Overview of Learning Styles Essay

Learning is a very personal experience for every person individually, However, I had not realized the extent of how personal, learning actually is in reality. I was amazed each week as I learned about learning with personal Learning Patterns, how each pattern works, and how my use of each pattern affects not only the way I learn; but the way I work, perform tasks, and interact with others. I was blown away by the profound effects these Learning Patterns can have, both positively and negatively, if not used properly. Before this course, my definition of learning was very generic, stating that learning is integral to success and that one should strive to learn as much as possible. While I know that those statements and beliefs are true, I would now define learning as a very personal and individual process of acquiring information based on an individual’s personal learning patterns and how they obtain, retain, and apply that information. To someone who has not taken this course, I would explain that learning is actually easier, when they know how they learn as an individual. I would explain the 4 learning patterns with brief descriptions of each and a short example of how each one works, why they are important, and how they help in regards to learning and interacting with others, or performing specific tasks. I would let them know that when you learn using these patterns, you are learning with Intention, and Intentional learning brings out the best in them and in the successful completion of their goals and dreams! I have always loved learning and embrace it with an open mind and a willingness to absorb as much knowledge as I possibly can! My Learning Pattern scores are as follows†¦ Sequence- 26 Precision-31 Technical Reasoning-19 and Confluence-26 Typically, I have used Sequence, Precision, and Confluence frequently in my life in everything from being a parent, to work related issues and achieving goals. Although, until now, I did not realize my frequent use of these patterns. I have used Technical Reasoning at certain times as well, because these 4 patterns are actually meant to work together as a team, for individuals to achieve success in all that they do. However, most people use one or more patterns to a higher degree than others and avoid some patterns altogether; therein lies the problem of not knowing  about these patterns and how they work for you personally. When you know of these patterns and know your personal use of each pattern, you can direct them, or FIT them to work as the team they are meant to be! I have benefited greatly from this course. Some of the benefits I have realized are as follows†¦ I have learned to FIT, which is to Forge, Intensify, or Tether my learning patterns, in order to get the most beneficial, maximum result from my patterns. I have learned to Forge my Technical Reasoning, so that when working with computer tech type projects, that normall y would have highly frustrated me, now has become just another step toward the completion, and I am able to follow through with ease! I have also better developed my Sequence and Precision in the way that I approach and complete assignments. Before this course, I would just sit down and write the assignment, without consciously using my learning patterns. Now, I use Sequence and Precision to pre-write a draft, edit, and review my writing, as well as critically re-reading the assignment instructions, decoding it, and double checking to ensure that I have completed all the requirements, which also requires Technical Reasoning, I also use Confluence in a better, more intentional manner as well, by brainstorming topics and looking at the â€Å"Big Picture†. After reviewing my work piece by piece, I now look at the overall presentation to ensure that my assignment is connected properly and that each part ties to the other, and the complete picture is balanced. Although, I have enjoyed it, this course has also been challenging for me and these challenges have impacted me in a very profound way. One major challenge for me was learning to FIT my learning patterns. Because I am a Strong-willed Learner, with 3 Use First lea rning patterns, it is a challenge to Tether dominant patterns when needed. For instance, I need to consciously practice Tethering my Precision because I tend to be overly descriptive, as you might have noticed! Also, Forging my Technical Reasoning remains a challenge as well. But, I now have the strategies to be able to accomplish what challenges me. I now have the help of Decoding, Word Walls, and Personal Strategy Cards to help with challenges as well. And these strategies allow me to move forward with a strong confidence, which is backed by quality resources that help to propel my achievements toward success, without frustration, and I can progress smoothly and efficiently. As I write this last paragraph, and this course comes to it’s end, I  realize how much I have really enjoyed this course, and find myself a bit sad that is already over. I really enjoyed learning about myself and how I learn as an individual, and how others learn individually. I enjoyed how each week connected to the week before and brought you to the next, as the Course’s Confluence blossomed to the Big Picture like a beautiful lotus flower , opening to showcase it’s subtle perfection, this course quietly, yet greatly makes its profound impact upon me and has made positive changes in me that I will carry with me forever; and for that, I am extremely grateful and even more proud of my decision to obtain my degree. I had expected this course to be a good course and I was confident about learning in an online platform, However, this course has greatly exceeded my expectations in every way. From getting to know my fellow classmates as they shared their lives, challenges, and dreams; to our dedicated and knowledgeable instructor who gives feedback in a very positive, understanding, and nonjudgmental way, to the confidence I have now because of the strategies I now have the option to use. I am very happy to have taken this course and I will use the beneficial knowledge I have gained from it, to obtain my degree, have success in my career, and live my life†¦ With Focused Intention!!!!

Charles Baudelaire

Born in Paris in 1821, Charles Baudelaire has long been recognized as not only one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century but also a forefather of modern art. Baudelaire lived during a tumultuous time in French history and his work was impacted by a number of political events. However, his personal life was also turbulent: One of the most scarring episodes of his life was the death of his father in 1827 and his mother's hasty remarriage to a general in the French army. Baudelaire detested his stepfather both personally and as a symbol of the corrupt July monarchy established following the 1830 Revolution.He went to great lengths to upset his stepfather, squandering his inheritance and living a bohemian lifestyle. Worried about his behavior, his family sent him on a trip across the Mediterranean, whose exotic beauty left a lasting impression on the young poet. Shortly after Baudelaire's return to Paris, the 1848 Revolution overthrew the July monarch and established a republic in France for the first time in more than fifty years. Baudelaire greeted the revolution with enthusiasm, fighting among the barricades and openly defying his stepfather in public.However, his joy soon turned to disenchantment when Louis Napoleon, the original Napoleon's nephew, overthrew the Second Republic in 1851. Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat instituted the Second Empire, ending the hopes for a republican form of government that men like Baudelaire favored. His disenchantment then turned to despair when Louis Napoleon began an intense rebuilding and public works project aimed at modernizing Paris. Baudelaire was horrified with the destruction of the ancient and medieval sections of Paris that he had called his home. His longing for the â€Å"old† Paris would play a major role in his poetry.Baudelaire's disgust with politics led to a rejection of reality in favor of an obsessive fantasy world inspired by drugs, the exotic beauty of the Mediterranean, and the search for lov e. He was strongly influenced in this regard not only by his experiences along the Mediterranean but also by Edgar Allen Poe, whose writings he translated into French. Baudelaire was fascinated by Poe's evocation of the dark side of the imagination, and he found a comparably sinister seductiveness in the paintings of Eugene Delacroix and Edouard Manet, as well as the music of Wagner. These themes and influences play a redominant role in Baudelaire's 1857 collection of poetry, The Flowers of Evil, which juxtaposed the negative themes of exile, decay, and death with an ideal universe of happiness. Baudelaire's exotic themes quickly caught the attention of the government, which condemned The Flowers of Evil for immorality. Unlike his friend, Gustave Flaubert, whose Madame Bovary was also put on trial, Baudelaire lost his case, had to pay a fine, and was forced to remove some poems from the collection. Baudelaire was devastated by this rejection of his work, which he attributed to the h ypocrisy of a bourgeoisie incapable of understanding artistic innovation.Yet at the same time, he saw the condemnation of his work as the culmination of the different themes and events that had shaped his artistic talent since his youth: no achievement of beauty could be unaccompanied by bitterness and disappointments. Indeed, with this philosophy, Baudelaire shifted the attention of the art world to the darker side of life, inspiring contemporary and future artists to new levels of perception and provocation. Analysis A confession of hopes, dreams, failures, and sins, The Flowers of Evil attempts to extract beauty from the malignant.Unlike traditional poetry that relied on the serene beauty of the natural world to convey emotions, Baudelaire felt that modern poetry must evoke the artificial and paradoxical aspects