Enhancement (Philosophy) Essay

Cognitive enhancement is the improvement of one’s mental capacity and or mental attributes such as personality, where it is considered optional and not medically necessary (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Enhancement is different to treatment as treatment is linked to the curing of an illness, whereas enhancement is merely improving an already medically healthy body or mind, however, at times it is quite difficult to draw a line between the two (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Types of enhancements include improving one’s athletic abilities through the use of steroids, undergoing cosmetic surgery which is deemed medically unnecessary, or, reducing one’s need to sleep through the consumption of drugs such as Provigil. Enhancements can even encompass things that are commonly availed of every day, such as the consumption of caffeine (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). There are many ethical and practical concerns in relation to cognitive enhancement and whether or not it should be allowed such as Authenticity (Keeping true to oneself), which is a key concern , with both proponents and opponents of cognitive enhancement interpreting authenticity in different ways (Parens, 2005). Two ethical frameworks have developed which try to answer the questions raised by cognitive enhancement and indeed enhancement in general, these frameworks are known as the existentialist model (Self creation) and the Rousseauean model (Gratitude) (Parens, 2005). These frameworks differ on whether or not cognitive enhancement should be allowed, the existentialist model being in favour of cognitive enhancement and the Rousseauean model opposed to the application of it (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Along with authenticity there are other major ethical concerns that could arise from the widespread use of cognitive enhancing methods, namely drugs (Butcher, 2003). Such concerns include a possible increase in the gap between rich and poor and the possibility of the loss of values, namely the value of hard work, which helps make a human being what they are (Butcher, 2003). Philosophers and indeed people in general who favour the existentialist model value autonomy greatly and therefore believe that so long as a human being does not harm another, they should be free to do with their body or mind what they please. If these things may be quite ridiculous and inadvisable, existentialist still believe that they should be condoned, so long as the person in question is well informed on the issue (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). There is also a view that Humans not only have the ability but may also have the responsibility to enhance their condition, not only through normal everyday enhancements but also through artificial means, which are not seen as qualitatively different (within existentialist circles) to everyday enhancements (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). There are, however, some problems with this framework. For instance, in many cases the individual who is given a cognitive enhancement, is not always fully autonomous (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). This is the case in many poor urban areas in the United States, in many schools in these areas up to a third of boys now take Ritalin, even though a large portion of them do not suffer from ADHD (Farah et al. 2004). Using enhancements to simply subdue easily distracted and unruly children could be seen as ethically wrong, this is because a large percentage of children simply are naturally unruly and easily distracted (Farah et al. 2004). To change this, could be seen as changing the personality of the child in question to such an extent that they are essentially no longer the same child, here we see the question of authenticity rise again (Parens, 2005). It is in situations such as these that we see a clear divide between the two frameworks. Most proponents of framework one (self-creation) would be in favour of this sort of cognitive enhancement as they would view the child as essentially the same person, only improved, while the opponents of this framework hold a different belief (Parens, 2005). Proponents of framework two, or the Rousseauean model, place huge importance in the value of â€Å"the given† (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). In other words, they believe we should not tamper past our natural potential. This however gives rise to problematic questions, such as, where can we draw the line between natural and artificial enhancements? (Schmidt-Felzmann, 2012). Framework two argues that cognitive enhancement ignores fundamental facts about the human mind and its limits, it asserts that these limits should be respected. These beliefs could also be seen as a breach of authenticity. When we think of the effects that cognitive enhancement could have on human authenticity we think of the effects it might have on the identity of an individual. While this is important, it is also important to look at the human race as a whole and how cognitive enhancement and enhancement in general might affect its authenticity. From the Stone Age right up to the current social age, humans have constantly strove to improve themselves and their quality of life. In recognition of this, it could be argued that to not enhance our current state of being would be in violation of our nature and of our identity as human beings. When this view is taken it becomes clear that the Rousseauean model can also lead to a breach in authenticity, this, along with other reasons is perhaps why a large portion of philosophers show a certain level of ambivalence towards the two frameworks when it comes to major ethical matters (Parens, 2005). Enhancement, cognitive enhancement in particular, raises many ethical concerns. As already discussed, authenticity is a prime concern, however there are also other important matters which need to be considered before any decision is made on whether or not cognitive enhancement should be allowed. For instance, the introduction of cognitive enhancing drugs could lead to a widening in the gap between rich and poor (Butcher, 2003). This would be that case as such drugs would likely be out of reach (financially) to the lower classes of society. In the long term further problems would arise, as the poor would likely have little or no access to these cognitive enhancing drugs, the upper class would essentially develop into generally more intelligent beings. This would make it far harder for a member of the lower class to compete for college places or jobs (Butcher, 2003). It has been argued, however, that the risk of a widening of the gap between the wealthy and the poor should not be a factor to stand against the introduction of cognitive enhancers as enhancers such as third level education already do this (Butcher, 2003). Another ethical issue is the possibility of the loss of the value of hard work (Butcher, 2003). While this may not seem like such a pressing issue, one must first fully consider the implications this may have in the long term. Humans may use there increased level of intelligence irresponsibly due to a lack of experience gained from having to work hard to overcome obstacles. Along with these issues the safety of such drugs is also an important matter (Farah et al. 2004). It is clear from these observations that the possibility of distribution of cognitive enhancers amongst the public is a very contentious issue, which makes the question â€Å"Should cognitive enhancement be allowed? † a very difficult one to answer. In my opinion, cognitive enhancement should be allowed, although only under certain conditions. The production of such enhancers should be undertaken only by the government so as to ensure the fair and equal distribution of cognitive enhancers amongst all social classes. Drugs should be extensively tested before mainstream introduction in order to assure the safety of the product. These measures may, however, not be enough. Governments would have the means to manipulate the public by introducing other properties to cognitive enhancing drugs, For instance they could use certain ingredients to create a more patriotic and docile population this would be a prime concern in politically unstable countries or in those of communist leanings. Should the entire population of a country regularly take a drug, which was deemed essential to take, untold damage could be done to the human condition. A world without free will could develop, with the world population under the control of one drug, and those who produced it. Perhaps the cognition of the human race is not yet evolved enough to consider its enhancement. Bibliography: Parens, Erik. (2005) â€Å"Authenticity and Ambivalence: Toward Understanding the Enhancement debate† Hastings Center Report, Vol. 35, Number 3, May-June, pp. 34-41. Schmidt-Felzmann, Heike. (2010) â€Å"Personal Identity and Human Nature: The Enhancement Debate, Heike Schmidt-Felzmann 12/10/12. † Philosophical questions & issues. [online. ] Available at: https://nuigalway. blackboard. com/webapps/portal/frameset. jsp? tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_31108_1%26url%3D%252Fwebapps%252Fblackboard%252Fexecute%252FdisplayIndividualContent%253Fmode%253Dview%2526content_id%253D_419734_1%2526course_id%253D_31108_1 (Accessed: 03/12/12.) Butcher, James. (2003) â€Å"Cognitive enhancement raises ethical concerns† The Lancet, Vol 362 (9378) p. p 132–133. Farah, Martha J. Illes, Judy. Cook-Deegan, Robert. Gardner, Howard. Kandel, Eric. King, Patricia. Parens, Eric. Sahakian, Barbara & Root Wolpe, Paul. (2004) â€Å"Neurocognitive enhancement: what can we do and what should we do? † Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Vol: 5. P. p 421-425.

