount was $50 (Dalakas & Shoham, 2003). Moreover, Chou & Wut (2009) indicated children who between ages of 2 to 12 independently spent $29 billion per year by using their own money and further to say, they indirectly influence $320 billion worth of household purchase.

Children’s influence on family buying decisions

In addition, children are also major influencers within the family decision making unit. They attempt to and succeed in influencing family purchasing decisions. Several researches have shown that the children’s degree of influence in purchase decisions varies with the type of product (Beatty & Lee, 2002). They have the most influence on buying decisions when they are the primary users of the products, for example, toys, games, and school supplies. They are also influential in purchase decisions about products which for all family members, for example, vacations, furniture, movies, and eating out. However, they have less impact on these products than in the products which they are the primary consumers. According to Dalakas & Shoham (2003) reported, 34 per cent of nine to 14-year-olds acknowledged they influenced their parents’ purchasing decisions on videogame systems, 19 per cent affected decisions on vacation choice, 18 per cent have impact on stereo equipment, and 14 per cent participated the family decisions making process on computer equipment, VCRs, and televisions. Moreover, adolescents’ influence has been affected by the cost of the products on purchasing decisions. Their influence decreased for expensive family purchases. Furthermore, they have most influence as regards product type, colour and brand.

One of the areas where children have the major impact is food purchasing decision. Food plays a vital role in family life and it is the main expenditure for most families. Children have most influence on the food and the meals which are easy to prepare. US studies have shown that in the major categories of food and drinks, playthings and clothing and TV programmes, children have an obviously influence (Chou & Wut, 2009). In the UK, 84 per cent of parents said that their children decided what food to buy. 29 per cent parents admitted that their children impact on the choice of furniture. Even 20 per cent of parents said they like to listen to their children’s suggests about their own clothes when purchasing (Dalakas, & Shoham, 2005). Also, through a survey, cable television networks in the USA found that children affected average of 43 per cent of total purchases which are made the decisions by parents. Further to say, mothers who shop with their kids normally spend 30 per cent more than they originally plan and fathers spend 70 per cent more (Caruana & Vassallo, 2003).

The ways and factors for children to affect family decisions

Generally speaking, there are four different ways for children to influence family buying decisions. First, they hugely involve in affecting their parents to purchase products which they are the finally users. Second, older children buy the products which they want directly by using their own money. This money is received as allowances or salary. Third, children participated and affected their parents in family buying decisions making process for family products. Lastly, parents consult their children’s opinion for some of their own purchase. Therefore, children exert a certain influence on the overall family decisions.

Children have more influence during the problem recognition and information search stage, but their influence decreases at the finally decision making stage. Their influence can be direct or indirect. Young children more tend to impact family purchases by directly asking. However, older adolescents may use various strategies to impact their parents’ decision making. Except the direct requests, they also take other actions like bargaining, persuasion, or using emotional strategies.

A child’s age is an important related factor of the child’s influence on family decision making. Older children have fewer requests than younger children and their parents more tend to satisfy their request. The parents believe the older children have more experience with shopping and products, so they easily yield than before. Also, parents are convinced that their older children possess more understanding of economic concepts and have higher skills on shopping than younger children. Furthermore, children’s influence on family decisions is affected significantly by family type. Children in single parent families or one child families have more influence than others and the adolescents in modern families affect their families more obviously than adolescents in traditional families.

The reasons for children influencing family decisions

In the current era, family communication has become more open and democratic. Parents pay more attention to their children and spend more time to listen to their children’s opinions. These changes in family communication caused children can exert influence on family purchasing decisions making process. Furthermore, the influence of each child has increased because of the trends of smaller number of children in families. Because of the returns of women to workforce, most families’ economic status is in good condition. It not only means parents can afford enough money to satisfy their children request, but also pushes the children to take more responsibility for family decisions. This is because working couples have little time to make decisions and have to give their children more power.