of life. He thought that beauty could evolve on its own, irrespective of nature and even fueled by sin. The result is a clear opposition between two worlds, â€Å"spleen † and the â€Å"ideal. † Spleen signifies everything that is wrong with the world: death, despair, solitude, murder, and disease. (The spleen, an organ that removes disease-causing agents from the bloodstream, was traditionally associated with malaise; â€Å"spleen† is a synonym for â€Å"ill-temper. ) In contrast, the ideal represents a transcendence over the harsh reality of spleen, where love is possible and the senses are united in ecstasy. The ideal is primarily an escape of reality through wine, opium, travel, and passion. Dulling the harsh impact of one's failure and regrets, the ideal is an imagined state of happiness, ecstasy, and voluptuousness where time and death have no place. Baudelaire often uses erotic imagery to convey the impassioned feeling of the ideal. However, the speaker is consistently disappointed as spleen again takes up its reign. Read also Edgar Allan Poe DrugsHe is endlessly confronted with the fear of death, the failure of his will, and the suffocation of his spirit. Yet even as the poem's speaker is thwarted by spleen, Baudelaire himself never desists in his attempt to make the bizarre beautiful, an attempt perfectly expressed by the juxtaposition of his two worlds. As in the poem â€Å"Carrion,† the decomposing flesh has not only artistic value but inspires the poet to render it beautifully. Women are Baudelaire's main source of symbolism, often serving as an intermediary between the ideal and spleen.Thus, while the speaker must run his hands through a woman's hair in order to conjure up his ideal world, he later compares his lover to a decomposing animal, reminding her that one day she will be kissing worms instead of him. His lover is both his muse, providing ephemeral perfection, and a curse, condemning him to unrequited love and an early death. Women, thus, embody both what Baudelaire called th e elevation toward God and what he referred to as the gradual descent toward Satan: They are luminous guides of his imagination but also monstrous vampires that intensify his sense of spleen, or ill temper.The result is a moderate misogyny: Baudelaire associates women with nature; thus, his attempt to capture the poetry of the artificial necessarily denied women a positive role in his artistic vision. Baudelaire's poetry also obsessively evokes the presence of death. In â€Å"To a Passerby,† a possible love interest turns out to be a menacing death. Female demons, vampires, and monsters also consistently remind the speaker of his mortality. However, the passing of time, especially in the form of a newly remodeled Paris, isolates the speaker and makes him feel alienated from society.This theme of alienation leaves the speaker alone to the horrific contemplation of himself and the hopes of a consoling death. Baudelaire further emphasizes the proximity of death through his relia nce on religious imagery and fantasy. He earnestly believes that Satan controls his everyday actions, making sin a depressing reminder of his lack of free will and eventual death. Finally, elements of fantastical horror–from ghosts to bats to black cats– amplify the destructive force of the spleen on the mind.Baudelaire was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and he saw Poe's use of fantasy as a way of emphasizing the mystery and tragedy of human existence. For example, Baudelaire's three different poems about black cats express what he saw as the taunting ambiguity of women. Moreover, the presence of tortured demons and phantoms make the possibility of death more immediate to the speaker, prefiguring the fear and isolation death will bring. Summary Baudelaire famously begins The Flowers of Evil by personally addressing his reader as a partner in the creation of his poetry: â€Å"Hypocrite reader–my likeness–my brother! In â⠂¬Å"To the Reader,† the speaker evokes a world filled with decay, sin, and hypocrisy, and dominated by Satan. He claims that it is the Devil and not God who controls our actions with puppet strings, â€Å"vaporizing† our free will. Instinctively drawn toward hell, humans are nothing but instruments of death, â€Å"more ugly, evil, and fouler† than any monster or demon. The speaker claims that he and the reader complete this image of humanity: One side of humanity (the reader) reaches for fantasy and false honesty, while the other (the speaker) exposes the boredom of modern life.The speaker continues to rely on contradictions between beauty and unsightliness in â€Å"The Albatross. † This poem relates how sailors enjoy trapping and mocking giant albatrosses that are too weak to escape. Calling these birds â€Å"captive kings,† the speaker marvels at their ugly awkwardness on land compared to their graceful command of the skies. Just as in the introdu ctory poem, the speaker compares himself to the fallen image of the albatross, observing that poets are likewise exiled and ridiculed on earth. The beauty they have seen in the sky makes no sense to the teasing crowd: â€Å"Their giant wings keep them from walking. Many other poems also address the role of the poet. In â€Å"Benediction,† he says: â€Å"I know that You hold a place for the Poet / In the ranks of the blessed and the saint's legions, / That You invite him to an eternal festival / Of thrones, of virtues, of dominations. † This divine power is also a dominant theme in â€Å"Elevation,† in which the speaker's godlike ascendancy to the heavens is compared to the poet's omniscient and paradoxical power to understand the silence of flowers and mutes. His privileged position to savor the secrets of the world allows him to create and define beauty.In conveying the â€Å"power of the poet,† the speaker relies on the language of the mythically subli me and on spiritual exoticism. The godlike aviation of the speaker's spirit in â€Å"Elevation† becomes the artistry of Apollo and the fertility of Sybille in â€Å"I love the Naked Ages. † He then travels back in time, rejecting reality and the material world, and conjuring up the spirits of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Hercules in â€Å"The Beacons. † The power of the poet allows the speaker to invoke sensations from the reader that correspond to the works of each artistic figure.Thus, he uses this power–his imagination– to create beacons that, like â€Å"divine opium,† illuminate a mythical world that mortals, â€Å"lost in the wide woods,† cannot usually see. After first evoking the accomplishments of great artists, the speaker proposes a voyage to a mythical world of his own creation. He first summons up â€Å"Languorous Asia and passionate Africa† in the poem â€Å"The Head of Hair. † Running his fingers through a woman's hair allows the speaker to create and travel to an exotic land of freedom and happiness.In â€Å"Exotic Perfume,† a woman's scent allows the speaker to evoke â€Å"A lazy island where nature produces / Singular tress and savory fruits. † The image of the perfect woman is then an intermediary to an ideal world in â€Å"Invitation to a Voyage,† where â€Å"scents of amber† and â€Å"oriental splendor† capture the speaker's imagination. Together with his female companion, the speaker expresses the power of the poet to create an idyllic setting just for them: â€Å"There, all is nothing but beauty and elegance, / Luxury, calm and voluptuousness. † FormBaudelaire was a classically trained poet and as a result, his poems follow traditional poetic structures and rhyme schemes (ABAB or AABB). Yet Baudelaire also wanted to provoke his contemporary readers, breaking with traditional style when it would best suit his poetry's overall effect. For example, in â€Å"Exotic Perfume,† he contrasted traditional meter (which contains a break after every fifth syllable in a ten-syllable line) with enjambment in the first quatrain. The result is an amplified image of light: Baudelaire evokes the ecstasy of this image by juxtaposing it with he calm regularity of the rhythm in the beginning of the poem. Other departures from tradition include Baudelaire's habit of conveying ecstasy with exclamation points, and of expressing the accessibility of happiness with the indicative present and future verb tenses, both of which function to enhance his poetry's expressive tone. Moreover, none of his innovations came at the cost of formal beauty: Baudelaire's poetry has often been described as the most musical and melodious poetry in the French language. Commentary The Flowers of Evil evokes a world of paradox already implicit in the contrast of the title.The word â€Å"evil† (the French word is â€Å"mal,â₠¬  meaning both evil and sickness) comes to signify the pain and misery inflicted on the speaker, which he responds to with melancholy, anxiety, and a fear of death. But for Baudelaire, there is also something seductive about evil. Thus, while writing The Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire often said that his intent was to extract beauty from evil. Unlike traditional poets who had only focused on the simplistically pretty, Baudelaire chose to fuel his language with horror, sin, and the macabre.The speaker describes this duality in the introductory poem, in which he explains that he and the reader form two sides of the same coin. Together, they play out what Baudelaire called the tragedy of man's â€Å"twoness. † He saw existence itself as paradoxical, each man feeling two simultaneous inclinations: one toward the grace and elevation of God, the other an animalistic descent toward Satan. Just like the physical beauty of flowers intertwined with the abstract threat of evil, Baudelair e felt that one extreme could not exist without the other.Baudelaire struggled with his Catholicism his whole life and, thus, made religion a prevalent theme in his poetry. His language is steeped in biblical imagery, from the wrath of Satan, to the crucifixion, to the Fall of Adam and Eve. He was obsessed with Original Sin, lamenting the loss of his free will and projecting his sense of guilt onto images of women. Yet