...Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal Equality and diversity in employment relations: do we practise what we preach? Jane Holgate Sue Abbott Nicolina Kamenou Josie Kinge Jane Parker Susan Sayce Jacqueline Sinclair Laura Williams Article information: To cite this document: Jane Holgate Sue Abbott Nicolina Kamenou Josie Kinge Jane Parker Susan Sayce Jacqueline Sinclair Laura Williams, (2012),"Equality and diversity in employment relations: do we practise what we preach?", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, Vol. 31 Iss 4 pp. 323 - 339 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02610151211223021 Downloaded on: 01 December 2014, At: 02:26 (PT) References: this document contains references to 46 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 3118 times since 2012* Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER At 02:26 01 December 2014 (PT) Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: C.W. Von Bergen, Barlow Soper, John A. Parnell, (2005),"Workforce diversity and organisational performance", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 24 Iss 3/4 pp. 1-16 http:// dx.doi.org/10.1108/02610150510788033 Vidhi Agrawal, Vidhi Agrawal, (2012),"Managing the diversified team: challenges and strategies for improving performance", Team Performance Management: An International Journal, Vol. 18 Iss 7/8 pp. 384-400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527591211281129...
Words: 10252 - Pages: 42
...Social stratification- is systematic inequalities among groups of people 1. Wealth and income (social class) 2. Racial inequality 3. Gender inequality. Equality/inequality -Ontological equality -Equality of opportunity -Equality of condition -Equality of outcome Why inequality exists? Inequality in wealth and access to resources is generated by three processes: 1.) Unequal division of labor and/or low mobility across occupations. 2.) Surplus or abundance of resources 3.) The desire to accumulate wealth and assets Types of social mobility: mobility refers to movement between different position within a system of social stratification 1. Horizontal 2. Vertical 3. Structural 4. Exchange Why the class structure is changing -Massive growth in inequality between the rich and the poor. Called the “Great U-Turn” -Shrinking of the working class, with some growth in middle class and working poor. -Growth of poverty and the “underclass” -Rate of poverty is increasing twice as fast as population growth Why income inequality is increasing -Largely due to the increasing concentration of wealth at the very top of the income distribution. consequences of income inequality -High levels of income inequality reduces social cohesion, overall health, overall wealth, and education -Increases crime, debt, and political polarization Social construction of race -Instead, social scientists argue that “race” is socially constructed. Racial...
Words: 2093 - Pages: 9
...1 Feminist Theory and Survey Research “The idea that there is only ‘one road’ to the feminist revolution, and only one type of ‘truly feminist’ research, is as limiting and as offensive as male-biased accounts of research that have gone before.” ~Liz Stanley and Sue Wise, 1983, p. 26. Introduction Over the past three decades, feminist methodologists have hammered home one point with surprising regularity: Feminist research takes a variety of legitimate forms; there is no “distinctive feminist method of research” (Harding, 1987; see also Chafetz, 2004a, 2004b; Fonow & Cook, 2005; Hawkesworth, 2006; Hesse-Biber, 2007; Risman, Sprague, & Howard, 1993; and Sprague, 2005). And yet, to this day, the relationship between feminist theory and quantitative social science research remains uneasy. Among feminist scholars, quantitative research is often seen as suspect for its association with positivism and its pretense of objectivity (among other things). At the same time, among quantitative researchers, feminist-identified work is often dismissed as “biased,” “activist,” or “substantively marginal.” While a number of scholars have recently published works outlining a “feminist” approach to social science research, these books have generally steered clear of quantitative survey research. Some authors of feminist 1 2— Feminist Measures in Survey Research methods texts limit their discussion of feminist survey research to a small section (e.g., Hesse-Biber, 2007; Reinharz, 1992;...
