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Understanding The Difference Between Men And Women

For centuries, the differences between men and women were socially defined and distorted through a lens of sexism in which men assumed superiority over women and maintained it through domination. As the goal of equality between men and women now grows closer we are also losing our awareness of important differences. In some circles of society, politically correct thinking is obliterating important discussion as well as our awareness of the similarities and differences between men and women. The vision of equality between the sexes has narrowed the possibilities for discovery of what truly exists within a man and within a woman. The world is less interesting when everything is same. It is my position that men and women are equal but different. When I say equal, I mean that men and women have a right to equal opportunity and protection under the law. The fact that people in this country are assured these rights does not negate my observation that men and women are at least as different psychologically as they are physically.

None of us would argue the fact that men and women are physically different. The physical differences are rather obvious and most of these can be seen and easily measured. Weight, shape, size and anatomy are not political opinions but rather tangible and easily measured. The physical differences between men and women provide functional advantages and have survival value. Men usually have greater upper body strength, build muscle easily, have thicker skin, bruise less easily and have a lower threshold of awareness of injuries to their extremities. Men are essentially built for physical confrontation and the use of force. Their joints are well suited for throwing objects. A man’s skull is almost always thicker and stronger than a women’s. The stereotype that men are more “thick-headed” than women is not far fetched. A man’s “thick headedness”, and other anatomical differences have been associated with a uniquely male attraction to high speed activities and reckless behavior that usually involve collisions with other males or automobiles. Men invented the game “chicken”, not women. Men, and a number of other male species of animal seem to charge and crash into each other a great deal in their spare time.

Women on the other hand have four times as many brain cells (neurons) connecting the right and left side of their brain. This latter finding provides physical evidence that supports the observation that men rely easily and more heavily on their left brain to solve one problem one step at a time. Women have more efficient access to both sides of their brain and therefore greater use of their right brain. Women can focus on more than one problem at one time and frequently prefer to solve problems through multiple activities at a time. Nearly every parent has observed how young girls find the conversations of young boys “boring”. Young boys express confusion and would rather play sports than participate actively in a conversation between 5 girls who are discussing as many as three subjects at once!

The psychological differences between man and women are less obvious. They can be difficult to describe. Yet these differences can profoundly influence how we form and maintain relationships that can range from work and friendships to marriage and parenting. Recognizing, understanding, discussing as well as acting skillfully in light of the differences between men and women can be difficult. Our failure to recognize and appreciate these differences can become a life long source of disappointment, frustration, tension and eventually our downfall in a relationship. Not only can these differences destroy a promising relationship, but most people will grudgingly accept or learn to live with the consequences. Eventually they find some compromise or way to cope. Few people ever work past these difficulties. People tend to accept what they don’t understand when they feel powerless to change it. Relationships between men and women are not impossible or necessarily difficult. Problems simply arise when we expect or assume the opposite sex should think, feel or act the way we do. It’s not that men and women live in completely different realities. Rather, our lack of knowledge and mutual experience gives rise to our difficulties.

Despite great strides in this country toward equality, modern society hasn’t made relationships between men and women any easier. Today’s society has taught us and has imposed on us the expectation that men and women should live together continuously, in communion, and in harmony. These expectations are not only unrealistic but ultimately they leave people feeling unloved, inadequate, cynical, apathetic or ashamed. The challenge facing men and women is to become aware of their identities, to accept their differences, and to live their lives fully and as skillfully as possible. To do this we must first understand in what ways we are different. We must avoid trying to change others to suit our needs. The following illustrates some important differences between men and women. These differences are not absolute. They describe how men and women are in most situations most of the time.

Problems

Men and women approach problems with similar goals but with different considerations. While men and women can solve problems equally well, their approach and their process are often quit different. For most women, sharing and discussing a problem presents an opportunity to explore, deepen or strengthen the relationship with the person they are talking with. Woman are usually more concerned about how problems are solved than merely solving the problem itself. For women, solving a problem can profoundly impact whether they feel closer and less alone or whether they feel distant and less connected. The process of solving a problem can strengthen or weaken a relationship. Most men are less concerned and do not feel the same as women when solving a problem. Men approach problems in a very different manner than women. For most men, solving a problem presents an opportunity to demonstrate their competence, their strength of resolve, and their commitment to a relationship. How the problem is solved is not nearly as important as solving it effectively and in the best possible manner. Men have a tendency to dominate and to assume authority in a problem solving process. They set aside their feelings provided the dominance hierarchy was agreed upon in advance and respected. They are often distracted and do not attend well to the quality of the relationship while solving problems. Some of the more important differences can be illustrated by observing groups of young teenage boys and groups of young teenage girls when they attempt to find their way out of a maze. A group of boys generally establish a hierarchy or chain of command with a leader who emerges on his own or through demonstrations of ability and power. Boys explore the maze using scouts while remaining in distant proximity to each other. Groups of girls tend to explore the maze together as a group without establishing a clear or dominant leader. Relationships tends to be co-equal. Girls tend to elicit discussion and employ “collective intelligence” to the task of discovering a way out. Girls tend to work their way through the maze as a group. Boys tend to search and explore using structured links and a chain of command.

Thinking

While men and women can reach similar conclusions and make similar decisions, the process they use can be quit different and in some cases can lead to entirely different outcomes. In general, men and women consider and process information differently. Women tend to be intuitive global thinkers. They consider multiple sources of information within a process that can be described as simultaneous, global in perspective and will view elements in the task in terms of their interconnectedness. Women come to understand and consider problems all at once. They take a broad or “collective” perspective, and they view elements in a task as interconnected and interdependent. Women are prone to become overwhelmed with complexities that “exist”, or may exist, and may have difficulty separating their personal experience from problems. Men tend to focus on one problem at a time or a limited number of problems at a time. They have an enhanced ability to separate themselves from problems and minimize the complexity that may exist. Men come to understand and consider problems one piece at a time. They take a linear or sequential perspective, and view elements in a task as less interconnected and more independent. Men are prone to minimize and fail to appreciate subtleties that can be crucial to successful solutions. A male may work through a problem repeatedly, talking about the same thing over and over, rather than trying to address the the problem all at once. While there are differences in the ways that men and women think, it must be emphasized that they can and do solve problems in a similar manner. There are no absolutes, only tendencies.

Memory

Women have an enhanced ability to recall memories that have strong emotional components. They can also recall events or experiences that have similar emotions in common. Women are very adept at recalling information, events or experiences in which there is a common emotional theme. Men tend to recall events using strategies that rely on reconstructing the experience in terms of elements, tasks or activities that took place. Profound experiences that are associated with competition or physical activities are more easily recalled. There appears to be a structural and chemical basis for observed memory differences. For instance, the hippocampus, the area in the brain primarily responsible for memory, reacts differently to testosterone in men and it reacts differently to changing levels of estrogen and progesterone in women. Women tend to remember or be reminded of different “emotional memories” and content to some extent as part of their menstrual cycle.

Sensitivity

There is evidence to suggest that a great deal of the sensitivity that exists within men and women has a physiological basis. It has been observed that is many cases, women have an enhanced physical alarm response to danger or threat. Their autonomic and sympathetic systems have a lower threshold of arousal and greater reactivity than men. In both men and women, higher levels of testosterone directly affect the aggressive response and behavior centers of the brain. Increasing estrogen and progesterone in men has a “feminizing” effect. Sexually aggressive males become less focused on sexual aggressive behavior and content when they are given female hormones. On the other hand, changing estrogen and progesterone levels in women during menstrual cycles can produce a “flood” of memories as well as strong emotions. Increasing or high levels of testosterone can produce an emotional insensitivity, empathic block and increased indifference to the distress others. At the heart of sensitivity is our capacity to form, appreciate and maintain relationships that are rewarding. Even here there are important differences. For men, what demonstrates a solid relationship is quite different from that of most women. Men feel closer and validated through shared activities. Such activities include sports, competition, outdoor activities or sexual activities that are decidedly active and physical. While both men and women can appreciate and engage in these activities they often have preferential differences. Women, on the other hand, feel closer and validated through communication, dialogue and intimate sharing of experience, emotional content and personal perspectives. Many men tend to find such sharing and involvement uncomfortable, if not, overwhelming.

The Task Of Relationship Facing Men and Women

The task that faces men and women is to learn to accept their differences, avoid taking their differences as personal attempts to frustrate each other, and to compromise whenever possible. The idea that one gender can think and feel like the other if they truly loved each is rather absurd. Sure, a man or women could act in consideration of the other’s needs, but this would not necessarily be rewarding and honest. Holding the benefit of another above our own is rewarding. But from time to time, and more often for most of us, it is important to be our self and to be accepted, and not to be the source of distress and disappointment in the lives of people we love.

The Role Of Counseling and Therapy

Counseling and therapy can help a couple understand and appreciate each other, and even benefit from their differences. Understanding these differences intellectually is not enough. A counselor or therapist can help point out these differences, as they surface, and guide a couple to a greater level of relationship. Understanding that differences are not intentional and that misunderstandings are merely the result of expectations that are not realistic can make a huge difference in a relationship. The differences that can be sensed between a man and women can deepen their relationship. More importantly, when men seek to understand and appreciate that which is feminine, they come to a deeper understanding of their self. And when a women seeks to understand that which is masculine in men, they come to appreciate and understand more about their own masculinity.

THE SOCIAL ROLES OF MEN AND WOMEN

In all societies the obvious biological difference between men and women is used as a justification for forcing them into different social roles which limit and shape their attitudes and behavior. That is to say, no society is content with the natural difference of sex, but each insists on adding to it a cultural difference of gender. The simple physical facts therefore always become associated with complex psychological qualities. It is not enough for a man to be male; he also has to appear masculine. A woman, in addition to being female, must also be feminine.

