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People who are stigmatised as socially and morally unacceptable will have a tendency to turn to further rule breaking in the future. Discuss using one or more of the major sociological theories covered in the module

Stigma theories explain the exclusion of stigmatised person’s from normal social interaction. The author will focus on the social reaction theory (also known as labelling theory) and how influential sociologists have developed different theories. By examining how the labelling theory is applied to chronic illness and deviance. Therefore, the reader will understand. The reader will understand how people who are stigmatised as socially and morally unacceptable will have a tendency to turn to further rule breaking in the future. The author will look at the works of Edwin Lemert and Howard Becker’s theoretical concept of labelling. Also, Erving Goffman and his study on stigma and the management of self followed by an example of Scrambler theory on epilepsy and finally looking at some of the coping techniques given by Goffman. But firstly, we need to understand exactly what the term stigma means.

The term ‘stigma’ was initially used to refer to bodily signs burnt or cut into the body to distinguish, criminals, and social out-casts as “contaminated” people, Goffman (1968). Also, Goffman defines stigma as difference between a virtual social identity – that is the stereotyped imputations we make in everyday life and actual social identity- that is those attributes which an individual does actually process. According to Goffman stigma is a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype and it is the process by which the reaction of others spoil normal identity.

In demonstrating the sociological ideas such as the interactionism theory of deviance by Becker (1963), stated that Social groups create deviance by making the rules and apply those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders. Becker then examined the possible effects upon an individual of being publicly labelled defining an individual as a particular kind of person. However, a label is not neutral: it contains an evaluation of the person to whom it is applied. It is a master status in the sense that it colours all the other statuses possessed by the individual. For instance; if an individual is labelled as a criminal, mentally ill or homosexual, such labels largely override their status in which people see them and respond to them in terms of those labels, and tend to assume they have the negative characteristics normally associated with such labels.

Therefore, since individuals self-concepts are largely derived from the responses of others, they will tend to see themselves in terms of the label which produces self- fulfilling prophecy whereby the deviant identification becomes the controlling one.

Becker identified possible stages in this process; Firstly, an individual is publicly labelled as deviant. This may lead to rejection from many social groups such as family and friends, loss of employment and possibly be forced out of their neighbourhood.

Secondly this may also encourage further deviance; for example; drug addicts may turn to crime to support the habit since respectable employers refuse to give them a job. And thirdly the official treatment of deviance may have similar effects in which they have difficulty finding employment and are forced to return to crime for their livelihood. Becker stressed the importance of public identification of the deviance label that can lead to further deviance and can even change individual’s self concept so that they came to regard themselves as deviant for the first time.

However, interactionism has been criticised on definition of deviance. Lemert and Becker argued that deviance was created by the social group who defined acts as deviant. Young, et, al (1973), however, claimed that this view was mistaken to them most deviance can be defined in terms of the actions of those who break social rules, rather than in terms of the reaction of a social audience. Furthermore, interactionism is deterministic it assumes that, once a person has been labelled, their deviance will inevitably become worse. The labelled person has no option but to get more and more involved in deviant activities and it fails to explain why individuals commit deviant acts in the firs place.

On the other hand, the example of mental illness, Goffman (1968) suggested that people who are labelled mentally ill it’s in the interest of others to label them so. For example Esterson’s (1964) found a families claims that their daughter is suffering from schizophrenia but when he studied the home circumstances, he found that the parents had flatly refused to accept that their daughter was growing up and had themselves acted in bizarre and whispering behind her back and spying on her.

The daughter was experiencing the behaviour which parents claimed she had invented by imposing a definition of mental illness on their daughters actions and they successfully prevented her from gaining independence. As a result, Goffman (1968) stated that once someone is labelled as mentally ill, then others treat them differently. In this sense whatever actions the person undertakes will be evaluated with the knowledge that the person is mentally ill and therefore what they say or do cannot be taken at face value.

However, Gove (1982) argues that labelling theories approaching mental illness are both overstated and largely incorrect. Rejecting the view that most people respond to mental illness negatively, arguing instead that people around the mentally ill person are supportive for instance; family members and friends sometimes support their mentally ill patient.

Nevertheless, Helman (1986) found that illness with a negative moral label attached to it, such as lung cancer and obesity. The person who suffers from such a disease is regarded as blameworthy because aspects of their chosen lifestyle which are believed to have caused the disease. For example AIDS is linked to sexual activity, lung cancer to smoking and obesity to over eating and lack of exercise.

These images of illness can have a powerful effect upon how people with disease see themselves and how others see them. They may feel guilt for actually having the disease. Therefore, the resulting shame and the sense of being different and inferior have been examined by Goffman (1968) who suggested that certain people who have undesirable differentness are stigmatized by others and regard them as tainted and discounted.

One of the major types of stigma relevant to the sociology of health and illness is physical deformity. Goffman distinguishes between a discrediting stigma such as a clear visible disfigurement or disability and a discreditable stigma where the negative undesired difference is not obvious and the person has the possibility of hiding it.

People who have discrediting attributes according to Goffman deal with their potential difficulties day to day interacting with others through impression management. This lowers the chances of humiliation or other problems. One of the techniques used is covering for example; the person will engage in most normal activities, but will seek to minimize the impact of their stigma by conforming as much as possible to standard norms of behaviour. People with discreditable attributes can seek to hide their attributes and avoid stigma, or undertake information management for example; controlling what they tell others. The two main strategies for the person with discreditable attributes are passing and withdrawal. Passing is seeking to hide the discreditable attribute and withdrawal is when the person withdraws from social contact wherever possible. For instance; this could affects for instance people living with HIV in two ways. firstly, it has been linked to delays and/or avoidance of care seeking because of fears of further stigmatisation, while others seek carer to avoid chance meetings with neighbours, friends or other associates

Scrambler (1986) used Goffman’s concept of stigma to study people with epilepsy. In which they made distinctions in the concepts of stigma by distinguishing enacted stigma and felt stigma. (enacted stigma) refers for instance to discrimination against people with epilepsy on the grounds of their perceived unacceptability or inferiority. Felt stigma refers principally to the fear of enacted stigma but also encompasses a feeling of shame associated with being epileptic.

However, People will respond negatively to those with epilepsy (enacted stigma) and

Individuals with the disease have found ways of managing it (felt stigma). Scrambler,

Suggested that people will respond in at least four ways to felt stigma

Firstly; Selective concealment – is when people do not tell the majority of those with

whom they interact in the work place or leisure activities, schools and so on. Usually

people follow a plan of disclosure, under what circumstances they can hide their

illness and in what situations they should let others know. Second is Covering up –

the discreditable condition and keeping it secret. This runs a risk of being exposed.

Third is condemning the condemners where people challenge the enacted stigma often through political action and lastly, Medicalizing their behaviour to evoke sympathy.

However, Charlton (1998) criticized these approaches to understanding stigma, at least when applied to disabilities. He suggests that the reality for disabled people across the world is that they are poor as result of being excluded form decent employment, as well as because of stigmatizing attitudes.

In conclusion, looking at the sociological evidence of people who are socially stigmatised, the reaction theories, such as deviance and labelling attached to the mentally ill, epilepsy and chronic illness is that once a persons known to have the label attached to them, they feel contaminated in their community in which leads to further behaviour. Moreover, Goffman offered ways of coping in which people hide their identities as result of fear for disclosure and reaction from society. However, the sociological evidence is that people who are socially stigmatised fear more the reaction of society than the actual condition.

How Stereotypical Gender Characteristics are Shaped by Society

Generally, when comparing the differences between males and females, you immediately think of their biological body parts. However, there is another way to differentiate males and females; by their behaviours. Males and females are commonly associated with opposing characteristics. That is to say, men are generally seen as being more aggressive while women are associated to being more nurturing (Shaw, 150 class lecture, Oct 19). What is it exactly that creates this difference in behaviour? Some sociologists suggest that it is due to biological factors. However, I believe that these differences in behaviour are the result of society’s influences. The social process known as gender socialization is established in early childhood and further developed and supported throughout life (Shaw, 150 class lecture, Oct 19). At an early age, you are introduced to gender differences by your parents. Throughout your childhood and adolescence, these gender roles are supported by the media, the schools and your peers. If you consider some of the other cultures in the world you will notice that the behaviours of the males and females there aren’t the same as what we expect here in North America (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009). I believe that gender isn’t defined by one’s biological sex but rather the stereotypical behaviours that are constructed by society. In this essay, I will be addressing a few important agents of socialization and their impact in constructing these stereotypical gender roles.

Parents: The first agent of socialization

From the moment you entered this world, your parents applied social and cultural stereotypes about femininity and masculinity on to you (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009). They did so by pre-selecting the colours of your room, your wardrobe, the toys you play with and when you were old enough, they designated certain chores for you to do (Peters, 1994). All these factors played a crucial role in the gender socialization process. For all you girls, your parents probably gave you a pink room, made you wear dresses and gave you dolls and easy-bake ovens to play with. They probably described you as being “pretty”, “cute”, “sweet” or “angelic” rather than being “tough”, “rugged” or “strong” (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009). In a study about the distribution of chores at home, the boys were more likely to end up with maintenance, yard and car work where as girls were more likely to be given housework like laundry and dishwashing (Peters, 1994). Because of this designation, boys and girls grow up performing the tasks that they are more familiar with.

When you consider the types of toys that parents buy for their children, you will notice a general trend. Boys tend to get cars, trucks, building blocks and action figures (Martin, 1998). The toy cars and trucks establish an early interest in vehicles. The building blocks emulate construction work and architecture. The action figures not only suggest physical play but they also illustrate the ideal body image of men. If you look at the male action figures these days, they all illustrate exaggerated muscular characteristics (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009). It is likewise for the girls. However, instead of getting cars and blocks, they get Barbie dolls and baby simulation dolls. The Barbie dolls had equally exaggerated body images. They left the impression that girls needed have ultra thin figures (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009). These toys all served a common purpose of establishing what it means to be a “boy” and a “girl”.

Parents also had control over what movies and TV shows they wanted their kids to watch. This leads to the next agent of socialization; the media.

The Subtle Messages Expressed by the Media

The media has a very strong influence in gender socialization. When I say the media, I am referring to Disney movies, Saturday morning cartoons and video games. Disney movies were a huge part of every childhood. In a video regarding the gender stereotypes portrayed in Disney films, men and women were commonly portrayed in regards to their stereotypes (Shaw, 150 Lecture). That is to say, men were all illustrated as brave, muscular, aggressive people who always save the day with physical violence. Women were portrayed as being thin, delicate, helpless people who always needed to be saved by the males. Children are very impressionable, so of course they will want to be just like their favourite Disney characters. How will they go about doing this? By emulating these stereotypical behaviours.

Cartoons and video games only help to support these stereotypes (Dietz, 1998). In cartoons and video games, you are more likely to see male protagonists who save the day. Also, you are very likely to see females either as the support character who cheers on the male protagonist on his goals or as the helpless damsel in distress. Video games are no different. Take the Mario brother for example. Here you see two male heroes who have to save a princess from a monster. Movies, cartoons and video games are all the same in the sense that they either lack representation or misinterpret females (Butler, Ciccone, Petrin, Rawlings, & Yi, 2002).

Peer Pressure and the Hidden Curriculum

The next major agents of socialization are the peers and the school. It is through the parents and media that the gender roles are learned. It is at school with teachers and friends that these gender roles are reinforced. In the study conducted by Martin (1998), she observed the daily behaviours of pre-school students. Martin noticed that the boys tended to play with building blocks where as the girls liked to play dress up. When it came to clothing, boys wore primary colours, black, green and orange (Martin, 1998). Girls were commonly seen to be wearing pink. It was observed that about 61% of the girls in the class were wearing pink and roughly 25% were wearing dresses. The girls were frequently complimented by the teacher as looking very pretty and cute (Martin, 1998). Another aspect that Martin examined was the typical sitting behaviour of the children. This was classified as being either relaxed or formal. It was observed that 80% of the boys sat “relaxed” while 82% of the girls sat in a “formal” manner (Martin, 1998). Martin also noticed that the teacher reinforced formal sitting behaviour more strongly for the girls than for the boys.

