The Wage Gap

Executive Summary 2 Introduction 3 The Wage Gap 3 Reasons Suggested for the Wage Gap 4 The Human Capital Explanation 5 The Discrimination Explanation 6 Sex Segregation by Occupation 7 Why Does Segregation Depress Women's Relative Wages? 7 Policy Responses 9 Explanations and Remedies 9 Comparable Worth 10 Occupational Desegregation as a Remedy to the Wage Gap? 11 Job Evaluation as a Wage-Setting Mechanism 12 The Economic Effects of Implementing Comparable Worth 15 Comparable Worth's Potential Impact on the Wage Gap 16 Conclusion 18 References 20 Executive Summary Women's participation in the labor market has undergone considerable change in the last few decades, with more than half of all women and half of all married women now in the paid workforce. In addition, starting in the 1980s, the labor market qualifications of employed women increased compared to those of employed men. And, since the 1960s, both legislation and regulations have prohibited discrimination against women in employment and compensation. Although women's pay relative to men's has increased over time so that today women earn more than 70 cents for every dollar earned by men, the persistence of the gender wage gap despite the abovementioned changes has prompted concern in some quarters about the "equity" or "fairness" of the market's wage-setting process. Studies have estimated that perhaps

  • Word count: 8462
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Housing and Homelessness.

Housing and Homelessness The types of homelessness that have been hitting the headlines in Great Britain are the cardboard cities seen in London, and the families spending years in cramped and expensive bed and breakfast accommodation. Neither is particularly noticeable in Northern Ireland. Yet the absence of a visible homelessness crisis does not means that there is not a major homelessness problem. How many people are affected by homelessness in Northern Ireland? Who are? Where are they from? Why are they homeless? What happen to them? In this assignment I hope to explore the reasons for these questions. Task 1 Briefly outline housing policy in Northern Ireland 1921 - 1969. Historical background "The ancient Irish quarrel is... a conflict of tribal minorities - who are also, confusing, majorities. Perhaps you could represent this historical puzzle as a set of ill-fitting Chinese boxes. The outside box is the British Isles, where, as we all know, English Protestants have dominated since the reformation. Trapped inside is Ireland, a box full of Catholics, majority of the island since time of ST Patrick. Trapped inside that is Ulster, a box full of northern Protestants, and the majority in the northeast since they were settled there in the 17-century. And at the heart of the puzzle are the northern Catholics, outnumbered two to one in Northern Ireland, yet part

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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New Social Movements most effectively describe a specific movement-type emerging in the late 1970s; principally the peace, women's, ecological and local-autonomy

../../copy.htmlCopyright Sociological Research Online, 1999 Alana Lentin (1999) 'Structure, Strategy, Sustainability: What Future for New Social Movement Theory?' Sociological Research Online, vol. 4, no. 3, <http://0-www.socresonline.org.uk.emu.londonmet.ac.uk:80/socresonline/4/3/lentin.html> Published: 30/9/1999 New Social Movements (NSMs), originating in the early 1980s. It became clear that the type of movement to which the NSM label was pinned, primarily the environmental, peace and women's organisations of the 1970s and 1980s, now used widely differing strategies for promoting similar messages. On the other hand, movements evolving later around the issues of ethnicity, 'race' or sexuality could not be captured within the same frame. This essay will introduce the concept of New Social Movements and distinguish between the various approaches used to study them when arguing about if new values are behind te rise of environmental protests. I will then review the work of three authors who identify NSMs in terms of the changing political and social structures of the 1970s and 1980s and in recognition of the 'new identities' created within the New Social Movements: Claus Offe, Alberto Melucci and Alain Touraine. New Social Movements most effectively describe a specific movement-type emerging in the late 1970s; principally the peace, women's, ecological and

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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A Survey Report on Literature Reading of Chinese Students

A Survey Report on Literature Reading of Students in Chinese Language and Literature Department of Peking University Part I Research Background . Formation and Significance of Question Approved by the General Administration of Press and Publication (??????), the Chinese Institute of Publishing Science (?????????) carried out the National Surveys on the Reading Situation of the Chinese Citizens for five times in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 and through August 2007 to the beginning of 2008, respectively. This "durative and large-scale fundamental research project of the state",1 together with other surveys and studies in recent years on the reading situation of different groups of people, have evidently demonstrated that citizen's reading situation has caught much attention in contemporary China. Most of the students currently studying at universities2 ("University Students") were born during 1985 to 2000. They witnessed the publishing of the so-called "combo books" such as the New Concept Composition Contest Series (???????), the Series of Reading Materials Under the New Chinese Curriculum Standards (?????????), 100 Masterpieces of Chinese Literature in 100 Years (????????????), etc. At the same time, they have been confronted by an environment in which the internet technology is rapidly developing and the "internet literature"3 is widely spreading, hence have specific

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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The ethnic minority population of the United Kingdom has increased at a tremendous rate since the 1950's, when most ethnic minority immigrants came to the UK as part of a replacement labour force.