However, once the contrast between men and women has been increased and accentuated in this fashion, it is usually taken as a further manifestation of biological differences which confirm the need for different social roles. Or, to put it another way, sex differences are used to create gender differences which are then explained as sex differences which, in turn, require gender differences, and so on. This may be no more than circular reasoning, but it is socially very effective. For example, in our own patriarchal society males enjoy a socially dominant position. Thus, from an early age, boys are helped to acquire a masculinity that allows them to assume and maintain that position. By the same token, girls are taught to cultivate a submissive femininity. The resulting difference in the male and female character is then described as inborn and used to defend the existing power arrangement. Only those who accept it are normal, and only they can expect to succeed. The male social role is designed to reward masculine men, while the female social role offers its relative advantages only to feminine women. (The aggressive man will run the bigger business; the pretty, agreeable woman will find the richer husband.) In other words, masculinity and femininity are gender qualities which are developed in response to social discrimination. However, once they have been developed, they justify and cement it. The masculine and feminine gender roles mutually reinforce each other and thereby perpetuate the inequality on which they are based. Obviously, this psychological mechanism can operate only as long as the behavior of men and women does not transgress the generally accepted limits. Every society tries therefore to prevent such transgressions by calling the socially defined gender roles “natural”, eternal, and unchangeable. Any person who refuses to accept them is persecuted as a deviant and punished as an offender not only against society, but against “nature” itself. An historical example of such deviance is the case of Joan of Arc who, as a young girl, not only led the French army to victory over the English, but also wore male clothing. In her later trial she was promptly accused of having thus violated the laws of nature.

Over the centuries, many people have, of course, wondered why allegedly “natural” roles should need such rigorous social enforcement. After all, if they were truly natural, they would “come naturally” to both men and women. However, it is noteworthy that the advocates of the so-called natural inequality of the sexes resent nothing more than letting “nature” take its course. Yet, if their arguments were true, there would be no need to deny women equal opportunities, since they would be unable to compete with men. If women were “naturally” inferior, men would have nothing to fear. Therefore, the fact that many men do fear such competition raises sufficient doubt as to the validity of their claim.

The truth is that human desires and capacities have a tendency to go beyond the narrow limits of our traditional gender roles. Indeed, it takes a constant combined effort by all social authorities to keep this tendency under control. Such social control appears not only externally, in the form of parental guidance, peer-group pressure, and law enforcement, but also internally in the form of concepts and values which determine the self-image of every individual, and it is in the individual mind where the confusion of sex and gender can create the most serious problems.

For instance, men and women who feel that they do not fit the masculine and feminine stereotypes, or who resent them as too restrictive, may also develop ambiguous feelings about their biological sex. They may begin to wish for different bodies which would allow them to play a role more to their liking. Or, to take another example, since men have been told that women are socially and sexually passive, they are usually gravely disturbed by encountering a woman who is socially aggressive and who takes the initiative in sexual intercourse. Confronted with this “lack of femininity” in a woman, a man may feel tempted to dispute her womanhood. If this contention does not hold up in face of the evidence, he may instead begin to doubt his own masculinity and become sexually dysfunctional. Conversely, a handsome, gentle, and passive male may invite ridicule and may be denounced as a “pervert” or “queer”. “Real women” may regard him as less than a “real man” and therefore reject him as a sexual partner.

However, the confusion goes still further. The notion that in every sexual encounter there has to be one active (masculine) and one passive (feminine) partner is so persistent that it not only ruins many heterosexual relationships, but also influences the behavior of certain homosexuals who feel compelled to model themselves after these stereotypes. By doing so, they give support to the curious belief that even in sexual relationships between members of the same sex, there always has to be one to play the “man”, while the other must assume the role of the “woman”. There is, in fact a general impression that every homosexual couple (whether male or female) consists of one active, masculine and one passive, feminine partner. People who hold this belief are, of course, at a total loss to explain phenomena like the famous homosexual elite troops of ancient Greece, which consisted entirely of male lovers.

All of these views are based on a wrong conclusion drawn from a false assumption. The false assumption states that women are naturally passive, while men are naturally active. The wrong conclusion asserts that every passive person is playing a feminine role and that every active person is playing a masculine role. However, in actual fact neither sex nor gender need be characterized in this fashion. After all, in some human societies the role assignment for men and women is the reverse of our own. In short, there is nothing “natural” or definite about our sexual stereotypes. By the same token, full human equality will not be achieved until it becomes conceivable to both sexes that active and passive attitudes can be appropriate for either of them, and that even two “active” or two “passive” partners can have a rewarding relationship.

This does not mean that, in an ideal future, all human differences will disappear. Indeed, once the old stereotypes have been discarded, the differences between individuals within each sex are likely to increase. Furthermore, under conditions of social equality, these individuals may also happily continue to play different gender roles. There should be no need to point out that there is nothing wrong with gender differences as such. They can greatly enrich our lives, as long as we understand that, in human beings, “different” does not have to mean superior or inferior. In other words, those who demand equal rights for men and women are not asking for drab uniformity, but for a social climate in which variety can flourish without being exploited.

The following pages first elaborate further on the basic concepts of sex and gender and then offer a brief discussion of the different moral standards for men and women.

“Male Logic” and “Women’s Intuition”

The split in our thinking between “masculine” and “feminine” is probably as old as language itself. Human beings seem to have a natural tendency to divide things into pairs: good/bad, light/dark, subject/object and so on. It is not surprising, then, that the male/female or masculine/feminine dichotomy is used to classify things other than men and women. Many languages actually classify all nouns as “masculine” or “feminine” (although not very consistently: for example, the Spanish masculine noun pollo means “hen”, while the feminine polla is slang for “penis”). This is perfectly natural; it is part of the way categorisation works in language. This does not, however, mean that it is right. It is probably unimportant whether a table or a chair is thought of as masculine or feminine. It may not even be very important these days whether we think of the sun as male and the moon as female (like the ancient Greeks) or vice versa (like most of the German tribes). However, when we start associating abstract concepts like Reason or Nature with men and women, we run into serious difficulties.

The association of Reason with men and Nature with women is well-known, and has been widely criticised. Aristotle defined Man as a “rational animal”, and by that he really meant men, not human beings. Unlike Plato, he saw women as less able to reason, hence less “human” and more “animal”. In Europe, well into the twentieth century, women were generally seen as somehow intellectually deficient. An English woman recently became Oxford’s oldest graduate because although she had completed her degree course in the 1920’s, at that time the university did not award degrees to female students. Presumably it would have decreased the status of the university to award degrees to an intellectually inferior sex!

Nearly all societies, from hunting and gathering tribes to post-industrial nations, offer some kind of compensation to those who lose out in the status game. For example, among the practically matriarchal Zuni Indians of New Mexico, the economically powerless men were credited with the ability to make rain. Black slaves in the American South were thought to be naturally stronger (which they generally were), better at music and dancing (which they may have been) and more cheerful (highly unlikely for slaves, but a good justification for treating them badly). In the same way, women are compensated for their supposed inability to think rationally by a mysterious “women’s intuition”. Attempts were made to justify this in biological terms; women were seen as naturally more emotional and/or in touch with Nature because of their strange biology (menstruation, hormones, “vapours” or whatever). This was about as scientific as the Zuni Indians’ theory that men could make rain.

Men and women are, of course, biologically different. There are even significant differences in male and female brains; women, for example, have a thicker corpus callosum (the thing that connects the two halves of the brain). However, it is a giant leap from observing that there are neurological differences between the sexes to assuming that these differences correspond to the classic Reason/Nature or logic/emotion dichotomies. In fact, some of these differences may even indicate the opposite. The left hemisphere of the brain generally deals with linear processing, as found in language and some types of mathematics, and this hemisphere develops faster in girls than in boys. The old “11 plus” test of verbal reasoning used in British schools was actually adjusted to bring boys’ scores up to the level of girls’! Whatever the case, it is a mistake to look at people’s brains and then decide that they must think in a certain way; it would be far better to try and find out how people actually think, and then to see if this corresponds to brain structure.

When we talk about the way men and women think, we are actually dealing with not one, but at least three separate things: how men and women usually think, how men and women can think, and how we think men and women think. Usually when we think we are looking at the first or second subjects, we are actually only describing the third. Since our main guide to how people think is their language, the fact that in most cultures men and women talk in different ways, and about different things, may lead us to false conclusions about the way they think in general. Women’s conversation tends to emphasise feelings more, which may also mean that they think about feelings more. It does not, however, mean that woman are more emotional. It is perfectly possible that men are just as emotional, but for social reasons they talk (and think) about their feelings less. Similarly, the fact that in most cultures men argue more about abstract things does not mean that men are naturally more logical, it just means that the things men prefer to talk about require logical argument more than they require expression of feelings. Obviously the more you argue, the better you get at it, hence the prejudice that men are somehow biologically more logical. This would be like assuming that I am biologically better at speaking English (my first language) than Turkish (my second).

Problems also arise with the actual words we use: logic, reason, intuition and emotion. Logic is simply a set of principles for getting from something we already knew, to something we didn’t. If we know that all cows eat grass, and we know that Daisy is a cow, we can use very simple logic to say that Daisy eats grass, even if we have never seen her eat anything. The more complex logic that we use in constructing philosophical arguments or designing computers is really only doing the same kind of thing. The word “rational” is a little more problematic, since it involves an assessment of aims and actions. If our aims are consistent with each other and our actions achieve our aims, then we can fairly say that we are behaving rationally. If we act in a way that prevents us from realising our aims, then we are behaving irrationally, or in other words, stupidly. For example, if I know that I will have a better relationship with my wife if I don’t shout at her, but I still shout at her because I am in a bad mood, my problem is not that I am being emotional, it is that I am being stupid.

The opposite of “rational” is not, then, “emotional” but “irrational”. If we set up a pair of opposites, rational/emotional, we are likely to make the assumption that women are more emotional and therefore irrational, which is a polite way of saying that women are stupid. While having strong emotions can sometimes interfere with your thought processes, this is not automatically the case. For example, I often get quite excited when I am working on a new theory or project, but this usually makes my thinking better, not worse. Strong “negative” emotions such as rage, jealousy or depression are usually the result of irrational thinking as much as a cause of it, and men are just as vulnerable to this type of stupidity as women.

“Intuition” is an even trickier concept. We usually say that we arrive at an idea or solution to a problem “intuitively” when we know something without knowing how we came to know it. A scientist may arrive at a new theory because the idea just “pops into” his or her head, or even turns up in a dream. You may get an “intuitive” feeling that a person is dishonest without actually having heard them say something you know to be untrue. In both these cases, what seems to be happening is that the mind stores and sorts information unconsciously, providing us only with the end result of this process. There is no guarantee, of course, that this conclusion will be true; a scientist would still have to perform experiments to prove their intuitive theory, and you would probably want some hard evidence to prove that the person you feel is dishonest really does tell lies.