Diverse Leadership Wealth of Our Nation Essay

Diversity is the mosaic of people who bring a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, styles, perspectives, values and belief to a group with which they are to interact. Diversity is a variation in ideas, opinion, cultural and ethnical background, style, values, and beliefs. Diversity is very essential in the portfolio of any organization or team that seeks optimum performance. The best form of learning is by learning from people with diverse ideas and methods of reasoning. Diversity is important in a team, because there will be more than enough idea and skill pool, which the team can benefit from when carrying out assignments and activities. Most people think of it simply as differences in race, nationality, or gender, but true diversity encompasses these attributes along with differences in opinions, ideologies, and interests, among other things. People tend to reflect on diversity as simply demographic, a matter of race, gender or age. However, groups can be disparate in many ways. Diversity also is based on informational differences, reflecting a person’s education and experience, and on values or goals that can influence what one perceives to be the mission of something as small as a single meeting or as large as a whole company. Diversity among employees can create better performance when it comes to creative tasks such as product development or cracking new markets. Managers have been trying to increase diversity to achieve the benefits of innovation and fresh ideas. Over the years, corporations and fortune 500 companies embraced diversity. They pushed diversity to the fore-front and embarked on campaigns to recruit, train and retain a diversified work force. The essential ingredients of performance in the workplace in the United States have always been teams and team-work. Companies built their teams in such a way that it always included people with diverse backgrounds, opinions and culture. Diversity within these teams brought about higher success rates in activities and projects because the team were able to pull ideas, strengths, knowledge and resources from a wider range of intellectual capital. The study of diversity in the workplace has taken on new importance as changing economics prompt many companies to restructure themselves into flatter, more decentralized entities. The result is that today’s corporations are built around groups that must find answers to novel and complicated business issues. These teams bring together diverse groups of people who incorporate a variety of backgrounds, ideas and personalities. Large corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Exxon-Mobil, General Electric, Ford Motor Company, American Express Company, Wells Fargo & Company, Washington Mutual Inc. , Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs were often honored for distinguishing themselves with first in class diversity initiatives in the Financial Services Industry. First the housing market collapsed; which impacted the financial markets; which impacted the stock market. On September 14, 2008, the financial industry held its breath as it watched the fall and death of Wall Street. Lehman Brothers collapsed; Merrill Lynch was sold to bank Of America. What followed was a veritable redrawing of the industrial map: Former cornerstones of the nation’s economy filed for bankruptcy or merged with larger companies to stay afloat. As the mergers are finalized, the new fear within the industry is not so much whether the companies will survive, but will the employees? â€Å"Regarding hiring, everybody will be affected,† said Carlos Orta, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. Carlos Orta knew everybody will be hurt, but his fears were the impact the freeze and layoffs will have on Hispanics. In all, the financial industry is thought to have lost more than 3000,000 jobs since the crisis started. Mr. Orta predicts that the restructuring of the financial industry will force it to focus more on diversity, because its customers will hold them accountable. He said that JPMorgan, which is now essentially a bank, will have to deal with banking issues. This will be a shock to their system because they don’t subscribe to diversity and never have, he said. The impact the financial crises will have on diversity in the workplace has been the subject of several discus and forums in the last couple of months. The discussion was part of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. ’s 12th Annual Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project Economic Summit. The panel â€Å"The Economic Crisis on Diversity and Diversity Initiatives† explored the economy’s impact on women and people of color in the cooperate world. Many of the panelists weighed whether women and people of color have been disproportionately affected by downsizing due to the weak economy. Diversity in large corporations is definitely hard hit by the financial crisis. In recent years advocacy groups have pushed up the number of blacks and other traditionally underrepresented minorities being hired and promoted by financial firms. This current economic crisis has impacted every sector of the U. S. economy . During tough economic times; organizations are forced to focus on their â€Å"core business†. Projects and Initiatives such as diversity that reside in their support area may be delayed or cut often with trepidation about the potential impact delay will have on efforts to build an inclusive culture. Now, as financial firms and other companies downsize or disappear, many of those hired through diversity initiatives have been losing their jobs. As companies trim their workforce and cut costs to weather a faltering economy, women and minorities brace as they bare the possible brunt of the layoffs. Subha Barry, managing director of global diversity and inclusion at Merrill Lynch said that most of her firms’ diversity initiatives were tied to increasing revenue. In the words of Barbara Thomas, president and CEO of the National Black MBA â€Å" As we all know, when anything goes wrong in this country, black employees are hit harder than most other races† . She also stated that, When America gets a cold, black America gets pneumonia. Diversity hiring in the finance and insurance industries has been on the upswing in recent years. Some people opine that the actual effect on diversity when companies merge or downsize will likely vary according to the companies’ layoff and retention policies. Thomas said the Black MBA organization has been trying to refocus on industries less affected by the financial crisis: health care and biotech, global media and entertainment, energy, and food and beverages. The association she says, has been encouraging its members to pursue these industries. Yvonne Hart, associate director of MBA student programming at the Robert Toigo Foundation, which awards fellowships to minority students at business schools, said her organization has been keeping a close eye on how the financial crisis is affecting minority students. â€Å"We always have concerns about that, and definitely those concerns have intensified over the past 12 months† Hart said her organization has changed its programming in response to the recent turmoil of the past two weeks, adding six sector-focused Web seminars on navigating industries other than investment banking and intensified interview and mentorship guidance. The group also held a town hall-style conference call meeting last week, in which four professionals from the investment banking industry spoke to 130 minority business school students considering careers in finance, giving them insights and career tips on how to move forward in the new financial landscape. It’s not just racial minorities who are concerned. When word broke of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing, the Forte Foundation, which encourages female MBA candidacies, sent out an e-mail to all the women in their database, reminding them of the career resources the group offers. Apart from the direct impact of layoffs, diversity advocates fear many financial firms will eliminate or cut back human resources or diversity programs. Most industries are already seeing the departure of some top diversity advocates and there are worries that there will be more to come in the next few months. It’s more that the people that are leaving are the ones who were around for years and knew the corporationa and really got what diversity was about. There’s going to be a lot more scrutiny at these companies. If they keep pulling staff, they can’t always justify keeping the programs and partnerships they are supporting. Also at stake is continued corporate sponsorship of diversity organizations. For instance, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, an organization that trains black, Hispanic, and Native American young people for business leadership positions, lists insurance giant American International Group and investment banks Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs as among their corporate sponsors. It is pertinent to note that two of their sponsors have ceased to be in existence. In conclusion, it is evident the concept of diversity will continue to be an intricate aspect of the business environments of today and in the future. Organizations must embrace and understand the importance of diversity in order to remain competitive, respond to globalization and promote innovation and productivity within its organization. Strong commitment and leadership will provide the necessary cultural atmosphere that promotes an inclusive environment. Training, education and effective communication will help execute strong change management practices. The rationale for understanding and managing diversity has never been stronger. As new possibilities and opportunities in the business environment arise, the need for diversity programs will be the key to successful organizations of the future. The world today is more diverse than ever before. Our ethnicity, religion, life experiences and all other personal attributes make us unique individuals. We all need to learn to accept what is different from us and more importantly respect it. In this environment, companies are going to have to be very, very savvy and very smart in terms of maintaining talent in their pipeline that is not just white males and even white females. They need to continually maintain a diversified workforce. There has been no report or research that has proved that diversity initiatives in large corporations is in part responsible for the current financial turmoil the economy is in If you want to really be ahead of the curve in your workforce, you have to pay attention to demographics. The pessimist in me says that diversity will slip down the agenda, for most firms, because in tough times business executives could be tempted to fall back on old, familiar practices rather than introducing innovative new ones. But there was also an optimistic way of looking at things, if companies were going to have to shed staff to cope with the crisis, what better time to restructure their operations so that workforces are more diverse. Since the financial crisis is forcing companies to reassess their core values and part of this process would involve a greater commitment to diversity. With a more diverse mix, companies will become a more wholesome organization which will herald new ways of doing business, post-financial crises era. Companies should embark on mundane diversity initiatives, with programs which will help recruit and retain minorities. Once hired, promotion policies that encourage diversity will ensure the best people get to top management positions, and these will stir these companies to paths of success and profitability. Despite all of the economic turmoil facing the workforce or even because of the turmoil there is a need for large corporations to maintain a strong focus on diversity. There has been no time better that now to invest smartly in diversity.

Natural food and drink industry Essay

Executive Summary The all natural food and drink industry is relatively new, it has emerged as part of the clean label trend and is seen as an alternative to the organic products or products labeled as â€Å"free-from†. The global all natural food and drink market has shown a steady growth during the last few years and is expected to grow due to rising demands for healthy, nutritional, natural foods and drinks without chemicals and artificial ingredients. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 35% annually, Indian non-carbonated drink market is likely to touch Rs. 54,000 crore by 2015 from the current level of Rs. 22,000 crore including fruit drinks, nectars and juices etc. Our company J-GAPS started in 2014 thereby tapping this potential in the Indian market had come up with a natural flavored drink segment in terms of coconut water with Kewra and Mint with the product named SIPCO in order to revive freshness. This could be seen as great opportunity in Maharashtra near the Konkan region where the natural source of tender coconut could be fully utilized to provide healthy natural beverage to people. The financial assistance is catered by coconut development board in terms of 50% cost of production. The vision of our company is to provide a natural drink to the consumer so as to improve their health in a fast paced lifestyle. Identifying the gap in this market through market analysis especially in terms of coconut water wherein there are hardly tetra packs available in order to make it convenient for people to have the nutritional drink without carrying the hard husk. The main drivers of introducing such a natural beverage includes rising consumer concerns regarding artificial ingredients, artificially introduced hormones and genetically modified products, and their awareness of the long term health benefits of natural food and good nutrition thereby having a lifestyle of health and sustainability (LOHAS). We therefore see ahead a great potential in this market as GEN – Y would be the most prominent segment to be tapped in order to sustain in the market and thereby expand our presence in India. 1. Current Marketing Situation 1.1 Industry overview The Indian packaged tender coconut water is still an industry in its development phase. There exist a very few players in this market. J-GAPS  aims to position its product in the general market where exist players like Pepsi, Coca cola, Parle agro foods etc. who are major players in the soft drink segment. The emerging trend among consumers to go for healthy and natural food products will drive this industry. Coconut water is a fruit juice with many unique features and a major one is a low calorie content .This makes it a very attractive prospect for weight management positioned juices. 1.2 Company description J-GAPS will primarily engage in extracting, processing and adding flavors to tender coconut water which is then ready to be delivered to stores. It is a privately held firm will be located in Ratnagiri in the state of Maharashtra .We have identified a location which is closer to the coconut farms. J-GAPS sources the tender coconut for its requirements from its own farms and also additionally from other farmers directly. Our processing unit has a capacity of processing liters water annually. 1.3 Market analysis- Tender flavored coconut water is recommended for people of all ages. With the consumers turning health conscious and preferring natural products, we believe that our product has a strong market both in domestic circles and in countries abroad. Our main target customer is the young generations who have a fancy for energy drinks. We also target sport persons with our special energy pack. We want to make our drink available for homes, offices, hospitals, sports persons, marriages, other occasions, hotels and restaurants. The recent studies showing the impact of aerated drinks on health has turned customer to ignore such artificially produced drinks and go for natural food drinks. The rising population will require larger amount of food drinks. Our product will be a natural thirst quencher with added flavor of Kewra essence in it which will be beneficial during the long summer months. 1.4 Major Segmentation Approach 1.5 PESTLE Analysis The Pestle Analysis identifies the political, economic, social, technological, legal and ecological influences on an organization. Political factors Various political factors affect the fruit juice industry. With the change of government the policies regulating the industry might change. As the taxation policy keeps changing, it has a significant effect on fruit juice industry. The government plans of encouraging foreign direct investments would affect our industry highly as organized fruit juice industry has only 3 % share as of now in the market but with FDIs it could increase significantly by coming of bigger players. Economic factors Our company would rely on trucks to move our raw materials to the processing plant and distribute our finished product so, fuel is also an important subject, so the company is subject to the fuel price fluctuation, and to possible fuel crisis. Since, ours is an agro based industry so we would be exposed to the risks of high prices due to crop failure, non-availability of raw material because of pest attack etc. Other economic factors affecting fruit juice industry are often linked to variability in real growth, inflation, interest rates, governmental actions and other factors. Factors like money supply, energy availability and cost, business cycles, etc. would also affect our company. Socio-cultural factors We are more than a billion strong nations and the youngest country as well. We are also home to the great Indian middle class. The major growth drivers in fruit juice market are increase in health consciousness among consumers, increase in disposable incomes and more sophisticated cocktail culture. There is more money circulating in the economy. With life becoming more hectic and tiring, consumer preferences are witnessing a visible shift towards healthy foods. Even the younger generation has started shifting from fizz to fresh and healthy. As people are becoming more and more educated, they are taking the healthy route. Technological factors Fruit juices have become big business throughout much of the developed and developing world with the increasing health conscious proportion of population. In this ever growing industry technology plays a major role in maintaining the quality and cost efficiency to generate higher profits.  Better technology can increase the shelf life of our product. Technology refers to both production process as well as machinery. Legal factors Processed fruit juices are regulated under the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations as a food product and the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act. The Food and Drugs Act creates identity standards, provides a basis for labelling requirements and establishes the safety parameters for soft drinks. As food safety requirements become more advanced across the beverage industry, tracking and traceability capabilities are a prerequisite. Ecological factors One environmental issue that food processing companies face is waste remaining from packaging. However, the problem often lies in feasibility of collection, separation and purification of the consumers’ disposed bottles or drinks packets. Environmental issues have gained importance because of regulatory requirements. It is not possible to sell a new packaging material without covering all the environmental issues. The reduction of materials in packing cartons can potentially provide both financial and environmental benefits. . We propose to provide our product in tetra packs so that lesser damage is done to the environment in comparison to PET bottles. 2. Product review 2.1 Product features In India coconut water has always been considered as a health drink to refresh the body due to its nutritional value. Tender Coconut Water is considered the healthiest & best sports drink in the world, because it contains vitamins. It is very refreshing and rich in sugar, electrolytes and minerals – available in the natural form in most sterile conditions. It is a natural isotonic drink where the electrolyte levels are similar to those found in the human body. The water of fresh green coconuts is actually fat free. Our company keeping this factor in mind has come up with two natural flavored drink containing 1. Kewra essence which has a floral fragrance thereby providing a cooling effect in the drink. 2. Mint flavor to provide freshness and energizing flavor to the drink Chota Anna would have two variants in terms of Kewra drink and Mint drink. Kewra drink Mint drink Coconut water Coconut water Kewra essence Mint sugar honey Farm Fresh Tender Coconut are selected (50% capacity extracted) and the rest purchased from the Ratnagiri Association Coconut supplier and Natural Tender Coconut Water is squeezed out, untouched by hand and put through a special process in order to add the natural flavors of Kewra essence and Mint. The product is packed in food-grade Bottles/ Cans, which keeps it fresh for 9/18 months. The taste is natural and hence good.