The analysis of implication for marketing

There are many factors influence the children when they making purchasing decisions and shape their habits at the present. The top three influence factors are family, friends and media. All of them have outstanding impact on children’s shopping skills and behavior. In details, the family has been believed as it has the most influence on children in the purchasing process of food products, health care products and furniture. On the other hand, friends and the media play an extremely important role in affecting the discretionary purchase of the children. In fact, most of marketers consider the media as the most powerful affecting factor to impel the children to make purchasing decisions. They are convinced the television advertising is the greatest influence marketing communication tool. Moreover, previous marketing researches also suggested the companies to access the children seriously with child friendly amenities, colourful and playful displays and even credit cards (Caruana & Vassallo, 2003).

In addition, it is known that most of children have low brand loyalty for most products. Because of their strong curiosity, they are easily to be attracted by original and distinct products. However, once they build the brand loyalty for one particular brand, they will be lifetime consumers for the brand.

Furthermore, for the ethic thinking, the marketers ought to avoid displaying violent or pornographic pictures to children in their advertising. This is because children are not mature enough and cannot understand the meaning of this kind of advertising. Further to say, children very like to imitate what they saw. Thus, it is dangerous for children to access violent or pornographic advertising. For example, there was lots of news regarding that children did violent events after playing violent games, such as GTA, Counterstrike, or watching violent movie.

An analysis of the situation of children in China

Children in China have become the most significant target consumers for many marketers. This is not only because China has the largest population of children in the world, but also due to the fact that Chinese children have more economic power and influence in their families than children in other countries. Fan & Li (2010) mentioned that there are 1,321.29 million people in China at the end of 2007. Among others, 19.4 per cent (about 256.60) are under the age of 14. This made China become the largest potential market.

In the present China, children have more discretionary income compared with before and also exert a greater impact on family buying decision than other countries’ children. One couple – one child has been a basic state policy in China for a long time since the early 1970s. Therefore, as the only child in the family, both parents and grandparents give most of their love and attention to the child. Even it caused a seriously problem raised in China, the Chinese children have been considered as being like “Little emperors/empresses”. A part of parents would like to satisfy their children’s each request as possible as they can.

Due to the importance of Chinese children, marketers did many researches to seek the most relative information sources for Chinese children. Finally, they found that TV, parents, store visits and friends were ranked as the most significant sources to receive information for Chinese children (Fan & Li, 2010).

All societies place their members according to superiority, inferiority and equality. The vertical scale of evaluation, this categorization of people in layers is called stratification. Social stratification is a natural and controlled division according to race, religion, social and economic status. In sociology, social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of social classes, castes and strata within a society.

Anthony Giddens has defined social stratification as “the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards”.

According to Peter Saunders, in modern Western societies, stratification depends on social and economic classes consisting of three main layers: Upper class, Middle class and Lower class. Every class is further divided into smaller classes according to occupation.

1.1 BACKGROUND:

The notion of stratification came into existence in 1940’s. Social stratification is the basic cause of inequalities. The basis for social stratification are earnings, privileges, ethnicity, disability, education, access to benefits, sex, caste, wealth, religion, power, age, gender, occupation, race, region, language, party and politics. Stratification is a trait of society and not just individual differences. Indeed it is the outcome of the social arrangement and it has a great impact on everyone. Stratification is universal, but tremendously changeable in form. Stratification persists over generations. It is still prevailing in our society. Four fundamental forms of stratification are class, caste, estate and slavery. Stratification is common in the animal kingdom on the basis of power and gender and some form of stratification has most likely always existed among humans. With the progress of food and other surpluses resulting from hi-tech advances in agriculture and manufacturing, some people began to mount up more wealth than others. There could be many other things influencing social stratification. For the larger part of history, the on hand stratification arrangement was regarded as an undeniable feature of society and the implicit purpose of commentators was to clarify or rationalize that arrangement in terms of religious doctrines.