Not only were the teachers supporting appropriate gender behaviours but fellow peers were as well. In this situation, one little girl wearing a dress-like shirt is leaning her body over to create a “tunnel”. As she leans, her shirt rises up exposing her back. This is when another female student comes and pulls the shirt back over her bare skin and gives it a pat to keep it in place (Martin, 1998). This illustrates two things: one of them is that fellow peers reinforce the “appropriate” gender behaviours and that these “appropriate” behaviours are already imbedded into children at a very young age.

These “appropriate” gender behaviours are continually followed and further developed throughout elementary, secondary and post secondary. In an experiment conducted on university students (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009), students were asked to behave in ways that they regarded to be violating gender norms. Even at the university level, these students identified the same associating gender behaviours as they would have in their childhood.

Cultural Differences Lead to Differences in Gender Behaviours

Although you may believe that all males and females act as we expect them to, you are not entirely correct (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009). Gender behaviours vary from culture to culture. An anthropologist by the name of Margaret Mead explains her findings in favour of gender socialization. If biology did in fact determine the differences between the sexes then cross-cultural differences, like the ones that Mead encountered, should not exist (Haaland & Schaefer, 1998). In her studies of three different cultures in New Guinea she noticed that the behaviours of the males and females differed quite significantly (Haaland & Schaefer, 2009). Mead describes the typical behaviours of the three cultures:

“In one [the Arapesh], both men and women act as we expect women to act-in a mild parental responsive way; in the second [the Mundugumor], both act as we expect men to act-in a fierce initiating fashion; and in the third [the Tchambuli], the men act according to our stereotypes for women-are catty, wear curls, and go shopping-while the women are energetic, managerial, unadorned partners.”

As we can see, the different cultures are a crucial factor in determining the differences in behaviours between the sexes. If males and females were biologically meant to act and think in a certain way, then there wouldn’t be so much variation between cultures.

Conclusion

In North America, we have the perception that males need to be aggressive, macho and muscular while females are thinner, smaller and more nurturing. These perceptions are taught to us at an early age and are reinforced throughout our lives. Starting from childhood, we begin to learn about and emulate these gender behaviours. With the help of our parents, Disney movies, toy figures, school and peers, these gender behaviours are more strongly embedded into our minds. Gender differences are constructed by society’s influences. Mead clearly observed the presence of cultural conditioning and its effects on the three different cultures in New Guinea. Although our sexes are biologically defined, the way we associate our behaviours and characteristics are not. Our socialized genders are defined by the culture and society that surrounds us.

Bibliography

Butler, A., Ciccone, A., Petrin, M., Rawlings, T., & Yi, W. (2002). Gender Role Socialization and Inequality. 360-361. Retrieved from http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/CASAE/cnf2002/2002_Papers/rtbutler_a&etal2002w.pdf

Dietz, T. L. (1998). An Examinationof Violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behaviour. Sex Roles. (38). 425-442. Retrieved from http://springerlink.metapress.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/content/r326135512365r40/fulltext.pdf

Haaland, B., & Schaefer, R. T. (2009). Sociology: A brief introduction. (3rd Canadian Ed.). Canada: McGraw-Hill.

Martin, K. A. (1998). Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschools. American Sociology Review. (63) 494-511.

Peters, J. F. (1994). Gender socialization of adolescents in the home: research and discussion. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_n116_v29/ai_16477249/

When somebody mentions the word ‘feminism’ it often sparks stereotypical ridicule surrounding unattractive women who can’t get a man, mainly stirred up by subjective political publishing. In reality what was achieved by feminists throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st century has paved the way for a more intellectual and emotional acceptance of women in modern society. When we discuss the subject of feminism we automatically begin to consider the work of radical, Marxist and liberal feminists, but in order to understand the thoughts and feelings of this enlightening subject we must observe the work of not only feminists but other theorists, in an attempt to analyse the changing views of women from the 1960s onwards. The start of the sexual revolution remains prominent within our discussion, and throughout this essay we will refer to academic material in an attempt to educate ourselves on the thoughts and theories of the changing sexuality of women from the first wave of feminism onwards.

landmark book the second sex offered women an existential and intellectual framework where by women could break down the barriers of social conditioning and take control of their own lives and sexuality, her famous words ‘one is not born a woman, one becomes one’ offered an iconic phrase which would help support the movement of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

The sexual politics which took place throughout the 1960s and 1970s cannot be discussed without talking about the highly publicised second wave of feminism. The combination of student protests and medically prescribed contraceptives made it possible for women to own their own sexuality and move away from the confinement of sexual pleasure in the boundaries of a heterosexual marriage (Escoffier, 2003). The previous century has been that of a bourgeois one, where sexuality was held on the strict basis of a heterosexual family (Ollman, 1979). Marxist writer William Reich offered a revolutionary sexual radicalism which argued that capitalism sexually repressed the masses in the interest of its exploitative goals (Ollman, 1979).

Betty Friedan (1963) is often referred to as the ‘mother of the movement’. When her book the feminine mystique was published in 1963 she discussed the roles of women in industrial societies, whose main aim was to fulfil the stifling role of homemaker; for women these traditional roles were often deemed unsatisfying: emotionally, intellectually and also sexually, as she quoted “no woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor” (Women’s History, 2011). Betty Friedan (1963) was also noted for criticising Freud’s theory known as ‘penis envy’ along with feminist writer

Karen Horney (Hichcock, 2005). Horney describes how it is men who are adversely affected by their inability to bear children, she referred to this as ‘womb envy’, and Freud saw Horney’s theory as being a striking example of her own personal penis envy (Hitchcock, 2005). Horney and other feminist theorists have gone on to describe Freud’s work as condescending and distorted surrounding his opinion of women being inferior to men (Hitchcock, 2005).

Many feminist writers gained a high level of interest in the work of Foucault (1978) whose work is highly prevalent when discussing sexuality of the 1970s and power (Hekman, 1996). Foucault (1978) argued that sexuality was ‘regulated and controlled’. His theory of the body and sexuality has allowed feminists to appropriate it due to the consequences of drawing a distinction between sex and gender, which allows us to challenge the idea that a women’s biological make up is her social destiny (Foucault, 1978). The views of sexuality altered greatly from the 1960s onwards. It was a period of high criticism of the conventional heterosexual practices of sex, and the liberation of gay men and lesbians meant there was a positive control of identity (Escoffier, 2003). The gay liberation challenged the essentialist view of the ‘natural sex’, however for many gay and lesbian activists sexual exploration was not the only goal; the importance was recognition for the need to change. Essentialist theorists argue that sexuality has a reproductive function and how vaginal intercourse is seen as ‘the sex’ (Duggan, Hunter, 1995).

By observing Foucault’s (1978) literature the ‘history of sexuality’ we can see an anti-essentialist account of the sexual body. Foucault (1978) argued that the construct of the ‘natural sex’ functions in order to disguise the productive operation of power in relation to human sexuality. Based on Foucault’s (1978) work, Judith butler (1990) discusses that the notion of ‘natural sex’ naturalises the regulatory idea of natural heterosexuality which then goes on to reinforce constraints on sexuality. McNay (1992) outlines how Foucault’s history of sexuality “exposes the contingent and socially determined nature of sexuality”. McNay (1992) argues that this frees the body, allowing the breakdown of heterosexuality and the emergence of new realms of pleasure.

Much of the debates surrounding sexuality during the 1960s and 1970s were viewed as having a large emphasis of the theories of pleasure and power. On the way into the 1980s the importance for feminists shifted onto the subject of the degrading acts towards women through the process of sado-masochism, pornography and prostitution (Strud, 2010). Feminists have been noted for arguing that pornography works in the exploitation of women which in turn contributes to the male objectification of women and sexism (Strud, 2010).

A prominent figure in the anti-pornography movement was Andrea Dworkin, a feminist who aligned herself with the far-right movement (Strud, 2010). Dworkin and her fellow radical feminists characterised pornography as an industry of damaging abuse, and frequently discussed prostitution as a system of severe exploitation (Strud,

2010). Dworkin also suggested that heterosexual intercourse is a key factor in the subordination of patriarchy (Strud, 2010). Third wave feminists known as lipstick feminists made attempts to reclaim sexual power (Duggan, Hunter, 1995). They argued that dressing provocatively and maintaining sexual allure empowers women, it is also suggested that these feminists did not see a conflict between stripping, exhibitionism, girl-on-girl displays or pornography with feminism (Duggan, Hunter, 1995).

A criticism of the third wave is often how it came about. The first and second wave are acknowledged as coming from a period where the main aim at hand were women’s rights, it was a period where politics were intertwined with culture (Agger, 1992). The third wave which is also refereed to as the ‘feminist sex wars’ rose from the popular culture of punk rock, consumerism and the birth of modern technologies and outlets such as mobile telephony and the internet (Agger, 1992). It has been discussed how there is often tension between the second and third wave of feminism due to the methods used to gain attention for important causes. However when these are observed we can elucidate that the methods used, such as lipstick feminists sexual allure or Riot Grrrl bands political anarchist lyrics, they can be deemed appropriate for the fast chaning modern culture of the 1980s and 1990s (Leonard, 1997).

“Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think Oh bondage up yours”, lyrics sang by Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex (1977), one of the female punk rock bands who were part of the feminist anarchy movement. As can be observed by

many of the lyrics of such bands, there is a level of sexual empowerment in the female youth of the 1980s and 1990s. Riot Grrrls were seen to not meet the needs of all women, mainly due to the white middle class youth orientation (Agger, 1992). Riot Grrrls were seen to succeed in the overturning of the male hegemonic punk culture, “Turn the tables with our unity- They neither moral nor majority – Wake up and smell the coffee – Or just say no to individuality” quoted by L7 (1992), this supports the sense of community felt among young girls, who felt a sense of alienation from mainstream culture (Leonard, 1997).

A prominent band in the Riot Grrrl movement was Bikini Kill (1998), there powerful, political and sexual songs featured heavily in the popular culture of American youth feminism, with lyrics such as “Just’ cause my world, sweet sister, is so fucking goddamn full of rape – does that mean my body must always be a source of pain”. Christine Hoff Sommers (1994) discusses women who have betrayed feminism, she talks about an article written by Roiphe in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. In the article Roiphe accuses feminists of defining rape “to include any kind of sex a woman experiences as negative” (Sommers, 1994). This could be seen as challenging for feminists who were attempting to educate girls that sex without their consent constitutes as rape. Although Riot Grrrls did not achieve any radical changes for women, they were seen to make differences on a more individual level, supporting the female youth on issues such as sexual abuse and rape, which are seen as important factors in the subject of female sexual empowerment (Agger, 1992).

Duggan and Hunter (1995) discussed that the controversial ‘sex wars’ which focussed on debates surrounding “political and cultural battles over sexuality” in the 1980s and 1990s, also characterised key feminist debates of the second wave. The false stereotypes of feminists such as anti-male, fat, humourless, bra-burning were seen to be actively challenged in the third wave (Hollows, Moseley, 2006). It is also discussed that some of what is currently referred to as ‘third wave feminism’ is indistinguishable from popularised atheoretical post feminism; Michelle Goldberg (2001) describes this as ‘shopping and fucking’. We can observe by this that where third wave feminists viewed their actions as being methods of sexual control politically and culturally, early theorists and feminists conduced their behaviour was un-intellectual and made important issues void by allowing them to revolve around hotter-sex, designer shoes, intimidating clothing and expensive make-up (Hollows, Moseley, 2006).

The acknowledgement of theorists and feminists has allowed us a deeper insight into the views of sexuality from the 1960s onwards. What is interesting is how different feminist theories began to differ in aims on the way into the 1980s. The common aim had been to liberate women from the societal constraints, not only in public places but also in the privacy of their own home. There remained however a range of strong views surrounding heterosexuality and the mystery of the ‘female orgasm’, with the liberation of gay men, lesbian women and straight women sexually, the traditional theories, such as essentialism were challenged. The changes made by feminists cannot be denied, changes that span over decades and in some cases centuries, it is easy to

take for granted the sexual freedom that can be experienced by women in modern society, however when we observe feminist history we can begin to understand the sacrifices that have been made on behalf of women and the empowerment of female sexuality. This is their legacy.

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Gender stereotypes are associated with the phenomenon of female employment in specific job types. This paper in general looks at the nature of stereotyping. Many researchers have documented this issue in their works and hence this paper goes a mile to look at this phenomenon of stereotyping in countries of Africa, Asia and South Africa.