in the first part of the â€Å"Spleen and Ideal† section, Baudelaire emphasizes the harmony and perfection of an ideal world through his special closeness to God: He first compares himself to a divine and martyred creature in â€Å"TheAlbatross† and then gives himself divine powers in â€Å"Elevation,† combining words like â€Å"infinity,† â€Å"immensity,† â€Å"divine,† and â€Å"hover. † The speaker also has an extraordinary power to create, weaving together abstract paradises with powerful human experiences to form an ideal world. For example, in â€Å"Correspondences,† the speaker evokes â€Å"amber, musk, benzoin and incense / That sing, transporting the soul and sense. † He not only has the power to give voice to things that are silent but also relies on images of warmth, luxury, and pleasure to call upon and empower the reader's senses.In â€Å"Exotic Perfume,† the theme of the voyage is made possible by closing one's eyes and â€Å"breathing in the warm scent† of a woman's breasts. In effect, reading Baudelaire means feeling Baudelaire: The profusion of pleasure-inducing representations of heat, sound, and scent suggest that happiness involves a joining of the senses. This first section is devoted exclusively to the â€Å"ideal,† and Baudelaire relies on the abstraction of myth to convey the escape from reality and drift into nostalgia that the ideal represents. This theme recalls the poet's own flight from the corruption of Paris with his trip along the Mediterranean.In â€Å"The Head of Hair,† the speaker indeterminately refers to â€Å"Languorous Africa and passionate Asia,† whose abstract presence further stimulates the reader's imagination with the mythical symbolism of â€Å"sea,† â€Å"ocean,† â€Å"sky,† and â€Å"oasis. † The figure of women further contributes to this ideal world as an intermediary to happiness. The speaker must either breathe in a woman's scent, caress her hair, or otherwise engage with her presence in order to conjure up the paradise he seeks. His fervent ecstasy in this poem derives from the sensual presence of his lover: â€Å"The world†¦ o my love! wims on your fragrance. † Spleen and Ideal, Part I Summary Baudelaire famously begins The Flowers of Evil by personally addressing his reader as a partner in the creation of his poetry: â€Å"Hypocrite reader–my likeness–my brother! † In â€Å"To the Reader,† the speaker evok es a world filled with decay, sin, and hypocrisy, and dominated by Satan. He claims that it is the Devil and not God who controls our actions with puppet strings, â€Å"vaporizing† our free will. Instinctively drawn toward hell, humans are nothing but instruments of death, â€Å"more ugly, evil, and fouler† than any monster or demon.The speaker claims that he and the reader complete this image of humanity: One side of humanity (the reader) reaches for fantasy and false honesty, while the other (the speaker) exposes the boredom of modern life. The speaker continues to rely on contradictions between beauty and unsightliness in â€Å"The Albatross. † This poem relates how sailors enjoy trapping and mocking giant albatrosses that are too weak to escape. Calling these birds â€Å"captive kings,† the speaker marvels at their ugly awkwardness on land compared to their graceful command of the skies.Just as in the introductory poem, the speaker compares himself to the fallen image of the albatross, observing that poets are likewise exiled and ridiculed on earth. The beauty they have seen in the sky makes no sense to the teasing crowd: â€Å"Their giant wings keep them from walking. † Many other poems also address the role of the poet. In â€Å"Benediction,† he says: â€Å"I know that You hold a place for the Poet / In the ranks of the blessed and the saint's legions, / That You invite him to an eternal festival / Of thrones, of virtues, of dominations. This divine power is also a dominant theme in â€Å"Elevation,† in which the speaker's godlike ascendancy to the heavens is compared to the poet's omniscient and paradoxical power to understand the silence of flowers and mutes. His privileged position to savor the secrets of the world allows him to create and define beauty. In conveying the â€Å"power of the poet,† the speaker relies on the language of the mythically sublime and on spiritual exoticism. The godlike aviation of the speaker's spirit in â€Å"Elevation† becomes the artistry of Apollo and the fertility of Sybille in â€Å"I love the Naked Ages. He then travels back in time, rejecting reality and the material world, and conjuring up the spirits of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Hercules in â€Å"The Beacons. † The power of the poet allows the speaker to invoke sensations from the reader that correspond to the works of each artistic figure. Thus, he uses this power–his imagination– to create beacons that, like â€Å"divine opium,† illuminate a mythical world that mortals, â€Å"lost in the wide woods,† cannot usually see. After first evoking the accomplishments of great artists, the speaker proposes a voyage to a mythical world of his own creation.He first summons up â€Å"Languorous Asia and passionate Africa† in the poem â€Å"The Head of Hair. † Running his fingers through a woman's hair allows the speaker to create and travel to an exotic land of freedom and happiness. In â€Å"Exotic Perfume,† a woman's scent allows the speaker to evoke â€Å"A lazy island where nature produces / Singular tress and savory fruits. † The image of the perfect woman is then an intermediary to an ideal world in â€Å"Invitation to a Voyage,† where â€Å"scents of amber† and â€Å"oriental splendor† capture the speaker's imagination.Together with his female companion, the speaker expresses the power of the poet to create an idyllic setting just for them: â€Å"There, all is nothing but beauty and elegance, / Luxury, calm and voluptuousness. † Form Baudelaire was a classically trained poet and as a result, his poems follow traditional poetic structures and rhyme schemes (ABAB or AABB). Yet Baudelaire also wanted to provoke his contemporary readers, breaking with traditional style when it would best suit his poetry's overall effect.For example, in â€Å"Exotic Per fume,† he contrasted traditional meter (which contains a break after every fifth syllable in a ten-syllable line) with enjambment in the first quatrain. The result is an amplified image of light: Baudelaire evokes the ecstasy of this image by juxtaposing it with the calm regularity of the rhythm in the beginning of the poem. Other departures from tradition include Baudelaire's habit of conveying ecstasy with exclamation points, and of expressing the accessibility of happiness with the indicative present and future verb tenses, both of which function to enhance his poetry's expressive tone.Moreover, none of his innovations came at the cost of formal beauty: Baudelaire's poetry has often been described as the most musical and melodious poetry in the French language. Commentary The Flowers of Evil evokes a world of paradox already implicit in the contrast of the title. The word â€Å"evil† (the French word is â€Å"mal,† meaning both evil and sickness) comes to sign ify the pain and misery inflicted on the speaker, which he responds to with melancholy, anxiety, and a fear of death.But for Baudelaire, there is also something seductive about evil. Thus, while writing The Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire often said that his intent was to extract beauty from evil. Unlike traditional poets who had only focused on the simplistically pretty, Baudelaire chose to fuel his language with horror, sin, and the macabre. The speaker describes this duality in the introductory poem, in which he explains that he and the reader form two sides of the same coin. Together, they play out what Baudelaire called the tragedy of man's â€Å"twoness. He saw existence itself as paradoxical, each man feeling two simultaneous inclinations: one toward the grace and elevation of God, the other an animalistic descent toward Satan. Just like the physical beauty of flowers intertwined with the abstract threat of evil, Baudelaire felt that one extreme could not exist without the other . Baudelaire struggled with his Catholicism his whole life and, thus, made religion a prevalent theme in his poetry. His language is steeped in biblical imagery, from the wrath of Satan, to the crucifixion, to the Fall of Adam and Eve.He was obsessed with Original Sin, lamenting the loss of his free will and projecting his sense of guilt onto images of women. Yet in the first part of the â€Å"Spleen and Ideal† section, Baudelaire emphasizes the harmony and perfection of an ideal world through his special closeness to God: He first compares himself to a divine and martyred creature in â€Å"The Albatross† and then gives himself divine powers in â€Å"Elevation,† combining words like â€Å"infinity,† â€Å"immensity,† â€Å"divine,† and â€Å"hover. † The speaker also has an extraordinary power to create, weaving together abstract paradises with powerful human experiences to form an ideal world.For example, in â€Å"Correspondences,â €  the speaker evokes â€Å"amber, musk, benzoin and incense / That sing, transporting the soul and sense. † He not only has the power to give voice to things that are silent but also relies on images of warmth, luxury, and pleasure to call upon and empower the reader's senses. In â€Å"Exotic Perfume,† the theme of the voyage is made possible by closing one's eyes and â€Å"breathing in the warm scent† of a woman's breasts. In effect, reading Baudelaire means feeling Baudelaire: The profusion of pleasure-inducing representations of heat, sound, and scent suggest that happiness involves a joining of the senses.This first section is devoted exclusively to the â€Å"ideal,† and Baudelaire relies on the abstraction of myth to convey the escape from reality and drift into nostalgia that the ideal represents. This theme recalls the poet's own flight from the corruption of Paris with his trip along the Mediterranean. In â€Å"The Head of Hair,† the sp eaker indeterminately refers to â€Å"Languorous Africa and passionate Asia,† whose abstract presence further stimulates the