Abstract
The following article is a task paper that requires answering enlisted questions and draw inferences from the facts to answer the questions. This article aims at a better understanding of aspects of women’s psychology through answers to the questions asked.
Discussion
Q. Define and discuss access discrimination that women face in the workplace. Compare the experiences of men and women with respect to the glass ceiling, sticky floor and glass escalator. A. Women face many forms of discriminations at workplaces which include substantial pay bias between women and men working on equivalent duties, gender oriented abuse and ill-treatment of women. The formal access to growth for any individual includes pay rise, incentives, and promotions from lower positions in any corporate to higher levels. In case of working women, they suffer from access discrimination to upper levels of growth due to gender bias. Women face such discriminations due to reasons like maternal issues, their outward looks or their skills.
A woman may be discriminated with because she is fat or does not dress according to the taste of the people working with her, or may be because of the woman’s growing age. The term "sticky floor" is used to define a biased employment that keeps a particular segment of individuals at the bottom level (Harvey, 2008). Not surprisingly most of the workers who experience this form of discrimination are "pink collar workers," for example secretaries, nurses, or waitresses. Nearly half of working women hold jobs which are often linked with the "sticky floor" as compared to only one sixth of the men doing the same jobs. The term "glass ceiling" is used as a description of an artificially created discriminatory barrier that blocks the advancement of women holding middle management jobs (Harvey, 2008). Women running into “glass ceilings” maybe more educated than women who experience the “sticky floor”, both situations have similarities. Both lead to low mobility and low self-esteem of working women. However a completely contrary scenario occurs in an approach known as the glass escalator discrimination where men working in female dominated areas of expertise find great success and make a way to the top without much ado. Classic example of glass escalator may be the dominance of men in the culinary industry, with most number of chefs being men, although cooking in the household is a chore associated with women (Harvey, 2008).
Q. What is evolutionary theory and how does it explain women’s and men’s choices for an ideal romantic partner? Why is it also inadequate for explaining current trends in romantic relationships? Describe an example that you think fits with the theory.
A. The phenomenon of human mating is always under great scrutiny at all times. Various approaches have been used to understand this phenomenon, one of which is the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. This theory states the norm of survival of the fittest and evolution by chance. Evolution Theory explains the choices between women and men, regarding a romantic partner are very similar to other mammals, and depends upon conditions of competition and choice of both men and women based upon their reproductive and parenting abilities. According to this theory women are instinctively inclined to go for men with good genes and who are ready to father their children and extend moral support, along with showing moral as well as social standing that is compatible with the woman. A woman would choose a romantic partner keeping in mind the off spring that such a union may lead to and how her partner may be able to provide to her and her off spring. The choice of preference may depend upon the cultural success of the male and subsequently the resources the male can provide for the female’s survival. In absence of sustenance social standing of men still play a major role in the determining a romantic partner. In case of men, a romantic partner or partners may include casual partners at the beginning but men tend to show similar traits like women in more mature ages. Sexual attractiveness is important for women but a necessity for men while choosing romantic partners (Geary, Vigil and Byrd-Craven, 2004).
However, sceptics and researchers do not completely support the theory of evolution in case of choice of romantic partners between men and women, because variations for example multiple partners, same sex partners and transitioning sequential romantic partners, paedophilia etc. become some anomalous traits that the neo-Darwinian theory cannot explain satisfactorily(Geary, Vigil and Byrd-Craven, 2004). An example that may support this theory is the selection of marriage mates in cultures in India where traditionally it depended upon the caste, social status, wealth, skill and qualification of the male, while the female would be only seen for her beauty, culinary skills and general demeanour. This would indicate the preference of a man who is socially stable and a woman who has features for attracting the attention of the man.
Q. Define mortality and morbidity. Summarize gender differences in mortality and reasons why this might be so. Summarize gender differences in morbidity and reasons why this might be so.
A. Morbidity refers to the state illness or bad health within a population. Databases or reports through which data regarding morbidity is determined include Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, by Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (MMWR), World Health Statistics, compiled by WHO, European hospital Morbidity Database (EMDB), National hospital morbidity Database (NHMD). Morbidity “scores” or predicted morbidity rates are allocated to ill patients with the help of coordination such as the SAPS II, APACHE II, PIM2, Glasgow Coma scale, and SOFA and the data is collected according to the disease type, gender, age, and demography (Wingard, 1984).
Mortality is the term that is used to define the number of people who died within a population. In other words it refers to incidents of death or the number of deaths in a given population. Mortality rates are reported through databases like The Human Mortality Database developed by the Department of Demography at the University of California, Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock Germany. Mortality rates are generally expressed in the units of number of deaths per 1000 individuals every year. The mortality rate may be segregated into standardized mortality rate; crude death rate; maternal mortality rate; infant mortality rate; perinatal mortality rate; child mortality rate; and age-specific mortality rate (Macintyre, Ford and Hunt, 1999).
Mortality rate is lower in women as compared to men due to biological as well as socio-logical reasons. Socio-logical reasons include the fact that men take part in more dangerous activities than women do, for example life risking occupations like defence etc., extreme sports, indulgence in intoxication etc. Women have a lower mortality rate as biologically and socio-logically they are better coped and emotionally stronger and men (Wingard, 1984).
Hypothetically women report higher rates of morbidity, disability and health care issues. There are differences in the way that symptoms are perceived, evaluated and acted upon by genders (Macintyre, Ford and Hunt, 1999). Studies that have examined men and women with the similar conditions contradict this hypothesis. Yet it is still widely believed that women have higher morbidity rates than men. Contrary to common expectation, however, it is found that neither of the gender shows differences in intensities of reporting health issues. Women report more of 'trivial' or mental health conditions (Wingard, 1984).
Conclusion
Answering these questions has proven to be fruitful in understanding few of the deep aspects of women’s psychology. These questions were designed to widen the horizon of knowledge and their task is accomplished in the true sense of the word. Sexual discrimination of office going women, selection of romantic partners, morbidity and mortality related issues are an important aspect of women’s psychology and this task has helped realize it.
References
Geary, David C.; Vigil, Jacob; Byrd-Craven, Jennifer (February 2004); Evolution of Human Mate Choice; The Journal of Sex Research; University of Missouri, Columbia; Volume 41 pp. 27-42
Harvey, Adia (August 18, 2008) Racializing the Glass Escalator: Reconsidering Men's Experiences with Women's Work Wingfield Published online before print, doi: 10.1177/0891243208323054 Gender & Society February 2009 vol. 23 no. 1 5-26; 48(1):89-98.
Macintyre, S; Ford, G; Hunt, K. (1999 Jan): Do women 'over-report' morbidity? Men's and women's responses to structured prompting on a standard question on long standing illness. PMID: 10048840; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10048840; accessed: 3 August 2013
Wingard, D L (May 1984) The Sex Differential in Morbidity, Mortality, and Lifestyle; Annual Review of Public Health; Vol. 5: 433-458 DOI: 10.1146/annurev.pu.05.050184.002245; http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.pu.05.050184.002245?journalCode=publhealth; accessed: 3 August 2013