It surveys the relevant materials documented on this topic. This presentation will look at the reviews of existing measures on gender stereotyping. This presentation goes a mile further to detail the dynamic concept of gender stereotyping and tries to suggest measures brought in by developing countries can be accommodated. Lastly these presentation analyses the aspect of stereotyping of occupations in the developing countries.

Documented evidence of gender stereotyping has been done with many writers and researchers all of them giving vital reasons as to why discussion of occupational segregation on labor market at large. This has been done by many including Hakim (1979), Elia (1988), Anker (1998) and Reskin & Hartmann (1986)

Occupational isolation occurs when different people participate in different kinds of occupations and there exists rigidity in the mobility of groups or people from one occupation to another. This presentation looks majorly at such occupational segregation which occurs along gender lines. We often find occupations which are termed ‘male’ or ‘female’ specific. Women and male workers have been divided and consideration for jobs in each gender group is segregated. Female candidates are not considered for male prioritized jobs and the same for the women. Less demanding and less paying jobs are left for women while men compete for the well paying through which the issue of gender isolation is widely brought out. This kind of segregation reduces efficiency and this is the point where gender stereotyping is evident.

Women are concluded in thoughts to be house wife and many still have the generalization that women will still transfer the way they work in the house to the job place. This has lead to differential in wage payment forcing women to be paid in the lower rated jobs while men are paid heavily in the state of high income jobs.

Thus, we view a subtle difference between segregation and stereotyping. Occupational segregation exists when men and women are differently distributed across occupations to a degree greater than is consistent with their overall shares of employment, irrespective of the nature of job allocation. Stereotyping is the phenomenon when the occupational segregation persists, maintains itself, and for a period of time continues to enrich itself fully between people. It is a concept that keeps on changing and full of life as compared to segregation which is static in a way. Stereotyping prohibits people to continue doing a job in the same group without changing a vice that has left female workers in a low class as compared to their counterparts. At this point the women remain in a poor state whereas men continue to prosper by advancing in other fields that require resources or opportunities that result out of occupation of such high cadre in the society.

A consensus has been yielded that globalization policies in developing countries have devalued the traditional set up of female work which include agriculture in particular agro based and small scale production. This has displaced women form this form of occupation to certain newly created job types. Facts prove also that women specific income and development projects do not receive the same funding of resources and attention hence leading to the concentration of women in marginal economic sectors. For sure concentration of women laborers has risen in ill paid and low skilled jobs living their counterparts in much higher paying jobs. Experiences from East European transition economies also reveal the fact that there is preponderance of over-employment of female labor force in certain employments. These are the jobs with longer working hours, shorter retirement rates, and lower wages. International labor organization studies on women in the labor market disclose the occupational segregation and the employment problem of the women in transition economies. Absorption of female workers is high in the informal sector activities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Statistics from South American nations like Brazil, Jamaica and many others show that female laborers are strenuous in low-skilled job groups (Vickers, 1991).

Displacement from original spheres of activities for both genders have combined with increasing concentration of female labor in marginal activities like being employed in minimal works at the tail end of the production process in companies. Through this globalization has brought in indirect form of occupational segregation into gender types

The simplest measure of occupational segregation has been the sex ratio of the workers employed in the various occupations. If there exists q occupations indicated by ‘x’. Mx and Fx indicate respectively the number of male and female workers in the xth occupation, then Sx = Fx/ Mx indicate occupational segregation ratios. Higher Sx means that the particular occupation ‘x’ has more concentration of females relative to males. Degrees of gender segregation has been defined in order of ascendance of the measure =Sx. Higher values and lower values of the indicator helps to categorize the occupations as exclusively men (EXM), mainly men (M), mixed (MF), mainly women (F) and exclusively women (EXF). This gauge has been used by many researchers successfully (Reskin & Hartmann, 1986) to approximate the extent of segregation in different nations across occupations and also across jobs. Occupations are defined as aggregates over the cluster of jobs belonging to the occupation. Empirical data has shown that occupational segregation can smoothen out the extent of segregation across job types. So sometimes segregation across job types reveal the segregation across occupations. Whatever may be the extent of desegregation, this measure of segregation suffers from the absence of relativity as this does not measure relative concentration of females compared to males in the occupations. Several other models are available but all with an objective to illustrate discrimination against gender.

Occupational isolation is thus the main precondition for existence and generation of gender stereotyping. Since it is difficult to get together similar data of worldwide distribution of occupational gender distribution, the work of identifying the emerging stereotype work zones worldwide still remains. However, one can get a feel of the trouble from the data laid done in tables below. The practical figures regarding earnings differential of female and male workers can be taken to be an indication of occupational segregation.

This problem is an unrelenting one and also a developing one mostly in the developing countries and the transition economies. The process of globalization has also brought in new occupations and job types in the third world countries. This vice itself as a reinforcing process to create gender stereotypes. There is need to identify areas of existing and emerging stereotypes so that necessary actions can be taken to prevent such labor market rigidity.

What professions are considered exclusively for men, and what are professions typically for women. Is being a nurse a profession solely for women? Answering these questions, we, as a rule, are guided by personal experience and judgments of the people surrounding us. No wonder that, arguing on this topic, we often come across stereotypes.

As an example for, so-called «female professions»: teachers, baby-sitters and nurses can be given. On the basis of deep social norms and rules in society gender culture was created which for centuries made and reproduced the relations between men and women as a hierarchical, unequal, and subordinated relationship. However, there are cases when; on a modern labor market; runs against the certain ides of gender accessory of a given profession.

Stereotypes are formed within a culture. The established stereotypes act as norm for men and women. In the European countries the distinction between gender professions are becoming less and less appreciable, but, even now, in Third World countries there is a big difference between men’s and women’s professions. Men are considered “active”, (making the actions, solving problems, aggressive), and women are “communicative” (passive, emotional, not interested of business, and relationship between individuals).

Existing stereotypes of images of men and women operate as a magnifying glass, and the distinctions between men and women are emphasized in a much bigger degree, then they actually are.

Women are motivated on achievements differently because men and women at the heart have different things that motivate them.

The purpose of this study is to analyze all aspects and factors of motivation for male and female nurses. You might ask: Why is it important to study a nurse’s job for men and women? What does this study have to contribute? What are the benefits of knowing the causes of Gender differences in motivations? There are no small professions, all professions are important. It can contribute to equality in the workplace and ensure the same opportunities for people of equal experience regardless of gender. The benefits of knowing the cause is that once the causes are found a resolution can be made to make the workplace better and fairer to everyone.

Understanding and acceptance of the fact that each person, regardless of his gender is equal helps understand their identity, with the set of psychological qualities and properties, a muscularity and feminism ratio in mentality, will allow each identity and society as a whole to become more productive, developing and harmonious.

Purpose Of The Study

According to Dictionary, the motive (from Lat. Translate as motion, push) “is a combination of methods to explain and justify the actions of man” (Dictionary, 2010). There is a stereotype that men are giving more importance to winnings and excellence than women, and women often are not building career future plans; therefore, women motives to achieve a goal are lower. Although, in the large amount of women who are employed in female-dominated team in professional activities, such as teaching or nursing, achievement motivation is quite high. These features lead to conclusion that gender differences in an achievement motivation should be considered according with the type of goals. It is obviously that based on education the relations between performance and motivation to achieve higher goals is made compare between men and women. (Pavlovich, 2003)

According to scientists of Kazan (1977), the need for the achievements of women is not much higher than in men. However, not all scientists share this opinion; according to paper by Macek in 1973, it was shown that in detail review of motivations, male’s motivations compare with female’s motivations was stronger.

There are several points of view that affect the motivation achievement into both genders. The first is that women are motivated to achieve different than men. The second is that men and women are motivated by different needs. Emotional needs for women are more important than a goal achievement. The third point, that men and women have different degrees in a motivation achievement and implement them in various activities (Pavlovich, 2003).

If to consider the different motives in educational activity, males tend to acquire knowledge and profession, and female guide to receive a diploma (Nilsson, 2008).

The motivators are factors that influencing the decision, such as how and what needs should be satisfied. As a rule, men are more often named a valuation of own capabilities as a motivation factor, and women rely on people perception, for example, the choice of cloths.

During human behavior motivation, the person is guided by the values aˆ‹aˆ‹that he or she has accumulated during his life and perception. It is difficult to give a scheme of values differencesaˆ‹aˆ‹ because a different age and social status are required different values, but some examples can be said obviously. There are aesthetic, social, and spiritual values in the first place for women, and there are theoretical, economic, and political values for men, which can be tied to the practical success and the desire for power. However, in recent times, the values for men and women aˆ‹aˆ‹have changed a lot. Already, there are a health, friendship, and family life in the first place for men and women. A favorite job and pleasant free time are equal in value. It happens that men choose the social and family life instead career. For women, education and diploma began to dominate over the public. Thus, the traditional view of values for men and women are disappeared.

If to look on money as values, women more than men are impacted by opinion that incomes are influenced by hard work and abilities. Women evaluate money as a tool of buying things; for men, it is a tool of power; therefore, men rarely feel depression, anger, or helplessness without money (Pavlovich, 2003).

In consideration of the differences of interest among men and women, it can be noted that men are interested in solving problems, and women are more interested in making relationships. In general, men interests range is wider than women. Differences in the interest are determined some of the male benefits: the breadth of thinking and outlook, the objectivity of a great generalization. However, there are also disadvantages: low domestic adaptation, less pragmatic.

If to consider the interests of the activities, the women often will do activities that are already known (the interests of domestic and household), and men will do activities that have not done before (scientific and technical).

The study focuses on finding reasons of men and women motivation. As a method of studying the problem, literary studies will be used: papers, publications, and books. In the basis, more than 10 medical articles will be taken that include studies to determine the causes of the workplace motivation, the percentage behavior of positive to negative motivation, the causes to being a nurse among men, and the reasons for dismissal from the workplace.

Significance Of The Study

The studies of nurse’s motivation have long been popular topic. Because the nursing importance include: taking care of patients, performing diagnostic and treatment activities, and the amount of nurses is bigger in two times than doctors amount; it is important to create conditions for a motivated health care personnel.

Nursing profession has traditionally been viewed as prompted by internal motives; however, it is just one of the stereotypes. One more stereotype is that a nursing is a female profession, but, nowadays, men are taking this job more often.

The first mentioned about intrinsic motivation was made by Deci, E., in his concept of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is understood as a desire to perform the activities for awards, which is included in these activities. For a person with an internal motivation, it is important to be independent, acting in accordance with their internal motivation, not controlled externally.

Employee’s motives that encourage them to engage in employment may vary significantly.

In the paper, Butenko (2011) proposed to use a typological model of work motivation that is built at the intersection of two disparate axes: “motivation to achieve or avoid” and “active and constructive or destructive and passive labor behavior.” The author suggests four basic types of achievement motivation: instrumental, professional, patriotic, and a master’s opposite named the election. The most marked motivations on the medical staff are getting material goods, strengthening of social relatives, professional development, social security, altruism, and compassion. Also, in Butenko’s study (2011), a model of work motivation of medical staff called a “model of parallel type of motivation” is introduced. This model is based on an analysis of the psychological portrait of the individual. The model is emphasized three groups of doctors: “stability” of 51-63% of all medical staff, “energy” 24-28% of the staff, “creativity” of 9-16%. This method is proposed for clearly understanding of the work of employee’s stimulation.

In the Butenko’s (2011) article was proposed to divide motivation in factors.

The first factor is a bipolar; where, there is a variety of vectors, on the one hand, it is an “instrumental” and, on the other hand, it is “Money” and “Relationships.” This factor shows the focus on the spiritual satisfaction or interest. General Nurses are people who are more interested in status or social significance than money bonuses, or useful relationship, or patronage, and usually it is women.

The second factor also is a bipolar where, on the one hand, is “Recognition” and “Managers” and on the other side is a “Health”. The content traits of this vector are equal to the previous one, but in the first case the speech was about material motives, and, in the second case, the main point is about social component. In other words, social needs are more important for nurses. The goal of these workers to safe outputs for intellectual and physical resources and avoid novelty and warnings. On the other hand, nurses who aspire to independence, leadership, and career growth, have ambitions and the high demand for public praise. In addition, women and men may be equally related with this factor.

The third factor describes the employee’s interest in the content and process of work, motivation of creative expression and self-realization, readiness to perform monotonous work.

After separation factors into motivators, according to the Butenko’s article, the identification of motifs is not difficult.