reader's imagination with the mythical symbolism of â€Å"sea,† â€Å"ocean,† â€Å"sky,† and â€Å"oasis. † The figure of women further contributes to this ideal world as an intermediary to happiness.The speaker must either breathe in a woman's scent, caress her hair, or otherwise engage with her presence in order to conjure up the paradise he seeks. His fervent ecstasy in this poem derives from the sensual presence of his lover: â€Å"The world†¦ o my love! swims on your fragrance. † Spleen and Ideal, Part II Summary Despite the speaker's preliminary evocation of an ideal world, The Flowers of Evil's inevitable focus is the speaker's â€Å"spleen,† a symbol of fear, agony, melancholy, moral degradation, destruction of the spirit–everything that is wrong with the world. The spleen, an organ that rem oves disease-causing agents from the bloodstream, was traditionally associated with malaise; â€Å"spleen† is a synonym for â€Å"ill-temper. â€Å") Although the soothing ideal world in the first section does remain a significant presence for the speaker, it will now serve primarily as a reminder of his need to escape from a torturous reality. Even â€Å"The Ideal† begins with â€Å"They never will do, these beautiful vignettes. † Baudelaire's juxtaposition of the poem's title (â€Å"The Ideal†) with its content suggests that the ideal is an imagined impossibility.He insists that he cannot find the ideal rose for which he has been looking, declaring that his heart is an empty hole. The comforting, pure, and soothing presence of a woman has also given way to â€Å"Lady Macbeth, mighty soul of crime. † As the speaker acknowledges in â€Å"Earlier Life,† the beautiful majesty of blue waves and voluptuous odors that fill his dreams cannot ful ly obscure â€Å"the painful secret that lets me languish. † Baudelaire uses the theme of love and passion to play out this interaction between the ideal and the spleen.In â€Å"Hymn to Beauty,† he asks a woman: â€Å"Do you come from the deep sky or from the abyss, / O Beauty? Your look, infernal and divine, / Confuses good deeds and crimes. † The speaker projects his anxiety at a disappointing reality onto a woman's body: Her beauty is real but it tempts him to sin. Both angel and siren, this woman brings him close to God but closer to Satan. He then refers to his lover as a witch and demon in â€Å"Sed non Satiata† (â€Å"Still not Satisfied†). The reality of her tortuous presence awakens him from his opium-induced dream, his desire pulling him toward hell.This ambivalence between the ideal and the spleen is also played out with the juxtaposition of the speaker's lover to a decaying corpse in â€Å"Carrion. † While out walking with his lo ver, the speaker discovers rotting carrion infested with worms and maggots, but which releases pleasing music. He compares the carrion (a word for dead and decaying flesh) to a flower, realizing that his lover will also one day be carrion, eaten by worms. Just like the corpse, nothing will be left of their â€Å"decomposed love. † The theme of death inspired by the sight of the carrion plunges the speaker into the anxiety of his spleen.The nostalgic timelessness and soothing heat of the sun are replaced by the fear of death and a sun of ice in â€Å"De Profundis Clamavi† (â€Å"From Profoundest Depths I Cry to You†). The mythical and erotic voyage with a woman in the ideal section is now phantasmagoric pursuit by cats, snakes, owls, vampires, and ghosts, all of whom closely resemble the speaker's lover. In two separate poems both entitled â€Å"The Cat,† the speaker is horrified to see the eyes of his lover in a black cat whose chilling stare, â€Å"prof ound and cold, cuts and cracks like a sword. In â€Å"The Poison,† the speaker further associates the image of his lover with death. Unlike opium and wine, which help the speaker evade reality, the evasion of his lover's mouth is the kiss of death: â€Å"But all this doesn't equal the poison kiss / Arising in your green eyes. † The section culminates with four poems entitled â€Å"Spleen. † Depressed and â€Å"irritated at the entire town,† the speaker laments the coming of death and his defunct love, as a ghost and the â€Å"meager, mangy body of a cat† evoke the haunting specter of his lover. In the next â€Å"Spleen,† the speaker watches the world around him decompose.He is swallowed up by death, comparing himself to a cemetery, a tomb, and a container for withered roses. Empty physically and spiritually, only the miasma of decay is left for him to smell. In the fourth and final â€Å"Spleen,† the speaker is suffocated by the tradi tionally calming presence of the sky. Devoid of light, â€Å"the earth becomes a damp dungeon, / When hope, like a bat, / Beats the walls with its timid wings / And bumps its head against the rotted beams. † Drenched by rain and sorrow, the bells of a nearby clock cry out, filling the air with phantoms.Horrified and weeping with misery, the speaker surrenders as, â€Å"Anguish, atrocious, despotic, / On my curved skull plants its black flag. † Form Baudelaire uses the structure of his poems to amplify the atmosphere of the speaker's spleen. In â€Å"Spleen† (I) each stanza accumulates different levels of anguish, first beginning with the city, then creatures of nature and nightmare, and finally, other objects. This layered expression of pain represents Baudelaire's attempt to apply stylistic beauty to evil. Moreover, his sentences lose the first-person tense, becoming grammatically errant just as the speaker is morally errant.By beginning the first three stanzas of â€Å"Spleen† (IV) all with the word â€Å"When,† Baudelaire formally mirrors his theme of monotonous boredom and the speaker's surrender to the inexorable regularity and longevity of his spleen. Another aspect of Baudelaire's form is his ironic juxtaposition of opposites within verses and stanzas, such as in â€Å"Carrion,† with â€Å"flower† and â€Å"stink. † Commentary Baudelaire is a poet of contrasts, amplifying the hostility of the speaker's spleen with the failure of his ideal world. Like the abused albatross in the first section, the poet becomes an anxious and suffering soul.It is important to remember that the speaker's spleen is inevitable: It occurs despite his attempts to escape reality. The flowers he hopes to find on a â€Å"lazy island† in â€Å"Exotic Perfume† do not exist: It is the stinking carrion that is the real â€Å"flower† of the world. The failure of his imagination leaves him empty and weak; havi ng searched for petals, he finds their withered versions within himself. The poetry itself suggests a resurgence of the ideal through its soothing images only to encounter the disappointing impossibility of calming the speaker's anxiety.In this sense, the speaker's spleen is also the poet's. Indeed, the gradual climax and terror of the speaker's spleen in â€Å"Spleen† (IV) has often been associated with Baudelaire's own nervous breakdown. The hostile and claustrophobic atmosphere of the speaker's world is most eloquently expressed in the failure of his ability to love. The poet originally intends his love to be a source of escape but is soon reminded of the cruel impossibility of love that characterizes his reality. For him, love is nothing but a decomposing carrion. Instead of life, love reminds him of death: A woman's kiss becomes poisonous.Baudelaire often spoke of love as the traditionally artistic attempt to escape boredom. Yet he never had a successful relationship and as a result, the speaker attributes much of his spleen to images of women, such as Lady Macbeth and Persephone. Cruel and murderous women, such as the monstrous female vampire in â€Å"The Vampire,† are compared to a â€Å"dagger† that slices the speaker's heart. But Baudelaire also finds something perversely seductive in his demoniacal images of women, such as the â€Å"Femme Fatale† in â€Å"Discordant Sky† and the â€Å"bizarre deity† in â€Å"Sed non Satiata. Baudelaire often described his disgust at images of nature and found fault in women for what he saw as their closeness to nature. However, what comes through in the poetry is not so much Baudelaire's misogyny as his avowed weakness and insatiable desire for women. The speaker's spleen involves thoughts of death, either in the form of an eventual suicide or the gradual decay of one's body. Sickness, decomposition, and claustrophobia reduce the expansive paradise of the speaker's ideal to a single city pitted against him.Baudelaire felt alienated from the new Parisian society that emerged after the city's rebuilding period, often walking along the city streets just to look at people and observe their movements. This self-imposed exile perfectly describes the sense of isolation that pervades the four â€Å"Spleen† poems. Yet while the city alienates and isolates, it does not allow for real autonomy of any kind: The speaker's imagination is haunted by images of prison, spiders, ghosts, and bats crashing into walls.Unlike the albatross of the ideal, the bat of the spleen cannot fly. This restriction of space is also a restriction of time, as the speaker feels his death quickly approaching. Baudelaire saw the reality of death as fundamentally opposed to the imagined voyage to paradise; rather, it is a journey toward an unknown and terrible fate. The â€Å"frightful groan† of bells and the â€Å"stubborn moans† of ghosts are horrific warning signs of the impending victory of the speaker's spleen. According to the poet, there are no other sounds. Parisian Landscapes SummaryBaudelaire now turns his attention directly to the city of Paris, evoking the same themes as the previous section. In â€Å"Landscape,† he evokes a living and breathing city. The speaker hears buildings and birds singing, also comparing window lamps to stars. He considers the city a timeless place, passing from season to season with ease. It is also a space of dreams and fantasy, where the speaker finds â€Å"gardens of bronze,† â€Å"blue horizons,† and â€Å"builds fairy castles† during the night. Paris becomes an enchanted city, where even a beggar is a beautiful princess.For example, the speaker admires the erotic beauty of a homeless woman in