Mary Daly Radical Feminist Thoughts Research Paper

Mary Daly Radical Feminist Thoughts - Research Paper Example Her first publication â€Å"The Church and the Second Sex† resulted in her termination as a lecturer. Daly’s second publication was â€Å"Beyond God the Father† in this publication, she portrays God as a substantive subject. In her publications, she follows Paul Tillich example who is known for his foundational work in feminist theology. Her third book published in 1978 â€Å"The Metaethics of Radical Feminism† shows how men throughout history aim at oppressing women. In some of her publications, she gives some of the chants that can be used by women to free themselves from oppression. With this, this research paper gives the ancient/ classical sources that Daly uses in building her arguments about feminism. The essay will also give the themes that Daly uses. Lastly, how the themes are influential in the contemporary world. In her publications, Daly uses Biblical historical tales for instance the Genesis and the fall into freedom. By using these tales, she portrays how religion has created inequalities between Saxes by different destructive religious patterns. In her publication, she argues that, women are supposed to rule men. The Biblical historical tales are well illustrated in her publication â€Å"Tillich’s Theological Influence on Mary Daly†. This work of art gives the thought process of the radical theologian feminist Mary Daly. Daly interacts with Tillich’s idea to bring out the aspect of feminism. In this publication, Daly had different opinions on Tillich’s sexual life especially concerning her wife Hannah (Lyon1). Daly writes that Tillich expresses a form of religious doublethink, which makes him to be deceived hence self-acceptance. In analyzing Tillich’s life Daly does not explicitly connect the power of the Supreme Being to sexual oppression. This text il lustrates Tillich’s theological influence and ideas in building her argument on feminism and how women are oppressed. In Daly’s book â€Å"Beyond God the Father: Towards a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation†, the author brings out different themes concerning women's liberation. In this book, she portrays the feminist spiritual program that she believes that it is of great help to women. This is by how she believes that women should take a place in the current patriarchal religious thus creating a strong foundation of feminist theology. All this is aimed towards women's liberation. In this book, Daly portrays how God is the only static and authoritarian male figure. She clearly shows how father figure has led to the subjugation of women (Daly 1986). This is because most people believe that, the father is the backbone of the systems of symbols. She further claims that religious subjugation results to the subjugation of all other areas in life social, politica l, and economic. Because of this, she states that, the feminist spiritual revolution will replace the traditional concept of feminism. Daly says that women are supposed to realize their own potential to overcome male domination (Daly 1986). She says that women should be ready to ensure that they do away with all socially sanctioned women abuses, such as female circumcision. The second book, which contains different themes of great help in this research paper, is â€Å"The Church and the Second Sex†. This book uses biblical accounts to portray the role of women in the society. It shows how women are able to survive in servitude. In this book, she shows how women feel that they are in a homeless world owned by only women (Daly 1). The writer also shows how Jesus treated a woman that is the relationship between women and Jesus. In the New Testament, women are portrayed as persons, which clearly contrasts with the modern

Effective Publicity Campaigns Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Effective Publicity Campaigns - Assignment Example It should also be an articulate and precise release, detailing only the benefits of what is in promotion. Accompanying the PR process should be review samples for support. The other pertinent aspect is tracking capability. These will avail data on market acceptance hence appropriate in convincing new consumers. One PR social campaign that quite intrigued me was the Beat Cancer campaign from, Everywhere, an Atlanta, Georgia based content and social media Communications Company. Everywhere initiated a social media campaign to raise money for non-profit making cancer organizations, towards countering breast cancer. The basis of this campaign is that its sponsors – MillerCoors Brewing Company and eBay/Paypal – would donate $0.01 to charity every time the ‘#BeatCancer’ tag got mentioned in a Facebook or tweet update status or a BlogSpot. This social campaign managed to raise well over $70,000 for the charity organizations, making it a great success. The Starbucks publicity campaign ‘My Starbucks Idea’ had a great impact on me. This PR campaign incorporated a crucial aspect, consumer involvement, which many other companies do not. This impressed me since it gives the user a sense of importance and belonging: one would be very happy if their idea got

Foundation of business psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Foundation of business psychology - Essay Example Through the exploration of the said concepts, the importance of the attitude and personality of the personnel in an organization can be explored. To be able to achieve the objectives of the study, it is essential to define personality. The concept of personality had been explored by different academic groups and different ways of studying and researching the said concept had been established. The most common definition is that personality can be related to the behavioural component that can be exhibited by an individual in relation to acquired traits from both hereditary and environmental factors (Furnham & Crump 167). Through the exhibited personality factors and components, there are different groups referred to as personality types. Through the said personality types, researchers based personality tests and personality types. Through the procedures that had been developed through the years, personality can be detected in the sense that can be considered sufficient to predict future behaviours in different scenarios and conditions (Boeree 1; Furnham & Crump 167-9). The prediction of behaviour of individuals on the basis of the determination of personality type can be considered essential specifically in cases wherein behaviour is important e.g. in employment. The said point of view is the main consideration of the study undertaken. In business psychology, it can be considered that there are personalities being sought in employment as well as those that are prevented. This can be attributed to the fact that the labour force and the administrative group are key functions that can be greatly affected by the personality and the behaviour of the individuals in a company (Pervin 5). The presented view regarding the concept of personality can be considered as included in the importance of personality. Basically

Bestseller Lists Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bestseller Lists - Assignment Example In the two classes, there is no monopoly of authors in the top 20. More so, authors are either in one category or the other (Rodgers 11). It implies that no author writes in both categories but only specialize in one type. Additionally, there is no monopoly of authors in year 2015 in the combined e-books fiction and print. Every week different books sell at different rates and as such no book is consistently leading the charts. Fiction books involve writing of imaginative narratives. As such, there exist no monopoly of writers between the years 1950 to 1959 (U.S Accounting Office, 15). In most years, different authors appear in the top 10 with only few or none that were present in past years. In the non-fiction category, individual books and authors appear in continuous years. The guide for better homes seems to do good as it looks for large parts between 1950 and 1959. Between the years 1904 and 1909, Barr McCutcheon is an author that is constantly in the top 10 bestsellers (Cader, 16). More so, more authors appear regularly in the list but with different

Induced Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest Research Paper

Induced Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest - Research Paper Example TDuring an open heart surgery, there is significant risk of neurological injury on account of the lack of oxygen supply to brain as the circulation comes to a halt. In the absence of oxygen, the brain undergoes anaerobic metabolism as reported by Michelle E. (2011). This leads to damage to ATP dependent cellular functions with a resulting increase in calcium and glutamate excretion. The brain cells thus become more active, consuming more oxygen. With the increasing hypoxemia, further damage occurs leading to cell death. The resultant cerebral edema further enhances the damage. Also, as a result of all these processes, the blood-brain barrier also becomes ineffective further contributing to cerebral edema. As soon as the circulation returns after the heart starts pumping again, reperfusion injury occurs which adds up to the ongoing damage. Meanwhile, there is already an onset of the inflammatory reaction as a result of cell death leading to a release of neutrophils and macrophages in an attempt to remove the cellular debris. The resultant production of free radicals also catalyses the damaging process thus worsening the cerebral edema. This vicious cycle continues leading to brain death. ROLE OF THERAPEUTIC HYPOTHERMIA IN PREVENTING NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE: Using the technique of therapeutic hypothermia can be useful to avoid all the above described damage. The therapeutically induced hypothermia after cardiac arrest takes following steps to decrease the extent of neurological damage: 1. It stabilizes the release of calcium and glutamate thus decreasing the degree of cellular death, 2. It stabilizes the blood brain barrier, 3. It causes a suppression of the inflammatory response, 4. It reduces cerebral edema by the help of above actions. INDUCED THERAPEUTIC HYPOTHERMIA AFTER CARDIAC ARREST 4 According to the report produced by Michelle E. (2011), there is a reduction in cerebral metabolism from 6% to 10% for every one degree Celcius drop in body temperature. This results in decreased oxygen requirements by the brain cells. Michelle E. (2011) simulates the effects of therapeutic hy

Judgement and decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Judgement and decision making - Essay Example This tool is also essential, non-egocentric social propriety; thus, Madoff should use this tool to win investors’ trust on their $50 billion. Notably, Bernie Madoff might have capitalized on this tool to influence that belief and trust of investors that he could manage the $50 billion economically and profitably (Kramer, 1998). On this note, Madoff should use the Cialdini’s principle that includes the mode of dress, education, physical characteristics (age, posture), and level of education and experience in handling the entire investment persuasions. Additionally, Madoff could have removed the self-interest from the investment (Connolly, Hammond, and Arkes, 1999). The principle of removal of self-interest from the persuasion often increases the perception of other interested parties in the discussion. However, there are chances that Madoff can fail to convince the investors to entrust him with $50 billion. This might happen if he lacks the expertise or rather the miss-entitlement to allocate incentives. Notably, the decision can only be taken in the self-interest of Madoff but not that of the business (Connolly, Hammond, and Arkes, 1999). In such a case, some of the investors may suspect his own judgment in the persuasion deal and fail to follow his authority’s instructions. Therefore, if Madoff remain faithful and persuades the investors at the interest of the business, there are high chances that the investors may entrust him with their $50 billion worth of investment. In addition, Madoff should apply the liking or the affect as a persuasion mechanism to note that the things that make people feel valued are things that are equally beneficial to those people. The approach also has a strong motivating power, love, anger, pride, and attraction among others. Well articulation of this principle shall overwhelm reason that eventually become extraordinarily difficult to change