If employers do not properly motivate their employees, no one will want to do their work on time, and in a hospital this can lead to the death of the patient. High stress and high workload affect the incentive to work. Therefore, the correct motivation may cause personnel not only work but also to carry out its work properly. This article by Bradford (2009) gives an idea of the most significant motivations for health care workers of both sexes: Recognition for a job well done, Food, Continuing education, Birthday cards, Team building, Communication, Respect.

Use at least half of them and it will lead to a good mood in the employee’s workplace and increase his awareness of the importance of the job. In the article by Sherman (2006) it was noted that the use of a communication strategy between nurses and nurses from different generations can help to overcome the bias it is also important to ensure that messages are clear, to avoid risk of errors that comes with communication failures. Different generations of nurses are using different forms of adverse communications from a simple conversation to electronic massages, so it is important to consider all this in motivation. Men are not prone to have long conversations with colleagues and reported in the phone, but they are also dependent on the exchange or board of another colleague. The article by McCabe (2005) points out other equally important motivators for work: the reward for work, protection of personnel. In this paper, the reward for work was the most popular factor, 94 percent of the total, the protection of workers amounted to only 57 percent. You can see that among the respondents, women were in need of more protection than men.

Intrinsic motivation is clearly visible in the intern staff. The article by Bartzak (2010) states that “self-motivated learning experiences can transform into a way of life once motivation and a reflexive learning process are in place: learning, experiential context, reflection, application to new experiences”. Organizational processes that incorporate this natural, lifelong approach increase the self-learner’s motivation toward learning, and ultimately build the nurse’s practice for the benefit of persons receiving care.

The aˆ‹aˆ‹Toode’s (2011) article makes a literary analysis of the existing articles to this day and identifies types of motivations, such as: nurses have been motivated by good collaboration between the nurse and the healthcare team, by social support inside the team and by positive team spirit in the ward. As regards to working culture, professional contacts and the nurse’s status as an equally valued health professional in a team appeared to be important motivators for nurses. Another important motivating factor was the high autonomy especially with regards to decision-making. The latter appeared to be extremely important in such situations where the job demands were high and there was insufficient information for planning new or ongoing activities (so-called environmental uncertainty), intensive care units being a case in point. Furthermore, nurses are motivated by opportunities to learn, such as sharing their knowledge with physicians and getting supervision, even argued that nurses associate specific patient populations with possibilities to get extra training, seeing them as job motives that make their work more interesting.

There are several barriers for men, who would like to become a nurse, such as gender stereotyping, low wages and lack of career growth. For many decades patient care was considered a low-skilled and low-paid job, in its specifics more suitable for young women (Pavlovich, 2003).

Society has long regulated gender roles and the gender shape of its members. In every culture, every era there are canons of normative masculinity and femininity.

Gender role: a set of specific sexual patterns of behavior that are expected from men and women. That is not a man meets a certain model, and the company requires him to play this role.

In society there are stereotypes about any topic. And some of them are not just based on prejudices and superstitions. These are all too common gender stereotypes that exist today. It is believed that the discrimination in the professional field only applies to women, but since Eton. Society allows a man to freely choose the activity, but society does not give the right to choose the areas traditionally considered “female” (such as a kindergartener, nurse, etc.). The Company monitors the absence of men in this area, setting an extremely low wages in this industry, as well as for the men is an important factor. And the society punishes “apostates”, raising them to laughter, questioning their masculinity, alluding to sexual inadequacy (Coleman & Roth, 2008).

The Company controls a man by threatening to discredit his “credibility.” Stereotype assumes that men cannot be as good as a woman to be careful and patient, gentle and compassionate, diligent and attentive. Stereotype dictates that men are poor performers, women are required to performing and serving activities (education, health, trade, social and domestic sphere), for men instrumental scope, technique, creativity and leadership, as well as heavy physical work is more suitable.

Modern women have mastered all professions, and can work anywhere. But the only barrier to the work of a nurse – is the emancipation of women. In today’s world, women are no longer content with the little. They are no longer satisfied with a small salary, low status, and a lack of career growth. In earlier days their main goal was to get married and have children, but now this is pushed aside. Women tend to be independent, earn more. But the work of nurses is not paid high enough. If you take this same area, work in medicine, the doctor’s job much more interesting more varied and has higher wages. More and more women are working in politics and in other places that used to be counted as too complex for women.

There is also the social stereotype that the nurse’s profession is not socially significant and promising.

Women participation in sports has a history marked by division and inequity. However, women have experiences major accomplishments by female athletes helping to make significant progress for gender equality and the empowerment of women. The essay will explain some of the historical developments with reference to different theoretical perspective of feminism such as liberal, radical and socialist feminisms. It will also critically discuss feminisms and how female are exploited by patriarchy society.

Feminism is a dynamic, diverse and often conflicting collection of social theories and moral philosophies (Burke, 2008). It is similar to Marxism because both are political theories that were develop to solve the inequality, exploitation and poverty in society. While Marxism is largely motivated by the struggle of social class, feminism focuses on the experiences of women, particularly in terms of their political, social and economical inequalities. One prospective of feminism focuses on seeking no particular privileges but merely demand that everyone receive equal political, economical and social consideration without discrimination on the basis of sex (Adkins, 2004). Another opposing type of modern feminism, opposes existing political and social institution in general because it’s tied to a male dominated society. Thus, feminism has no single, universal form that represents all feminists.

The rise of feminism movement can be divided into three “waves”. The first wave began in the late 1800s to early 1900s referring mainly to the statue of women in family and allowing women’s right to vote known as the suffrage movement. The second wave refers to the action of the women’s liberation movement beginning in the early 1950s which campaigned for social and legal equality for women. The third wave feminism began in the 1990s and embraced conflict, contradictions and accommodated diversity and change.

Waves of Feminism

The waves of feminism are a historical progression in each waves has bringing a swelling of momentum that carried women closer to equality in society. The early movement has come to known as the first wave which was established in United States and United Kingdom around the late 1800s to early 1900s. They major concerned was to help promote women equality in education, employment and property rights. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, many feminist such as Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone fought to gain more political power for women; particularly the right of women’s suffrage. Woman did have success as a result of the 1st World War occur meaning women replaced men in civilian work-force and also served in the military support roles. Feminist also had significant success in reforms in education, and broadening access to different profession and in healthcare. It is considered that the first-wave came to end when the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed enabling women the right to vote (Lee & Ling, 2001). The progression of first-wave feminism was significant; however, without the continuation of the second-wave, feminisms would not be as advance as it is in current times (can u think of another way can say that), for each wave is interrelated and dependent on each other’s history.

In the early 1960s Second Wave of feminism emerged. Second-wave focuses was broader than the first-wave. It was concerned on inequalities such as the economic freedom, the rights for female to have abortion, equal and accessibility to certain male dominated institution such as sports. It also began to challenge the domination of patriarchy society and gender inequality in all aspects. In 1963 A Feminist named Betty Friedan publicised a landmark book called The Feminine Mystique. This book would be a pivotal moment in the history of second wave feminism. The book give an insight on how upper to middle class women felt discontented about their restricted opportunity in life (Changfoot, 2002). Friedan soon became one of the leading feminist in the Second wave, and eventually helped establish the National Organization for Women, whose purpose was to promote gender equality and to protect and support women rights. Perhaps one of the biggest achievements of Second Wave Feminism was in the United States by the passage of Title IX (Ackerly & Attanasi, 2006). This enabled women to have access to education, particularly in university and professional schools. In addition, the work of these feminists allow employment opportunities that before had been confined to men accessible to women.

The Third Wave of feminism that emerged in the 1990s and is still current to this day. Like all feminism, the third wave focuses on the social, economic, political and personal empowerment of women, but this differ to pervious waves because it concerns were more on the individual empowerment of women and less on activism. Ferguson (2002) commented on the third wave as a “new direction for feminism to celebrates women’s voyage to build meaningful identities in a complex contemporary world” (p2). Third wave feminists celebrate diversity unlike previous waves and the Women’s Liberation Movement; it was often criticized for focusing too narrowly on the events of middle-class, Caucasian and heterosexual women. Third wave feminists do not reject political activism, but the emphasis relies more on women personal empowerment as an initial point for societal change. Zinn and Dill (2005) propose there are multiple systems of domination that create inequality for women known as a matrix of domination.

Feminist theories

Feminism is not a unified or a simple philosophy. Many women and man consider themselves feminists; most of their ideology may vary considerably. The feminist theories aim to understand the nature of gender inequality, promoting women’s rights, while generally providing a critique of social relations. This essay will focus on looking a liberal, socialist and radical feminism.

Liberal feminism is characterized on the emphasis of wanting both genders to be equal within society. According to the theory, society itself does not need a major revolution, but rather propose that laws need to be changed and opportunities which enable more accessibly for women to become equal in society. To a liberal feminist, evidence of progress occurs when a number of women gain more positions previous occupied by men, particularly high end positions. In the United Kingdom and the major of the Western world, liberal feminism is the most common form of feminism. Gale, (2009) argues that even if women are no longer reliant upon men, they will still need to be governed by a patriarchal state. Radical Feminist argues institutional changes such as the introduction of women’s suffrage are inadequate to emancipate women.

In contrast socialist feminism emphasizes that equality for women will not be achieve without a significant change within society mainly economic change also socialist feminists focus on collective change and empowerment. Similar to Marxism, socialist feminists argue that there are basic inequalities built in to a capitalist society because capital and power are shared unequally. Thus, it not sufficient enough for women to achieve powerful positions in society, but power and capital need to be distributed equally (Fleck, 2004). Critic argues that socialist feminism neither is revolutionary nor radical enough to generate a solution to the difficulty for women economic and social exploitation. Another argument is not all male and female relationships are characterised by exploitation and oppression.

Radical feminism is focuses on patriarchy and the system of power that organizes society. It is similar to socialist feminism in the sense that it emphasizes the need for severe social change for women to truly have equality. Radical feminists believe that society is very largely patriarchal, and as a result founds that women are oppressed. A criticism for radical feminism is it focuses much on the patriarchy society and need to consider the concepts such as ethnicity, religion and social class. Another criticism is reverse discrimination when women pushed unfairly into senior position.

Feminism in sports

Women’s participation in sports has risen significantly in the twentieth century, particularly in the last quarter. It this partly due to the changes in modern societies that encourage gender parity. While the level of participation and performance still alters depending on the country and by sport. Although there has been many improvement in the accessibility in sport many feminist argue, that sports has been socially constructed hyper masculine, thus it has been more limited to men. Vale, (1998) found evidence to support this by looking at the incredible resistance to included women in certain men’s institutions. Augusta National is the golf club which is also home to the Masters Tournament which does not allow women members to join. When women have tried to join the club or have made protest outside the parameter, the reaction from the club has boarded on hostility. As a results Vale, (1996) question if sport is so beneficial for men, why do men and institution, hold such resistant to offer all that is good in sport to women. Radical feminism have criticised the patriarchy society on how they portray women in sports. For example Sports Illustrated portrays women by presents demeaning stereotypes of female sexuality, encouraging men to view women as sex objects and by turning voyeurism into a sport.

Gender studies is an interdisciplinary study which investigate different aspects of gender. Sport is one of the aspects that researchers in these years are trying to analyse in a gender perspective. It is believed that sport is socially conditioned based on many researches. This essay will examine sport contributing to the construction of masculinity by several ways, they are: gender stratification in tradition, homophobia in sport, sport as male bonding ritual, biased opportunities towards men and media influence. Further examples and elaborations will follow in each point to demonstrate sport is indeed a social constitution constructing masculinity.

Sport has long been instituted as male dominated and masculine in orientation by a couple of reasons. First, the historical gender stratification throughout a century has established that sport is an institution constructing masculinity. We are living in a patriarchal society that male are always in superior status than female, from economic status to daily life. The society has embedded a concept that the role of women is to give birth and their only obligation is to take care of children. But in 20th century, women are no longer highly dependent on men, as more and more women have become labours in the market. It has shortened the distance between two sexes, but obviously gender inequality cannot be eliminated so easily. Bilrell and Cole (1990) have mentioned that superiority of physical fitness is the key factor of winning in sport, and sport is the main activities emphasis on the sexual differentiation. Since sport emphasizes a lot on strength and bravery, male are thought to perform well innately than women (Klein 1990). As a result, the male participating rate in sport in general is higher than women. It is no wonder that Zane Grey (1992) in his book wrote “All boys love baseball. If they don’t they’re not real boys.” This concept was passed on from generation to generation and eventually sport becomes a site constructing masculinity.