There is therefore nothing particularly strange or mystical about intuition; it is something we do all the time. Why, then, do we talk about “women’s intuition”, as though men never arrive at a conclusion without consciously following all the stages that were necessary to reach it? Again, the answer is probably linguistic. As we have seen, traditionally women’s conversation is less formal, less argumentative, and more concerned with feelings than men’s conversation. Intuitive conclusions are therefore more acceptable in an all-female group. Men, on the other hand, are expected to argue more, and to argue more logically, presenting evidence in a systematic way to back up their conclusions. It is less socially acceptable in an all-male conversation (or a conversation where the men are doing most of the talking) to say “Well guys, I don’t know why, but I just get this kind of feeling that e=mc2.”

We can see, then, that these pairs of opposites, logic/intuition and rational/emotional, are not only false, but also damaging, particularly to women. It therefore surprising that some feminists actually support a version of this patriarchal nonsense. Particularly at the more “spiritual” end of the Radical Feminist community, there is a tendency to glorify women’s “intuition” and “closeness to Nature”, and to avoid “logic” as somehow “male”, as though it were a psychological problem resulting from too much testosterone. The fact that men often use logic, or at least logical-sounding arguments, to “put women in their place” is not a fault of logic, it is the fault of those men’s sexism and lack of social skills. More innocently, men are often accused of being too “cold” and “logical”, not because there is anything wrong with their ideas, but because they do not understand the unspoken rules of female conversation, in the same way that women are often accused of being “illogical” or “emotional” because they do not argue using the same language as men.

If women reject logic and rely solely on feelings, they are left in the weak position of having to argue with feelings. Feeling that something is true does not make it true, and it will not convince anyone else that it is true either. You can say, “I feel X”, but the person you are arguing with can just as well reply, “Well I don’t.” The result is that the argument usually goes nowhere. This is particularly damaging in arguments between men and women, since both sides are likely to go away with their prejudices strengthened; the men think women are subjective, emotional and illogical, and the women think men are impersonal, cold and over-intellectual.

To justify their feelings of hurt at being “beaten” in an argument, the women concerned may go further and dismiss the whole thing as “male logic”, as though there were two types of logic, on for men and anoth

Many children in the Global South do not have access to primary education. “113 million children of primary school age are still not enrolled in school, 94% of which live in developing countries,” (Glewwe 2006: 948). “Less than one youth in two enters junior secondary school and less than one in four enters senior secondary school,” (Verspoor 2008: 2). There are currently unequal proportions of girls to boys who attend primary school in third world countries. “In Africa, just 46 per cent of girls complete primary school,” (Levine 2006: 129). Men have more opportunities to work and contribute to the economy as they have more opportunities to attend school compared to girls. Girls often have to stay at home for domestic work, while boys are given the opportunity to become educated so they can provide for the family, (Levine 2006: 127).

I chose to explore the topic of educating girls in third world countries after my experience teaching students in South Africa. The school I taught at was sponsored by the Stephen Leacock Foundation. I was amazed to find that many of the students had great dreams and aspirations for the future. The girls especially, were very focused on their studies and seemed committed to their goals. They understood the sacrifices their families had made in order to send them to school and they worked hard to succeed. This opportunity however I discovered, is not the norm. Many students in the developing world do not have the privilege to attend schools such as this one.

Investing in primary education for young girls in third world countries has a significant impact on social and economic development. “There is widespread agreement that the education of girls is one of the most important investments that any developing country can make in its own future,” (Hadden 1996: 1). This paper will address the key issues regarding primary education in third world countries today and the importance of investing in primary education particularly for girls as a means to reduce poverty, improve health and promote economic development. This paper explores the obstacles and benefits to education in third world countries.

Obstacles

There are many factors that cause inequality between girls and boys in the educational system. They include gender discrimination, poverty and safety. Especially in third world countries today there are large gender gaps. Gender is socially constructed as opposed to sex, which is biological. Gender gaps have resulted in fewer opportunities for girls compared to boys. Girls face immense prejudice and a lack of opportunity. As a result of the socially constructed gender roles and gender division in the household, females are often not given the opportunity to attend school, or they are pulled out of the education system to do domestic work. The majority (70%), of the students removed from school are girls, (Modesti 2009:24). Since household duties require little skill or knowledge, girls are not sent to school.

Poverty is another impediment to the education of girls in third world countries. For many families it is cost prohibitive to send their children to school including opportunity costs, (Bellew 1992). Many parents struggle to feed and clothe their children, let alone send them to school. Expenses to send a child to school include the costs of enrollment, uniforms, books and resources. There are also opportunity costs for the family. If a family sends their daughter to school they will no longer have the help they need to manage the household. With the expense of sending children to school, many families can only afford to send one child. As a result of predetermined gender roles, the boys are often the chosen ones.

Safety and hygiene are also a major concern in the decision to send girls to school. In addition to hygienic concerns, abuse is also a factor. In developing countries where mainly boys attend school, UNICEF reported that the schools are not suitable for girls, (Anzia 2007). Typically there are no separate bathroom facilities for girls. This is an important factor as girls have more concerns about feminine hygiene and privacy, (Teicher 2005:1)

Families also worry about the safety of their daughters at school due to violence. Stacy A. announces the threat of sexual violence in some educational institutions; “School is not necessarily an empowering institution…Being pushed to have sex with teachers is not an uncommon occurrence,” (ibid: 2). The issue of sexual violence often leads to girls being infected with HIV/AIDS. There is also a high risk of violence when walking long distances to school. With a limited number of schools in developing countries many students must travel a long way by foot to get to school. Girls are very vulnerable in a patriarchal setting where the majority of students are boys and where abuse is not regulated, (Anzia 2007). Girls don’t go to school because they are afraid for their safety. Because families are concerned for good reason about sending their daughters to school, girls are often left uneducated.

Benefits

Despite the obstacles, there are an infinite number of benefits to educating girls in third world countries. The best investment a country can make is that of educating girls. The benefits include reduced poverty, economic growth, improved health, and decreased gender gaps.

Educating girls reduces poverty and improves family welfare in third world countries. The more a girl is educated, the more likely she will be able to get a job. With better job opportunities women will have the chance to make a better living for themselves so they can support their families. In a girl’s lifetime her overall income can increase by 20% as a result of having a primary education. This is a greater increase than that of boys, (Levine 2006: 128). It is beneficial to invest especially in girls’ education, as women are more likely to reinvest their earnings back into their family and society. The Toronto Star writes, “If they make it to the paid workforce, research shows that women send 90 per cent of their income home compared to 30-to-40 per cent for men,” (Toronto Star 2009). Whether it is in the form of remittances or directly supporting their families, women tend to spend their earnings more wisely and support the family and greater community. An increase in income allows families to have more quality resources to sustain a higher standard of living.

The more educated a woman is the healthier she and her family will be. Girls’ education greatly decreases fertility rates, cases of HIV/AIDS, and overall health. Sex education and family planning education is extremely beneficial to societies within the third world. Many families live in poverty and are unable to support their large families. With girls’ education this can be reduced. As girls and women learn about safe sex practices and family planning women will be more aware of contraception and pregnancy prevention. In Morocco, 44% of women with no education use contraceptives whereas 66% of women with secondary education or higher use contraception, (Moghadam 2003). As a result women are able to control family size. This will also help reduce the increasingly growing fertility rates and reduced levels of poverty.

With fewer children to support, women can provide more for their children, the standard of living will rise and children will have improved health. Educating women about safe sex can also help reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and the vulnerability of girls to the disease. As women learn ways to prevent disease the number of people affected will decline. Not only is the education of a girl beneficial to her own health, but also has positive consequences for her family and friends. With an increased knowledge of health, women will take better care of their children by feeding them more nutritious foods and providing them with more health care. According to the World Bank, “It is estimated that one year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10 percent,” (Fort, 2008). Educated women are more likely to have healthier families as they pass on their knowledge of healthy living to their children who then pass it on to their children. With health education specifically for women, there is a positive spiral effect on health as it is passed through the generations.

Fertility rates and population growth will also decline not only as a result of health education, but education in general. If girls stay in school they are more likely to postpone marriage and starting a family. In developing countries women tend to get married at a very young age and have children soon after. As a result, women do not have the time to get an education. “A study of eight sub-Saharan countries covering the period from 1987 to 1999 found that girls’ educational attainment was the best predictor of whether they would have their first births during adolescence,” (Levine 2006). With the increase in opportunities for girls to attend school, the age at which girls get married and have children will be postponed. “Among married Egyptian women ages 25 to 29, for instance, those with no education had married at age 18, on average, and had their first child by age 20; those with a secondary or higher education married at an average age of 23 and had their first child by age 25,” (Moghadam 2003). Women with higher education will have half the number of children, and at a later time in their lives.

Educating girls is the key to economic prosperity within the third world. Educating women empowers them to get involved in the economy and labour market. Women will become more empowered within society the more they are educated. There is currently a large gender gap between girls and boys who attend school in developing countries as well as in the labour force. Women often rely on the men in the family for economic support. In some regions within the global south, there are laws that require women to get permission from their husbands or fathers in order to get a job or be involved economically, (ibid). This is another reason why families do not tend to invest in female education but educating girls will overcome this gender discrimination and give women the power and opportunity to succeed.

A study illustrates that for every additional year of education the adult population has on average, a country’s economic growth will increase by 3.7%, (ibid). Simply improving access to education for girls will greatly increase economic growth. By reducing gender gaps, the economy will also flourish. In numerous developing countries boys have higher rates of enrollment in education compared to girls. In Yemen, the literacy rate of men is three times that of women, (ibid). By decreasing the gender gaps and by making education more widely accessible to girls and women there will be more equal gender representation in the labour force. With smaller gender gaps, the GNP of a nation will grow.

Solutions

These benefits will only be realized by improving the education of girls in third world countries. Access to good education in the third world is limited; with lack of resources, inadequate teachers, and poor curriculum. In order to advance education in the developing world, it is crucial that these problems are solved.

Firstly, education, especially for girls must become more affordable. It is too expensive for families to send their daughters to school. If costs were reduced there would be increased enrollment for girls in the education system. Cost and poverty is one of the biggest factors holding girls back from going to school.