Society in general Essay Example for Free

Society in general Essay J. B Priestly lived from 1894 to 1984. An Inspector calls was written in 1945 and challenges the social class system of pre-war Britain. This era is often called the Golden Era, but is also remembered for its terrible poverty in lower social classes. The play shows the two states of rich and poor in the quote.. . Historically and socially, the years around 1912 were very unsettled. The British Empire was beginning to decline and Queen Victoria had died in 1902, leaving the people expectant about the new era; much like the turn of the century or new millennium. Priestly uses a character within the play to get across his views on society, and some of the following questions can be picked up from the text, Is there a true society? Should we take responsibility for everyone? And finally, Do actions we take directly affect others? If the play was written in a political article rather than a play, the information would not be put across but by expressing certain opinions in a play, people think of the views actually within the characters, therefore making it much more effective, its like almost learning from enjoyment. From Act One we know certain aspects about the Birling family. With out reading the play we can know so much about them just from the stage directions. They were a rich wealthy family but not too rich as they lived in a fairly large suburban house. Also you can tell that they had money coming form a factory.. A prosperous manufacture. It can be said that there was a metaphor for the Edwardian society and this is the word titanic. The Birling family can also been seen as the titanic, this is because it showed hope, luxury, progression and wealth. The Birling family represents the higher society in the social class system; we can tell his by the way they look down upon other classes. Mr Birling says well, well this is very nice. Very nice. Good dinner too, Sybil. Tell cook from me. Then later Mrs. Birling comments on his statement Arthur, youre not supposed to say such thing. This shows those being that high up couldnt even tell their cook it was a lovely meal. Priestly describes the Inspector, when he first appears on stage, in terms of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness, symbolising the fact that he is an unstoppable force within the play. His disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before speaking gives the impression that he sees through surface appearances to the real person beneath. It also gives him a thoughtfulness that contrasts with the thoughtlessness of each characters treatment of the girl. His role in the play is not simply to confront each character with the truth, but to force each character to admit the truth they already know. He works methodically through the characters present one at a time, partly because he recognises that otherwise, theres a muddle, and partly because, given the chance, the characters are all quick to defend each other, or to call upon outside help (such as Colonel Roberts) in order to avoid accepting the truth of what he suggests.

Impact of Gender Inequality on Social Development Outcomes

Impact of Gender Inequality on Social Development Outcomes Reviewing the literature, it is clear that gender inequality has no positive effects on social development outcomes. On growth, the net impact of gender inequality is quite ambiguous; it can be a great hindrance to growth or only circumstantially support it. Wages and income are rapidly affected and can change aggregate demand. These differences in wages and income regulate the incentive systems which plan investment in human capital, which in turn affects growth. Gender gaps in education, on the other side are unfavorable to long term growth, due to the large positive externalities generated by female education, enhanced parental human capital dissemination and reduced fertility. Gender inequality in health and life expectancy impede long term growth and efficiency due to reduced working lives and lower productivity levels. These health and education impacts are the obstacle produced by gender inequality to social development. On social development, gender inequality is generally harmful, as equality improves societal health and education outcomes, as well as generating large externalities for society as a whole. The economic effects of gender inequality are now well recognized, despite the lack of a precise and broad body of research and literature. Chapters Two and Three emphasize the significance of gender equality in education and health as both are essential determinants of growth and social development. It is vital to continue this target to obtain the gains from improved female education while exercising concern not to overlook men’s own gender particular problems. Gender equality is definitely a dominant economic tool for economic and social development, requiring the foundation of opportunities for both sexes to maintain long-term growth, economic efficiency, social development and good governance. Ceteris paribus, there is enough evidence to believe that in the long-run, achievement of the goal of gender-equal opportunities in labor, health and education is far more efficient than the pervasive gender inequality we see today. The policy issue now will be to convert equality of opportunities into equal outcomes. The complexity of gender inequality does indeed stress that there may be a ‘market failure’ in achieving gender-equitable outcomes, but there is insufficient evidence to state whether or not forced outcomes will yield net productivity gains compared with the gender inequality existing conditions. Gender gaps in health and life expectancy harm a nation’s long term growth and productivity, and in employment they have negative effects on aggregate demand and short run output. Furthermore, female capital per worker has been shown to have a higher return than male capital per worker, and practical application of neoclassical theory shows that a higher steady-state output and growth rate will correspond with capital investment that is skewed towards the female. The benefits and costs to economic growth imposed by gender inequality are clearly skewed so that a reduction in gender inequality is a more favorable outcome to reach a higher long-term growth path, as the circumstantial and exceptional studies are somewhat more myopic and set over a certain period. Gender inequality may also promote growth in that it is a second-best solution for a male dominated political conflict and civil unrest which arises out of inequality. Having women bear the greater share of a nation’s income inequality, as they have historically done in patriarchal societies, may be a preferred option to society as a whole bearing this burden. It will decrease the likelihood of militant groups forming, and conflict then erupting over income inequality, which would create a far greater obstacle to growth. All of these findings suggest that gender inequality is harmful for the health and education aspects of social development, while supporting the policy opinion of lessening education and health gaps between men and women – often by targeting women directly. The other forms of social development previously discussed – health and education – have an important effect on the reduction of poverty and there is a high degree of linkage, especially with the different degrees of poverty and different definitions. These definitions have been broadened from just monetary poverty to include poverty in opportunity, capabilities, institutions and much more. While gender inequality and poverty are closely related, there is adequate evidence to show that reducing gender inequality only is not enough to reduce poverty. Just as economic growth, education, investment, aid or any other single variable is not enough to address poverty, neither is improving gender equality. Poverty reduction through gender equality will be brought about through a number of means – including health, education, and economic growth. While positive health and education outcomes are admittedly very useful tools for addressing poverty, the degree to which gender inequality directly determines poverty rates is very uncertain, and we cannot specify that simply improving gender inequality will reduce poverty. The influences of gender equality on human capital and economic growth are far better tools for poverty reduction than blindly putting more women in school, jobs and parliament. CONCLUSION  Ã‚  RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion Gender differences in all socio economic aspects of earnings, wages, ability, health, capital and poverty broadened in several countries because women cannot have access and control over resources, gain from economic opportunities, and determine their authority in political field. The outcome suggests that an exogenous boost in girls’ access to education creates an enhanced environment for economic growth and that the effect is mostly strong for middle income countries. However the indirect effects on growth happen through the growth externalities of fertility, investments in children. I have reached the conclusion that gender inequality normally has undesirable effects on all facets of socioeconomic development. Moreover, there are extremely little facts to advocate that any economic effectiveness vs. gender parity trade off exists gender equality is also gender efficient. Gender inequality is now gradually becoming known as an imperative macroeconomic variable, but still not considered as a major determinant of growth. Recommendation The economic effects of gender inequality are now well recognized, despite the lack of a specific and extensive body of research and literature. I have been able to draw some definitive policy recommendations from the research conducted in this project, but there is still much to understand if we are to act effectively and decisively. International development practitioners have adopted the policy of ‘gender mainstreaming’, but despite this involving both sexes by definition, there is a recurring and persistent focus on women. In advanced economies, women are now more educated than men and male tertiary enrolments are declining,[1] meaning that we should expect to see a decline in aggregate male human capital. This may be a concern, especially if men are better at mathematics and technical sciences. Furthermore, the declining fertility rates of these advanced economies have led to serious skill shortages, population shortages, and structural labor market problems. This project offers clear evidence that gender equality may assist in poverty reduction through a number of different channels, but that it cannot be expected to directly, independently and systematically reduce poverty. It is recommended that gender equality is never viewed as a ‘magic-bullet’ solution to poverty reduction or ‘development’. In fact, it appears that promoting gender equality in education and employment may be one of those few policies that have been termed ‘win-win’ strategies. It would promote economic welfare and effectiveness, promote other critical human development goals such as lower mortality and fertility, and it would be intrinsically valuable as well. The task at hand is to develop a framework to understand and deal with the reinforcing social and economic structures of gender inequality. [1] WDI, 2009