â€Å"To a Red-headed Beggar Girl,† especially her â€Å"two perfect breasts. † He does not see her rags but, rather, the gown of a queen complete with pearls formed from drop s of water. The speaker then laments the destruction of the old Paris in â€Å"The Swan. † Evoking the grieving image of Andromache, he exclaims: â€Å"My memory teems with pity / As I cross the new Carrousel / Old Paris is no more (the shape of a city /Changes more quickly, alas! than the heart of a mortal). All he sees now is the chaos of the city's rebuilding, from scaffolding to broken columns. Baudelaire then juxtaposes the pure but exiled image of a white swan with the dark, broken image of the city. The swan begs the sky for rain but gets no reply. The speaker forces himself to come to grips with the new city but cannot forget the forlorn figure of the swan as well as the fate of Andromache, who was kidnapped shortly after her husband's murder. The presence of the grieving Andromache evokes the theme of love in the city streets.But in the modern city, love is fleeting–and ultimately impossible– since lovers do not know each other anymore and can only cat ch a glimpse of each other in the streets. In â€Å"To a Passerby,† the speaker conjures up a beautiful woman and tries to express his love with one look: they make eye contact, but it is quickly broken, as they must each head their separate ways. The encounter is tragic because they both feel something (â€Å"O you who I had loved, O you who knew! â€Å") and yet they know that their next meeting will be in the afterlife; a foreboding presence of death looms over the poem's end.Baudelaire continues to expose the dark underside, or spleen, of the city. (The spleen, an organ that removes disease-causing agents from the bloodstream, was traditionally associated with malaise; â€Å"spleen† is a synonym for â€Å"ill-temper. â€Å") In â€Å"Evening Twilight,† he evokes â€Å"cruel diseases,† â€Å"demons,† â€Å"thieves,† â€Å"hospitals,† and â€Å"gambling. † The different aspects of the city are compared to wild beasts and anthills, while â€Å"Prostitution ignites in the streets. † Paris becomes a threatening circus of danger and death where no one is safe.By the end of the section, in â€Å"Morning Twilight,† â€Å"gloomy Paris† rises up to go back to work. Form It is important to note that most of the poems in this section are dedicated to Victor Hugo, who composed long epic poems about Paris. In this context, Baudelaire abandons the structure and rhythm of the previous section in order to emulate Hugo's own style. However, in â€Å"To a Passerby,† Baudelaire returns to his original form, using a traditional sonnet structure (two quatrains and two three-line stanzas).As in â€Å"Spleen and Ideal,† he emphasizes the imperfection of the speaker's spleen with imperfections in meter, isolating the words â€Å"Raising† and â€Å"Me† at the beginning of their respective lines. Commentary Baudelaire was deeply affected by the rebuilding of Paris after the r evolution of 1848. Begun by Louis-Napoleon in the 1850s, this rebuilding program widened streets into boulevards and leveled entire sections of the city. Baudelaire responded to the changing face of his beloved Paris by taking refuge in recollections of its mythic greatness but also with a sense of exile and alienation.The swan symbolizes this feeling of isolation, similar to the â€Å"Spleen† poems in which the speaker feels that the entire city is against him. The Swan asks God for rain in order to clean the streets and perhaps return Paris to its antique purity but receives no response. Suddenly, the city itself has become a symbol of death as its rapid metamorphoses remind the speaker of the ruthlessness of time's passage and his own mortality: â€Å"The shape of a city /Changes more quickly, alas! than the heart of a mortal. † The speaker sees Paris as a modern myth in progress, evoking such mythological figures as Andromache and Hector.Even the negative aspects o f city life, ranging from prostitution to gambling, are described as animals, giving Baudelaire's poetry an allegorical quality. For example, in â€Å"Evening Twilight,† the poet evokes â€Å"Dark Night,† which casts its shadow over the ants, worms, and demons, symbolizing Parisian prostitution, theater, and gambling. Together, the city, its vices, and its people form a mythical, â€Å"unhealthy atmosphere,† instructing the reader to learn his or her lesson. Yet Paris is primarily a cemetery of failed love, as described in

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My letter to facuty senate - Essay Example from a professional, I have learned that I am suffering from acute psychological disaster which was brought by the tragic circumstances that I need to go through. I am really sorry for not being a good student during those two semesters. Noting your experience, I know that you’re aware of the tough times that youth need to go through. Those past years have really been challenging for me as a person to remind myself that everything will be fine when I feel just too exhausted from personal burdens. The years that I’ve spent in the army did me good by instilling me with a sense of responsibility and developing my maturity. I have learned to be selfless and appreciate even those little things which I have. Thus, I would like to pursue a college education in Smeal College. Please, help me accomplish this dream by erasing those two semesters of immaturity and lack of disciple in my

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Caring for the Dying Patient and Their Family Members - Essay Example Healing begins at this intersection where clinical problems/issues (dilemmas) emerge and suffering can best be understood. It is the accepting of others' different perspectives and beliefs that helps strengthens and creates resilience in the crisis time of suffering. The experience of suffering from an illness can be alleviated by those who play a role in the lives of the one suffering. These individuals are the ones whom the patient is connected with. We often consider the ones who are connected to the person with the illness as close family members and friends. Doctors and nurses, particularly family nurses can play a big role in alleviating the patient's suffering. The reason they play a big role is because the person with the illness, or the patient, has close ties to the nurse (medical practitioner) as he or she depends on the nurse for medical care on a regular basis. Some patients and family members (this includes friends) may not realize it but the nurse also provides more than medical care such as emotional and mental encouragement, strength, hope, and so on. Or the nurse can offer the opposite and place more fear and discouragement upon the patient and family members. There is much stress when dealing with one who is suf... Not only is there stress for the patient and family members but stress for the medical staff. All humans need the support of others. When hit by a major life-changing event, humans usually have the need to share this experience with someone who they feel close to-a friend, work associate, and/or a spouse. Many studies have shown that the impact of a major life event can be changed, or modified, by a support network. (Rock, 1992 The responsibilities of nurse and medical practitioners extend further than they used to. It no longer is an age where the nurse just helps solve medical problems and cares for the physical ailment. They are an extension of the family and a link/connection to the family's ability to handle and overcome the experiences of suffering. The nurse and family interact with each other and converse with each other in this trying time and it is the knowledge, understanding, and relieving of the suffering from this type of interaction that gives the family strength and resilience during a time of family crisis. The way a nurse thinks, the languages he or she uses, the questions he or she asks, and the values that are placed on relationships can create family strengths and resiliency in the midst of suffering. "Illness is a family Caring for Patient 4 affair" and the medical staff members are part of the family. (Bell, J., 1992, pp. 244-246.) Resiliency is the "ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy," as defined by resiliency. (n.d.). Resiliency is the ability to bounce back after a down time especially a time of crisis. Suffering from an illness is definitely a time of crisis for the family. Families know quite well the experience

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Management Principle of Nike - Essay Example This essay is aimed to help the redaer to understand how a strategic objective could be attained through change in collective and individual behaviour of the employees of Nike. The researcher discusses and analyzes two cases, that are involving Nike company. In the first, we will know how the company should design its travel policy based on the existing policy and the feedback coming from the senior managers. The second one will discuss the pay and reward system of Nike to determine whether there is basis to adapt Nike’s approaches as prescribed in the case facts? In both cases, the approach is to answer the guide questions that were made part of part of case facts. The researcher states that the designs must understand human nature; in this case, the perceptions, attitudes and behaviour of their employees as far as company-designed programs are concerned. Nike must involve them if possible. For managers, they are supposed to know more than the ordinary employees do and they m ust take the brunt for knowing and applying the necessary management principle in Nike. The researcher also presents the strong relationship of the analysis and the recommendation that he gives. Managers are said to be leaders and leaders are good followers first. It is also concluded that managers of Nike company must follow policies but before it could so, they must make those policies in travel, pay and reward systems clear by communicating through proper channels in the most effective and professional manner.

