Gender Equality Pols 234 paper Essays - Human Behavior, Gender

Gender Equality: Reduction of the Wage Gap Policy for British Columbia Submitted to the Honorable Bill Morneau Minister of Finance Toronto, Ontario Sarah Dunn Executive Summary In every city within the G7, the gender wage gap is evident. Thus, the repercussions of this economic issue are felt throughout the nation. The issue of gender discrimination has created substantial consequences in society for women: it has caused wage disparity to increase, we can conclude that public policy is required. The gender gap is a relevant issue today because women are paid unequally for equal work. For instance, in 2011, the gap was at 26% for full time work and in 1987 the gap was at 36%. Though the gender gap is slowly decreasing over the decades the issue is still evident and represents the discrimination that is still present. In 2016, Statistics Canada found that women who held a bachelor degree had a median income of $68,342 while men with the same level of education were earning around $82,082. Sheila Block who is a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives claimed that the gap is a result of "direct sexism in the labour market." It is necessary to implement policies to establish equality, in 2015 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established the importance of gender equality by assembling a cabinet that included equal number of male and female ministers. When asked about the reason for his decision he stated, "Because its 2015." In 2015, women were only earning $0.87 for every dollar a man had earned. The wage gap presents an issue of equality in Canada. Gender discrimination has slowly improved but managerial positions are still dominated by men, representing the lack of representation of women. The gender wage gap is complex and needs to be understood in the context the economy. In regard to the economic context of the gender gap, part time workers must be a focus; 76% of Canadian part-time workers in 2015 were women. Women typically take part-time jobs instead of full time jobs because of the exorbitant prices of child care. This has to do with the trade-off between family and career that is prevalent in our society for women; a trade-off men usually do not have to face. It should be noted that between 10% and 15% of the wage gap is attributed to gender based wage discrimination and out of 34 countries in the OECD, Canada had the 7th highest gender wage gap in 2014. The wage gap is detrimental to women and it has created a cycle within itself that only worsens the wage gap; public policy needs to be implemented immediately. Options for Change This report presents two alternative options for combatting the gender wage gap. The first option is to improve education for women to ensure that they are sufficiently prepared to hold managerial positions. Businesses can provide industry promotions and recruitment which would motivate and empower the female demographic. It is imperative to provide opportunities for women to feel like they are sought after to establish incentive and drive. The government should partner with businesses to establish alternatives to address the stereotypes that are located in the workplace to combat discrimination that females may face. It is important to put forth positive role models to inspire women to attain an education and pursue their passion. The cost of this policy is going to be monetary, ensuring education in managerial positions, high-skill STEM, and entrepreneurship is going to be at least $150 billion dollars but without this cost the gap will increase. If the gender gap closed, the bene fit would almost triple by producing an extra $420 billion dollars in the next nine years. The final policy would be to instate legislation along with public services. The legislation would entail things such as transparency wages and fines for wage inequality. In regard to public services, they are essential to reduce gender inequality for their security. Unfortunately, childcare is not necessarily affordable, since the childcare crisis has created a drag in economic growth; the result is that parents are spending a third of their income on childcare. The childcare crisis attributes to the wage gap, women have to either stop working

Welfare to Workfare essays

Welfare to Workfare essays Welfare is a public assistance program that provides at least a minimum amount of economic security to people whose incomes are insufficient to maintain an adequate standard of living. These programs generally include such benefits as financial aid to individuals, subsidized medical care, and stamps that are used to purchase food. The modern U.S. welfare system dates back to the Great Depression of the 1930s. During the worst parts of the Depression, about one-fourth of the labor force was without work. More than two-thirds of all households would have been considered poor by today's standards. With a majority of the capable adult population experiencing severe financial misfortune, many Americans turned to the government for answers. In response, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt led a social and economic reform movement attacking the Depression. Part of his newly enacted New Deal program was the Social Security Act, enacted by Congress in 1935. This act and established a numbe r of social welfare programs, each designed to provide support for different segments of the population. Recently Roosevelts Social Welfare Program has become a topic of heated debate. Welfare has come a long way since Roosevelt, it was once a system that help those in need until they could get back on their feet, now welfare has turned into a system that feeds money to a group of people that have become to lazy to find work. Talk of replacing the old system with a welfare program that will emphasize putting welfare recipients to work has become very frequent. More and more stated are now beginning to adopt a welfare-to-work program, leaving other states to simply ponder about the idea of taking people off the system. Those in favor of welfare reform argue that a welfare-to-work program will cut the amount of people on welfare causing a surplus of funds. These people base their idea on the overwhel...