Strategic Analysis of Walmarts Advantages in its Environment

Strategic Analysis of Walmarts Advantages in its Environment Strategic Analysis is to analyse Walmart macro-environmental and micro-environmental. The analysis methods use such as PESTLE Analysis, Porters 5 Forces Analysis, SWOT Analysis and Competitive Advantage to analyse the corporate business environment. PESTLE Analysis PESTLE is the structure to investigate the volatile business environments in which Walmart operates by discovering the forces that effecting the corporate operation. Political and Legislations Environment As Walmart operates in the global scale; the performances of the corporate are influenced by the political and statutory law of the country invested. For instance, the employment statutory laws of a country are to ensure investors provide varieties of jobs to its population at large from flexible, locally based low paid jobs to centrally located high pay jobs (Balchin, 1994). Besides that, the go global strategies has its impacts on the local retails market when a giant company such as Walmart penetrate into the country it causes local retails shutting down due to incompetent to compete in term of its predatory pricing policy (Basker, 2007). The author indictment that Walmart paying low salary to its employees; to protect its competitiveness in its retails market but it leading to high turnover rate of its employees. Economical Environment For the past four years, the world facing global economic crisis which leading to high unemployment, increases of fuel prices, and losing consumer confidence  [1]  . However, the crises assist Walmart to sustain its retail businesses even though the fuel price escalating above US$ 100/barrel because consumers becoming price conscious on seeking products value for money. The strategic uses by Walmart Canada: 1. sharing the truckloads with the suppliers to ensure all fully loaded, 2. switching manual stocking shelves to automatic tilted shelves which will deliver next item to the front, and 3. lowering the lighting and increasing the roof insulation, (The Star, 2008), as to reduce its operating costs. Socio-Cultural Environment As Walmart go globalise, the corporate has to adapt the changes of social and cultural differences because it can easily affect employees morale in workplace and consumer experiences. Based WPP (2008), Americanisation is not easy to establish in foreign countries because of the heterogeneity of perception, language, cultural and needs especially in European, Asia-Pacific and Africa (Sorrell, 2008). Environment and technological Environment Environmental and technological plays a significant part in the Walmart products/services developments because it improves customer satisfaction and perception in their shopping experience and observation. Besides that Walmart is one of the fastest retailer to adopt latest technology in their business operation. For example: radio frequency identification technology (RFIT) which reduces its out-of-stock goods with this technology (Wilbert, 2006) and using thin film solar technology to boost its renewable energy uses which could produce up to 22.5 million kilowatts hours of clean energy annually (Walmart Stores Web Site, 2010). Besides that, Walmart adopt eco-friendly products such recycle bottle, shirt made of transitional cotton and sustainable coffees (Walmart, 2008). Porters 5 Forces Analysis In order for Walmart to find an effective source competitive advantage; the Porters five forces analysis is uses to analyse its market environment to sustain and develop its customer foundation and ensure a profit (Collins, 2010). Threat of substitute goods and services Threat of substitution in supermarket/grocery store is lower on foodstuffs but moderate to high on non-foodstuffs. In food retailing industry the main concern is the convenience store and the greengrocers which easily substituted by the consumers. However, it does not position a direct threat to Walmart because their market size relatively smaller and compare to Walmart they are no match in term of the corporate cost leadership generic strategy and its predatory pricing of everyday low price which make difficult for a small retail chain to compete (Hayden et al., 2002). Nonetheless, Walmart is always looking for economical substitutes on the market and to retain its loyal customers. Threat of entry of new competitors In supermarket/grocery stores threat of entry is minimise as it required a lump sum amount of money to build up brand name and competitiveness. However, the renowned leading food retailers have already secured its brand name globally such as Tesco, Carrefour, Aeon, etc  [2]  . Besides that, in order Walmart to set up a new supermarket it required extensive time and resources before the proposal authorised by the government. In addition, government protectionism  [3]  on local goods, suppliers and retails industry might create unforeseeable threat of entry into new market. Intensity of competitive rivalry Rivalry in supermarket/grocery stores is commonly high due to direct competition against local supermarket, multinational supermarket such as Tesco, Carrefour, Aeon, etc. These retailers will compete against pricing, products, promotions and expansion of its stores occasionally (Duff, 2010). During post global recession 2010, Walmart profit boost 3.6 percent during second quarter from its cost cutting and strong global market growth in China, Brazil and Mexico (DInnocenzio, 2010). In additional, the reason Walmart growth is due its emphasis on foodstuffs which helps the corporate survive during recession period compare to others retailers which more emphasis on non-foodstuffs products suffer loses (Gregory, 2009). Bargaining power of buyers The buyer power is moderately high because goods especially the foodstuff in the retails can be easily substituted with other brand name since the switching cost is relatively lower. Besides that, most customers are price conscious which easily draw away by low prices since price can be easily compared and determined before purchase is done (Gregory, 2009). Bargaining power of suppliers The suppliers power is quite low because suppliers are always concern of losing its contract with giant retailers such as Walmart. Besides that, Walmart easily obtain lowest goods price from the suppliers since Walmart is the leader in retail industry (Chandran, 2003). SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis illustrates Walmart corporate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats Strengths Competent supplier chain management practices. To ensure Walmart products price remain competitive; Walmart carry out few techniques to lower its products costs as shown below. Obtaining goods directly from the producers; to reduce intermediaries costs. Owning private transportation system; to reduce transportation costs. Practicing cross docking technique where goods obtained from producers delivered directly to customers and by this the corporate could reduce the handling, operating and storage costs. Providing the latest IT and communications systems; to ensure effectiveness of tracking sales and stocks besides that it helps the corporate to reduce unproductive stocks. (Chandran, 2003) Predatory Pricing. Walmart goals are to ensure all goods remain lower pricing. According to ICMR (2004) mentioned that Walmart goods is 20 percent lower compared to its competitors. Besides that, the corporate manage to boost its price-conscious customers loyalty based its pricing strategy Weaknesses Unable to adapt to different countries. Walmart penetration into China and Germany is a failure as the corporate incapable to recognise the macro-environmental differences in those countries. Walmart China  [4]   Walmart is facing difficulty in market protectionism and its regionalism governmental across China. Besides that, the government is also eyeing and controlling foreign retailers movement- to ensure Chinese goods are being sold in the market, and cause Walmart unable to monopolise its supply chain and business prospect leading to higher operating costs (Huffman, 2003). Walmart Germany  [5]  6 Walmart failed to comprehend with the local culture as the CEO (Rob Tiarks) ignore to learn German language and make English as official language in the management level (Knorr Arndt, 2003); Its action has offended their Germans employees which shows that the corporate are lacking of management skills and intercultural competence in foreign countries. High law suits against the company. According to Knorr Arndt (2003) remarks said that Walmart Germany has against the Germany laws and regulations by disclosing financial information, predatory pricing by selling below its cost price and failed to show shareholders its business activities. It is a serious matter where Walmart ignoring the key principles of its globalisational strategies. Opportunities Unemployment could be reduced as Walmart expanding its market. It will help to reduce unemployment rate and provides over 22,000 jobs locally and internationally (Walmart, 2009). Increase in consumer purchasing. Walmart as Everyday Low Price retailer could attract lower and middle income families for its cheaper goods price especially in developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. Threats Walmart facing bad publicity of their stagnant salary which never increases even though the corporate is earn profit. Based on UFCW statements saying that the salary paid unable to sustain a family, and besides that the organisation challenge Walmart of their worker rights, equal opportunities and corporate responsibility (UFCW Web Site, 2009) The competitors threats facing by Walmart is Kmart, Target, Home Depot, Kroger, Aeon, etc. Competitive Advantages Based ICMR (2003)  [7]  , Walmart has the most outstanding supply chain management with the use of the latest IT and communications system; e.g. barcode and RFIT to track sales and stocks inventories. Secondly, Walmart enjoy the benefits of low transportation costs as the corporate own the transportation system; to reduce costs. Thirdly, Walmart benefits from its bargaining power in buying large quantity of goods; to ensure the price remain competitiveness where the corporate can provide higher discounts to its customers. Lastly, the uses of the cross-docking system which is focus on the demand chain where goods only deliver upon customer request e.g. Walmart E-tailing (Chandran, 2003). [Words Count: 1486/1500]

An Argument for Abortion :: essays research papers

Pro-Abortion over Pro-life An unborn child doesn’t have a soul   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A sixteen year old walks down a nameless back alley on the mainland, one of only a million others, and she carries with her an unborn child of 4 months. She had tried to hide it but the signs were finally showing, â€Å"Who was the father† were the cries and pleas of those whom she loved. She was raped a year ago by her ex-boyfriend and now carries their unwanted child. Should she be forced to carry and care for the child she hadn’t planned for? Should she be forced to love a child who will for her every waking moment remind her of the night her rights were stripped from her? Should she not have the choice to safely abort her unwanted child instead of resorting to a back alley where she may endanger her own life? Sadly this kind of a story was a reality for thousands of teen’s worldwide, but not only teens suffer from this fate. Women of all kinds have to suffer the choices and consequences that they must make, but should they not have a choic e to abort their unwanted children instead of resorting to the back alley scenes of coat hangers and illegitimate drugs?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many will argue firstly that it is against religion and faith to kill a child, to destroy a soul, especially one so pure as an unborn baby’s. See thou that’s just the thing. It’s an UNborn baby a.k.a. not a human a.k.a. it doesn’t HAVE a soul! So you wouldn’t be killing anything, just a fetus that has in it potential to become a human being, potential to become a living being. But that’s all it is, potential. It’s like trying to argue that liposuction should be illegal because your killing fat that has potential to grow parasites and bacteria.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another topic that I feel needs to be discussed is unwanted pregnancies. Not in the sense where oops the condom slipped or ooh I thought pulling out worked. Because honestly those people should in my opinion be held responsible for their actions. What I am talking about is rapes and mothers who would die if they were to conceive a child because of birth complications. Should they be outlawed from safe abortions? And if not then how would you write a law that would support only them? I’m sure you will agree that there are certain people who should be eligible candidates for abortions but there is no solid way to filter those telling the truth from those who are just fibbing so staying legal for now seems to be the only thing to do right? An Argument for Abortion :: essays research papers Pro-Abortion over Pro-life An unborn child doesn’t have a soul   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A sixteen year old walks down a nameless back alley on the mainland, one of only a million others, and she carries with her an unborn child of 4 months. She had tried to hide it but the signs were finally showing, â€Å"Who was the father† were the cries and pleas of those whom she loved. She was raped a year ago by her ex-boyfriend and now carries their unwanted child. Should she be forced to carry and care for the child she hadn’t planned for? Should she be forced to love a child who will for her every waking moment remind her of the night her rights were stripped from her? Should she not have the choice to safely abort her unwanted child instead of resorting to a back alley where she may endanger her own life? Sadly this kind of a story was a reality for thousands of teen’s worldwide, but not only teens suffer from this fate. Women of all kinds have to suffer the choices and consequences that they must make, but should they not have a choic e to abort their unwanted children instead of resorting to the back alley scenes of coat hangers and illegitimate drugs?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many will argue firstly that it is against religion and faith to kill a child, to destroy a soul, especially one so pure as an unborn baby’s. See thou that’s just the thing. It’s an UNborn baby a.k.a. not a human a.k.a. it doesn’t HAVE a soul! So you wouldn’t be killing anything, just a fetus that has in it potential to become a human being, potential to become a living being. But that’s all it is, potential. It’s like trying to argue that liposuction should be illegal because your killing fat that has potential to grow parasites and bacteria.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another topic that I feel needs to be discussed is unwanted pregnancies. Not in the sense where oops the condom slipped or ooh I thought pulling out worked. Because honestly those people should in my opinion be held responsible for their actions. What I am talking about is rapes and mothers who would die if they were to conceive a child because of birth complications. Should they be outlawed from safe abortions? And if not then how would you write a law that would support only them? I’m sure you will agree that there are certain people who should be eligible candidates for abortions but there is no solid way to filter those telling the truth from those who are just fibbing so staying legal for now seems to be the only thing to do right?