The influence of economic and political forces on environmental policy Assignment

The influence of economic and political forces on environmental policy development - Assignment Example s, scientists, farmers, ranchers, and climatologists agree that there is urgent need to avail enough water for the purposes of harnessing the agricultural potential of Texas. Even with the rains coming to Texas in the near future, the meteorological department warns that the process of desertification shall go on for more than a century into the future. This is a worrying trend given that Texas comes only second in agricultural production behind the state of California. There are several political and economic issues which should be addressed on this front. While this is a campaign plan, the issues are real and affect all Texans on equal measure. First of all, besides worrying about the conditions of their lawns and gardens, Texans should be aware of the fact that drought affects agriculture with far-reaching effects. The drought increases the cost of inputs of production translating to higher prices for products to the final consumer. The loss of agricultural productivity will not only affect Texans; the rest of the country will have to compensate for the slowing output through higher prices and raised taxes. Scientists have predicted that it is almost inevitable for drought conditions to manifest in Texas (Kelly, 2009). The rainfall models and history for this state and concluded that desertification is eminent. Producing over 50% of the cotton and over 30% of the wheat in the United States, Texas is an agricultural pillar that should not be left to wither. The year 2011 saw to a loss of $3.18 billion in the combined cotton, hay, wheat, sorghum, and corn. Ranchers in the same year had to transport cattle to water points, fetch water and transport it to the cattle, or lose their businesses entirely. In the livestock sector, a total loss of $2.06 billion was recorded. The agricultural sector in general lost at least $8.7 billion in 2011. These costs continue rising as the drought persists in its ravaging (Lauren & Scott, 2011). Another economic issue adversely

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Evaluating Eighteenth Century Poetry Essay Example for Free

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Review Pain Management For Neonates Health And Social Care Essay

Review Pain Management For Neonates Health And Social Care Essay Review of literature is defined as a critical summary of review on a topic of interest, often prepared to put a research problem in contest (Polit Beck,2006). The review of literature in the research report is a summary of current knowledge about a particular practice problem and includes what is known and not known about the problem. The literature is reviewed to summarize knowledge for use in practices or to provide a basis for conducting a study (Burns, 1997). This study examined the effects of Expressed Breast Milk (EBM) on behavioural response related to venepuncture in neonates. From the collected review of various associated literature and research studies, topics can be divided as follow; Section A: Studies related to pain perception of neonates. Section B: Studies related to non pharmacological pain management for neonates. Section C: Studies related to expressed breast milk on pain management. Section D: Studies related to using breast milk in other conditions. Section A: Studies Related To Pain Perception of Neonates. Brenda Clain Zeev Kain (2005) stated in a study which was conducted in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit to assess the need for improved pain relief measures for neonates. The neurotransmitters and structures required for pain sensation as well as structures needed for long-term memory are developed adequately in the neonate and thus have the potential to affect long-term outcomes. The study indicated that the number of procedures to which each infant was exposed ranged from 0 to 53 per day. On a scale of 0 to 10, the average pain score in these infants ranged from 1.7 for a diaper change to 8.9 for endotracheal intubation. The investigators indicated also that approximately 40% of all neonates did not receive any analgesia at all during the intensive care stay. These findings point to the continuous need to educate the medical community regarding the long-term outcomes of pain management in neonates. In conclusion, the current research in neonatal pain makes it clear that agg ressive pain control in the neonate is desirable not only for the management of current pain but also for protection from pain experiences to come. Ann Victoria Myron, Denise Poirier Maguire Jane Corrigan wandel (2004) conducted a study on pain perception in the neonate at Bostons Beth Isreal Hospital. Routine neonatal circumcision is still performed in most centers without the benefit of anesthesia. Newborns were frequently not given analgesic or anesthetic agents during invasive procedures, including surgery. The researcher concluded that the neuro chemical systems now known to be associated with pain transmission and modulation are intact and functioning in newborns. Moreover, although it is unclear that a neonate subjectively experiences pain in a manner similar to older children and adults, there is evidence of physiologic and perhaps even a psychological form of stress in premature or full-term neonates in response to painful stimuli. Dodds (2003) conducted a survey on neonatal procedural pain among nursing staff in childrens hospital research centre, USA. A total of twenty one neonatal nursing staff were selected and administered a self completion questionnaire to investigate about attitude towards neonatal pain assessment, pharmacological and non pharmacological management of pain. The result showed that 48% of nurses using pain assessment tool and for pharmacological management 66% of nurses using non-nutritive sucking for pain management but other non pharmacological methods are rarely used. Ivy Rouzan (2001) did an analysis of research and clinical practice in neonatal pain management. The purpose of the trial was to review the literature on neonatal pain management with a focus on historical misconceptions, ethical issues, barriers to practice, the role of the advanced practice nurse. Health care professionals agree that neonates experience pain and in turn deserve effective treatment. Research is controversial regarding the extent of pain management necessary in relation to short-term benefits and long-term consequences. Ethical issues arise when research supporting pain management is not consistently utilized in nursing practice. Section B: Studies Related To Non-Pharmacological Pain Management For Neonates. Brenda Golianu et al (2007) conducted a study on efficacy of non-pharmacological therapies for neonatal pain management. A number of non pharmacological therapies have been investigated, including nonnutritive sucking with and without sucrose use, swaddling or facilitated tucking, kangaroo care, music therapy, and multi-sensorial stimulation. The researcher concluded that even though the efficacy of these approaches is clearly evident, they cannot provide analgesia for moderate or severe pain in the neonate, non-pharmacological therapies can be used for minor pain management in neonates. Cignacco et al (2007) reviewed thirteen randomized controlled trials to identify the efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions in the management of procedural pain in preterm and term neonates. A literature search was conducted via the MedLine, CINAHL, Cochrane Library databases and complemented by a hand search. The literature search covered the period from 1984 to 2004. Data were extracted according to pre-defined criteria by two independent reviewers and methodological quality was assessed. The selected interventions were non-nutritive sucking, music, swaddling, positioning, olfactory and multisensorial stimulation, kangaroo care and maternal touch. The researcher concluded that some of the non-pharmacological interventions such as non-nutritive sucking, swaddling and facilitated tucking had shown favourable effect on pulse rate, respiration, oxygen saturation, reduction of motor activity, and on excitation states after invasive measures. A study was conducted by Eunsook Park (2007) on pain reduction of heel stick procedure among ninety-nine healthy neonates. The purpose of this study was to find the effect of Yakson (i.e. a traditional Korean touching method) and non-nutritive sucking (NNS) on reducing the pain that neonates experience when undergoing the heel stick procedure for blood testing. The study samples were assigned into three groups: group I Yakson (n = 33), group II NNS (n = 33), and group III control group (n = 33). Intervention was provided to the Yakson and NNS groups one minute prior to heel stick till the completion of the heel stick. For the Yakson group, a researcher caressed the belly of a neonate with one hand while supporting the back with the other hand. For the NNS group, a pacifier packed with sterile gauze was put in the neonates mouth. The oxygen saturation levels in the Yakson and NNS group neonates were maintained significantly better than in the control group neonates. There was no signi ficant difference between the groups with regard to heart rate and neonatal infant pain, which was measured using Neonatal Infant Pain Scale. Findings indicated that Yakson can be used during heel stick to help neonates to maintain their oxygen saturation level following the heel stick procedure. A prospective trial was performed by Karen Corff (2006) to identify the effectiveness of facilitated tucking, a non-pharmacologic nursing intervention, as a comfort measure in modulating preterm neonates physiologic and behavioral responses to minor pain among thirty preterm neonates belonging to the age group of 25-35 weeks of gestation at Edmond. The objective of the study was that premature neonates will have less variation in heart rate, hemoglobin, oxygen saturation, shorter crying, sleep disruption times, and less fluctuation in sleep states in response to the painful stimulus of a heel-stick with facilitated tucking than without facilitated tucking. In this study, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and sleep state were recorded 12 minutes before, during, and 15 minutes after two heel-sticks, one with and one without facilitated tucking. Neonates demonstrated a lower mean heart rate six to ten minutes post-stick (p Yajai Sitthimongkol et al (2005) did a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of non-pharmacological pain management in reducing pain from heel stick blood sampling in newborns. A number of non-pharmacological pain management interventions which includes swaddling , positioning, holding and rocking, nonnutritive sucking, breast milk or breast feeding, and oral sucrose had been used to reduce pain from heel stick in preterm and full term neonates. The researcher concluded that preterm neonates who were arranged