Detailed Review of Pricing and R&D Strategy of X5, X6, X7 Research Paper

Detailed Review of Pricing and R&D Strategy of X5, X6, X7 - Research Paper Example In a recent survey, ChangeWave found that out of 3,043 survey respondents from North America, 14% gave positive response to purchase a mobile tablet in the next 3 months (Epstein, 2011). This rise in the consumer adoption of new technology determines the extent of future changes in the pricing and budget allocation for Research and Development (R&D) of its products. Tablet Development is focused on providing high quality and custom designed applications for tablets manufacturers and operating system providers. Its core products are X5, X6 and X7 that have been in the market for the last 6 years. However, there are major drawbacks in the existing price and R&D budget allocation strategies that have undermined the new product development cycle in the organization. 1.1 Aim: The aim of this report is to highlight the drawbacks of the existing pricing and R&D budget allocation strategy on a period of 6 years for the core products of Tablet Development and to recommend an alternative strat egy that should have been adopted to achieve the organizational goals. 1.2 Objectives: To critically review the strategy of pricing and R&D budget allocation for each core product, namely: X5, X6 and X7. ... The customer base also experienced 61% new customers, 94% repeat sales and 103% profitability. However, the R&D costs deteriorated by -33%. In 2011-12, the product X5 experienced 21% increase in its sales and revenue. The customer base experienced only 15% new customers, 72% repeat sales and 12% profit.ability However, the R&D costs remained stable with 0% change from the previous year. In 2012-13, the product X5 observed a severe decline as its sales dropped with a 23% change from the previous year. The customer base also declined by 36% of new customers. The losses increased to 17%. In 2013-14, the sales declined by another 51%, new customers by 81% and profitability by 88%. In 2014-15, the sales declined by 26%, new customers by 100% and profitability by 500%. In the entire life cycle, the product X5 remained at same price of $265 and R&D cost of USD 7,20,000 with nil change. As a result, the product market saturation declined from 84% in 2010 to 3% in 2015. The repeat sales also declined from 94% in 2010 to only 3% in 2015. 2.2 Product X6: In the period 2010-11, the product X6 the price was $420 and experienced a growth of 126% in its overall sales and revenue. The customer base also experienced 124% new customers and 81% profitability. However, the R&D costs deteriorated by -33%. In 2011-12, the product X6 experienced 60% increase in its sales and revenue and 53% increase in total costs. The customer base experienced only 56% new customers and 14% profitability. However, the R&D costs remained stable with 0% change from the previous year. In 2012-13, the product X6 observed a severe low increase as its sales dropped to 3% increase

Power and Politics at Work Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Power and Politics at Work - Literature review Example As the paper outlines, employee motivation is indeed one of the major aspects of modern business. But this could be vitiated by several aspects like harassment and rough treatment in the work place. In their article entitled Human Resource Development Review- Towards a theoretical model of performance inhibiting work place dynamics, Brian A. Altman and Mesut Akbere argue and analyze that many situations could arise that could best be termed as â€Å"performance inhibiting work place dynamics.† Therefore it becomes very important that employees need to be positive minded and not cynical or caustic about the work or any other related matter. In the second article, its authors, James B. Avey, Tara S. Wernsing and Fred Luthans argue that while negative minded situations do present itself in business enterprises, at the end of the day it is the positive mindedness attitude of the employees that could help overcome difficult situations and bring about beneficial â€Å"organizationa l change.† (Avey., Wernsing & Luthans, second article). For instance, many may think in terms of downsizing in a negative sense but it could also increase efficiencies and streamline operations in a positive way. In the next article, its authors argue about the pros and cons of the merit payment schemes in the context of nonprofit organizations. The authors argue that under conventional methods, entitlements to incentives were taken for granted and not directly related to performance, but the new concept is that even in organizations requiring workforce to consider altruistic motives while performing, it is often the better performers who gain more merit payments rather than the poorer performers. However, the fairness of the schemes often determines its effectiveness and negative performance rating could serve to lower productivity and performance since if the â€Å" the organization does not reward their performance, but instead responds unfavorably to it by appraising perf ormance unfairly, an employee will perceive inequity.† (Cirka., & Deckop, Third article). That being said, now the argument moves from individual-based performance and motivational strategies to group based ones. In the next  article, the authors argue that team efficacy sometimes becomes more important than self-efficacy and thus while providing a greater degree of flexibility and leeway to operations, especially customer servicing, service teams are able to deliver better results, although they may be constrained about the optimum performance of each team constituent member. Thus â€Å"self-managing teams† are indeed very crucial in the overall organization performance index and are greatly valued, despite the argument that gaining optimum levels of performance from all members may be difficult propositions. (Royter., Wetzels., & Jong, Fourth article)  