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Essay example -- Health, Medici

Introduction In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in complementary medicine, and indeed alternative medicine (Lee-Treweek 2002, Andrews 2004, Barry 2006). Moreover the number of professionally trained therapist and practitioners has increased giving the patient/client a better choice and at more competitive rates (Smallwood, 2005). In this essay a critical assessment of the view that ‘patients use of complementary and alternative medicine, can be understood as part of the individualisation of responsibility for health’ will be made and argued, that there are many aspects which influence the uptake of such therapies. Responsibility for health has changed and this will be discussed by examples of sociological theories. Medical sociologists have been previously concerned with illness rather than health. Functionalists such as Parsons (1951) suggested illness was a deviance and had the effect of disruption on society which had to be controlled. He used the sick note to illustrate that the sick person was excused from performing normally, but this had to be kept to a minimum and the sick person had to want to get better. The function of the medical profession was to socially control the use of the sick note to those genuinely sick (Webb, Westergaard, 2004). However in today society the working pers on aims to keep working during some illnesses or at least limit the time spent away from work. To do this it involves taking some responsibility for keeping healthy and reducing the time actually being ill. Therefore by choosing to use CAM and alternative medicine, it could provide an additional method which may combat illness and help speed up recovery (Lett, 2000). 08015960 Possible reasons why patient/clie... ...t approach of dictating the direction the Nation Health Service should follow. This caused a vast change in how services were delivered, with cost influencing many decisions. Clinical governance emerged in the late 1990’s when New Labour took power, and evidence based practise became the norm. Netteleton (2010) likens clinical governance to Foucault’s term of ‘governmentality’ whereby collective objectives are kept in check. Evidence- based practise is an aspect that has been the most difficult for CAM and alternative practises to combine with, as measuring and gathering quality evidence is difficult to obtain. The integration into conventional health care will depend upon finding a balance between the two disciplines. However if individualism proves to favour CAM and alternative methods then social pressure may yield quicker than the academic struggle.

A New Turning Point in My Life

Have you ever heard someone says that life is never quiet and peaceful likes a river? And, have you ever faced a difficult challenge that influenced your life? My life has changed a lot and I have faced many complexities since I came to the United States. Like most foreign students, I have almost the same problem about adapting into a new environment while I am studying abroad due to English limitations. It is not easy for me to fully understand what everyone says at the beginning, and it is hard to adapt into American culture.Discrimination and miscommunication are the biggest issues and they always exist for people who immigrate to a new environment. Most foreign students do not get respect from others, and blend into their classmates’ society, that was my thought at first in the new community. However, after almost two years learning in America, I have discovered some valuable experiences about how to manage to be proficient in English, as well as more self-assured and I fe el at ease in my life. I always try to keep moving forward, grabbing every chance to improve myself and never give up making my dream come true.Regardless, communication and discrimination are strenuous challenges for me to integrate into the new environment. I believe that I can surmount these predicaments and achieve success through hard-work and determination. Initially, communication was one of the universal issues for me to encounter when I came to America, because that is the basic step to integrate into a new life. Language differences greatly increase communication problems, even if the speakers have some knowledge of the others' language. Language is so much more than words. As a result, accurate translation,

Ang Paghihintay

Elasticity- The measure of sensitivity of quantity supplied to changes in price. Demand Elasticity- The measure of responsiveness of the consumers to the changes in price. Classification of Demand Elasticity 1. Elastic Demand- when the quantity demanded is greatly affected by the changes in price. 2. Inelastic Demand- the quantity demanded increase in price creates a lesser change in the percentage in quantity demanded. 3. Unitary Demand- when there is an equal change in quantity demanded and the price. 4.Perfectly Elastic Demand- the demand continues to increase without the change in price. 5. Perfectly Inelastic Demand- when there is a constant demand while the price is continuously increasing. Table Ellustration of Classification of Demand Elasticity PP Q elastic demandinelastic demand P unirtary demandperfectly elastic demand perfectly inelastic demand Determinants of Demand Elasticity 1. The price of the consumers budget. The quantity demanded depends on the budget or the income of the consumer. it is usually on the elastic type of demand.One example of this is the things that are not necessary in our lives like cars,appliances. When their price increase, the consumers can easily take away from their list those unecessary things. 2. Availability of the substitutes. It is when the price of the primary goods gets higher, the closer the consumer will transfer to the substitutes. But, it is considered as an inelastic demand. 3. Types of Good. It depends on the type of good that the consumers intended to buy, it is what we called the semi-necessary goods for the consumers. 4. The time under consideration.When the price of the product continously increasing, the consumers will learn to adopt the substitutes over a period of time. Some example is rice, when the price of the rice is continously increasing, the consumers will transfer to its substitutes like bread, corn, and cereals. Supply Elasticity- refers to the reaction or response of the sellers or producers to price change of goods. Types of Supply Elasticity 1. elastic supply- a change in price results to a greater change in quantity supplied. 2. inelastic supply- a change in price results to a lesser change in quantity supplied. . unitary supply- a change in price results to an equal change in quantity supplied. 4. perfectly elastic supply- without change in price, there is an infinite or unlimited change in quantity supplied. 5. perfectly inelastic supply- a change in price has no effect in quantity supplied. Table Illustration of Supply Elasticity elastic supply inelastic supply unitary supply perfectly elastic supplyperfectly inelastic supply Determinants of Supply Elasticity 1. Time- a period of time the products produced either short time or long time. 2.Technology- because of technology, the products can be produced efficiently. Theory of Consumer Behavior 1. Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility Marginal utility refers to the additional satisfaction of a consumer whenever he con sumes one more unitof the same goods. Quantity of Goods consumedTotal UtilityMarginal Utility 1 5 2 9 4 3 123 4 142 5 151 6 150 *When your consumerism increases, your marginal utility will decrease. 2. Indifference Curve The word indifference curve means â€Å"showing no bias or neutral†.Combination Kl. Of meat Kl. Of fish A51 B42 C33 D24 E15 *The table shows that any combination you choose the satisfaction you can get is the same level. 3. Budget Line It is the combination of two products which can be purchased by consumer with his income. Product A Product B Total Cost 51p 125+25=150 42 100+50=150 33 75+75=150 24 50+100=150 15 25+125=150 *Each unit costs p25. 00. and the fixed budget is p150. 4. Equilibrium of the Consumer It is the combination of indifference curve and budget line. P Q Written report in Eco 1