in a side-lying or supine position with flexed arms and legs close to the infants trunk demonstrated a lower mean heart rate, a shorter mean crying time, a shorter mean sleep disruption time, and fewer sleep-state changes after the heel stick procedure. Carbajal (2004) investigated the effectiveness of oral sucrose in alleviating procedural pain. The hypothesis of this study was that non-pharmacological interventions can reduce neonatal pain indirectly by reducing the total amount of noxious stimuli to which infants are exposed directly, by blocking nociceptive transduction or transmission or activation of descending inhibitory pathways or by activating attention and arousal systems that modulate pain. The researcher administered one to two milliliter of oral sucrose or 30% glucose at two minutes before a minor painful procedure in term neonates or neonates weighing more than 2500 gm. For preterm neonates weighing less than 2500gm, 0.5 ml of oral sucrose or 30% glucose and for those weighing less than 1500gm, 0.3 ml of oral sucrose or 30%glucose was administered. The researcher concluded that when newborns were given pacifier with sweet solutions had synergistic effect in alleviating minor procedural pain. Section C: Studies Related To Expressed Breast Milk On Pain Management In Neonates. Elodie Zana (2009) conducted a randomized controlled study on analgesic effect of breast milk for procedural pain among forty two preterm infants. The hypothesis of this study was that breast milk has a more powerful analgesic effect than oral sucrose to avoid procedural pain in preterm neonates. The researcher used a standardized and validated pain scale by Douleur Aigue Nouveau-ne scale (DAN scale).In this study GroupI (Breast milk) and Group II (Oral sucrose) received as analgesic product to avoid procedural pain. The study had shown that breast milk has more powerful analgesic effect than oral sucrose to alleviate procedural pain by using percentage frequency of DANs scale score. A study on heel lance in newborn during breast feeding; an evaluation of analgesic effect of this procedure among 200 healthy full term newborns. for neonatal metabolic screening. Practices such as skin to skin contact, or breastfeeding, in healthy newborn, may represent an alternative to the use of analgesic drugs. The aim of the study is to evaluate the analgesic effect of breastfeeding due to routine invasive procedures like capillary heel sticks blood sampling. Pain assessment was evaluated by DAN scale. The difference in score of pain according to the DAN scale was significant in the two groups of neonates (p = 0.0001); the median score of pain was 5.15 for controls and 2.65 for experimental group (newborns sampled during breastfeeding). The study results have shown the evidence of analgesic effect of breast feeding during heel puncture. ( Elena Uga et al ,2008). Shah, Aliwalas Shah (2006) conducted a trial on breastfeeding or supplemental breast milk to alleviate procedural pain in neonates, at Canada. A literature search was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and abstracts from the annual meeting of the society for pediatric research. Marked heterogeneity in terms of control intervention and pain assessment measures were noted among the studies. Premature Infant Pain Profile scores were significantly different between the breastfeeding group when compared to placebo group and the group positioned in mothers arms. Neonates in the breastfeeding group had statistically significant and shows less increase in the heart rate, reduced proportion of crying time and reduced duration of crying compared to swaddled group or pacifier group. Investigator concluded that the breast milk should be used to alleviate procedural pain in neonates. Emine Efe Sevim Savafler (2005) did a study on the use of breast feeding for pain relief during neonatal immunization injections at Antalya. The objective of this study was to examine the pain relieving effect of breast feeding during immunization injections in healthy neonates. Sixty six healthy neonates returning to a clinic for their second, third or fourth month immunization with intramuscular diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis were randomized into experimental group and control group. The experimental group received breast milk before, during and after the injection. The control groups were not fed by breast milk before injection according to routine clinic procedure. To assess the pain response of the neonates during and after immunization, the investigators noted their heart rates, oxygen saturation levels and length of crying. The crying time was shorter in the experimental (breast-feeding) group than in the control group .The heart rate and oxygen saturation levels were almo st the same in both groups. The study concluded that breast feeding, maternal holding, skin-to-skin contact significantly reduced crying in infants receiving an immunization injection for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. Phillips, Carolin, Michael (2005) compared the analgesic effects of breastfeeding or pacifier use with maternal holding in procedural pain 96 healthy term neonates. The purpose of study was to assess the differences in outcome measures caused by the effect of breastfeeding (maternal contact).Group I received breast milk, group II were held in the bed by their mothers while giving pacifier and group III neonates were held by the research assistants in bedside chairs while giving pacifier. All the neonates underwent heel lance blood sampling by a single performer. Neonates who were received breast milk (Group I) had shorter duration of cry than mothers held babies in their bed while giving pacifier (group II) while research assistant held infants in bedside chairs (group III). The outcomes measured were crying duration, percentage of infants crying, changes in the heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation. The study had shown breast milk is more analgesic than pacifier use with non-maternal holding. A study was conducted by Shendurnikar (2005) to compare the effects of breastfeeding to positioning (swaddling) in procedural pain. A total of 100 full term neonates were participated in the study. The neonates were randomized into two groups (50 neonates in each group).Infants in group one were breastfed for 15 minutes prior to heel prick. All neonates underwent heel lance procedure for clinical indication such as measurement of packed cell volume or bilirubin. The outcomes measured were behavioral (state of arousal, cry, facial expression and body movements), physiological (breathing pattern, heart rate). By using standardized pain scale composite score (non validated) between the two groups before, during and after blood collection were measured. Breast feeding group had shown effectiveness on alleviating procedural pain than swaddling group. Effect of foremilk and hind milk on simple procedural pain among sixty two healthy term neonates at Istanbul, Turkey. The neonates were randomized into three groups. Group I neonates received 2 ml of foremilk, group II hind milk and group III received sterile water. All neonates underwent heel lance blood sampling by single performer. The allocated solution was given by syringe into the babys mouth. The heel prick was performed two minutes after administration of the solution. Crying duration and heart rate changes at one, two, and three minutes were recorded from the time of the heel prick. The outcomes measured were crying time, percentage change in heart rate and Neonatal Facial Coding Score at one, two and three minutes. The study concluded that neither foremilk nor hind milk was effective in relieving procedural pain. (Uyan, 2005). Narayan, Upathayay, Aggarwal, Joshi, Paul Deorari (2004) investigated a randomized placebo controlled, double-blind trial on analgesic effect of EBM in procedural pain in term neonates. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of EBM in reducing pain due to venepuncture, in term neonates, as measured by behavioural and physiological observation. This trial involved eighty one full terms up to four weeks of neonatal age, who needed venepuncture for blood investigations. Two minutes before the venepuncture, forty babies received five ml of EBM in the experimental group, while forty one babies in control group received five ml of distilled water as placebo. Two observers who are blinded to the intervention recorded the physiological and behavioural parameters. The duration of crying was significantly shorter in babies fed with EBM than in those fed with distilled water . The mean duration of crying in EBM group was shorter by 70.7 seconds. The change in heart rate and oxyge n saturation was significantly lower in the EBM group and return to baseline values sooner than in the distilled water group. Schollin (2004) stated the analgesic effect of EBM on procedural pain in neonates. Prevention, treatment and assessment of neonatal pain have been of major clinical and scientific interest in the last decades. Non-pharmacological interventions such as sweet oral solutions are successful in pain relief. The study concluded that seven percentage of lactose in expressed breast milk was sufficient to alleviate procedural pain in neonates. Upadhyay (2004) compared the effects of supplemental breast milk with sterile water in procedural pain. This was a randomized controlled trial of 87 full term neonates. The infants were randomized into two groups. Venepuncture was performed based on clinical indications. Data from 81 infants were analyzed. The primary outcome was the duration of the cry after the venepuncture. Only five easily recordable parameters of the Neonatal Facial Coding Score (out of ten) were assessed by investigator. Data on heart rate, oxygen saturation were provided as mean and standard deviation at baseline and three minutes. The mean difference and standard deviation of the difference were calculated assuming 50% correlation between baseline and subsequent findings. The study concluded that supplemental breast milk was effective in reducing pain caused by venepuncture procedure. A randomized controlled trial investigated to compare the effects of breastfeeding to positioning, sterile water and 30% glucose in procedural pain. This was a of 180 term neonates. In that Group I received breast feeding, group II positioned in mothers arms, group III received sterile water and group IV were fed 30% glucose. The interventions were started two minutes before the procedure and continued throughout the procedure. Venepuncture was performed when infants were at least 24 hours of age and had not been fed for the previous 30 minutes. The primary outcome was measured by using Douleur Aigue Nouveau-ne scale (DAN), a behavioral scale developed to rate acute pain in term and preterm neonates. The score comprised of three items namely facial expressions, limb movements, and vocal expression with values in each ranging from zero (no pain) to 10 (maximum pain). The study had shown breast feeding has effect