Todays Educational System Essay Example for Free

Todays Educational System Essay What is wrong with the education system we follow today in the country? The general education system is focused only on examinations rather than training students for the future and really testing their knowledge. Because of this, students are forced to take tests that show only their retention powers, not their actual capacity or knowledge. So engineers today cannot do actual work in technology and doctors do not go to people who need their services. Is the problem with the system or the approach towards education as a whole? Today, students are completely professionally-oriented and they take examinations for the same rather than to gain knowledge, or do research in the subject. In our colleges, we have infrastructure and good faculty, but there is no motivation to do research. Even in the field of medicine, no one is motivated to do research because everything is so examination and job-oriented. But that is also a requirement of today’s times. Yes, but not at the cost of real learning. India’s education system looks at commercial gains only and students are trained to look at their monetary future. The curriculum is also built around clearing an exam and getting into particular professions. Learning is not a priority. So who is at fault for this mess? Those regulating and those making policies are equally responsible. If the system has deteriorated to this level where learning has been substituted by a race to clear an examination, regulators and policymakers are to blame for not acting on time to correct this anomaly. It’s also not enough to have rules and regulations, it is important how they are implemented. Government bodies are not controlling institutions. That should become a priority. Also, for good institutions that are promoting real learning, there should be no interference. Is the present practice of allowing the private sector indiscriminately into education the right approach? Most educational engineering and medical colleges owned by the government are not equipped in terms of infrastructure and faculty and their quality has been suffering. The better government institutions cannot accommodate the vast number of students who are seeking to get into them. So the need for the private sector comes in. They are filling the gap. But private sector institutions also charge very high fees. Yes, many of the private institutions take advantage of the situation and charge high fees. There are very good students in rural areas but they can’t afford good education today. In some states, the government does regulate fees, including your state (Tamil Nadu). Yes, but instead of concentrating on just the private sector institutions, the government should strengthen and improve the quality of the government educational institutions. Once that is done, quality education will become affordable and everyone would be willing to join them. Now the standard of these institutions, barring a few leading ones, has gone down so much that no one wants to go there. Everyone is going to private sector colleges, even at a much higher cost. â€Å"The combined engineering entrance exams is a good idea. Without it, many rural students will not be able to get in.† What’s the solution? How can we put the system in order? One way to do this is through public-private partnership. It has succeeded in many sectors, so why not in education? The private sector can develop the institutions and provide infrastructure and the government can build the curriculum and run them. In fact, policymakers, professionals and the public should come together with an aim to build good educational institutions. It is good to have as many universities as possible, because many students do not get an opportunity to get into good colleges. But the government should have a strict control on every aspect, like infrastructure, faculty, facilities and curriculum, right from the time they are set up. There should be a periodic accreditation system where once every two years institutions seek accreditation and the regulatory bodies check if all norms are being followed, for it’s often seen that once a sanction comes through, institutions openly flout norms. Corruption is rampant at institutions as well as regulatory bodies. Yes, and seats are today sold for a lot of money. This is because private institutions spend a lot of money to set up infrastructure and they try to get that back in any way—scrupulous and unscrupulous. This is something that needs to be totally weeded out. There is a big debate on the combined engineering examinations. Is that a healthy idea? It is a good proposal and should be extended to the medical colleges too. Without the entrance exams, many rural students cannot get in because those from the big cities have the advantage of coaching and scoring high marks. With a common exam, everyone will be on an equal footing. Your institution, Aravind Eye Care Group, has set examples of fair play and stands out in this system with values and principles. How do you continue to do that? We have set our own standards and we select purely on merit. Our tuition fees are not enhanced to suit our needs and we provide value-based education. We ensure that adequate facilities like infrastructure and faculty are available before we start a course. We cannot forget that students sacrifice a lot to come to learn. And we do periodic evaluation. Is there anything you want to tell today’s students? They must remember that college education is the basic foundation. It’s the only place they will get to learn. Once they are outside, they will have to practise what they learnt herethey will not get a chance to learn outside. So they should seize the opportunity, make the most of it.