Second, homophobia is another factor constructing masculinity in sport. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, sport has somehow developed into a male hegemonic activity. Male who does not participate in sports are not regarded as ‘real’ man, and female participating in sports are thought to be manlike. They may, therefore, be treated as homosexuals. In fact, in the traditional socialization process, men in the early age had learnt that male who does not perform in manly way may see as homosexual (Messner 1992). Athletics, no matter male or female, may sometimes make apparent or even exaggerated movement to show their masculinity and femininity, just because they are afraid of people confusing their gender identity. Ordinarily, male’s characteristics are tough, aggressive, competitive, physically strong, whereas women tend to show attractive appearance, to do make-up and wearing feminine clothing. The traditional association of physical strength, power and athleticism with masculinity causes many people to question the sexuality of women athletes. Former tennis star Chris Evert paid great attention to whether or not she acted like a woman in the court, and almost the end of her tennis career she finally willing to admit that she is an athlete (Woolum 1998). Though she is a tennis player, she tried to act like a woman so as to maintain her feminine image. When Evert evaluated on her early stage of career, she said she never feel like an athlete, she was just a person playing tennis (Woolum 1998). She would like to be a ‘complete’ woman such as having nail polish and wearing fancy hair band, rather than a ‘freak’ in others’ eyes. From this example, we have seen that sport is thought to be male-oriented. Since female athletes challenge traditional notions of femininity and their abilities are seen as stereotypically masculine, female athletes are always contending with homophobia so that they will not be labelled as lesbian. It, in turns, lessens female’s willingness to participate in sport. As for men, they tend to participating in sport in order to show their manhood and avoid categorized as gay. It is, therefore, understandable that sports is a site for the embodiment of masculinity because of its nature of male-oriented.

Third, sports play an important role in masculinity because sport is constructed as male bonding ritual. Similar to fraternity and military, sport helps young boys making connections in their life (Fine 2000). As we all know, sport focuses a lot of competitiveness and aggression, or sometimes, even involves physical contact and collision in between athletes. These are the elements that enable the notion of masculinity and the hegemonic ideal to construct a boy into a real man. Burstyn (1999) believed that sport “provided the kind of rituals of conquest and aggression that men with a weak sense of masculinity needed to symbolize, to make physical and palpable, the difference between a ‘man’s man’ and a ‘mama’s boy’ “, which means sport is “succeeded in socializing boys into manhood despite the absence of the family father…” (Burstyn 1999). Here we realize that sport is in fact served as an embodied ritual of confirming and strengthening men’s gender identity. Even if some children may live in single-parent families, they are still able to achieve manliness as sport can be a replacement of father for them to obtain masculinity. All men can group together to retain their manhood and to reassert their gender privilege via sport. Thus, we can conclude that sport is a bonding ritual for men to construct their masculinity.

In addition, biased opportunity towards men is a way to gradually construct masculinity in sport. Traditionally we are told that girls are only suitable for activities which are related to the aesthetic side of sports such as ice cheerleading and skating. Females are not recommended to engage in high physical contact activities such as rugby, boxing and soccer. In the schooling stage, gender socialization and gender typing shaped teenagers how they should act based on their gender. Plausibly, self-fulfilling prophecy has occurred and these norms have shaped individuals’ behavior, which in turn shapes future expectations. This cycle has shaped our society into a male supremacy culture, and sport is an embodiment of this notion. The opportununties bias can be seen particularly in the professional ranks. Women’s sport would never be at the top of the pirority when business companies looking to use sports to market their product (Person 2009). They concerned with earning money from the advertsing and they believed that the money return will not be as much if they invest in women’s sport (Person 2009). The average salary can obviously indicate the inequality of opportunities within two sexes, men are able to earn 4 millions in average whereas women can only earn approximately 1.4% of men, around $55,000 in average. Without social and economical motivation, girls devote less time to the sport. As a result, sport become male domain and a site for constrcuting masculinity.

Finally, media influence is a factor contributing to the masculine construction in sport. The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles has done a research (Wilson 1999) claiming that over 90% of American teenagers consume sports media. Since sports are mostly dominated by men, from the athletes and coaches to the commentators and reporters, media is definitely influential enough to transmit ideas about masculinity and maleness. And when it comes to reporting sport news, the newsworthiness is the main point reporters are focusing on. Men’s sport is generally believed to have more attention and enthusiasm from the public, compared with women’s sport. Sometimes after a match has finished, reporters are able to immediately interview male athletes in the changing room, it is, however, impossible to do the same thing on women. It is, therefore, clear that there are lots of bias and limitations on sports media which ultimately contribute to the construction of masculinity in our society.

In conclusion, sport was demonstrated as being a dominant social institution which naturalized men’s power and privilege over women. It has marginalized and trivialized female athletes, which sequentially help reproducing the ideological of masculinity in sport.

Introduction

Due to the establish of modern enterprise system and thoroughly in structural reforms of market economy, there are lot of opportunities contained in the market, but it is also existing many unexpected risks, particularly for the small to medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) which has limited resources to resist in this treacherous environment. To survive and adapts to the environment for a SME is to maintain its advantage in meticulous daily management and even more important is to have a long-term view strategic thinking especially in financial strategy. ‘A good finance strategy can help SME to set up and expand their operations, development and also investment’ (OECD, 2006), further to get funds which make them competitively and can get well results they desired (Park, 2010). Making a finance strategy is very significant to a company; company has to consider both of internal condition and external environment problem and even more factors which are related to company. However, the SME has its particular characteristic, it is not suitable to adopt the same action with a large company; they better to create a strategy which fits to the company according to its demand. Finding a proper financial strategy for a developing SME, not only can help SME to reinforce its essence, the more important is the sustainability of its development.

Define company

There is no accurate definition for small to medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) and most of countries define it according to specific condition by their way. Nevertheless, there are some particular characteristics (Bank of England, 2001& Brookfield, 2001) about SMEs and they are:

The enterprises are not quoted

Ownership is often connected between family and shareholder and the business is typically restricted to few individuals.

Most of SMEs are small group’s business and always achieve self-employment effectively.

In the past, the definition for SME’s from European Commission was unequivocal, it was defined by individual country, for instance, Germany regulated the amount of employee under 250 was part of SME, but in Belgium, the number was became 100. However, in the recent years, the data from European Commission shows that the definition has adjusted and is qualified as a SME by some criteria (see figure 1-1) (European Commission, 2010) in headcount, turnover and balance sheet total.

definition of SME.JPG

Figure 1-1 the definition of a small firm from European Commission

Importance of finance

Nowadays, the enterprise’s finance is facing a dynamic, diversification and complicated managing environment. Managing finance is not only to provide a specific method or device for a firm; it is to assimilate the principle and manner from strategic management. Start from the view of adapting to the environment and using the vantage, to pay much attention in financial long-term problem and strategic problem. In the situation of lacking of the resources for SME, to create a suitable financial strategic and well dominate the limited resource is significant since a better financial systems can help to improve the probability of successful innovation and bring accelerate economic growth.

(King, et al., 1993)

The focus of enterprise’s financial strategy is the basic path on future development, goal and goal accomplishment for the financial action; this is the difference between financial strategy and other strategies. The master objective of enterprise’s financial strategy is reasonably to assemble, dominate and use its resources, tend to balance and flow enterprise’s capital, also to build the core competitive strength and to achieve the maximization of enterprise value in the end. Some aspects of this goal are related/ connected to each other; from the view of a long-term performance, to seek the enterprise’s sustainability growth in financial resource and capability, and furthermore to accomplish the rising of enterprise’s capital value and make enterprise’s financial capability can sustained, quick and healthily increase, conduce to maintain and develop enterprise’s competitive advantage.

While enterprise building the core competitive strength for their strategic management, they need the support from financial management. The financial management which treats capital management as a significant content, it needs to express the requirement for enterprise’s strategy and to guarantee its practice. The value of practicing the financial strategy is to retain a health condition in enterprise’s finance and also effectively in controlling the financial risk.

There are twelve types of financing and growth in SMEs and it can be very usefully and provided a great help if it is supplied properly according to SMEs particular requirement (Brookfield, 2001).

Initial owner financing (Equity finance)

Business angel financing

Trade credit

Leasing

Factoring

Venture capital

Short-term bank loans (Debt finance)

Medium term bank loans

Mezzanine finance

Private placements

Public equity

Public debt

A company should manage its financing structure in a way that its debt and equity are in balanced manner. This fact helps company to avoid insolvency. Excess of either debt or finance could result in loss of wealth. I will be explaining some of the important methods of financing in following section.

Equity finance

Equity financing is that the shareholder sells the part of corporate control to introduce the new shareholder by raising the capital (Watson, et al., 2007). The enterprise does not need to pay the interest on principal if the capital is received from equity financing and the new shareholder can share the profit from enterprise as well. Equity financing includes stock issuance, allotment and debt for equity swap. Some features of equity financing, are:

Stock equity is firm’s first right of its property, it is the base for enterprise to absorb the civil liability and to responsibility for firm’s own profits and losses; furthermore, it is also the base for investor to control the enterprise and to distribute the profit.

Equity financing is the base of deciding an enterprise to the outward debt.

Certainly, there are some advantages of equity financing that help enterprise in investment and management.

Equity financing builds a good system in corporate governance structure, which consists of shareholders meeting, board of directors, Board of supervisors and executives. It is effectively in decreasing the risk of management.

In the modern finance theory, stock market is also called open market; it means that the standardization financial products are dealing in a trading area with an extensively institutionalization. It has its criterion and processes it in the condition of information revelation and fare dealing. In financial translation, the more important is publicity and availability of information; and that is why the stock market is better than loan market in both competitiveness of capital price and publicity of information.

Venture capital

Venture capital is the fund which is collected by private placement and set as the type of organization; invest to unlisted small and medium-sized newly emerging enterprises and in the capital type of both high risk and high reciprocation. Venture capital is different from mutual fund, unit trust and securities investment fund; it has its features in operating of investment and collection, such as,

Venture capital absorbs the venture with enterprise; the venture capitalist needs to cooperate closely with entrepreneur and help the firm to make a plan. Management is part of investment.

Venture capital is an investment in long-term and poor flowability; venture capitalist and entrepreneur become a common destiny once they invest.

Venture capital is high risk and requires the venture capitalist with specialized skill, and need to achieve specialization and programmed in choosing the project, tend to avoid the risk.

Before inspect the financial index, the venture capitalist pays more attention in market prospect, development strategy and managing quality.

Sharing the bonus from enterprise is not the purpose of venture capital, they make it as a return by increasing the capital when they are exiting; the time for exiting is always when go on public or sell it.

Debt finance

Debt financing is also called bond financing, it is the way which the firm can raise money for enterprise’s external finance; and debt can also be conducted and fitted to the requirement of issuing companies and investors (Watson, et al., 2007). It is included long-term bank loans, short-term financing (such as bills, debt receivable, and letter of credit), enterprise Bond and short-term financial bonds, also long-term bond financing, finance lease, discount government loans, government loan, Loans from international financial organizations and private bond fund.

The first expense enterprise needs to pay is the interest of capital which receives from debt financing and the principal on the debt will be paid to creditor at maturity (Davis, et al., 1994). The feature of purpose for debt financing is to solve the problem of deficiency in working capital rather than the expenditure under the capital account. Debt financing can be described by two features,

The received capital from debt financing is only for using, it is not the property of the enterprise, and the firm needs to pay interest and the principal is repayable.

Compare to equity financing, except some specific situations that debt financing may bring creditor the problem of intervention or controlling, otherwise it is barely to have the problem of corporate control.

However, debt financing has its advantage for helping the firm in investment and management,

The lenders have ability to collect and analyze the states of investment, also can have long-term investigate and oversee the enterprise to avoid the moral hazard.

The function of the creditor’s right is when firm can pay off the debt, the firm will hold the corporate control, whereas of the enterprise cannot offer the debt, the corporate control will be turned to lender.

Why do SME’s find financing a problem?

Due to SME’s small size capital, the capability for defending the market risk is not as strong as a large firm, plus a faulty finance system, it causes the problem into SME’s finance management (Pissarides, 1999). The main reasons and problem are:

No criterion in SME’s finance accounting system

In application of finance system in SME exist some problems, which make loose financial control. A loose inventory control can lead to the stagnation of capital and excessive final inventory; the capital of final inventory always in a high proportion if compare to sale revenue. The firm usually loses a large number of assets due to focus on capital much more than assets and even wastes it seriously; moreover, to control the finished products, semi-manufactured goods and low-value expendable without a faultless system.