1.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION:

Social stratification is social, universal, diverse in structure, very old and consequential. It is a trait of society, not merely a reflection of individual differences. Those at the top of the ladder ‘the higher class’ has more advantages in life than those at the bottom of the ladder ‘the lower class’. The upper classes have more opportunities to thrive in life; chances include such things as conditions of work, healthiness and accommodation. People at the top of the ladder may choose the area that they live in which will tend to have less crime, better schools and better living than those in the lower class. Social stratification moves from generation to generation. Each human being born into the world is involuntarily allocated to social strata. Their place is usually their parent’s place at that time. We are born with nothing so consequently we ‘inherit’ what our parents have. Children are influenced by their family members. Every family within the social order and within each social stratum has different ambitions, determinations and goals to be successful in life. A child will gain knowledge of these through the accomplishments of his own parents. Even though social stratification is universal, it is also variable which means that all different countries have different forms of stratification but its characteristics vary in every country. In the United Kingdom it is very much a class system, whereas in some Asian countries the stratification is on the basis of the religion. Social stratification involves inequality and beliefs. Everybody within society has to believe that stratification is fair otherwise there is going to be unrest in the society.

Social Stratification can be seen in all places around us from our schools to government agencies to even our homes. It is a definite part of our social system that represents the discrimination of opportunities that we experience and observe in our everyday lives. The idea of pecking order emerged in the 17th and 18th century by sociologist Hobbes and Locke and it was through these sociologists that people realized that inequality existed in the society.

On one hand, inequalities based on individual qualities (charisma, economic or social skills, etc.) do not add up to stratification, since they aren’t defined by membership in a particular category. So, if in a hunting band the best hunter or the spiritualist/sage is held in high regard and has privileged access to some resources, this isn’t social stratification.

Symbolic Interactionists reveal that symbols help to describe the meaning of all social actions, and a person’s self is developed socially through social interaction. Legitimating thoughts, expressed symbolically in the form of language give reasons for inequality, for strata, for the ways people are positioned in the strata and for changes in the stratification system. These sustaining ideas also strongly manipulate how people assess themselves within the system, influencing them to agree to their position in the structure as good and right.

1.3 MAJOR FORMS OF STRATIFICATION:

Primal collectivism characterized by an elevated level of sharing and negligible social inequality, Slavery involving enormous social inequality and the ownership of some persons by others, Caste in which a person is permanently assigned to a status based on his or her parents’ status, Estate in which peasants are required by law to work on land owned by the noble class in exchange for food and protection from outside attacks.

There are different forms of social stratification that are present in our societies i.e. Class society: In this society person’s status is ascribed to them by the accomplishments they have achieved. In the United States, the social stratification that divides the most is the class system, whereas in areas of Africa not only are there class differences to divide people but women are in a class by themselves. The class system is defined by the possessions of wealth or material possessions (Henslin, 2010, p.189). Even though we like to think of ourselves as a very progressive nation, we still look down on people that are below us in class.

1.4 REASONS OF EXISTENCE OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION:

Natural predictability suggests that discrimination exists because of natural differences in people’s abilities and is a just system. Structural -functionalists states that stratification is helpful to society because it enhances strength and induces members of the society to endeavor. Conflict suggests that stratification occurs through conflict amid different classes, with the upper classes using greater power to take a bigger share of the social resources. Evolutionary states that people will share sufficient resources to guarantee the survival of the group until an excess exists at which point power determines how the surplus is distributed. Symbolic Interactionists calls attention to the significance of symbolic displays of wealth and power that influence one’s definition of self and the importance of ideas in defining social situations.

Inequality may originate from natural differences in people’s abilities. Structural-functionalists believe that societies have a tendency to be stable and are held as one through agreement. Stratification provides an important function to society by aiding this process because it lessens conflict and provides structure. Conflict theorists believe that society tends towards conflict and change and that stratification system compel the lower classes to benefit the upper classes.

1.5 ORIGINS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION:

In early societies, people shared a common societal position. As societies evolved and became more intricate, they began to elevate some members. To understand stratification, we must first understand its origins.