Words: 7453 - Pages: 30
...Emile Durkheim. He believed society was made up of inter-connected institutions for an example education, family and government which depended on each other to function. Functionalists see society as being similar to the human body. In the same way the body relies on the heart to pump blood round to other vital organs like the lungs and brain. Functionalists see society as being constructed of different inter-dependent components like the family and education system. So in the same way the human body would fail if the heart stopped, functionalists’ argue society would stop working properly if the family stopped functioning properly. Functionalists say this would happen because the family is an institution in which primary socialisation occurs. Primary socialisation is where younger members of a family are taught societies norms, values, roles and beliefs, By having the same values which we all share, a value consensus is establish. Therefore we can see the family has a function in the social system. This perspective of society differed from other sociologists of his era as Durkheim's theories were founded on things external in nature, as opposed to those internal in nature, such as the motivations and desires of individuals. According to Durkheim, collective consciousness, values, and rules are critical to a functional society. The functionalist perspective on the education system Functionalists focus on the...
Words: 4602 - Pages: 19
...These individual experiences can manifest themselves in a multitude of ways, being through suppression of culture, racism, migration, slavery, or in the case of Indigenous women - gender and the inequities associated with it. Such experiences continue to impact Indigenous people everyday due to the ongoing globalization and neoliberalism present throughout the majority of countries, which only exacerbates the current non-consideration of cultures and traditions of groups by many governments over time. This aggravation of detrimental outcomes by means of political backing falls further into the realm of post-colonialism theory, which sees any present-day oppression as a result of the oppressive forces in the past operating like an evolutionary process over time (Aitchison, 2000). Moreover, simply because the term is “postcolonial” does not imply that the physical and ideological impacts of Colonialism have gone away, but rather that the influence of this era is still on-going and lingering throughout institutions, governments, and other organized systems. The “post-“ of postcolonialism also does not imply that the solution to the vast marginalization of Indigenous peoples lies solely in...
Words: 2782 - Pages: 12
...Violence from a gender view what role does masculinity play in Ethiopia context. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Main concepts in feminist approach 3. Hegemonic masculinity theory 4. The subculture of violence in peace and conflict 5. The perception on gender versus sex in Ethiopia 6. Gendered dynamics of violence 6.1 Masculinities and violence 6.2 Femininities and violence 7. Conclusion 8. References 1. Introduction The paper critically evaluate the theory which claims that violence has a strong gender dimension and what role does masculinity play in violence. There are feminist theories and assumptions regarding the societal construction of gender, as it is divided into two major categories...
Words: 4327 - Pages: 18
...Blackstoneb Abstract Power is at the core of feminist theories of sexual harassment, although it has rarely been measured directly in terms of workplace authority. Popular characterizations portray male supervisors harassing female subordinates, but power-threat theories suggest that women in authority may be more frequent targets. This article analyzes longitudinal survey data and qualitative interviews from the Youth Development Study to test this idea and to delineate why and how supervisory authority, gender nonconformity, and workplace sex ratios affect harassment. Relative to nonsupervisors, female supervisors are more likely to report harassing behaviors and to define their experiences as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can serve as an equalizer against women in power, motivated more by control and domination than by sexual desire. Interviews point to social isolation as a mechanism linking harassment to gender nonconformity and women’s authority, particularly in male-dominated work settings. Keywords inequality, gender, power, sexual harassment The term sexual harassment was not coined until the 1970s (Farley 1978), but formal organizational responses have since diffused rapidly (Dobbin and Kelly 2007; Schultz 2003). Today, sexual harassment workshops, policies, and grievance procedures are standard features of the human resources landscape, and a robust scholarly literature ties harassment to gender inequalities (Martin 2003) and other forms of workplace discrimination...
Words: 13434 - Pages: 54
...Sociological Theories A sociological theory is a set of ideas that provides an explanation for human society. Theories are selective in terms of their priorities and perspectives and the data they define as significant. As a result they provide a particular and partial view of reality. Sociological theories can be grouped together according to a variety of criteria. The most important of these is the distinction between Structural and Social action theories. Structural or macro perspectives analyses the way society as a whole fits together. Structural theory sees society as a system of relationships that creates the structure of the society in which we live. It is this structure that determines our lives and characters. Structured sets of social relationships are the 'reality' that lie below the appearance of 'the free individual' of western individualism. Structuralism focuses on the particular set of 'structural laws' that apply in any one society. Despite their differences, both functionalism and Marxism use a model of how society as a whole works. Many functionalists base their model of society around the assumption of basic needs and go to explain how different parts of society help to meet those needs. Marxists, on the other hand, see society as resting upon an economic base or infrastructure, with a superstructure above it. They see society as divided into social classes which have the potential to be in conflict with each other. However, the main differences...