It is negligent in managing the cash and weakness in debt receivable

Some of enterprises think that it is good to hold cash (including bank deposit), and better to have more; the proportion of reserve is too high, it makes lot of capital cannot really run in operation, and also causes the capital idleness. In addition, some firms invest too much in real estate and lead to finance difficulty due to could not handle the emergent need of management. Also deficiency in managing working capital creates problems problem capital withdrawal.

Difficulty in funding, the capital is insufficient

It is not easy to run the SME in a practically environment, especially the unequal treatment in funding between SME and larger enterprise. The banks are not willing to loan to them, particularly the difficulty in guarantee and lack of the specialized agency to offer the assurance service is still the main problem for SME and it obviously happens in some huge investments.

Unrestraint in investment

The SME is lacking of the ability to analyze the investment accurately and to evaluate the effectiveness of operating the capital. The majority of investment in SME is from banking, due to the respectability of a SME is not as high as a large company, it is an obstacle in attracting the banking to invest or loan to the SME.

The mode of management is backward

Most of SME is running the business as a family workshop; they are operation the management in a backward way and an old-fashioned thinking way, do not understand and even not willing to understand or learn the modern financial management. The proprietor always treats the enterprise as an extension of family’s property; in order to control the business entirely without decentralize the ownership, it causes the lost of the opportunities in growing.

Conclusion

SMEs play an important role in the general macroeconomic environment, and provide the enormous opportunities for employment. However, due to the small size and limited source, usually SMEs has to face to the challenge in financing problem. For solving the problem, the major impact is from government and the law (Industrial Systems Research). In existing policy has to be adjusted by government; the government needs to reinforce the related law and regulation to implement SMEs development strategy and preferential clause. Furthermore, have to set up the institution for managing and supporting SMEs development. To increase the method for financing; SMEs need to respect the debt from bank and to pay back the debt on time; then to healthy the internal system and raise the handling of material. Lastly, to improve accountants’ structure and criterion of financial management; enhance the punishment for the illegality to makes they pay attention in financial system.

Rwanda is one of the smallest low income African countries and a post- conflict country that shares boundaries with Uganda in north, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in west, Burundi in south and Tanzania in east, Having emerged from the 1994 genocide and civil conflict and wars which claimed over one million people dead and left the socio-economic infrastructure completely smashed. The country suffered from harsh deficits which includes skilled human capital and this is largely for technical professions (RoR: 2008).

According to the 2002 census of Population and Housing, Rwanda`s Population was estimated at 10,4 million and with the population density of 321 persons per square kilometre. The country`s Population grew rapidly from a small size Population of 2 million in 1962 to over 10 million in 2010. The country has a relatively high rate population growth of 2.9% which could carry on the population to sixteen million in the year 2020, if this pace or speed is maintained. The population is predominately young with an average age of about 20 years of old with about 60% of the total population less than 19 years old with significant implications for young people `s unemployment (RoR:2002).

The young people in Rwanda represents hope for the future as a resource that holds a big reserve of human energy, and they can play a big role particularly in developing the economy.

Rwanda being one of the poorest countries in the world and much of her population is largely dependent on subsistence farming or agriculture in general. The formal industrial and employment is slightly developed and nearly non-existent outside the few larger urban areas basically Kigali main capital city, followed by smaller cities such as Huye, Cyangugu, Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Gitarama, Kibuye and Rwamagana.

Over the past decades ,the youth in Rwanda have depended so much on employment generated by the Public Sector as the sole employer mainly due to ineffective policy framework that would facilitate the processes of generating employment ( RoR: 2005 ). Lack of active government input and facilitation has been one of the top most challenging factors among others. In the process of improving the lives and the standards of the population in Rwanda, the country has embarked on supporting and facilitating the informal sector as a means to generate more employment opportunities to vulnerable people especially the youth and has implemented policies to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other Rural Development Programmes like Vision “Umurenge”, Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) and the Vision 2020 as a framework to achieve the overall development in Rwanda ( RoR: 1999).

Rwanda is trying to change from an aid dependent country into a middle income country by developing its human capital with skills in different capacities to enhance employment creation for the entire population which is dominated by the youth. The Government of Rwanda established five year action plan for youth employment promotion and the strategies which is meant to help in developing her human capital by empowering the young people in the labour market so as to get decent jobs (RoR:2008).

It is in this regard that, the government has developed a number of vocational training institutions in all five Provinces (that makes up Rwanda) purposely to help the young people to gain certain level of skills to enable them become self-employed and make use of their effort in development. Nicola, (2005), argues that vocational education normally is projected to make young people become self reliant. This supports the argument that vocational education for young people is to become creative with necessary skills that enables them to start their own undertakings.

However, many studies in developing countries show numerous constraints in vocational training institutions, a situation whereby vocational training graduates hardly succeed when trying to seek economic activities or create employment, (Haan,2006).Yet the main goal of vocational training institutions is to prepare young people to fit in the labour market.

Based on the above views, this will necessitate the researcher to draw attention to the perceptions of the trainees from vocational institutions. The case of Rwanda`s vocational education system which lacks a sound and stable standard setting in place, this has created problems of low quality education that is somewhat not relevant to the current labour market which is competitive and tight as a result of large labour force supply in the country.

1.2 Statement of the problem

It is claimed that, young people always consider gaining skills as sole source of solving the unemployment problem for them and it is regarded as a form of transition for them to join the independent life style. Sen.(1997), argues that skills and knowledge can enhance human capability, a situation whereby young people can be able to make their own choices to lead lives they have reason to value. A recent initiative of the government of Rwanda to address the rampant unemployment trend in the labour market among the young people is the setting up of Workforce Development Authority (WDA). This institution was set up to improve the standards of vocational institutions in a country and play a regulatory role and working under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Public Service and Labour but still a lot is missing due to; limited qualified personnel in training programmes, lack of experience for young people seeking employment, Inadequate skills to prepare the young people with enough capability upon the labour market standards , poor education system (RoR: 2010).

The high rate of unemployment in Rwanda is a result of poor education system which prepares young people basically for white collar jobs which have been declining across time.( RoR: 2002). The country`s formal unemployment rate is 15.5% and this impacts on nearly 696,260 persons (RoR:2005). The government of Rwanda has embarked on increasing expenditure on education sector and this has led to increased labour force supply from vocational training institutions. This has also led to increased demand for jobs within a tight labour market of Rwanda that is actually dependent on public jobs. This has led to a large crowd of unemployed young people based on the fact that the labour force supply exceeded the labour demands in the labour market and as a result of poor education system ,there is often smaller number of young graduates who are able to create their own employment.

In Rwanda, the private sector is mainly underdeveloped and this is also one of the major cause of a large crowd of unemployed young people in a country. In this case, the public sector remains the principal employer compared to the formal private sector (segment) yet public sector employs a small fraction of the employable inhabitants (RoR: 2007). The agricultural sector is the largest employer among the sectors in the country, but this sector is largely less productive and this is due to smaller range (size) of land share as per-person in the country, the land is often very small with less than 1 (one) hectare per-person/ inhabitant. This contributes to low output and low incomes to the rural dwellers, who are the majority of whom the young people and women, such people would be employed in other sectors ( RoR: 2002). The economically active and dynamic population that is active is estimated at 4,493,000 and among those 45% are men and 55% are women counter- parts. out of the above population, 2,334,000 are in the age bracket of young people in the country ranging from 15-29 years of age, where as 1,153,000 are under 20 years of age (RoR:2004).

Besides that, because of poor education and curriculum systems, the skills and competencies acquired by the young people from the vocational training institutions do not match with the requirements of labour market mainly because VET graduates often lack some confidence to stand on their own capabilities to start self-employment. The issue of self-employment has been worsened by the general lack of active labour market policies in place to facilitate the creation of employment for young people and active youth employment promotion policies in place which can also influence the decisions to avail credits and information pertaining job opportunities for unemployed young people from vocational training who may be troubled by the lack of initial capital to start the entrepreneurship businesses (RoR: 2008).

As it was suggested and adopted by UNESCO (1974) in a vital recommendation that, “technical and vocational education is an essential component of general education and as a system of preparing for occupational-workers and as a mechanism to shrink the mismatches involving trainings and employment”. Many young people are said to be trapped-up and hardly make it to start self-employment in the labour market. Thus, this study seeks to assess the effectiveness of vocational training institutions in building human capital as well as their capabilities in terms of giving the necessary skills and competencies required by young people to be self-employed in the labour market and the necessary strategies to alleviate the above constraints faced by the young people in the labour market.

1.3 Research objective and research questions
1.3.1 Main objective of the research

The objective of this research paper is to assess the labour market situation for the young people in Rwanda with reference of Gasabo District in Kigali-City. Emphasis is given to young people who graduate from vocational education and training going into self-employment. It tries to discover the mismatch between skills young people have and the desired competencies for self-employment in the current labour market.

1.3.2 Specific objectives of the research
To identify the journeys into self-employment taken by young people from vocational education and training in Rwanda,
To find out the perceptions of young people over the challenges they face during the course of training and how well education and training has prepared them for those challenges,
To analyse the major challenges the young people encounter when taking their journeys to self- employment,
To suggest policy recommendations to be adopted so as to improve the labour market situations for the young people in Rwanda.
1.3.3 Research Questions
What are the economic journeys taken by young people from vocational training into self-employment in Rwanda?
What are the perceptions of young people over the challenges they face during the course of training and how well education and training has prepared them for those challenges?
What are the major constraints the young people encounter when taking their journeys to self-employment?
What policy recommendations should be made to encourage an environment of adequate skills and capability desired in the labour market?
1.4 Relevance and justification of the research study

The research study is relevant as it tries to make a good understanding of the concepts of self-employment developed by training and a labour market concept which is rather weak among several vocational training institutions in Rwanda. This paper provides response to the common mismatch of skills acquired from vocational institutions that impinges so much on the position of young people in Rwanda`s current labour market. It will also enable the concerned parties to recognize whether self-employment policies and programmes in place are relevant towards addressing the high rate of unemployment among the young people in Rwanda.

It will create a platform to initiate debates on youth employment promotion policies which might be useful in addressing the unemployment problem which has affected the young people in Rwanda`s labour market and the world of work in a global perspective. Besides that, this research provides useful literature and knowledge for future reviews based on the theoretical views and opinions of several cited authors from the world of academia that are included in this research paper.

This research study is also relevant especially when it seeks to make policy recommendations as an aspect that will help in building institutional capacities and as well as building human capabilities.

1.5 Research Methodology and sources of data.

The research is based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected from respondents from the chosen area of study comprising of the beneficiaries of training programmes. The researcher identified young individuals who are graduates from vocational training institutions. The total number of interviewee was thirty five (35) respondents from Gasabo District and Government officials. This helped the researcher to collect data on the quality of the education system provided by the vocational training education institutions in Rwanda and was able to capture information on the perceptions of young people on the standards of the education system provided to them, after they graduate and how it is helpful or inadequate in as far as labour market is concerned.

1.5.1 Sample size and sampling procedures

The ideal exercise in a research study is to find data from the whole population. This would guarantee maximum coverage/ treatment of population concerned in the research study. However, due to lack of resources, it was not feasible to study the whole population; In this case, a sample size was then deemed necessary and essential to satisfy the researcher`s study.

With the use of purposive sampling method, respondents presumed to have clear/understandable and enough information concerning the economic journeys of the young people into self-employment were consulted.

To get rich and enough information about young peoples’ transition into self employment, I purposively selected thirty (30) self-employed young respondents. For better understanding what the government is doing / planning to encourage self employment to young people in Rwanda, I selected 5 Government officials, two from the Ministry of Public Service and Labour, one official from the Ministry of Youth and two officials from the Ministry of Education and were interviewed. Thus, the sample size of the study totalled to 35 respondents. The selection of 30 young respondents that were interviewed fell in age range of 15-35 years old as being stipulated by Rwandan constitution of 2003-2004 determining who the youth are.