Though there is a lot that we don’t know about origins of stratification, it is apparent that it is a fairly recent development, as exposed through study of grave goods, and historical record of state expansion and conquest of more democratic societies. Once they come up, stratified systems lean to expand at expense of egalitarian systems, but this cannot explain origins of first stratified systems i.e. cases of “pristine” state formation. It is not simply survival mode, since some foragers are less democratic than many agricultural and most pastoralist societies

Attempts to elucidate cultural advancement of social stratification in ecological terms by and large rely on one or another of two basic approaches:

1. Stratification = solution to an ecological problem

2. Stratification = system by which one class extracts resources from another

These two approaches often termed functional and conflict theories, respectively. Functional theories focus on benefits to all parties; in contrast, Conflict theories argue that elites benefit at expense of commoners.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION:

The book by Macionis, J and Plummer, K., 2007, called ‘Sociology: A Global Introduction’ defines “Social stratification as a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy and that one group has access to a disproportionate amount of money, power and prestige and stratification can be used as a lens to focus on social inequality”.

The books by Haralmbos, M., Holborn, M. and Heald, R., 2008, called ‘Sociology themes and perspectives’ defines, “social stratification to the presence of distinct social groups which are ranked one above the other in terms of factors such as prestige and wealth.”

The five societal pyramids explain how societies work.

This pyramid arrangement focused on how people were ranked by their financial positions, their power and their prestige. The way society effort with social division depends upon wealth and power, not on hereditary position. The open system based on personal accomplishment, where people have control over position between upper and lower class in society can lead to discrimination amongst each other. The stratification systems focused on other social divisions such as:

Gender stratification

Ethnic stratification

Age stratification

Health and disability

In the 19th and 20th century the structural functional paradigm argued that stratification systems are functional for society. The Davis-Moore Thesis argues that industrialized societies for the most part are prolific under a system of meritocracy. Under this kind of inequality, the stratification system rewards good performers with high salaries and punishes poor performers with fewer salaries. Davis-Moore argued that several jobs have to to pay more than others; they are important jobs, so their high salary will magnetize the most excellent performers. These top performers will be more inventive and this is functional for society. Functionalists also argue that stratification promotes in-group harmony.

Marx and Weber, who were Conflict theorists, alleged that the finest way to study social stratification was by using Conflict theory. On the whole, the main aim was to scrutinize and elucidate social inequality in society. Marx thought that there were two classes in the social order, owners and the workers. He wanted the workforce to become aware of this theory to ultimately bring down the owners.

Weber, in contrast, considered more about Marx theory and thought that there must be another class involved which is the middle class. Middle class inhabitants are ones with skills required for jobs but do not have ownership; this set them at a distance from blue-collars, because they had skills for certain jobs which gave them a sense of power.

Mills and Domhoff thought that there are little structured groups of people who stay out of political affairs so they are not estranged. This gives them a key to power in society.

Social Stratification allows people who have proficient varying competence and riches to function in ways that are appropriate for them.

This is a functionalist perspective supported by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore. They started by pointing out that “no society is classless or unstratified.”

4. CONCLUSION/SUGGESTIONS:

From the above mentioned things we can conclude that the basic factor that causes social stratification is poverty. Steps should be taken for its eradication which will bring change in the society.

In order to eradicate social stratification, we should try to eradicate things that are causing it including unequal education, facilities, opportunities, wealth, poverty etc. if all the citizens of every country will get everything in equal quantity and quality, only then change will happen. This is the basic right of every citizen and it should be given to them. More fortunate people should help the less fortunate ones. They should try to be empathetic towards poor only then they can help them. They should be motivated and interested in keeping everybody equal and everyone should try, on individual level, to see the needy around them. Other than this the only best solution to solve this vicious circle is to apply a Sharia law on national scale, which stipulates that each person should set aside 2.5% of the income each person earns monthly to help eradicate poverty and the money gathered can be used to purchase things needed for those who are in need as capital, like sewing machines or seeds etc.

There’s no way for the government to be able to reduce or let alone eradicate poverty as long as it tightly clings on to capitalism and those 99% Americans are the living proofs, who say capitalism can’t eradicate poverty.