Environmental Justice: Some Ecofeminist Worries About A Distributive M

Environmental Justice: Some Ecofeminist Worries About A Distributive Model ABSTRACT: Environmental philosophers, policy-makers and community activists who discuss environmental justice do so almost exclusively in terms of mainstream Western distributive models of social justice. Whether the issue is treatment of animals, human health or property, wilderness and species preservation, pollution or environmental degradation, the prevailing and largely unchallenged view is that the issues of environmental justice are for the most part distributive issues. I think this wholesale framing of considerations of environmental justice solely in terms of distribution is seriously flawed. Drawing on both ecofeminist insights into the inextricable interconnections between institutions of domination and Iris Young’s work on the inadequacy of distributive models of social justice, I argue for the twofold claim that a distributive model of environmental justice is inadequate and that what is needed is an additional nondistributive model to supplement, complement and — in some cases — take precedence over a distributive model. Introduction Environmental philosophers, policy-makers, and community activists who discuss environmental justice do so almost exclusively in terms of mainstream Western distributive models of social justice: Environmental justice is about the fair or equitable distribution of environmental goods, services, and "resources." I think this wholesale framing of environmental justice issues solely or primarily in terms of distribution is seriously problematic. Drawing on both ecofeminist insights concerning the inextricable interconnections between institutions of human oppression and the domination of the natural ... ...as helped me think through my own ecofeminist worries about how issues of environmental justice have been construed. So I use what I take to be the salient features of Young’s critique to sketch both the limitations of such a model for environmental issues and the reasons for saying that what is needed is a supplementary nondistributive model. (9) See, for example, my two essays, "The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism," Environmental Ethics, Spring 1990, vol. 12 (3): 125-146, and "A Feminist Philosophical Perspective on Ecofeminist Spiritualities," in Ecofeminism and the Sacred, ed. Carol J. Adams (New York: Continuum Press, 1993): 119-132. (10) Young: 18. (11) Young: 4. (12) Anthony Weston, Toward Better Problems: New Perspectives on Abortion, Animal Rights, the Environment, and Justice (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1992): 141.>

Effects of Corruption on Economic Growth Essay

Corruption has been around for a very long time and will be around in the future unless governments can figure out effective ways to combat it. This is not going to be easy. Corruption in any form is treated as an incurable disease cause of many social and economic evils in the society and it damages the moral and ethical fibers of the civilization .Indisputably, it is correct that corruption breeds many evils in the society & once corruption start take place ,slowly and gradually whole country passes through its net and it becomes after some time incurable diseases .from the economic point of view ,there seem to be no clear cut correlation between corruption and the economic growth of a country. There may be some social maladies like inequality of income among the people ,moral degradation of people due to the prevalence of corruption ,the parameter of economic growth which are taken on percentage or an average basis are entirely different To begin with, in the presence of corruption, businessmen are often made aware that an up-front bribe is required before an enterprise can be started and that afterwards corrupt officials may lay claim to part of the proceeds from the investment. Businessmen therefore interpret corruption as a species of tax–though of a particularly pernicious nature, given the need for secrecy and the uncertainty that the bribe-taker will fulfill his part of the bargain–that diminishes their incentive to invest. Empirical evidence suggests that corruption lowers investment and retards economic growth to a significant extent. Moreover, when it takes the form of tax evasion or claiming improper tax exemptions, corruption may bring about loss of tax revenue. What is more, the allocation of public procurement contracts through a corrupt system may lead to lower quality of infrastructure and public services. Then, Corruption may distort the composition of government expenditure. Corruption may tempt government officials to choose government expenditures  less on the basis of public welfare than on the opportunity they provide for extorting bribes. Large projects whose exact value is difficult to monitor may present lucrative opportunities for corruption. A priori, one might expect that it is easier to collect substantial bribes on large infrastructure projects or high-technology defense systems than on textbooks or teachers’ salaries. So far Indian economic is concerned the slow progress is the result of lack of decision making at higher level .Many politician who take money but could not enforce their will because of powerful lobby of bureaucrats at many place and a democracy like India ,voice of media ,voice of opposition could suppress the wish of the leader . India’s economic growth on an average 6 % GDP despite considerable corruption is because of the stability and the liberalized measure taken by the present govt., gradual privatization of various sector, reducing bureaucratic intervention in routine work & other measure adopted by govt. In brief it can be concluded that corruption and economic growth has no clear correlation .strong institution, political stability, fast and reasonability in decision taking are some of the requirement for fast economic growth.