Accessibility can also be improved by building more schools. This would limit the time spent walking to school every day or limit the cost of other travel. Opportunity costs would also be reduced, as students would have more time to help with household chores rather than traveling back and forth to school. Creating more schools closer to communities also improves safety, as there is less danger with a shorter walking distance to school.

Secondly, more qualified teachers and separate sanitation facilities for girls will reduce parental concerns about the welfare of their children. By improving the qualifications, hiring practices and training of teachers, sexual abuse would be less prevalent. Physical abuse is one major concern parents have about sending their child to school. With outhouses, the safety and privacy for girls will be improved and there will be fewer restrictions to the education of girls and women in the third world.

Thirdly, in addition to teacher qualifications and sanitation the curriculum needs to be revamped. Curriculums are more often than not, outdated and irrelevant to the students. More attention must be paid to the specific cultural needs of female students. Students must be taught what is relevant to them and their country instead of learning what is taught in another culture.

As well, many teachers do not have the passion for teaching and are often absent from the classrooms. Better trained teachers who are passionate about teaching and making a difference for girls’ education need to be recruited, (Levine 2006:130). They must encourage gender equality and women’s empowerment and provide role models for young women. Qualified, passionate teachers are the ones who can inspire young girls to take action and become engaged learners.

Governments and international aid agencies must work together to create change, (ibid: 131). Developed countries are often the donors of development projects as the third world does not have the funds or resources to create more schools, or hire better teachers. Simply sending teachers over to third world countries to teach what they teach students in Canada is not the solution. It is imperative that the culture and community is integrated into the curriculum to create a more relevant experience. In order for this to be achieved governments and aid organizations must collaborate to create better educational systems.

Conclusion

Oprah Winfrey once said, “Educating girls can help change the face of a nation,” and she was right, (Anzia 2007). By educating girls in third world countries, girls themselves and their nation will grow. The benefits associated with educating girls and women are tremendous and effective in reducing fertility rates and population growth, improving the health of women and their families, decreasing poverty, and contributing to gross national product. Women are the face of future development. Closing gender gaps and creating equal opportunities for girls and boys will better position the nation for social and economic growth. Girl’s education yields some of the highest returns on development. Not only are the private benefits enormous as personal income and personal health improve, but the social and national benefits of contributing to the economy and the empowerment of women are also vast. Women’s education is the answer to development in the third world. By empowering women, their standards of living will drastically improve in all aspects of their lives.

A 2 (US women vs. Filipino women) X 2 (daughters vs. mothers) ANOVA matched group design with the O’Kelly Women Beliefs Scale (2010) scores as the dependent variable was conducted to study irrational beliefs about traditional feminine gender schema from a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) perspective (Ellis, 1956) in a sample of Filipino women living in the US. Results indicated significant main effect for cross-cultural differences among the two racial groups, but no significant main effect was found for generational differences among the groups. A Post-hoc Least Significant Difference (LSD) performed on the four subscale scores of the OWBS also showed significant differences in Demand with Filipino women scoring higher than their US counterparts, and scores of both groups in Awfulizing, Negative Self-talk/Rating, and Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT) were not significantly different.

Keywords: Filipino women, irrational beliefs, gender schema, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, O’Kelly Women Beliefs Scale

Irrational Beliefs about Traditional Feminine Gender Schema of Filipino Women Living in the United States

This study evaluates the cross-cultural and intergenerational differences among Filipino women and US women living in the United States in regard to their beliefs about the traditional feminine sex role using the O’Kelly Women Beliefs Scale (2010). Several factors of acculturation greatly affect the international migration, economic globalization, and political conflicts that arise in the creation of multicultural societies (Enrile & Agbayani, 2007), that studies regarding this matter are essential in understanding it in a deeper sense.

There is a great quantity of literature regarding feminine topics written within the conceptual scheme of the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy or REBT (Wolfe, 1985; Wolfe & Naimark, 1991). The founding practitioner of REBT, Albert Ellis, developed this form of psychotherapy to assist his clients in the reconstruction of how they perceive their distress by asserting the importance of taking it on with a more ‘philosophical’ outlook. When Ellis changed Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) to its present name of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), he acknowledged the possible odds in using the term “rational” as ideas concerning it may vary across cultures (Ellis, 1999). Ellis always emphasized the importance of taking his clients’ cultural background into consideration when analyzing their viewpoint and attitude towards life. It has been considered that the development of the Women’s Belief Scale coincide with the criteria described by Locksley and Colten (1979), who highlight that the use of a term within a questionnaire involves self-evaluations and supposes comparisons of itself that were not present – like in Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974) in the developmental process of the items; this allows a significant effect of measurements on the representation of the feminine gender that provides a distinct point of view of what behaviors are appropriate for females.

The view of woman’s proper place being in the home fulfilling their domesticity, motherhood and pleasing their husbands, isolated from the public world of men did not always dominate the Western culture (O’Kelly, 1980). It was not until the rise of capitalism when independent businessmen could afford to support their dependent wives and children kept within the confines of a private home, that this view of women’s roles started to greatly influence the modern Western culture (O’Kelly, 1980). By the eighteenth century, these roles sporadically spread to the less affluent classes and eventually became the Western ideal for women (O’Kelly, 1980).

In the recent years, with the help of the feminist movement, dramatic changes in the Western social roles expected from women are continuously taking place. Feminists insist that those customary views of women’s roles immensely limit and restrain them from taking their places as full adults in the society (O’Kelly, 1980). However, less developed countries continue to have strict views on the roles of the women in their society and they intend to maintain their cultural beliefs regarding this matter. There are hardly any studies done to examine the influence and effects of these societal roles placed on women from less developed countries, like the Philippines, in their response to acculturation and attitude towards life.

The O’Kelly Women’s Belief Scale was developed within the scheme of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy or REBT, reflecting the process of beliefs about Demand, Awfulizing, Global Rating, Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT) and Negative Self Rating. To develop this scale, 2,562 questionnaires were sent to women that worked in great companies. With the data obtained of 974 questionnaires, the O’Kelly subscales were developed: Demand, Awful, Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT) and Rating, which are irrational nuclear conclusions or beliefs previously mentioned. Each of these scales has internal consistency. The test-retest reliability and validity have been established by the results of a sample that consisted of 285 women, wherein 37 also completed The O’Kelly Women’s Belief Scale a month later.

In the measurement of the irrational thought from an REBT perspective, previous studies (Lega & Ellis, 2001; Kumar, Lega, & Bladiwalla, 2007) indicate cross cultural and generational differences in the samples of USA, Latin America, Europe and India.

Filipino Americans are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States as they are the second largest Asian American ethnic group, and the second largest number of immigrants to the United States (Ong & Loksze, 2003). Recent studies suggest that acculturation, changes in attitude or values that result from the contact of one culture with another (Berry, 1997), may have something to do with attitudes towards women (Enrile & Agbayani, 2007). According to Berry (1997), there are four acculturation strategies: separation, marginalization, integration, and assimilation. Separation refers to favoring one’s original culture and refraining from interacting with the host culture, whereas marginalization is when one does not actively maintain either his own original culture or the host culture (Choi & Thomas, 2007). On the other hand, integration refers to favoring one’s own culture while at the same time interacting with the host culture, and assimilation is when one abandons his original culture in favor of the host culture (Choi & Thomas, 2007).

The international relationship between United States and the Philippines has a rich and unique history that has made the Filipinos very well familiar to the American culture that even allowed them to easily adopt the English language, educational institutions, democratic belief system, and faith in the “American Dream” (Enrile & Agbayani, 2007). Most Filipino immigrants arrive in the United States with a vast knowledge about the local culture and the English language (Enrile & Agbayani, 2007). Filipino women living in the US, mostly as immigrants, try to adapt to their host country’s cultural values while striving to preserve their own at the same time. Like other individuals from impoverished nations, especially those who have spent most of their lives in their native countries, Filipinos are also well aware of how difficult it can be to live in a country of limited opportunities like the Philippines. However, like other immigrant groups, they also praise the United States as a land of significant economic opportunity but simultaneously denounce it as a country inhabited by corrupt and individualistic people of questionable morals (Espiritu, 2001).

Parents of first generation Filipino children enforce high expectations especially on their daughters. Espiritu’s interviews suggest that there is an idealized notion of womanhood based on traditional Filipino values and beliefs (Espiritu, 2001). This idealized notion of womanhood is for a woman to think of her family (collective vs. individual values), to gain good education (in order to help better the family), remain chaste, dutiful, and obedient (Agbayani-Siewert, 1994). Older children, girls in particular, are expected to care for their younger siblings and perform household duties even at an early age (Enrile & Agbayani, 2007). Past studies suggest that while the older female is given more responsibilities, privileges are made easily accessible usually to males in the family. Most Filipino women, who participated in past studies, also reported that their parents treated them more strictly while growing up as compared to their brothers (Enrile & Agbayani, 2007). As they grow older, Filipino women are expected to display characteristics of a Maria Clara, or the proper, marriage-minded, Filipino Catholic woman with “good morals” (West, 1992). This stereotyped representation of an ideal Filipino woman continues to exist in the present time. Filipino women were taught and encouraged to be publicly submissive so that it will appear that men are the ones in control (Cimmarusti, 1996). Almirol (1982), a researcher who performed a qualitative study on Filipino American farm laborers from Salinas, California, found that a higher value was placed on males over females and that women were discouraged to display power in public. Scholars have shown that the Maria Clara stereotype is not only used by certain Filipino feminist nationalist, but also by first generation Filipino immigrants (Ignacio, 2000).

Prior researchers show that despite the high cultural expectations enforced on Filipino children by their parents, they appear to have easily assimilated into the American society as the Filipino population in the US has a high rate of college graduates, and most of these graduates are immigrants from the Philippines (Enrile & Agbayani, 2007).

Different perspectives suggest the existence of change and differences in attitudes and interests from one generation to the other, as well as in the cross-cultural factor. This study was conducted in the USA wherein Filipino daughters and mothers, and their counterparts used The O’Kelly Women Belief’s Scale examine the differences in gender roles and the ethno-cultural scheme.

Method
Participants

Two matched groups according to age of daughters (from 17-25 yrs. of age) vs. their mothers (45 – 75 yrs. of age) and culture of origin (70 Filipino vs. 70 USA) living in the USA participated in the study.