Activity Based Management (ABM) Essay

Activity based management (ABM) is a method of identifying and evaluating activities that a business performs using activity based costing (ABC) to carry out a value chain analysis or a re-engineering initiative to improve strategic and operational decisions in an organization. ABM can be divided into operational and strategic. Operational ABM is about â€Å"doing thing right†, using ABC information to improve efficiency. Those activities which add value to remain in business can be identified and improved. Activities that don’t add value such as scheduling, moving, waiting, inspecting and storing are the ones that need to be reduced to cut costs without reducing product value. Strategic ABM is about â€Å"doing the right things†, using ABC information, to decide which products to develop and which activities to be used. This also can be used for customer profitability analysis, identifying which customer are the most profitable and focusing on them more. Activity based costing (ABC) is a costing methodology that identifies activities in an organizations and assign the cost of each activity with resources to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. This model assigns more indirect cost which is overhead into direct cost compared to conventional costing. ABM is also a process of using information from activity-based costing to analyse activities, cost drivers and performance so that customer value and profitability are improved. The aim of ABC models is to estimate the cost elements of entire product activities and services. It may help to inform a company’s decision either identify and eliminate those product and services that are unprofitable and lower the prices of those that are overpriced or identify, eliminate production or service processes that are ineffective and allocate processing concepts that lead to the very same product at a better yield which customer valued. Customer value is the value a customer places on particular features of a product. It also addresses the vertical view on the activity-based costing model. 2. 0 USES AND BENEFITS of ABM 2. 1 The Uses of ABM Accounting Based management (ABM) refers to the entire set of actions that can be take on a better information basis with activity-based cost information. Organizations implement ABM for different reasons. They believe that ABM can help them make a better decision, improve performance, and earn money on asset deployed. Some of specific uses of ABM in organization today include attribute analysis, strategic decision makings, benchmarking, operations analysis, and profitability/pricing analysis and process improvements. Attributes analysis classifies and combines cost and performance data into manageable, controllable clusters. ABC/ABM system cause many different attributes for a specific cost. Data attributes allow a company to perform analysis on many different dimensions of a management problem using the same basic warehouse of data. Some common forms of attributes analysis are value analysis, which utilizes information collected about business processes and examines various attributes of the process. For example are diversity, capacity, and complexity. This is to identify candidates for improvement efforts, time variability analysis, which seeks to understand variances in the time needed to complete an activity or provide a service and to develop ways to reduce these variances. Cost of quality, which is a management reporting technique that identifies and measures quality costs within an organization using four basic categories: prevention, detection, internal failure, and external failure. Strategic analysis explores various ways a company can create and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Emphasizing long long-term objectives and challenges, strategic analysis seeks to impact future costs and improve future profitability by clarifying the cost of various cost objects such as products, customers, and channels. Strategic analysis emphasizes future opportunities and challenges, using a combination of both physical and financial measures to explore the impact of alternative strategic positions. Ways in which ABM supports strategic analysis include strategic planning, consolidation of operations analysis, acquisition analysis; and analysis of revenue and profitability growth potential. Benchmarking is a methodology that identifies an activity as the standard, or benchmark, by which a similar activity will be judged. It is used to assist managers in identifying a process or technique to increase the effectiveness or efficiency of an activity. ABM supports different types of benchmarking, including internal benchmarking, industry/competitive benchmarking; and best-in-class benchmarking. Operations analysis seeks to identify, measure, and improve current performance of key processes and operations within a firm. Areas where ABM is useful include â€Å"what-if† analysis, project management, creation and use of activity-based performance Measures, capacity management, constraint analysis; and process-based costing. Profitability/pricing analysis is a key area for any company. ABM assists a company in analysing the costs and benefits of products and processes in both the â€Å"as is† and post improvement â€Å"to be† scenarios. ABM also supports prelaunch analysis and improvement of product profitability. Areas in which ABM has proven useful in adopting organizations include product/service profitability analysis, business process reengineering, distribution channel profitability analysis, market segment profitability analysis; and target and life-cycle costing. Process improvement lies at the heart of modern management techniques. Focused on identifying the causes of variation, waste, and inefficiency, process improvement includes both incremental and quantum change efforts that seek to increase the value created per resources consumed by an organization. Uses being made of ABM for process improvement include business process modelling, total quality initiatives, business process reengineering; and analysis of outsourcing and shared service. The Pennzoil Production and Exploration Company (PEPCO) used ABM as a key measurement tool to identify costs by process and to support its reengineering efforts. To keep pace with lower crude and natural gas prices and slowing North American operation, PEPCO needed to find ways to reengineer existing processes to streamline and improve efficiency. ABM provided the data for PEPCO to change the cost structure of its exploration and production efforts. It achieved this by determining what resources were actually required to support its properties based on current operation. In addition, the reengineering link enabled the company to consider those same properties and determine how it could best meet its economic objectives with fewer resources through a variety of operations improvement analyses. 2. 2 BENEFIT OF ACCOUNTING BASED MANAGEMENT (ABM) ABM is used to support a broad array of management initiatives to help organizations create more value for their customers while reducing the cost of operations. Benefits derived from ABM’s use include identification of redundant costs, analysis of value-added and non-value-added costs, quantification of the costs of quality by element; and identification of customer-focused activities. Other benefits include analysis of the cost of complexity; identification of process costs and support of process analysis, measurement of the impact of reengineering efforts, better understanding of cost drivers, evaluation of manufacturing flexibility investments; and activity-based budgeting. 3. 0 ABM IMPLEMENTATION PHASES A holistic approach to ABM implementation is important to ensure that all benefit derive from the use of ABM is sustained. The implementation of Activity Based Management (ABM) consist of seven (7) step that is planning, activity analysis, activity/ product costing, documenting results, data gathering and analysis, developing a data collection and reporting system, and achieving full integration. The first step is planning. The planning phase focuses on identifying the purpose, objective, and expectations for each specific elements of the ABM total implementation. The detailed project plan should be develop which include a time line with assign responsibilities for task completion, clear definition of resources required to complete each stage of the implementation, the selection of specific individual to complete the work, and a precise denotation of the data collection methods to be employed. The second step is analyzing activities. Analysis activities include several key steps which is catalogue of specific activities and business processes, definition of outputs and output measures, value-added analysis, identification of cost drivers, and detailed specification of activity performance. The third is costing activities, product and services. Activity analysis provides basic information for constructing the ABC cost system. Developing the ABC estimates is the most mechanical part of any ABM implementation. This phase focus on identify and documenting cost tracing methodologies and core assumptions, the costing phase ties the financial reporting system to the newly developed activity and process structures of the ABM system. The development or choice of a specific software system to export, import, and accept the data used to generate the activity-based estimates is important to ensure that work can be completed at time. The other step is documenting result. The work completed, significant results, recommendations, and conclusions should all be included in the documented records of the project. This documentation serves as a crucial bridge between planning and operating an ABM system. The time spent recording past result and detailed requiring future actions serve to reinforce the learning process, communicate and access progress, and adjust the detailed implementation plans to accommodate unforeseen problems and concerns. Next is gathering and analysing data. During the planning stages of the implementations, emphasis is placed on gathering information and data to document the purpose, expectations and objective of the initiatives. Data gathering takes on more importance as the key to understanding the existing knowledge based in the organizations. To complete the activities/ product costing step, information about the consumption of resources by activities needs to be collected and analyzed. The next step is developing an on-going data collection and reporting system. The development of a cost-effective, efficient data collection and reporting system is the final aspect of a holistic ABM implementation. The information gathered during implementation provides a static snapshot of the activities, and their resource usage, at one particular point in time. There are two major stages in implementing the ongoing ABM information and reporting system that is establishing the basic data collection and analysis procedures and ongoing system maintenance. The last stage is achieving full integration. Integrating ABM with existing management practices is necessary in order to achieve its full benefits. The full integration of ABM within the fabric of the organization’s other information and management systems is complete when people in the organization embrace activity management, take ownership, and internalize it as a better way of doing business and making decisions. 4. 0 COMMON ABM PITFALLS AND SOLUTIONS Many problems may occur during the life of the project and beyond. Knowledge of these pitfalls helps an implementation team develop methods to avoid them and to deal effectively with problems as they occur. Each stage of the implementation process brings with it its own unique challenges as the following discussion suggests. Firstly is the problem during planning. During the planning phases a number of distinctive pitfalls and problem can plague the implementation efforts, including the lack of senior management responsibilities and commitment, failure to gain complete agreement on implementation objectives and lack of understanding on the kinds of financial, operational, and strategic information the organization expects. However this problem can be resolve through some ways. Among the solutions that can be applied to deal with the common pitfalls of the planning phases is by expose through senior management the potential benefits of ABM Implementation that can be done through acknowledgement of the company who already experiencing in dealing with ABM. Second is by link the initiative to key business objectives and clearly articulate how the ABM project will deliver improvement in that area. Next is during the analyzing activities. While analyzing activities, the structure of the project and the implication of its scope begin to be felt. Among the common pitfalls in this phases is the number of activities for which detail information must be gathered seems overwhelming, appear to be no significant activities, and lastly the failure to communicate to employees behind the project and its question leads to the potential for negative feelings and defense behaviors. Among the specific ways the pitfalls of the activity analysis phases can be addressed include information on how activities interrelated instead of detail data on individual task, involved employees in the selection of activities and cost drivers. Costing activities/ product and services is also one of the common pitfalls. The costing activities/ product and service phases on ABM implementation may be mechanism but it do have it own unique challenges and potential pitfalls such as activity drivers does not adequately reflect the consumption rate and pattern of their respected activities, capacity, or potential of the resources in the worksite supports work, is not defined and responsibilities and controllability of the costs is not clearly identified. Some approach that have been used in successfully ABM implementation include reconciling ABM data to the financial accounting system, avoiding allocating cost when they cannot be assigns accurately; using total cost in decision-making and process improvements efforts; and using practices capacity to assign costs to cost objects. Next is analysing data and documenting results. At this point in the ABM implementation, new information becomes available to managers at all levels of the organization. It consists of the actual information that brings with it its own unique challenges and pitfalls including managers do not take any action on the ABM information. For example, some parties are adversely affected by the ABM information and a high degree of disbelief in the new number develops. Some ways these pitfalls can be manage and require managers to justify inaction as well as actions on ABM information. This is to ensure that a large number of people are receiving and using the information, and holdings feedback sessions to gather criticisms, concepts and problems with the ABM system from affected managers. Developing ongoing data collections and reporting system is also one of the problem. While the need to create effectiveness, efficient data collection and reporting systems is essential to any ABM report. It is also a stage that having its own potential pitfalls, including no provision is made for the results updating of the ABM information, reports do not continued the information managers need or want, and unnecessary accounting terminology is used in the reports. Some ways in which an ABM implementation can plan for and overcome these data and reporting pitfalls are minimize the efforts required to reconcile data and balance report, as well as to update and maintain the system, develop and written plan for how the system will affect decision makings. Moreover, what the decisions are, how the system will help in making them, whose responsibilities they are and when they will be made will use graphic and summary future as the ordinary report, providing detailed information in an appendix or query format, and use innovative data display and users interfaces. Report that are difficult to understand are not going to be used but somehow the report that is easily readable and understand. If the report arrives not at the right time also having a little value. Furthermore is achieving full integrations. Full integration of ABM information with the existing data and reporting structure of the organization signal a mature implementation. Somehow it still having a unique challenges which can lead to the disaster in order to achieve the objectives in ABM which consist of no formal system exists for documenting suggestion for improvement in the ABM system and no one has taken ownership for the system in decision makings. Among the approach that can be used when pitfalls are plaguing a company seeking full integration. This is to ensure that system design specifications take into account technique such as benchmarking and target costing, and also transferring ownership of the system to line management. 5. 0 Conclusion After many years of experiments, successes, failures, and learning, ABM systems are proving they are here to stay. Much more than another form of accounting, ABM in best-practice firms lies at the heart of the decision-support process. Integrating ABM within the total information and management control system of the organization can lead to quantum improvements as vital links between operations and strategy, processes and customers, value and cost are defined, measured, and understood. Achieving the results requires an organization to understand and address the common pitfalls and barriers in order to success at every stage of implementation. Whether during planning, activity analysis, costing, documentation, data gathering and analysis, development of the data collection and reporting system, or achieving full integration, the ABM system must include and draw on the insights of the people who will use it. When the people using the system take ownership, the implementation is a success. Successful implementation of ABM will not look the same in every organization or follow the same path. Tailored to the unique strategy, structure, capabilities, and needs of the firm, ABM is a universally useful concept and system that can take on a multitude of shapes and uses. ABM data should meet the needs of the company’s decision makers and support their efforts to create value for all stakeholders. REFERENCES 1. Kim Langfield Smith, Helen Thorne, Ronald W. Hilton (2012), Management Accounting, 6th Edition, Mc Graw Hill. 2. CIMA July 2002, Technical Briefing – Latest Trend in Corporate Performance Measurement. 3. Drury, C. (2008), Management and Cost Accounting, 7th Edition, Chapter 21 & 22, Thomson Publishing. 4. Eldenburg, Brooks, Oliver, Vesty, Wolcott (2005), Contemporary Management Accounting. 5. www. cimaglobal. com 6. Isa, C. R. , Keong, T. Y. (2008) JIT Manufacturing And Purchasing Practices And Business Performance: An Exploratory Study, Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal, Vol 3(1).