1.5.2 Research techniques
Interviews

To get primary data, it was decided to interview 35 respondents. Before holding interviews with respondents, the researcher had first to make contacts with the help of telephones calls. Using interview guide, the researcher interviewed 30 young self-employed people in Gasabo District. To know what the government is doing or planning for self employment for young people in Rwanda, 2 officials from the Ministry of Public Services and Labour, 2 officials from the Ministry of Education and 1 official from the Ministry of Youth were also interviewed. Semi-structured interviews each lasting for up 30-35 minutes were conducted. The interview questions varied in form and emphasis based on the interviewee but were based on the research questions mentioned above. In some cases, some prompts were incorporated, for example, around the nature of self-employment and the transition of young people as a starting point for informants giving their views about self-employment as a form of employment in the labour market.

With respect to the qualitative practice (Davies: 1997), a mostly unrestricted/open-ended interview timetable was used to guide the conversation and discussion. The interview calendar was purposefully considered to allow informants to articulate/express themselves unreservedly and to raise their personal issues and concerns relating to the transition of young people towards self- employment in the real world of work.

The interview schedules helped very the researcher to understand as well as studying the attitudes, values, beliefs and motives the young people have in as far as self-employment is concerned. The study interviews were conducted in English, but in some cases Kinyarwanda (local language) was used, with the interview transcripts which was translated into English afterwards.

Desk study

For the concern of secondary data collection, a desk study was used. The study concentrated on secondary data from diverse sources, but mainly from the ISS/Erasmus University library, official government publications/documents from Rwanda related to the issue of investigation, Internet sources was very crucial among other sources, Many reports and other relevant sources were also consulted during the research paper writing period.

1.6 Scope and limitations of the research study

This research study focuses on the young self-employed people, and who have above average levels of education in Rwanda taking Gasabo District in Kigali-City as a case study.

Due to time restriction and inadequate resources/funds, the research study could not cover the entire country, the research was conducted in Gasabo District in Kigali- City. Gasabo District being surrounded by the three Districts that constitute Kigali-City Mayor ship was considered because of the following reasons:

Gasabo District is situated in the centre of Kigali-city where most of the commercial activities and many businesses takes palace, and as well government administrative offices and none governmental organization offices are located. The district is presumed to be having somewhat/ fairly well developed infrastructures in place as well as road networks, water, electricity with the planned settlements and more easily reached communities and this can facilitate those who seek self-employment and as well as employment creation per se. In this case the young people after their training may decide to stay around with their relatives while trying to find what to do in their bid to seek self-employment in tight labour market.

Gasabo District was chosen because the district is presumed with a big number of young people that are self-employed relatively bigger compared to Nyarugenge and Kicukiro Districts that also make up Kigali-City. Gasabo Districts takes a bigger part of Kigali-city.

Pertaining to the limitations, the researcher came across quite a lot of challenges. Which created some unexpected inconvenience in the field during data collection and they may included; Bureaucratic tendencies from some of the selected interviewees especially government officials was the most problem that frustrated the researcher so much. The scheduling of appointments with the respondents was proved to be time consuming and took most of the researcher’s time. However, to overcome this, several appointments were made and this pro-longed the time of data collection than the earlier planned time. Further to that, with the introductory letter from ISS/Erasmus university stating the intention of the research, several respondents started welcoming the researcher and they could spare 20-35 minutes for discussion during interviews.

Language problem also delayed the progress of data collection in the field at several instances. This is mainly for the reason that most of the Official documents are prepared in French and the responses of the young people were given in Kinyarwanda Language. Irrespective of such difficulties and challenges the researcher encountered in the process of data collection, on the other hand, the data collection went well because some friends of mine helped me in translating a number of helpful related materials such as policy documents from French to English and some from Kinyarwanda into English.

Samer and Bennell (2001:7) pointed out that “there are generally serious inconveniences with the way in which persons are selected and traced,” This implies that, the samples size were biased and not really representative of the whole population size of the young self-employed people under investigation. In this case, there could be many other young people who might have come up with different views and responses during data collection.

1.7 The organization of the research paper

This research paper is structured into five chapters. Chapter 1 presents a general idea of what this research paper expected to find out and how to tackle it. It includes the general introduction of the research, problem statement of the research, the relevance and justification of the research study, objectives and research questions of the research study. It also highlights the scope and limitations of the research, the research methods and the research techniques that were used in collecting the desired data.

Chapter 2 is made up of the conceptual and theoretical framework of the research. This section presents in length and gives a discussion on the concepts used according to a number of scholars. Basically this chapter concentrates rigorously on the associated concepts like: youth, transition from school-to-work, self-employment, competencies, skills, determinants of self-employment, social networks, importance of self-employment and limitations/ barriers that self-employed young people are troubled with and employment search theory.

Chapter 3 presents an overview of VET programmes in the Rwandan context by giving the general picture of TVET education system pertaining to vocational education and training provided to the young people in Rwanda (TVET as an umbrella for VET programmes).

Chapter 4 presents research findings and interpretations. It starts by presenting the general profile and the structure of Gasabo District as the case study for this research. It evidently shows how the collected data was analysed in connection to research questions, the economic journeys young people take to become self-employed, perceptions and expectations of the young people, forms of economic activities being done by the young people in the context of Rwanda`s labour market, factors contributing to long duration of transition to self-employment among the young people in Gasabo District.

Chapter 5 offers some of the critical reflections on the research findings and recommendations and general conclusion that covers a summary of responses to the research questions and objectives of this research study.

Chapter 2: Conceptual and Theoretical Framework
2.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the conceptual and theoretical frameworks and which also provides a basis for this research. It covers concepts such as; “youth” in other words who are the young people?, Skills, competencies, self-employment, wage employment, determinants of self-employment, social-networks, importance of self-employment, limitations/ barriers of self-employment and that is also followed be the employment search theory.

2.2 Working concepts and definitions
2.2.1 Youth

The concept of youth/ young people varies from one community to another, depending on customs and traditions, social behaviour and location (Curtain: 2001). According to the United Nations (UN), the standard clarity of youth comprises of people aged between 15-24 years old. However, In Rwandan context, with reference to the current constitution version 2003-2004, it defines youth as a fraction of people aged between15-35 year old.

2.2.2 Skills

As cited by Awortwe-Abban (2009) in the words of Nelson and Winter in their perspective of evolutionary theory, they defined the concept of skill as “a capability for smooth progression of coordinated performance that is normally effective relatively to its objectives, given the context in which it often occurs” (Awortwe-Abban: 2009). In this case, individuals or young people may be able to engage themselves in different undertakings whereby, they can be able to discover, consider and at the same time evaluate possible likely changes in their ways of doing things. This concept of skill is applicable to this research study mainly because without provision of proper and adequate skills such as technical skills, business skills and many other skills to young people, entering the labour market could be difficult. This could also be a hindrance to labour supply in any labour market and self-employment opportunities per se. thus, many opportunities could remain idle and untapped mainly not because of restrictions but due of lack of skills desired in the labour market.

2.2.3 Competence

This concept of competence refers to a certain level of standardized requirement for an individual to practically perform a specific occupation or a task in a world of work. However, competencies are often judged as a combination of knowledge and skills required for an individual to perform a specific role adequately and professionally (Raven and Stephenson: 2001). This concept is applicable in this research study because, it is part of the training output acquired during the period of career training from vocational training institutions. And once young people are not given chance to learn some of the desired competences which would make them ready to be self-employed, they can always remain unemployed and dependants on the existing employers of the formal sector and informal sector.

According to Eraut (2003), competence is defined as; the ability of individuals to perform errands and roles necessary and obligatory to the expected standards while Mandon et al (1998) admittedly, pointed out that, competence refers to the capacity of a person to do something. It should however be noted that competence is viewed as being holistic because it is comprised of the subject matter of knowledge, abilities and qualities of doing work or any activity in a diverse manner. However, for purposes of this study, the concept of competence could imply as the capability to apply knowledge and skills in practice. In this case, lack of vocational based training competencies could hinder the economic journeys that young people make to start self-employment in a tight in labour market. In other words, why the very people who are prepared for self-employment find it so cumbersome join the labour market. In this case, the research findings will provide suitable answers to such alarming issues.

2.2.4 Self-employment

From economic perspective, self-employment is a form of economic activity that provides the opportunity for individuals to improve their quality of life and/or for exploring creative entrepreneurial opportunities (Bryson and White: 1996). They argue that self-employment especially among the young people is considered mostly to be economically vulnerable and this could be a result of lack of improved economic policies and programmes that promote and facilitate self- employment amongst the young people through the provision of access to credit and business development services, networking as well as other forms of support.

The young people consider self-employment as their best preference. This is based on the competencies they are given from the training which also allows them to venture into new small economic activities or entrepreneurial activities . There is also a range of motivating factors such as; the desire for self-expression and independence (Bryson and White: 1996 ). The purpose of self-employment as a concept in this study is to address the journeys and transitions that young people take in order to start their own employment that is related to their professions, skills and competences they possess as VET graduates. Despite the fact that, all VET young graduates are trained to be in specific occupations many fail to become self-employed rapidly. This will be evidenced in the subsequent chapters.

2.2.5 Wage employment

This is a form of employment where a person receives wages in return for selling his/her own labour. Wage employment also occurs in both the formal and informal economy. Blanchflower (2000) pointed out that, “many young people start out in wage employment and switch to self-employment at some point in their career.” this could be a reason of financial constraints and it happens when your entrepreneurs wants to build up savings in their first job/employment. The difference of wage employment and self-employment is that wage employment involves less risks than self-employment in the labour market.

2.3 Transition from school-to-work/ labour market

Conceptually, the transition from school-to-work is considered as a new development which is associated with change of life in development. In addition to that, it is also seen as a period where by individuals leave formal education and join the labour market. This form of transition takes place at any level of education. The school-to-work agenda gives chance to a number of long standing issues concerning schooling, employment creation and training programmes. These issues are now seen as part of a distinct practice and process.

According to (OECD, 1998) the transition from school to work is defined as that period between the end of compulsory education and accomplishment of steady employment opportunity.

The success of transition from school-to-work for young people highly depend on how such young people are able to secure economic activities and any other form of employment occupation in world of work that is gainful, which is the principal aim for young people when they finish formal education. For the case of developing countries like Rwanda respectively, the possibilities of employment opportunities are largely embedded in the informal sector, which is predominant in the labour market of Rwanda and this is because there are few opportunities in the formal sector of the economy (Nwuke: 2002). The young people often desire to be helped in taking helpful actions when they are to discover how to make satisfying lives on their own sake. In this case, the school-to-work transition for young people requires steady forms of mentoring and apprenticeship programs to become the core practices in the whole process which pertains school-to-work- transition in the labour market.

Active labour market policies can also play an essential role in facilitating the transition school to the world of work. These policies mainly include formal employment and self-employment policies (Higgins, 2001: 110). The relevance of such policies is that they play an imperative role by incorporating the needy young people who fails to be absorbed into the labour market with some skills which enables young people to be more active. Such policies would include individuals capabilities. Blackely, (1990) pointed out that, such policies can facilitate the process of economic journeys by leading to programmes which makes economic journeys for young people successful and productive.

2.4 Determinants of self-employment for the young people

Different factors determine self-employment outcomes for young people in both formal and informal sectors in developing countries. For self-employment to prevail in any economic situation, the following factors seem to be crucial: Access to credit and business development services such as basic business skills, business experience and availability of market opportunities play a fundamental role in the establishment and exploitation of gainful employment to young people (Chigunta et al. 2002: 25).

Access to finances is a decisive factor for the creation of self-employment to the young people. However, young men and women often faced with the general lack to access credit in order to start their own entrepreneurial businesses and often they do not have collateral securities to have access to credits from formal financial institutions. This has been the case in many countries including the common wealth

This study is a peer review of mental health nursing. We try to cover psychiatric-mental health nursing practice and the main theory, new practice challenges, its theories and changes in the laws according to these studies. This work suggests the need of specialization of modern day nurse in the particular field of mental health. Nurse should have a good knowledge of all social values of the society. This would facilitate in managing the mentally ill patients in much a better way.

In this study we talk about different theories of sociology and try to understand its significance for the mental health nurse. Sociological factors have been studied by different analysts in all ages. These analyses help in understanding the main concept of the work.

What is a Society?