Instrument

The O’Kelly Women Beliefs Scale (O’Kelly, 2010) was used. The scale consists of 92 items in which the participant indicated the degree of agreement or disagreement using a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). This is divided into four subscales: Demand, Awfulizing, Low Frustration Tolerance and Negative Self Rating.

Procedure

The participants completed the questionnaires individually and anonymously. It took approximately 45 minutes to complete. Participants were also advised to refrain from answering the questionnaire with their mother/daughter.

Results

A 2-way ANOVA (culture and generation) with total OWBS scores as the dependent variable showed a significant main effect for Culture, F(1, 140) = 37.681, p < .05. No significant results were found for main effect for Generation, or for the interaction between Culture x Generation (p>.05)

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Posthoc (LSD) comparisons between Filipino and US women for all four subscale scores of the OWBS showed significant differences, with Filipino women scoring higher than US women in Demand: F(1, 140) = 5.265, p < .05; scores of both groups in: Awfulizing, Negative Self-talk/Rating, and LFT were not significantly different (p > .05). No significant results were found for Generation, or for the interaction between Culture x Generation (p>.05)

Discussion

As one of the fastest growing groups of Asian immigrants, Filipino immigrants are purposely trying to become part and to develop a positive attitude towards acculturating to the host culture, at least to some extent. However, it is understandable that the process of acculturation have a distinct influence in the immigrants’ viewpoint and attitude towards life.

The results suggest that the overall total scores of US-Filipino compared to US women were higher than the latter. Recent studies might suggest that acculturation may play a part in Filipino women’s irrational beliefs about themselves. A past study on acculturation by Phinney and Flores (2002), affirms that the two dimensions of the phenomenon (mainstream adaptation and ethnic retention) can be independent and have different influences to its outcomes. The results of their study showed that the bicultural (integrated) individual is more likely to be involved in mainstream American society as well as to manifest sex role attitudes closely similar to that of the mainstream, and yet manage to retain their own racial social networks and native language. Later generations of immigrants are also expected to be more prone to changes associated with both dimensions of acculturation; that is, they typically retain less of their ethnic culture and tend to be more accepting of the host culture than earlier generations (Phinney & Flores, 2002). On the other hand, the present study showed no significant effect for generational differences (mother vs. daughter) in either culture (US-Filipino or US women). It was expected that Filipino women would score higher than their US counterparts because of societal expectations and traditional gender schema on women. Filipino women are expected to manifest certain characteristics such as capability of building a family, running the household and responsibility for taking care of others’ need before her own to name a few. Some researchers propose that immigrants do not simply yield their old or native values for new ones, but rather select, and modify to adapt to the new environment (Choi & Thomas, 2007; Buriel, 1993; Mendoza, 1989). Although most Filipino immigrants eventually become accustomed to their new environment, they also retain their traditional cultural traits, beliefs, values, and mores which may result to a conflict in their belief system and a higher level of irrational belief. However, when it comes to Generation, the non-significant differences between Filipino daughters and mothers may be found in that the cultural expectation of both generations (Filipino mothers vs. Filipino daughters) has rooted its ideals from our past generations’ belief as a collective community as opposed to individualistic values. It is an integral characteristic of the ideal Filipino family to have children who highly adhere to the family’s values and principles and to behave according to these passed on standards. Daughters are taught to greatly exhibit the same positive qualities that their mothers’ exhibit and this practice have a substantial influence on the non-significant differences in the point of view of both generations.

In terms of posthoc comparisons, where individual sub scale scores were obtained for Demand, Awfulizing, Negative Self Talk and LFT, a significant effect was only found on Demand of Filipino women vs. US women. This suggests that Filipino women experience higher emotional stress than their US counterparts. First generation immigrants, as they are called, sometimes experience acculturation and cultural pressure to adapt. Cultural adaptation to the host country may suggest conflict with the traditional culture of the heritage country while parents try to raise their children on both cultures. Prior researches show that Filipino immigrants tend to lose their traditional customs and values as they acculturate to ways of life in the United States (Del Prado & Church, 2010). Being torn between adhering to their conservative cultural values and the ability to access the opportunities of their contemporary American culture can create stress and conflict (Napholz & Mo, 2010). The Socio-cultural differences that include the Asian collective culture versus the American individual culture, extended versus dominant nuclear family lifestyle, isolative American lifestyle, women’s roles, communication styles, and child-rearing practices have a vast impact on the Filipino immigrant women’s self-esteem and sense of control over their lives (Napholz & Mo, 2010). As Filipino women become more acculturated to their host country’s cultural values, factors such as their origins, psychosocial and economic stress, as well as their compliance to traditional cultural values may have an influence in the nature and quality of their present lives (McBride, Morioka-Douglas, & Yeo, 1996). High scores on each subscale according to the O’Kelly Women Belief Scales or OWBS (O’Kelly, 2010) suggest that Filipino women have higher irrational beliefs on the traditional feminine gender role as their culture may have manifested on them over the years.

The Demand subscale (element at which people reveal their musts and shoulds) suggests that Filipino women need to reach certain expectations according to their culture. A high score in this subscale suggests that Filipino women, compared to US women strive more to reach expectations set forth by their society as a result from a collectivist point of view. Almost every society has prescribed roles that women and men are expected to satisfy, however the strictness of these standards vary across cultural societies. In the Filipino culture, individuals that belong to the society are expected to respect and conform to the rules of the society as exactly as possible. Deviating from the accepted norms and social roles brings forth unforgiving criticisms not just from the society at large, but by one’s own immediate family as well. A traditional Filipino family is not usually inclined to being tolerant to issues and practices foreign to them, as they believe that everyone should behave according to what is widely accepted. Thus, the process of acculturating to a new culture that has some aspects that conflict with the Filipino culture can be very perplexing and stressful to Filipino women striving to develop positive attitudes toward the process. An example question from this subscale was “I must have a child to be fulfilled”; Filipinos are expected to be capable of building a family and both generations (mother vs. daughter) must reach this expectation as their society and past generations expects them to. This idealized notion of womanhood is for a woman to think of her family (collective vs. individual) (Agbayani-Siewert, 1994) as mentioned came from most of the Oriental culture’s belief of collectivism vs. individualism.

In short, the expectation that Filipino women would score higher than their US counterparts because of societal expectations and traditional gender schema on women was confirmed.

Any of numerous species of insects that live in colonies and manifest three characteristics: group integration, division of labour, and overlap of generations. Social insects are best exemplified by all termites (Isoptera) and ants (Formicidae) and by various bees and wasps (Hymenoptera).

Ant colonies, bird flocks, rain forests, businesses, organizations, communities, the stock market and the global economy all have something in common. They are complex adaptive systems. Complex means composed of many parts which are joined (literally “twisted”) together. Adaptive refers to the fact that all living systems dynamically adapt to their constantly changing environments as they strive to survive and thrive. And systems means everything is interconnected and interdependent.

Unlike nonadaptive complex systems, such as the weather, complex adaptive systems have the ability to internalize information, to learn, and to modify their behavior (evolve) as they adapt to changes in their environments. In other words, they have brains. Examples of complex adaptive systems include:

Social insects are differentiated in structure, function, and behaviour into castes, the major ones being the reproductives (e.g., the queen) and the steriles (workers and soldiers). Besides carrying out the basic function of reproduction, the members of the reproductive caste generally select the site for a new colony and excavate the first galleries.

Social insects (ants, bees, wasps and termites) are among the most diverse and ecologically important organisms on earth. As superorganisms, they live in intricately governed societies that rival our own in complexity and internal cohesion. They are particularly well suited to post-genome era biology because they can be studied at multiple different levels of biological organization, from gene to ecosystem, and much is known about their natural history. The sequencing of the honey bee genome provides additional tools and information that can be used to examine all insect societies.

Animal Behaviour and Sociobiology

The evolution of cooperation and altruism in animal societies is being studied using social insects such as ants, bees and wasps as experimental model systems. Social insects are used because they exhibit the most spectacular examples of cooperation and altruism and because they are easy to manipulate and study. Questions being addressed include how the members of a social insect colony divide labour among themselves, regulate each other’s reproduction, communicate with each other, distinguish their nestmates from non nestmates and how natural selection can lead either to the origin and elaboration or to the loss of sociality. The techniques used include behavioural observations, pheromone extractions and bioassays and the use of microsatellite based molecular markers to estimate genetic relatedness and genetic structure of populations.

Termites

Termite colonies are found in regions of Africa, South America, Australia and the United States. They are social insects but less advanced than ant colonies. Termites are related more to cockroaches.

The termite colony has three classes of individuals and each class includes both sexes. The reproductive class is represented by the king and the queen. These two individuals are locked away in a chamber in the centre of the termite nest.

The queen becomes huge soon after fertilization as her abdomen swells with eggs. She lays these eggs at a rate of several thousand each day throughout her lifetime. The soldiers have enormous heads with powerful jaws. The queen, king and soldiers are fed by the workers.

Termites digest wood and paper. They do great damage to woodwork in houses, as well as to furniture and books. Some species of termites build nests up to 6 metres in height

Social Insects.

The fascination of social insects

The social insects represent one of evolution’s most magnificent, successful, and instructive developments. Ever since the behavior of ants, bees, wasps, and termites was first recorded in antiquity, these insects have exerted a powerful hold on our imaginations.

Three characteristics of social insects account for this interest. The first is the very habit of living in social groups. To biologists, this way of life represents a fascinating evolutionary innovation, yet it also poses a basic dilemma. Contrary to what we may have commonly learned, the essential history of life on Earth has not been the story of the rise and fall of dominant groups of animals like the dinosaurs. Instead, life’s history has been the succession of what evolutionary biologists J. Maynard Smith and E. Szathmary termed “major transitions” in evolution. Without any one of these transitions, living things today would be fundamentally different.

Two of these major transitions are the evolution of sexually reproducing organisms from those that reproduce asexually, and the evolution of multicellular from single-celled organisms. These transitions share a radical reorganization of living matter. In particular, at each transition, existing units coalesced to form larger units. In the process, the original units lost some or all of their power of independent reproduction, and the way genetic information is transmitted was changed. The social insects are the prime examples of the next major transition, from solitary organisms to social organisms. As a result of this change, workers of social insects have largely lost the power of reproducing independently, and genetic information has come to be primarily transmitted from generation to generation via the reproduction of the queens (and kings in termites). Why these workers have foregone their power of reproduction is a basic dilemma that insect sociality poses for biologists.