Introduction The ethnic minority population of the United Kingdom has increased at a tremendous rate since the 1950's, when most ethnic minority immigrants came to the UK as part of a replacement labour force, which was urgently needed following the loss of a large proportion of the nations labour force during the war. Ethnic minorities occupied the less skilled, the dirtiest and the lowest paid jobs. The flexible and cheap labour which black immigrants supplied to the UK was an essential component of the moderate but sustained expansion of the UK economy in the 1950's and early 1960's. The majority of ethnic minority immigrants housing and their place of employment were located in inner city areas, in the poorest and most run-down areas of cities throughout the UK. Bradford was a city which was experiencing economic prosperity during the post-war period, and its textile industry was amongst the most important in the world. Bradford's textile industry was the common thread binding the white and Asian working class into a single social fabric. But with its collapse, each community was forced to turn inwards on to itself. The depressed inner-city areas, lined with old 'two-up-two-down' terraced houses which had been built for mill-worker families, were abandoned by those whites that could afford to move out to the suburbs. Those that could not afford to buy themselves out

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Chosen area of practice:- Adults with Learning Disabilities

Chosen area of practice:- Adults with Learning Disabilities A critical analysis of debates concerning the social construction of Adults with Learning Disabilities A critical awareness of the impact of salient legislation and policy on adults with learning disabilities A critical analysis of the impact of equality and discrimination A critical examination of how service user movements have contributed to recent debates around the development of welfare services in respects of adults with learning disabilities A critical analysis of debates concerning the social construction of Adults with Learning Disabilities. The World Health Organisation defines learning disability as: ...a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind", and somebody with a learning disability is said also to have "significant impairment of intellectual functioning" and "significant impairment of adaptive/social functioning" (World Health Organisation, 2001). Mencap 2002 in their article 'Changing attitudes to people with a learning disability' highlights the difficulties that this can cause, stating: The day-to-day lives of people with learning disabilities and their families are affected by the way they are perceived and treated by the communities in which they live. Historically, public and private attitudes have been of intolerance and lack of understanding. The right to freedom from

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Consensus perspective

2.0 Consensus perspective Functionalism Functionalism essentially views society as containing numerous interconnected parts which collectively form a system. The fundamental unit of analysis is society, and its assortments of parts can be comprehended in terms of their collective relationship. Functionalists' in the preliminary stages of the approach tented to draw comparisons between society and organisms such as the human anatomy. Primarily the comparisons existed because they viewed society as operating in theoretically the same way as the organisms in the anatomy. Specifically, for one to understand the operation of an organ, such as the heart or lungs, it involves a profound understanding of its relationship with other human organs and, particularly, its general contribution towards the maintenance of the organism. Thus, in terms of society they argued that for one to understand the operation of it, an examination and analysis is required in order to determine its relationship with the other parts of society, and of course, its contribution to the maintenance of society. For example, social institutions such as family and religion can be analysed principally by researching their diverse system rather than analysing each particular unit individually. Consequently, through determining their contributions they make to the social system as a whole, they claim that they can

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Elvis Presley's impact on US society in the 1950's

Elvis Presley's impact on US society in the 1950's ) Study Source A What can you learn from Source A about Elvis Presley's impact on popular music in the USA in 1955? (6) Source A is an article from a magazine called 'Billboard', a US magazine on 3rd March 1956. It is a positive article for Elvis Presley as it promotes his success that he has achieved. The source states that he has six hit singles on the RCA Victor label's hit lit of top 25 best sellers. It also goes on to state that the two singles 'heartbreak hotel' and 'I was the one' is the label's number two best seller, behind Perry Como's 'juke box baby'. From this information we can draw that Elvis Presley made a huge impact on popular music in the USA in 1955. To have six hit singles in the company's top 25 best sellers is a large percentage to the extent that he dominates the hit list and proves that he must have taken the US by storm and made his presence felt. Yet with all of the critics that he had during that time Elvis was still able to please his fans with the music they adored. The tone of the article is that of someone who has been entertained and is only full of positive praise when writing about him. The word 'hottest' is used to describe Elvis, which means that he must have been the topic of a lot of people's discussions, as he appeared a controversial character also. Even though the headline says

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Ethnography - A Christian Youth Group

Ethnography: A Christian Youth Group ? Veronica Diaz-Reinhagen Ethnography Seminar Professor Janet Siskind April 23, 2002 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my informant, Amanda Q. for taking the time and energy to follow through on her commitment to each of our scheduled interviews for this project. She has made the experience of developing this work, a truly enjoyable one. I would also like to thank Professor Siskind for her guidance and advice on this ethnography. She has also help me discover a newfound excitement and interest in Cutural Anthropology. The Informant My informant for this project is Amanda Q. Amanda is a bright, articulate and "bubbly" seventeen year old senior at Albertus Magna High School, in New York. She is an honor-roll student who enjoys participating in all kinds of sports and also belongs to the Spanish Club. She recently received a scholarship from Hofstra University where she eagerly plans to pursue a career in journalism, beginning this fall...or maybe Drama...or maybe Film... But above all, like most teens, she is looking forward to "flying the nest", to live on campus in Long Island, and "explore her freedom" for the first time. Amanda also has a part-time job, working three times a week, at a Starbucks coffee shop, in Suffern, NY. The short hours of her shifts give her enough time to engage in some other kind of

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Discuss the definition of and development of community and arising the definition of community development: Outline and discuss the contemporary issues affecting Community Development. Critique one community development project with which you are familiar

Community Development Module Assignment AD509 In groups of not less than 2 and not more than 4 please address the following assignment: Community and how we interact with community is undergoing fundamental change. In this assignment you are required to address the following: Discuss the definition of and development of community and arising the definition of community development Outline and discuss the contemporary issues affecting Community Development Critique one community development project with which you are familiar and draw conclusions relating to 1 & 2 above from an applied perspective. Include a personal reflection on the task, process and learning. Introduction In social sciences it is believed that one's philosophical underpinning determines or influences h/her views, foundational values, conceptual and theoretical framework that tend to inform professional practice in one's chosen discipline. Therefore, this essay will attempt to analyse Community and community development based upon the author's ontological and epistemological stand, which is predicated upon constructivism, interactionism, interpretive perspective and critical theory. The essay will also outline contemporaneous issues affecting community development and analyse them in light of current understanding and knowledge. This assignment is a group work comprising four members and we have

  • Word count: 7386
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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