Society is like an “organism”, which is a system of interdependent parts to work for the benefit of the whole. Society constitutes institutions and organizations that work independently for the survival of the society. Human social system comprises of many factors which contributes in developing a good society. These factors are the family, education, economy, politics, religion and culture of an individual. These all should be studied and examined carefully to comprehend the behavior of any society. This would assess the importance of sociology for the larger social system. This is the main concept of the sociological studies to understand how different institutions in a society work collectively. It can help in optimizing the performance of these organizations and regulate the productivity and efficiency of any society. This is the focal idea of macro level sociology and is very successful nowadays. These are said to be the predominant philosophy guides of any society.

Health and illness are complex terms to define, especially according to the culture and behavior of the society. Different societies classify these terms according to their own values. Things which appear abnormal or unacceptable to the society are usually labeled as a disease. Sociological studies show that different environmental, behavioral and political factors contribute in maintaining the health of the society. It is manifested from different studies that social class is an imperative factor in determining the health of the society.

Different studies show that gender disparity is a prominent discriminating factor in health issues of rural societies. Women seek medical advice more often then men, as in case of childbirth, reproduction and mental health but it is evident from different statistics that women have more susceptible to ill health then men. Women are more likely to be prescribed anti depressant drugs due to different mental problems. Peter Sedgwick found that: About 10% of all GPs prescriptions and 20% of annual expenditure goes on tranquillizers, anti- depressants or hypnotic drugs, mainly for women (class handout).

Mental Health:

Mental health is an enormous and neglected issue of our society. Different theoretical insights from psychiatrists and sociologists are under study to grow a better society. Why this might be is open to debate and many of the key sociological theories in relation to mental health have in fact as much to say about the prevailing viewpoints within society and within professional bodies towards mental health as they do about those who suffer from mental health related problems. (Cockerham, 1992).

The fundamentals of sociology are that people behave different in groups then they do as individuals. It is a common saying that groups have the lives of their own. Sociologists says that whole is better then the sum of its parts. The focal point in sociological studies is an “invisible hand of order” that guides economic relations, and “social forces” do guide social relations to develop a better society.

There are different theories to understand issue of mental health. Different developmental theories describe different types of changes in the concept of sociology. Two most radical of these theories are social reaction and social constructivism. These have been described according to the dominant medical and social views on mental health of a society and an individual. These differences can be located in broader trends which have occurred within the discipline of sociology itself as a shift in the major theoretical traditions within the discipline, (Delanty, 1999).

Social Reaction theory:

Social reaction theory or the labeling theory helps in defining mental illness and different ways to manage it. This theory emerged in 1960s and helps in evaluating broader critical standards of mental health in the society. It emphasizes on a strong relation between a person, his family, medical professionals and the whole society. This all would help in evaluating the levels of mental health of a person. This theory drew its framework from the symbolic interactionism school of sociology so at its root this theory sought to examine the ways in which roles and actors interacted and played out within the drama of mental illness (Pilgrim and Rogers, 1999).

This theory provokes a twin concept of primary deviance and a secondary deviance. Primary deviance is related to the things which might actually be wrong or actions or circumstances which involve actual rule breaking, (Pilgrim and Rogers, 1999). The most comprehensive study of the phenomenon of primary deviant was the work of Yarrow, Schwartz, Murphy and Deasy (1955).

Secondary deviance is more challenging in the two types of deviance. It has many critical aspects to study in detail. The typical symptoms of secondary deviance are not related to any actual physical happenings or incidence. Hence it is evaluated that the environmental or the social conditions of the individual are the major source of secondary deviance. Sometimes intrinsic factors within the individual itself can trigger this type of mental illness. As Rosenham (1973) states the question of whether to distinguish a sane from the insane is a simple matter of just a fact: do the salient characteristics that lead to diagnoses reside in the patients themselves or in the environments in which observers find them (250).

Persistent research and investigations provokes major criticisms regarding this theory. But this theory is still very popular with the same levels of relevance. In the case of Rosenham’s study it was found that the label of deviant though at first an uncomfortable and disturbing experience did not persist for a great length of time with the pseudo-patients in the experiment, (Pilgrim and Rogers, 1999).

Labeling theory with all the present criticisms gives distinctive values between physical disorders, primary deviance and subsequent reaction from society which leads to secondary deviance. Indeed lay perceptions to mental illness have been demonstrated only marginally to relate to the images associated with medical diagnosis, (Pilgrim and Rogers, 1999:18).

Social Constructivism:

A French theorist wrote in his book of “Birth of the Clinic” that insanity in a person comes from the classificatory concepts of medical knowledge. The objectification of insanity occurred after as well as in tandem with the development of psychiatric knowledge, the insane developed as a problematic group which in turn led to strategies being developed to manage them, (Foucault, 1976).

Both these theories are analogous to determine the critical role of an individual in the society in case of mental illness. Social constructivists mainly focus on the mental health related to social environment. It does this through utilizing the theoretical framework of discourses, thus the subjectivity of being mad is defined through the objectifying process of psychiatric or medical knowledge generally (Pilgrim and Rogers, 1999).

Foucault’s works are considered to be the best viewpoints related to the mental health and the role of a society in that state. Foucault’s work is in particular concerned with how the shifting conceptions of what madness meant to society led to the development of a discrete set of knowledge which pathologise mental states according to a classificatory system related to madness and what were the strategies which developed as a result of this knowledge towards the control and management of the insane (Foucault, 1972, 1976).

The theoretical framework of the Foucault Book evaluates the errors in the psychiatric practice and psychiatric study and the way to handle such patients. This study has no prevailing principles to analyze the mentally ill patient. While the critique may be justifiable in saying that the social constructivist theories can be distinctly vague about resistances to the all powerful discourses which they describe and analyze. Similarly the ability to formulate social policies arising out of the critique may similarly be limited (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2001: 175). A secondary point and one which we have already made in relation to labeling theory is that perhaps social constructivism deconstructs too much certain incidences of mental illness, perhaps there are some illnesses which in their etiological sense reveal themselves to be indeed physical manifestations of what we might actually be able to call a disorder (Zinberg, 1970).

Role of a Mental Health Nurse:

Department of Health 1998-2000 has reformed the rules for the mental health nurse and made significant changes in the last fifty years piece of legislation. According to these rules the mental health nurse should be well trained and specialized in that particular field. They should be semi- autonomous workers and are quite competent to impart effective healthcare services in all aspects. Due to these evolutionary reforms in the schooling of the mental health nurse they becomes more professional and efficient They need to be trained out of the normal curriculum to be specialized in this field and be able to handle a mentally ill patient appropriately.

The mental health nurse should have psychiatric knowledge at specific degree to deal with their mentally ill patient. It should be the part of their schooling and experience. Their curriculum must have to be broadened in the perspective of sociology to deal with mental illnesses. They should have good knowledge of sociology, politics, religion, and economics. The Government has declared mental health as being one of its top three priorities in the Health Service partly, it could be argued, because of the general sense of lack of progress that is felt by the healthcare professionals throughout the service (Department of Health 1999b).

Reforms in Mental Health Act for Nurses:

Chan(2002) has discussed the legislations for the Mental Health Act with its reforms in 1998. Chan states that the way a society deals with the mentally ill, is the reflection of the society. The White Paper “Reforming the Mental Health” encapsulates this very important point. It revolves around the whole concept of the Paternalistic State in deciding what a patient’s “best interests” are, and these are also influenced by considerations of risk assessment and possible legal liabilities. Chan states these reforms as “who’s best interest”.

Nurse has to face ethical and moral issues in their day to day practice. Chan also focus his study on the free will of the mentally ill patients. Mental health act highlights the ethical dimensions of decision making for the health care professionals. The current guidelines of Mental Health Act states that the patient cannot be restrained against their will unless “they pose a danger to themselves or to others”. Nurses face ethical intricacy in dealing with the mentally poor patient. It is the part of their education to deal such patients and make solid decisions in management. In this respect this Act recognizes – some would argue, for the first time – that the mental health nurse has a social responsibility as well as the hitherto medical one.

Mental health nurse plays a imperative role in the whole process of treating and managing the mentally ill patients. Such patients have developed a strong association with the relevant nurse. So the mental health nurse are in better position to make any decision in regard to ethical, practical and professional position of the patient.

Symonds (1998) studies the sociological and philosophical aspects of the mental health reforms. He states that “We have touched upon the ethics of assessment “dangerousness” in a patient and the degree to which that allows a society to restrain them”. Symonds study evaluates that dangerousness of the patient state is an important factor in decision making. The relevant mental health nurse assists in such stage of decision making. Grounds (2001) produced a very illuminating abstract of the recent mental health reforms which is beyond the scope of this study but it underlines the need of our hypothetical mental health nurse to be fully apprised of the climate of change in the area.

Modern Mental Health Nurse:

The focal point of this study is to appraise the role of modern mental health nurse and to organize their services. Johnson et al (2001) provide an incisive insight into the current structure and functions of an Inner London Authority and then compare them with the provisions across the country as a whole. This article examines the sociological, political and the economic feature factors that are relevant to this issue. He spend a lot more time describing the evolution of the mental health service from Institution-based provision of the 60’s and 70’s to the comprehensive community-based services that are the mainstay of our current mechanism for the caring of mentally unwell.

Another important factor to mention is that the mentally ill patients are the socially excluded segments of the society. The whole topic of social exclusion is taken further by Repper and Perkins (2003). All mental health nurses should keep this in mind while managing such patients. Liaison Mental Health Services (LMHS) are very important but has overlooked the aspect of the treatment of the modern nursing system. Callaghan et al. (2003) reviewed the role of this “Cinderella service” and its contribution for the welfare of many mainstream ill patients. They mention its economic value in the current provision of the A&E departments of out DGH’s. The sociological impact of these services is assessed, emphasizing the value of the LMHS in helping clients to access mental health provision and the benefit for the community in both economic and social terms. The economical conditions of the patient are also a very eminent factor in their treatment.

Modern day nurse having a good knowledge of socioeconomic values can better help in decision making for the patient benefits. Usher and his colleagues (all mental health nurses) have constructed an excellent piece of work on the issue (2001), their particular exploration centered on the economics (and the ethics) of PRN prescribing which they found to be frequently ineffective, sub-optimal and wasteful. Given the fact that, in the field of mental health, drug prescribing is frequently a mental health nurse’s fairly autonomous role, the link between better understanding and enhanced performance could not be clearer.

Pinikahana (2003) wrote a thought provoking paper on the value of sociology for the modern-day mental health nurse and worked on the arguments on both sides of the debate. Pinikahana provocatively quotes Sharpe who argued that there is no need for the modern nurse to understand sociology as they have to operate within tight sociological confines that are already defined by modern practice. Edwards et al. (2000) looked at the wastage of this resource through stress and burn-out. One could argue that this point encapsulates elements of all three of our germinal issues for our mental health nurse.

Sociological study is hence of key importance in the modern day mental health nursing. Rogers and Pilgrim (1993, 2001) have produced an excellent series of books looking at this issue (and many others). Any modern appreciation for complete role of the mental health nurse would be unfinished without the understanding of the concepts of social responsibility. The title of this piece asks us to consider the enhancement of the role of the mental health nurse. We feel that it would be reasonable to argue that sociology is actually both pivotal and vital essential for this profession.

According to the sociological studies there are different levels of mental health services. Economical and social status of the patient is the important factors to determinate the level of mental health service provided. Drukker et a. quantified the issue in their recent paper (2004) . They discovered that the consumption of the mental health services was highest in neighborhoods that had the highest levels of informal social control and lowest in areas of socio-economic deprivation. Given the fact that higher levels of social control tend to be associated with higher degrees of contact, this is in further an evidence for the need of our hypothetical mental health nurse to be aware of sociological issues.

Sociologically mental health nurse should have notable political levels in the public. Davis (2002) consider this question in great detail going as far as to describe the politics of the nursing profession in general as immature in its views but equally acclaim to help bringing the profession out of the era of political neglect that it had been through in the past. We do not suppose to pass comment on the issue as there are clearly two sides to the argument but our hypothetical mental health nurse would be well advised to be politically aware in the current climate within the limits of the profession.

Summary:

This study facilitates in establishing the significance of specialized mental health nurse in the society. They should be specialized in their specific field of mental health. They should have a good knowledge of social, political, religious, cultural and economic values of the society. We worked out on numerous studies in which we try to weigh up the noteworthy position of mental health nurse in decision making. They can help the doctor in treating different problems of the patient’s. Modern reforms in the Mental Health Act strongly advocate the importance of specialized training for the mental health nurse. They should be so highly trained in mental health care that they can work as autonomous settings.