The second characteristic of social insects, which explains why they command attention, is their overwhelming numerical and ecological dominance. Ants, for example, occur from the Arctic tundra to the lower tip of South America. They swarm in diverse habitats, ranging from desert to rainforest, and from the depths of the soil to the heights of the rainforest canopy. The abundance and ubiquity of social insects give them an ecological importance that is unmatched among land-dwelling invertebrates.

The third and final fascinating characteristic of social insects is the way in which they perform work. Clearly, social insects carry out cooperative tasks, such as building nests, with results that are stunningly complex and precise. Termites build nests that are towering hills of red clay, with intricate internal architecture designed to maintain a cool, stable interior. The nests of honey bees house waxen combs composed of thousands of exquisitely arrayed hexagonal cells. Social wasps construct nests in which parallel tiers of cells are enclosed within a delicate paper globe.

These nest forms point to the ability of social insects to achieve, as a collective, impressive feats of architectural complexity. However, biologists have long puzzled over how social insects complete these complex tasks as a group when individual workers frequently strike us as inept. “It seems to me that in the matter of intellect the ant must be a strangely overrated thing,” wrote Mark Twain after watching the fumbling meanderings of a worker carrying a grasshopper’s leg back to its nest. The ant’s seemingly unnecessary scaling of an obstacle was, Twain went on to say, “as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple.” In this chapter, we first review some basic biology of social insects, then consider the three principal characteristics of social insects in turn.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE IN SOCIAL INSECTS
Introduction

It wasn’t so long ago that the waggledance of the honey bee, the nest-building of the social wasp, and the construction of the termite mound were considered a somewhat magical aspect of nature. How could these seemingly uncommunicative, certainly very simple creatures be responsible for such epic feats of organisation and creativity? Over the last fifty years biologists have unravelled many of the mysteries surrounding social insects, and the last decade has seen an explosion of research in fields variously referred to as Collective Intelligence, Swarm Intelligence and emergent behaviour. Even more recently the swarm paradigm has been applied to a broader range of studies, opening up new ways of thinking about theoretical biology, economics and philosophy. It turns out that not only might we, as multi-cellular organisms, be composed of swarms, but so could our societies, economies and perhaps even our minds. In this essay I will outline three of the most promising areas of social insect-inspired AI: ant-based search algorithms, Particle Swarm Optimisation and swarm robotics, and hopefully provide an insight into how these studies have grown out of a small niche of A-life research into an all-encompassing new way of thinking.

In the Beginning

Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) is widely credited as being the father of ethology, the study of animal behaviour, with his early work on imprinting and instinctive behaviour, however it might be argued that an even earlier pioneer of the field was a South African, Eugene Marais (1872-1936). Marais was a brilliant man – poet, writer, lawyer, psychologist and naturalist. He made ground-breaking studies into societies of wild apes a full sixty years before any other. He also studied termites, known in his day as white ants, publishing articles as early as 1925. In 1937 a book, The Soul of the White Ant[1] was published posthumously in which he described in painstaking detail the resemblance between the processes at work within termite society to the workings of the human body. He regarded red and white soldiers as analogous to blood cells, the queen as the brain and the termites’ mating flight in which individuals from separate termitaries leave to produce new colonies as exactly equivalent to the movement of sperm and ova.

Like many geniuses, Marais’ life ended in tragedy. A spiralling drug addiction and depression was worsened when in 1927, a Belgian author, Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) published The Life of the White Ant[2] which was largely plagiarised from Marais’ articles. In 1936, Marais committed suicide. The full text of The Soul of the White Ant is available on the web, and is well worth looking at since the implications of his insights have yet to be fully understood.

Stigmergy: Invisible Writing

Although Marais had created a detailed document on termites, he was unaware of the mechanics of termite communication. How is it that a group of tiny, short-sighted, simple individuals are able to create the grand termite mounds, sometimes as high as six metres, familiar to inhabitants of dry countries? The answer to this question was first documented by the French biologist, Pierre-Paul Grasse in his 1959 study of termites[3]. Grasse noted that termites tended to follow very simple rules when constructing their nest:

First, they simply move around at random, dropping pellets of chewed earth and saliva on any slightly elevated patches of ground they encounter. Soon small heaps of moist earth form.

These heaps of salivated earth encourage the termites to concentrate their pellet-dropping activity and soon the biggest heaps develop into columns which will continue to be built until a certain height, dependent on the species, is reached.

Finally, if a column has been built close enough to other columns, one other behaviour kicks in: the termites will climb each column and start building diagonally towards the neighbouring columns.

Obviously, this does not tell the whole story but a key concept in the collective intelligence of social insects is revealed: the termites’ actions are not coordinated from start to finish by any kind of purposive plan, but rather rely on how the termite’s world appears at any given moment. The termite does not need global knowledge or any more memory than is necessary to complete the sub-task in hand, it just needs to invoke a simple behaviour dependent on the state of its immediate environment. Grasse termed this stigmergy, meaning ‘incite to work’, and the process has been observed not just in termites, but also in ants, bees, and wasps in a wide range of activities.

The application of stigmergy to computation is surprisingly straightforward. Instead of applying complex algorithms to static datasets, through studying social insects we can see that simple algorithms can often do just as well when allowed to make systematic changes to the data in question.

Self Organisation

Moving earth around is only one of many ways in which social insects communicate through their environment. Another famous example of stigmergy is pheromonal communication, whereby ants engaging in certain activities leave a chemical trail which is then followed by their colleagues.

This ability of ants to collectively find the shortest path to the best food source was studied by Jean-Louis Deneubourg[4], when he demonstrated how the Argentine ant was able to successfully choose the shortest of two paths to a food source. Deneubourg was initially interested in self organisation, a concept which until then had been the fare of chemists and physicists seeking to explain the natural order occurring in physical structures such as sand dunes and animal patterns.

A self organising (SO) system is any dynamic system from which order emerges entirely as a result of the properties of individual elements in the system, and not from external pressures. The classic example of SO is Benard cellular convection, named after the French scientist who discovered it. A Benard cell consists, very simply, of a layer of fluid which is heated from below. Under the right circumstances, a perfect vertical temperature gradient is set up within the fluid, causing the system to become ‘top heavy’, with warmer molecules at the bottom compelled to rise to the top. You might expect the liquid to simply bubbling away with no pattern or organisation, but instead an ordered system is formed. Millions of molecules self organise into a hexagonal pattern, something like a honeycomb, which enables the most efficient convection for energy-dissipation.

Deneubourg saw the potential for this concept, which by 1989 had turned into a sizeable research project amongst physicists, to be applied to biology. In his experiment, a group of ants are offered two branches leading to the same food source, one longer than the other. Initially, there is a 50% chance of an ant choosing either branch, but gradually more and more journeys are completed on the shorter branch than the longer one, causing a denser pheromone trail to be laid. This consequently tips the balance and the ants begin to concentrate on the shorter route, discarding the longer one. This is precisely the mechanism underpinning an ant colony’s ability to efficiently exploit food sources in sequential order: strong trails will be established to the nearest source first, then when it is depleted and the ants lose interest, the trails leading to the next nearest source will build up

Bees and Social Insects

1. Definition of Eusociality

Many animals live together as a group, but they are not necessarily social (e.g. a school of fish) because there is a very precise definition when it comes ot sociality. True sociality (eusociality) is defined by three features: 1). There is cooperative brood-care so it is not each one caring for their own offspring, 2). There is an overlapping of generations so that the group (the colony) will sustain for a while, allowing offspring assist parents during their life, and 3). That there is a reproductive division of labor, i.e. not every individual reproduces equally in the group, in most cases of insects, this means there is one or a few reproductive(s) (“queen”, or “king”), and workers are more or less sterile.

2. Degrees of sociality

Obviously not all insects are eusocial. Michener (1969) provided some other classifications of various stages of social insects:

Solitary: showing none of the three featured we mentioned above (most insects)

Subsocial: the adults care for their own young for some period of time (cockroaches)

Communal: insects use the same composite nest without cooperation in brood care (digger bees)

Quasisocial: use the same nest and also show cooperative brood care (Euglossine bees)

Semisocial: in addition to the features in quasisocial, also has a worker caste (Halictid bees)

Eusocial: in addition to the features of semisocial, there is overlap in generations (Honey bees).

3. A survey of eusocial animals

Eusociality was considered extremely rare in the whole animal kingdom, and even in insects it was only found in Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) and Isoptera (termites). However, recently this has expanded to a few more groups: in gall aphids (Homoptera) there are sterile soldiers who would sacrifice their lives to their clone sisters who can reproduce, so they are considered eusocial because these soldiers do not reproduce while others do. This is also the case for social thrips that are gall-forming (Thysanoptera). In 1992 a social weevil ( Austroplatypus incompertus, Curculionidae Coleoptera).was discovered. In non-insects, eusociality only appeared twice: in a mammal and a marine animal. Naked mole rats live in complex underground tunnel systems in Africa and animals in the same nest are closely related, only one female (the queen) reproduces, although workers, normally sterile, can ovulate when removed from the nest, presumably due a lack of inhibition from the queen. Snapping shrimp (Synalpheus regalis) lives inside sponges and each ‘colony’ has 200-300 individuals, but only one queen reproduces, again the caster is probably not fixed – the workers remain totipotent and can potentially become a queen when the queen shrimp is removed.

The table below summarizes the above information. Notice that “the number of times eosociality has evolved” does not mean the number of cases of eusociality (there would be tens of thousands if so, because there are about 9 thousand species, of ants alone). Instead it means how many times it has independently evolved (for example, there are 9 species of honey bees, if all of them shared a common eusocial ancestor, it would be considered to be evolved once here, actually you trace back to the lower branch of the taxonomic tree, and count only once at the lowest level).

4. Evolution of sociality

How could eusociality evolve? Darwin, in his “Origin of Species” (1859) thought that sterile workers in a bee colony, being unable to transmit their genes, represent a special challenge to his theory of natural selection. This is because natural selection depends on the transmission of ‘traits’ that convey selective advantages to the individuals, and these traits have to be determined genetically (so they are heritable). If workers are sterile, how can they transmit the “helping traits” to the next generation?