Words: 9486 - Pages: 38
...Women in development (WID)[edit] Theoretical approach The term “women and development” was originally coined by a Washington-based network of female development professionals in the early 1970s[3] who sought to put in question the trickle down theories of development by contesting that modernization had identical impact on men and women.[4] The Women in Development movement (WID) gained momentum in the 1970s, driven by the resurgence of women's movement in northern countries, whereby liberal feminists were striving for equal rights and labour opportunities in the United States.[5] Liberal feminism, postulating that women's disadvantages in society may be eliminated by breaking down stereotyped customary expectations of women by offering better education to women and introducing equal opportunity programmes,[6] had a notable influence on the formulation of the WID approaches, whereby little attention was given to men and to power relations between genders.[5] The translation of the 1970s feminist movements and their repeated calls for employment opportunities in the development agenda meant that particular attention was given to the productive labour of women, leaving aside reproductive concerns and social welfare.[5] Yet this focus was part of the approach pushed forward by advocates of the WID movement, reacting to the general policy environment maintained by early colonial authorities and post-war development authorities, wherein inadequate reference to the work undertook by...
Words: 4483 - Pages: 18
...The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1756-6266.htm Situating the subject: gender and entrepreneurship in international contexts Fidelma Ashe University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK, and Gender and entrepreneurship 185 Lorna Treanor Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, UK Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a perspective to further the understanding of gender entrepreneurship. This paper considers the situatedness of the gendered entrepreneur within diverse international contexts marked by different constitutions of gender identities and networks of power, both within the context of contributions within this special issue but also more broadly within the field of gender and entrepreneurship research. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopt a feminist perspective and analyse the different framings of identity within gender and entrepreneurship literature and their contributions to our understandings of the concepts of both power and gendered identities. Findings – The paper finds that power and identity are configured in different contexts in ways that open arenas for future analysis. Originality/value – The paper highlights the importance of considering masculinities within gender and entrepreneurship research offering support for further analyses of entrepreneurial masculinities by examining two studies that expose entrepreneurial masculinities as shifting subjectivities...
Words: 8127 - Pages: 33
...The Hunger Games: Action-film feminism is catching fire Lisa Schwarzbaum Burning up Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is both strong and vulnerable – a new kind of action heroine who has powered The Hunger Games: Catching fire to a $158m US debut. (Lionsgate) Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is a new type of female action film icon, and moviegoers should be very excited about that, writes Lisa Schwarzbaum. As Catching Fire ignites on movie screens around the world, this is what we know about the 21st Century heroine called Katniss Everdeen: she is strong but also soft. She is brave but she has doubts. She is a phenomenal fictional creation, yet is real enough that moviegoers can draw inspiration from her values, her resourcefulness, and her very human inner conflicts. And she is played by Jennifer Lawrence, who appears not only to be handling her current duties as Hollywood’s finest model of well-adjusted millennial female stardom but doing so with charm. Everdeen and Lawrence: golden girls both. Personified in Lawrence’s lithe movements and cool, focused gaze, Katniss is a brave, resourceful and independent-minded fighter; but she is also a troubled and vulnerably guilt-ridden human being. Nina Jacobson, the producer of the Hunger Games film franchise, puts it this way: “She is a singular heroine in that the burden of survival weighs on her. She has a ton of survivor’s guilt. And she keeps surviving.” Girl on fire It is strange that behaving like a well-adjusted...