Reasons Behind the Gender Pay Gap (Australia) Essay

Despite long established legislation and community standards, women are still far from equal to men in the workforce. Women working full-time earn 18% less than men. On average they also earn $1million less over the course of their lives compared to male counterparts. Labour laws have had a large influence in the size of the gender pay gap (GPG). The wage-fixing principles in the 1970s, has granted immediate collective remedies from industry-wide, award application. However awards are losing prominence with the rise of neoliberalism; and women with lower bargaining power become disadvantaged. This area of law has also had successful attempts of combating the undervaluation of female-dominated industries, although these standards have not been fully developed. On the other hand, anti-discrimination law has had a more limited impact on gender pay equity (GPE). It has mainly expelled the formal barriers that restricted women’s access to the public arena; however they are expected to conform to existing practices. Due to weak substantive provisions, and the judiciary’s unwillingness to alter existing systems, there has been less than desirable change to systemic discrimination. Today, the pay gap is largely attributed to the undervaluation of ‘feminised’ work, the influence of women’s primary caring role on career progression, and the managerial glass-ceiling effect. I THE SDA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENDER PAY EQUITY Anti-discrimination laws have had a limited impact on GPE, since the liberal legal system have not been designed to change social structures, but merely to/ allows women to participate in existing arenas. The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and its equivalent state laws have managed to dispel formal barriers to equality, but largely fails to accommodate women’s differences from men. The Acts attempts to achieve equality through the prohibition of two defined forms of discrimination – direct discrimination (DD) is confined to facilitating equality of opportunity, whilst indirect discrimination (IDD) allows some movement towards equality in substance by targeting a restricted range of systemic unfair treatment. However due to the conceptual complexity and evidentiary difficulties of an IDD claim, most cases have been framed as DD. This primary commitment to formal equality is inadequate. Women cannot always conform to male standards and they are punished once they deviate  from established norms. In Purvis, it was held that there is no DD treatment if an act is based on a characteristic or manifestation of a ground, provided that these are borne by the person. Women can thus be treated like other deviants, and treatment is only unlawful if it is applied inconsistently. This system affords women protection so long as they can conform to existing practices. DD arguably only covers blanket exclusions and prejudicial assumptions; although this is not a small area, it does not ensure equality of outcome or resource. In addition, the legislations have poor capacity to tackle systemic discrimination as a result of weak substantive provisions and conservative judicial interpretation. The ability of IDD to challenge disadvantaging practices is seriously blunted by the fact that the court can find these procedures lawful if held reasonable. Countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, upon which Australian anti-discrimination laws are based, have stronger laws. In the US there is a requirement of ‘business necessity’ whilst the UK necessitates ‘a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’. The less onerous Australian standard assigns very wide responsibility to the judiciary to determine whether a disadvantageous practice is lawful. This open texture has allowed the courts in many instances to transmit conservative interpretations which preserve the status quo. The judiciary’s tendency to adopt narrow analyses may reflect an ignorance of the impacts of exclusion and disadvantage, given their relatively privileged social positions. The Act’s treatment of systemic disadvantage has been limited and inconsistent. II Labour Law’s Contributions to Gender Pay Equity The right to equal pay was first entrenched in federal labour law through the adoption of the 1969 and 1972 equal pay principles by Australia’s/n federal industrial tribunal. Due to Australia’s unique system of wage determination, the application of these principles had substantially narrowed the gap between men and women’s pay. Prior to these developments women’s wages were usually set as a proportion of men’s, under the compulsory conciliation and arbitration system of wage-fixing; on the assumption that women were not ‘breadwinners’. In 1969, this institutionalized sex discrimination in wage determination officially came to an end when the federal industrial tribunal implemented the principle of  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœequal pay for equal work’ in wage-setting. This measure had a limited impact, given that it only applied to instances where ‘work performed by men and women was of the same or a like nature’. This narrow interpre tation of equal pay only benefited women with identical jobs as men, leaving female-dominated industries unaffected. Nevertheless, 18 percent of women in the workforce enjoyed equal pay through the industry-wide application of the measures. These limitations were partially addressed in the 1972 National Wage Case, resulting in the new principle of ‘equal pay for work of equal value’. Under this standard, the tribunal can contrast different classifications of work within and across awards to determine work value; taking into consideration the skills, qualifications and conditions associated with the work. However, determinations of work value gave higher favour to masculinised areas of work, and functions linked with predominantly female industries were underappreciated. This concept of work value withstood challenge in the 1986 comparable worth proceedings. The collective, industry-wide remedies that trickled through awards led to an increase in the GPE ratio from 64 per cent in 1967 to 80.1 per cent in 1980. However equality is limited and rests on an implicit male standard. In addition, the scheme did not allow claims by individuals for a single workplace. The GPG has also been influenced by the neolibera l direction of industrial relations policy. Since 1993, the Federal Government has focused on the deregulation of the labour market, favouring enterprise over industry award settlements. The equal pay wage fixing principles were no longer connected with the primary method of wage determination; as pay increases were primarily gained from enterprise bargaining, whilst industry awards largely acted as safety nets adjustments. This process disadvantaged workers with lower skills and bargaining power. Difficulties with measuring productivity in service industries meant that women concentrated in these areas faced problems in productivity-based bargaining. In addition, the uneven and weak state regulation of non-standard casual work, left women, who predominantly do such work, particularly vulnerable after successive phases of neoliberal reform. Due to these developments, the GPG ratio had only increased 4.9 percent from 1980 to 2008. The decline of the institutional and legal structure that had provided women some protection has locked pay inequities. However, in recent years labour law has placed an emphasis on the undervaluation of ‘feminised’ work in labour law. The Industrial Relations Commissions in New South Wales and Queensland have established undervaluation as the threshold for making an equal remuneration claim. Undervaluation can be proven by showing that current rates of pay are inconsistent with the tribunal’s assessments of work value. The test did not regularly turn to a male standard. The Queensland tribunal particularly note factors which may have influenced the valuation of women’s work, such as occupational segregation and the over-representation of women in casual or part-time work. These advances had instituted significant gain wage gains for dental assistants, childcare workers and librarians. However these positive developments were contained when the Federal Government ‘covered the field’ in 2005, replacing them with ineffective principles that hinged on proof of discrimination. However the advent of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) may reaffirm commitments to a test of undervaluation. The successful application of unions in the social, community and disability sector has led to substantial wage gains, upon recognition by the tribunal of an undervaluation of feminised work. Although proof of discrimination is no longer required, the tribunal has refused to adopt a clear remuneration principle, and has insisted that its powers to issue orders are discretionary. The recent measures to tackle female undervaluation may be transient and its current foundations are unsecured. III FACTORS INFLUENCING GENDER PAY INEQUITY The GPG is partly the result of women taking work that accommodates their familial obligations, instead of career-enhancing work that match their skills and experience. The dramatic increase in women’s workforce participation in the last fifty years has not been offset by an increased contribution by men in the household, and women continue to be disproportionately burdened with family caring responsibilities. In 2002, an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey revealed that of employees who took a break after the birth of their youngest child, six per cent of men took longer than six weeks, compared to around 93 per cent of women. National time use studies show that the number of unpaid hours that men and women devote has not changed notably; with women being found to have  contributed 65 percent and 64 percent of household activities in 1992 and 1997 respectively. As a result of women’s primary caregiver role, they are pushed into compromising between paid and unpaid duties. In 1999, it was found that for families with both parents employed, 70 per cent of mothers exercised flexible working arrangements such as flexible working hours, permanent part time work and working at home, to give adequate time for child-rearing. Women have continuously been over-represented in part-time employment, with three-quarters of all part-timers being women in August 2011. However, these arrangements limit women’s ability to excel in the labour market given that most quality positions are structured for ‘ideal workers’ that can operate under full-time hours and without familial pressures. Flexible part-time work often cripples career advancement and most are precarious casual jobs that severely lack the benefits associated with standard employment (such as leave benefits, training, and higher remuneration). Women are generally penalised in the workforce for acting as non-standard workers. The persistence of the GPG can also be attributed to the existing undervaluation of work provided in female-dominated occupations. ‘Feminised’ work is associated with lower remuneration relative to male-dominated occupations. Wooden (1999) indicated that upon controlling for individual and job characteristics, the higher concentration of females in an occupation had a significant negative influence on general earnings. It found that the unequal remuneration of male and female-dominated occupations had created a gender earnings differential of around 4 percent, or one-third of the gender wage differential. This low appreciation of feminine tasks is a serious issue given that women’s employment remain highly concentrated in clerical, sales and service jobs. The comparative worth policy being implemented in recent years may effectively tackle this issue; although at present there are still a significant number of occupations that have yet to benefit from its application. The undervaluation of work undertaken in female-concentrated occupations contributes to the gender pay gap; and the comparable worth principle must be implemented more widely to overcome this problem. Another factor which contributes to the gender earnings gap is the particularly sharp pay inequity between men and women in management. Women are underrepresented in top management and a glass-ceiling phenomenon  operates which block the climb from middle to senior management. A recent study found that 65 and 90 percent of the gender pay gap (of 27 percent) in the sample cannot be associated with managerial characteristics and is potentially caused by discrimination. It was also found that unlike men, the financial returns to experience fall in the latter years for female managers.Women’s inability to break through upper management worsens the pay inequality between the sexes. CONCLUSION Since the 1970s, considerable progress has been achieved for women’s rights. Australia’s distinct system of wage-setting has garnered substantial collective benefits for women. However this system is now in decline and women are insufficiently protected in today’s deregulating markets. Anti-discrimination laws have proved disappointing given its limited coverage to equality based on same treatment as men. There have only been modest changes to systemic discrimination due to weak substantive provisions and a lack of judicial will. In order to further combat GPE, there remains a need to deal with the undervaluation of ‘feminised’ work, the lack of flexibility in good quality positions, and the bar that inhibits women from progressing to higher positions of management. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Articles Adams, K. Lee, ‘Defining Away Discrimination’ (2006) 19 Australian Journal of Labour Law 263. Baxter, Janeen, and Chesters, Jenny, ‘Perceptions of Work-Family Balance: How Effective are Family-Friendly Policies?’ (2011) 14 Australian Journal of Labour Economics 139. Broohim, Ray and Sharp, Rhonda, ‘The Changing Male Breadwinner Model in Australia: a New Gender Order?’ (2004) 15 Labour and Industry 1. Broomhill, Ray and Sharp, Rhonda, ‘The Changing Male Breadwinner Model in Australia: A New Gender Order?’ (2004) 15 Labour and Industry 1. Burrow, Sharan, ‘ An Unequal World’ (2004) 10 UNSW Law Journal Forum 38. Campbell, Iain, ‘Casual Employment, Labour Regulation and Australian Trade Unions’ (1996) 38 Journal of Industrial Relations 571. Campbell, Iain, ‘Casual Work and Casualisation: How Does Australia Compare?’ (2004) 15 Labour and Industry 85. Chapman, Ana, ‘Corporate Restructuring and D iscrimination’ (1998) 11 Australian Journal of Labour Law 1. Charlesworth, Sara, ‘Striking the Balance or Tipping the Scales?: The HREOC Women, Men, Work and Family Discussion Paper’(2005) 18 Australian Journal of Labour Law 313. Charlesworth, Sara, Strazdins, Lyndall, O’Brien, Lean and Sims, Sharryn, ‘Parents’ Jobs in Australia: Work Hours Polarisation and the Consequences for Job Quality and Gender Equality’ (2011) 14 Australian Journal of Labour Economics 35. 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