4.1. Genetic explanations

This problem continued to trouble biologists until William Hamilton (1964) found an ingenious way to explain how a trait can be inherited without direct reproduction. Hamilton introduced a brave new concept, ‘inclusive fitness’, which basically says someone could still have a reproductive fitness, even if he/she has no direct offspring. This is while the ‘traditional fitness’ only count how many children one has, but inclusive fitness takes account of all others who share genes with the person (or animal). For example, I should share approximately 50% of gene with my full brother, therefore if I decide not to marry and have kids, but I help my brother to raise 4 children, it is equivalent to myself having two children. This inclusion of anyone elses’ fitness, who shares common genes by descent, factored by a coefficient of relatedness, is called inclusive fitness. Therefore although workers do not reproduce, if they share genes with their mother (the queen) to raise more sisters (future queens), their genes would be transmitted too, to the next generation.

In fact in honey bees and other hymenoptera, the relatedness among sisters are higher than among other animals. This is because of the haplo-diploidy sex determination: drone develop from unfertilized eggs and carry one copy of chromosomes (haploid) from their mother only (no father), while females are fertilized and carry two copies of chromosomes (diploid). Haploid drones do not have the complimentary copy of genes to do exchange (across the two copies of genes, alleles), so all the sperms produced by a single drone are identical (clones), if not considering newly produced mutations. Assume the queen is mated only to one drone (which is not true, we will come back to this point later), then all her daughters will share 50% genes from the father (since they are all the same), but 25% of their genes from the mother. The coefficient of relatedness among the offspring is therefore 0.75 (1?0.5 + 0.5*0.5). This is much higher than the 0.5 for sister-sister in a diploid organism (such as humans). The workers who share the same father and mother, are therefore also called ‘super-sisters’ because of this higher relatedness. This theory of one can pass genes through relatives and gain fitness is called ‘kin selection’.

Hamilton postulated that because supersisters share 75% of their genes, it is actually a better deal to be a worker, to whom, a new queen would have 75% of genes by common descent with her, whereas from the queen’s point of view, she only transmitted 50% of her genes to the new queen. In this sense, the inclusive fitness is actually higher for the sterile worker sisters, than for the fertile mother. Further, Hamilton argued that haplodiploidy must have played an important role in the evolution of sociality because it occurred 11 times in Hymenoptera, but much fewer times in other organisms combined. Note at that time the only other eusocial organisms are termites. Among the recently discovered social animals, thrips also have haplodiploidy as in hymenopteran insects.

One difficulty with the above argument is that the honey bee queen actually mates with more than one male (drone), in some cases as many as more than 30 drones, because half-sisters (workers who share the same mother, but fathered by different males) are only related to one another by 0.25 (0*0.5+0.5*0.5) the average relatedness among the workers in such a colony is close to the average between 0.75 and 0.25, which is 0.5, not different from other diploid organisms. Of course, one could argue that multiple mating is adaptive for other reasons, and arose AFTER sociality has been evolved.

While the genetic system might predispose some organisms to have eusociality, it is easy to see that haplodiploidy is neither necessary (since there are other non-haplodiploid organisms being eusocial), nor sufficient (since not every species in Hymenopetera is eusocial). It is easy to see though, that eusociality can evolve easier in groups within which individuals are highly related, either due to haplodiploidy, or due to mating systems. In both termites and the naked mole rats, animals within a group are all highly related, perhaps due to inbreeding, although it is known in named mole rats, some males would migrate to other nests to accomplish periodic outcrossing, which might be necessary to reduce the cost of inbreeding. In aphids, all colony members are ‘clones’ because the mother can reproduce asexually (parthenogenesis). However, the marine shrimps do not show high degrees of inbreeding.

4.2. Ecological considerations

There appear to be common ecological features for other eusocial animals other than hymenoptera. For example, for newly discovered aphids, thrips, beetles and shrimps, they all have a commonly held, valuable resource (nest mounds, galls, or sponges). Queller and Strassmann (1998) distinguish these eusociality (fortress defenders) from the ‘life insurers”, in which cooperation creates benefits mainly through reducing the risk of reproductive failure (most Hymenoptera). Crespi (1994) argued that three conditions are sufficient to explain occurrences of eusociality for the fortress defenders. The first is the food and shelter are in enclosed habits, representing higly valuable and long lasting resources. Because of the high value of the resources, there should be strong competition for these resources. Lastly, because of the competition, selection should promote effective defense among the organisms. This has been shown to be true for aphids, thrips and shrimps. Interestingly, in shrimps the non-reproducing soldiers are mostly male, perhaps because they have larger claws and would better suit the job. Contrast this with males in Hymenoptera societies, their other name ‘drone’ suggest laziness and they do not perform work in the colony, perhaps because of their lack of weapon (no sting).

4.3. Life history considerations

Because one criteria for eusociality is overlap in generations, parental care has been recognized as an important prerequisite for eusociality. Other traits, such as high adult mortality (e.g. foraging honey bees only survives 7-10 days), long periods of offspring dependence (21 days development for honey bee workers), and delayed age of reproduction, can favor the development of helpers. More recent studies in marine shrimps suggest that mutualistic interactions and restricted dispersal can also foster evolution of sociality.

References for further reading:

Crespi, B. J. 1992 Eusociality in Australian gall thrips. Nature 359:724-726.

Crespi, B.J. 1994. Three conditions for the evolutions of eusociality: are they sufficient? Insectes Soc. 41: 395-400.

Duffy, J. E. 1996. Eusociality in a coral-reef shrimp. Nature 381:512-514. See also

Ito, Y. 1989. The evolutionary biology of sterile soldiers in aphids. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 4:69-73.

Ito, Y. 1994. A new epoch in joint studies of social evolution: molecular and behavioural ecology of aphid soldiers. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9:363-365.

Kent, D. S., and J. A. Simpson 1992. Eusociality in the beetle Austroplatypus incompertus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Naturwissenschaften 79:86-87.

Jarvis,JUM 1981 Eusociality in a mammal: Cooperative breeding in naked mole-rat colonies. Science 212, 571-573.

Queller D.C; Strassmann, J.E. 1998. Kin selection and social insects: social insects provide the most surprising predictions and satisfying tests of kin selection. Bioscience. 48,165-175

Rypstra, A. L. 1993. Prey size, social competition, and the development of reproductive division of labor in social spider groups. American Naturalist 142:868-880.

Strassman, J. E., Z. Zhu, and D. C. Queller 2000. Altruism and social cheating in the social amoeba Dictyostlium discoideum. Nature 408:965-967.

INTRODUCTION

A group is defined by Ivancevich et al (2008) as “two or more individuals interacting with each other to accomplish a common goal”. Groups are important aspect of work pattern of an organization (Mullins 2002) and a part of modern life (Ivancevich et al 2008). A group can be formal or informal (Armstrong 2009). Informal groups according to Newstrom (2007:277) “Are established by the organization and have a public identity and goal to achieve while formal groups emerge on the sense of common interest, proximity and friendship”. Informal groups are set up by the organization in other to achieve organizational goals while formal groups are set up by individuals for the purpose of satisfying the needs of its members (Armstrong 2009). The group used for the purpose of this study is the formal groups. This study will analyze the impact the group has on the individual, factors affecting the behavior of the individual, human relations theory and the factors affecting the behavior and performance of the individual in the group.

IMPACT OF THE GROUP ON THE INDIVIDUAL

The performance of a group depends on how well its members engage in communication with each other or interacts with each other and also on how the individual learns in the group (Mullins 2002). Mullins (2002:465) argues that “how people behave and perform as members of a group is as important as their behavior or performance as individuals”. Usually, lack of interaction between the individual and members of the group will have effect on the performance of the group as well as the individual in the group and result to lack of satisfaction for the individual (Mullins 2002). It is believed that the group generates better ideas than the individual does, by drawing resources from individual members of the group (brainstorming), the group thereby brings in more ideas and input into decision process than a single person can (Robbins 2001).

In one of my experiences in a group I learnt that groups can be rewarding to the individual because an individual can actually learn from other members of the group. I joined a decoration group in my church and we were told to decorate the church for a program, we all had our ideas on how we want the decoration to look like but instead of pursuing personal goals we brought our ideas together and we came up with a better idea and I also learnt things I did not know before, also I found the experience challenging because I had to think beyond what I know in other to be able to contribute but at the end I left with more knowledge than I went in with.

It is also believed; however, that group ideas can hinder creative thinking, in other words, individuals will ignore their idea in other to conform to the idea of the group (Mullins 2002). For example, as a member of a group of four in one of my classes in Salford University, we were asked to solve a particular question, we were different people with different beliefs, attitudes, perception, culture and behavior, however, three out of four were in agreement but one particular person in the group had a different idea from what the rest of us had and was trying so hard to convince us which was impossible because it was one against three, in other to avoid conflict the individual had to ignore the idea and agree with that of the group.

Groups bind the individual and members of the group in togetherness and in other to be in togetherness, individuals have to see themselves as members of the group and not isolate themselves in other for them to achieve the goal of the group and also to meet their needs (Robbins 2001). Huczynski and Buchanan (2007) discussed the work of Tayfel and Tunner (1986) who argued that “as long as individuals see themselves as more important than the group the group cannot function effectively”. However, It is believed that individuals have different needs or reasons for joining or been in a group and it can be the need to fulfill social needs, achieve group goals or to derive greater economic benefits or for social security reasons, which is believed that groups can serve as a medium of meeting these needs of the individual (Ivancevich et al 2008) and in other to remain a member of the group and to meet these needs the individual must set aside their personal goal to achieve the group’s goal ( Newstrom 2007).

FACTORS AFFECTING INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR

There are different types of ways of explaining the behavior of the individual in a group; they are Perception, Attribution, Orientation, Role and branded rationality (Armstrong 2009).

Perception is one way of explaining the behavior of an individual in a group. Perception according to Maund (2001: pg 444) is “the process by which individuals interpret sensory impression so that they can assign meaning to it”. Perception is when an individual gives meaning or interprets the things happening around them and people tend to perceive situation that satisfies needs, emotions, attitudes or their self concept (Ivancevich et al 2008). Members of a group can see the same thing or be in the same situation but their interpretation of the situation will be different from each other based on how they see it (Mullins 2007).