Words: 16355 - Pages: 66
...1 A Study on Domestic Workers in Trivandrum Sreedevi R S 2 CONTENT Sl. No. TITLE PAGE NUMBER. List of Tables List of Figures 1 2 3.1 3.2 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 5.1 5.2 5.3 Introduction Review of Literature Neo-classical Theories Background of Trivandrum Theoretical Analysis Regression Analysis Demographic Profile Nature of Services Work Profile of Domestic Workers Health Consideration of Domestic Workers Educational Attainment Union Awareness of Domestic Workers Household Assets and Liabilities Conclusion Findings Suggestions Bibliography Appendix i ii 1-7 8-17 18-21 21-23 25-26 26-27 27-31 31-33 33-39 39-42 42-44 45-47 47-51 52-53 53-55 55-56 57-59 3 1.1 Introduction The definition of gender is the state or fact of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones). Often gender and sex are used interchangeably, but gender is socially constructed and sex is biologically determined. The word gender has been used since the 14th century but this did not become common until the mid of 20th century. In human societies sex differences are experienced as gender differences. Concepts of gender are cultural interpretations of sex differences. Gender is related to sex differences. Gender depends on how society views relationship of male to man and female to woman. Every culture has prevailing images of what men and women are ―supposed‖ to be like. The concept of an ideal...
Words: 20587 - Pages: 83
...Feminism in Multicultural Societies An analysis of Dutch Multicultural and Postsecular Developments and their Implications for Feminist Debates Eva Midden A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of PhD at the University of Central Lancashire May 2010 Student Declaration Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution Material submitted for another award I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work Signature of Candidate Type of Award School ___PhD_________________________________ ___Centre for Professional Ethics___________ 1 Abstract It was long assumed that both multiculturalism and feminism are connected to progressive movements and hence have comparable and compatible goals. However, both in academia and in popular media the critique on multiculturalism has grown and is often accompanied with arguments related to gender equality and/or feminism. According to political scientist Susan Moller Okin for example there are fundamental conflicts between our commitment to gender equality and the desire to respect the customs of minority cultures or religions. If we agree that women...
Words: 97145 - Pages: 389
...ENCOUNTERING SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES AT WORK: HOW “CLASS WORK” PERPETUATES INEQUALITY Using a microsociological lens, we develop a theoretical framework that explains how social class distinctions are sustained within organizations. In particular, we intro- duce the concept of “class work” and explicate the cognitions and practices that members of different classes engage in when they come in contact with each other in cross-class encounters. We also elucidate how class work perpetuates inequality, as well as the consequences of class work on organizations and those at the lower end of the organizational hierarchy. By examining microlevel interactions and how they become institutionalized within organizations as prevailing rules and practices, we contribute to both institutional theory and the sociology of social class differences. We encourage future research on social class and discuss some of the challenges inher- ent in conducting it. Several contemporary developments—includ- ing the financial crisis of 2008 (Rajan, 2010), the shrinking of the middle class (Leicht & Fitzger- ald, 2007), and the rise of the “new poor” in America (Cohen, 2010)— have reinjected the is- sue of social class differences and inequality (Stiglitz, 2012) into contemporary discourse. Within organization studies, however, social class has received only scant consideration (cf. Castilla & Benard, 2010; Dacin, Munir, & Tracey, 2010; Scully & Blake-Beard, 2006). While two re- cent exceptions...
Words: 21937 - Pages: 88
...Bryant-45099 Part I.qxd 10/18/2006 7:42 PM Page 36 5 FEMINIST METHODOLOGIES AND EPISTEMOLOGY ANDREA DOUCET Carleton University, Canada NATASHA S. MAUTHNER University of Aberdeen, Scotland O ver the past 10 years of teaching courses on research methods and feminist approaches to methodologies and epistemologies, a recurring question from our students concerns the distinctiveness of feminist approaches to methods, methodologies, and epistemologies. This key question is posed in different ways: Is there a specifically feminist method? Are there feminist methodologies and epistemologies, or simply feminist approaches to these? Given diversity and debates in feminist theory, how can there be a consensus on what constitutes “feminist” methodologies and epistemologies? Answers to these questions are far from straightforward given the continually evolving nature of feminist reflections on the methodological and epistemological dimensions and dilemmas of research. This chapter on feminist methodologies and epistemologies attempts to address these questions by tracing historical developments in this area, by considering what may be unique about feminist epistemologies and feminist methodologies, by reviewing some of sociology’s key contributions to this area of scholarship and by highlighting some key emergent trends. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the theoretical and historical development of feminist epistemologies, followed by a similar overview...
Words: 12047 - Pages: 49