Attribution according to Luthans (2002:197) refers to “how people explains the cause of another’s or their behavior”. Attribution can be the way people interpret the situation they are in (Armstrong 2009). Attribution can lead to conflict in a group because the way one person see things (perception) may not be the same way another sees the same thing (Armstrong 2009). While Orientation can be said to be an individuals attempt to make sense of life which can be different from that of the group (Armstrong 2009).

Role is the part played by the individual in caring out their duties (Armstrong 2009). There is a particular role expected from the members of the group once they have lived to the expectation of the role then it is believed they have performed their role successfully and it is believed that this role shapes the individuals behavior (Armstrong 2009). While branded rationality can be said to be the ways individuals understands how complicated the situation they are in is and their reaction to the situation limits the way they behave rationally (Armstrong 2009).

Huczynski and Buchanan (2005:279) discuss the work of Marion Hampton (1999)who argues that “groups are seen as taking over the individuals mind, depressing intelligence, eliminating moral responsibility and forcing conformity, they can cause their members a great deal of suffering and despair and can perpetuate acts of cruelty”. There are various factors affecting the individual in the group, But before explaining that we are going to analyze a theory that explains what effect a group has on the individual.

HAWTHORNE’S THEORY (Human relations approach)

The theory that explains the effect of groups on the individual’s behavior and performance is the Hawthorne experiment of the human relations theory written by Elton Moyo (Mullins 2002). The experiment is called the bank wiring observation room experiment; the experiment was carried out on 14 men who were organized into three subgroups which contained three wires, a supervisor and an inspector that moved around the group (Moorhead and Griffin 1995). After the study there were two major findings;

The level of interaction that was observed among the men showed the existence of informal groups within the three groups and,
It was also revealed that these groups develop norms or rules that guides behavior and also set structures to enforce the rules (Moorhead and Griffin 1995)

The hawthorns researcher found that the group established a level of output for its members (Mullins 2002). They found out that the group did not produce up to what they are capable of producing; they produced below their capability which had effect on their earning because their output was low(Moor head and Griffin 1995). The group produced a specific level of output for its members which are the only accepted level of production, in other to be accepted the individual has to slow down production when getting close to the accepted level of production in other not to over produce (Moorhead and Griffin 1995).

Moorhead and Griffin (1995) discuss the work of Roethlisberger and Dickson (1939) who points out that “The social organization of the bank wiremen performed a twofold function which is to protect the group from internal indiscretions and to protect the group from outside interference”. Moorhead and Griffin (1995) also points out that almost all the activities carried out by the group can be said to be a means of controlling the behavior of its members. The research shows that peer pressure has more effect on the individual than things that may encourage the individual and forces of control or orders from management, individuals would rather do things required by the group than doing things that would encourage or reward their actions (Mullins 2002). This theory shows how working in a group can be both challenging an rewarding for the individuals which leads us to the factors affecting the performance and behavior of the individual in the group.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN THE GROUP
Group norms

Norms according to Greenberg and Baron (2008) can be defined as “the generally agreed upon informal rules that guides the behavior of the members in a group”. Norms influence group behavior and refer to what should be done and also represents value judgment and appropriate behavior in social situations (Psyblog 2010). Norms are of great importance to groups in controlling behavior and in measuring performance (Hanh 2007). Groups have norms that are set to guide member’s behavior (Greenberg and Baron 2008) and also to reduce ambiguity in terms of behavior that are of importance to the group (Rollinson 2005). Norms are set up in groups which the individual must conform with and groups have ways of making the individual conform to such norms (Rollinson 2005). Norms keeps the group functioning as a system instead of as a collection of individuals and members of the group come together to achieve a common goal instead of pursing individual groups (Hanh 2007). Groups do not set rules or norm for every situation but only set rules for situations that are of importance to the members of the group which could be in relation to their job or how they communicate with each other or with others outside the group (Hanh 2007).

Group norms makes life predictable, individuals know what is expected of them, know their roles and how much time to spend in the execution of their job, know the values and beliefs and the image of the group, and subscribe to the norms of the group (Rollinson 2005). Norms are usually assessed to know if group members are interacting with each other which can be rewarding and which gives the individuals a sense of belonging (Heathfield 2010). Group members come together to develop the group norms which gives the individual a feeling of belonging, sense of identity and feelings of security because they were part of the making of the rules (Brooks 2005). Norms are believed to be of importance because some members may harm the project or the success of the group with their behavior or action unintentionally but if there is agreed upon framework of interaction, misunderstandings and negative conflicts in the group can be prevented (Heathfield 2010).

However, group norms can have negative effect on the individual (Armstrong 2009). According to Psyblog (2010) who argues that “groups rarely come up with great ideas because the individual in them are powerfully shaped by group norms and the rules of what people are and how they must behave” it is believed that changes are hard to spot unless they are carefully measured, individuals deny their own beliefs, ideas and senses just to conform with the groups even if they are wrong (Psyblog 2010).it is believed that, Norms serves as a form of constraint to the individuals, it hinders them from thinking freely because they would not want to think outside the group norms or the group’s way of doing things, individuals can not pursue their personal goal, can not see things from their point of view because it might clash with the goals of the group (Psyblog 2010).

Social Support

Social support according to Dalgard (2009) is “receiving help from other people when in need of help”. An individual can receive support among groups of people who have a similar problem to what they have and in their relationship with others be it their family or friends (Curtis 2009). Curtis (2009) argues that” if you have a support network you will not feel as alone; you will learn new ways to deal with your problem and may try harder to overcome it”. Group members can serve as as a source of support, advice and encouragement to an individual facing any difficulty and also the individual can be a source of support to the group (Curtis 2009).

Individuals in a group can benefit from the members of the group while members who are not part of the group cannot enjoy such benefits, having friends to talk with, to gain insight from, to listen to during times of need or borrow money from, all this are forms of support (Scott 2007). Social support makes the individual safe and gives them a feeling of being loved and cared for (Rollinson 2005). In one of my experience when I was writing my final dissertation for my bachelor degree, I wrote on the societal support for the elderly people in my community and I had the privilege working with the elderly people in that community and I found out that most of them lack social support from their family and friends, in other to feel loved, feel secure or have a feeling that they belong they had to join a group with the believe that the group would be able to meet their needs.

Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is another factor that has effect on the behavior of the individual in the group. Peer pressure is when other people impose pressure on a person (Nemours 2010). Peers have influence over others, by listening to other people a person learns from them and they also learn from the individual (Nemours 2010). Some individuals usually join groups in other to fit in, so in other to fit in the individual goes along with the idea of the group and sets aside their idea and go along with the group’s idea to avoid being bullied by the other members of the group (Nemours 2010). However, peer pressure can have a positive impact on the individual because it can push the individual into doing the things they have no courage of doing or talking the individual out of doing things that’s not in their best interest (Wilmer 2010).

Individual Accountability

Individual accountability can be defined as “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for ones action” (McDaniel 2007). Individual accountability is a foundational component as it evaluates an individual core competence, strength and weaknesses (McDaniel 2007). It’s the individual taking responsibility for their action in carrying out their duty or them being accountable for their duties (McDaniel 2007). The individual must be accountable for achieving its goal and for its contribution to the group, individual accountability occurs when performance is assessed and the result are given back to the group and the individual in other to ascertain who needs more support, encouragement and assistance (Cooperate learning center 2009). Accountability is not to punish mistake or to generate immediate result but to ensure the individual gives all their best in the achievement of goals and behaving responsible to one another (Luthans 2002). By empowering them over job performance and then holding them accountable for the outcomes (Newstrom 2007).

Conflict

Rollinson (2005:401) defines conflict as “the behavior of an individual or a group when purposely sets to block or inhibit another group or individual from achieving its goals”. Competition is one of the main causes of conflict in a group, when the members of a group are in competition against each other it can lead to conflicting interest (Rollonson 2005). Some groups encourage competition because they believe that when members of the group compete against each other it will result to successful performance or quick performance but mostly it might lead to conflict (Rollinson 2005). However, Vodosek (2007) argues that “Researchers have noted that high level of task conflict can lead to reduced member satisfaction and commitment to the group”

Individual have different interest, skills, personality and attributes which may act as cohesion or a clash in the group (Brooks 2009). Some individuals tend to work towards achieving personal goals by doing so they tend to ignore the goals of the group and focus more on achieving their personal goals which might lead to conflict in the group (Newstrom 2007).

CONCLUSION

It can be assumed that, groups have both positive and negative effect on the individual, and for the individual, being a member of a group can be rewarding as well as challenging as working alone. Working alone as an individual might lead to a quick decision making but working in a group can lead to a more effective decision making, because it is a group of people with different ideas, perception, attributes and behavior coming together to form the group (Rollinson 2001), also the individual can also learn from the other members of the group. However, it is believed that there is no ideal individual for a particular job, that no individual can have all the necessary qualities needed for a job but a group of individuals can, and when they come together with their different qualities it can lead to a successful decision making (Antony Jay, cited by Mullins 2002).

REFERENCES
Armstrong, M. (2009) Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 9th edn, Kogan Page, London.
Brooks, I. (2009) Organizational Behavior: Individual, Groups and Organisation, 4th edn, Prentice Hall, Harlow.
Cooperative Learning Center (2009) “Cooperative Learning” Co-operation.org www.co-operation.org/pages/cl.html#accountability [Accessed 10/03/2010].
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Greenberg, J., Baron, R.A. (2008) Behavior in Organizations, 9th edn, Pearson Education, New Jersey.
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Ivancevich, J M, Konopaske, R, Matteson, M T (2008) Organizational Behavior and Management, 8th edn, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Newyork.
Luthans, L. (2002) Organizational Behavior, 9th edn, McGraw-Hill, Newyork.
Maund, L. (2001) Introduction to Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, Palgrove, London.
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Introduction

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

Ideal body type in Hong Kong

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

Ideal body type for men

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

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

Ideal body type for women

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

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

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

Perpetuation of the concept for body type

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

Mass media

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

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

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

Technology

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

Medicine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bibliography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why is health a social issue?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.2 Student awareness and recognition of Gender Discrimination in the workplace

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.3 Student Perception of Gender Discrimination on self

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.4 Potential impact of Gender Discrimination on female career advancement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.5 Summary

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

Chapter Five- Conclusion

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

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

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