on relieving procedural pain than positioning, sterile water and 30% gluc ose in term neonates. (Carbajal, 2003). Jatana, Dalal Wilson ( 2003) conducted study on analgesic effect of oral glucose in neonates undergoing heel punctures for collection of blood for investigations. The sample was 125 full term normal neonates with no history of birth asphyxia or underlying neurological abnormalities requiring heel punctures for collection of blood for various investigations were selected for the study. The study subjects of 125 neonates were divided into five groups of twenty five in each. One group comprised control subjects and was administered sterile water. Three groups were administered one ml of varying strengths of glucose solution i.e., 10%, 20% and 50% respectively. The last group was given one ml of EBM. Prior to heel pricks, state of arousal, baseline heart rate and transcutaneous oxygen saturation were recorded by pulse oximeter in each neonate. Increasing concentration of glucose and EBM have been found to have analgesic effect in full term neonates undergoing heel punctures for routine investigations and can probably be used to provide pain relief in other simple painful procedures. Larry Gray, Lisa Barbara (2002) investigated a randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of breastfeeding to positioning in procedural pain at University of Chicago, Illinois. A total of 30 full term neonates were included for this study. The neonates were randomized into two groups (15 neonates in each group).All neonates underwent heel lance for routine neonatal screening procedure. Mean neonatal age at procedure was 46 hours in Group I and 40 hours in Group II. The outcome of the study showed that there were significant differences in crying, grimacing and heart rate in breast feeding groups than positioning group. Thus the researcher concluded that breast feeding reduces procedural pain than positioning during blood collection procedure in neonates. Leite et al (2002) did a study on effects of breastfeeding on pain relief in full-term newborns. The sample of this randomized clinical trial study consisted of 60 full-term newborns: 31 in the experimental group and 29 in the control group. The experimental group was breastfed five minutes before, during, and for five minutes after the blood collection procedure. Neonates in the control group were held in mothers arms but not fed or given a soother. Heart rate was considered as an index of arousal. Sucking frequency was only evaluated in the experimental group. Compared with the control group, the experimental group had significantly lower scores and heart rates changes. In the experimental group sucking frequency was highest during the first five minutes of breastfeeding before the procedure. The conclusion was that breastfeeding was effective in reducing pain caused by blood collection for newborn screening. Mathi, Natarajan Rajalakshmi (2002) performed a comparative study of non pharmacological methods to reduce pain in neonates at Coloba, Mumbai. A randomized study was done to compare non pharmacological methods to reduce the pain of heel pricks in 104 stable term neonates. Rocking, massage, 20% sucrose, distilled water (DW) and Expressed Breast Milk (EBM) was used as pain reducing agents. Duration of cry and Douleur Aigue Nouveau-ne (DAN) score were used to assess pain. Physiological parameters were also recorded before and after the stimulus. At 30 seconds after the stimulus, the pain scores were lowest in the sucrose group but this was not sustained at 1, 2 and 4 minutes. At 2 and 4 minutes pain scores were lowest in the expressed breast milk and rocking groups as compared to sucrose, distilled water, and massage. The total duration of crying was also lowest in the EBM and rocking groups. Blass (2001) conducted a trial on comparison of effects of supplemental breast milk (colostrum) to water and sucrose in procedural pain with 60 full-term neonates. The neonates were between 30 55 hrs of age at the time of blood collection for routine neonatal screening using the heel lance procedure. Two ml of the allocated solution was given either by slow administration via syringe over a span of two minutes or by allowing neonates to suck a pacifier dipped in the solution every 30 seconds for two minutes. Prior to the procedure, baseline data were obtained for 60 seconds and continuous monitoring was done throughout and after the procedure during the recovery time. The outcome of the study showed that there was a reduction in the percentage of crying and grimacing times in the supplemental breast milk group during the procedure. The study had also shown that supplemental breast milk was effective than sucrose in alleviating procedural pain in full term neonates. Ricardo Carbajal, Soocromanien veerapen, Sophie Coudere, Myriam Jà ºgie Yves Ville (2001) performed randomized controlled trial on analgesic effect of breast feeding among one hundred and eighty term neonates at Poissy-Saint German hospital. The study subjects were randomized into four groups, forty five in each group. During venepuncture the group I neonates were breast fed, group II neonates were held in their mothers arms without breast feeding , group III neonates received one ml of sterile water as placebo and group IV neonates were given one ml of 30% glucose followed by pacifier. Video recordings of the procedure were assessed by two observers blinded to the purpose of the study. Pain related behaviours were evaluated with two acute pain rating scales: the Douleur Aigue Nouveau-ne scale and the Premature Infant Pain Profile scale. Analysis of the data revealed that there were significant reductions in both scores for the breast feeding and glucose plus pacifier groups compar ed with the other two groups (p A randomized controlled trial was conducted by Bucher (2000) on comparison of effects of artificial sweetener containing ten parts cyclamate and one part saccharin to glycine (sweet amino acid), expressed breast milk and sterile water among eighty full-term infants. by a nurse not involved in the study. Prior to the procedure, two ml of the allocated solution was given via syringe on the anterior part of tongue and baseline data were obtained throughout and after the procedure during the recovery time. The procedure was video taped and evaluated by two independent observers unaware of allocation. The outcomes measured were reduction of heart rate change, percentage of time crying, facial pain score (five components of NFCS) and body pain score during blood collection. Breast milk group had significant reduction in heart rate change, percentage of time crying, facial pain score and body pain score. The study had shown breast milk has effectiveness than artificial sweetener and sterile water. Okan,  Ozdil,  Bulbul,  Yapici Nuhoglu (2000) conducted study on analgesic effects of skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding in procedural pain in healthy term neonates at Turky. A randomized, controlled trial was conducted among 107 neonates undergoing heel-lance. Neonates were randomly assigned to three groups. Group I were being breastfed with skin-to-skin contact, group II neonates being held in their mothers arms with skin-to-skin contact but no breastfeeding, and group III neonates were made to lie on the table before, during and after painful stimulus. Physiological responses to pain were measured by heart rate and oxygen saturation changes and behavioural responses were measured by duration of crying and grimacing. Heart rate, oxygen saturation changes and length of crying were significantly reduced in groups I and II compared with group III. No differences were found between group I and group II. Grimacing was less in group II than in group III. In healthy term neonat es, skin-to-skin contact with the mother and breastfeeding with skin-to-skin contact reduces both physiological and behavioural pain response. Ors (1999) compared the effects of supplemental breast milk to water and 25% sucrose in procedural pain. This was a randomized controlled trial of 102 healthy term neonates. The neonates were randomized into three groups. Group I received supplemental breast milk, group II received sterile water and group III received 25% sucrose. All neonates underwent heel lance blood sampling by a single performer. The allocated solution was given by syringe into the babys mouth over one minute. The heel prick was performed two minutes after administration of the solution. Crying duration and heart rate at three minutes were recorded from the time of the heel prick. The outcomes measured were crying time, percentage change in heart rate and recovery time for the heart rate. The supplemental breast milk had shown significant reduction in crying time, percentage change in heart rate than the other two groups. Skogsdal (1997) performed a randomized controlled trial among 120 neonates to compare the effects of no intervention to 30% oral glucose, 10% oral glucose and breast milk in procedural pain. The neonates were randomly assigned to one of the following groups (30 neonates in each group).The neonates were studied on mean and standard deviation of fifth neonatal age at the time of blood collection for their routine care using the heel lance procedure. One ml of allocated solution was given via syringe by a nurse not aware of allocation. Prior to the procedure, baseline data were obtained and continuous monitoring was done throughout and after the procedure during the recovery time. The blood collection was performed two minutes after administration of solution. The outcomes measured were heart rate change and duration of crying. The study results showed that breast milk was effective on procedural pain than the glucose solution in newborns. Section D: Studies Related To Using Breast Milk In Other Conditions. Penjvini, Shahasavari, Gazerani Abdolkavand (2009) performed a randomized study on the effectiveness of topical use of human breast milk for diaper rash in hospitalized infants at Sanandaj. The study subjects for the study were 50 newborns, which were divided into two groups. Group I received human breast milk application and group II received zinc oxide ointment. After each diaper change the affected area was cleansed with water followed by application of human breast milk or zinc oxide. Infants were assessed twice a day for three days. The diaper rash were measured by using a sterilized ruler put along the lesions in a way that 32 cm2 = large size, 22 cm2 = moderate size and less than 12 cm2 = small size. There were significant differences between human milk and zinc oxide groups. The researcher concluded that topical application of breast milk was effective treatment for diaper rash. Sergio, Alejandro Palma (2008) conducted a switch from antibiotic eye drops to instillation of mothers milk drops as a treatment of infant epiphora. The management of newborns with signs and symptoms of congenital naso lacrimal duct obstruction was switched from topical antibiotic to topical mothers milk-based regimens. The conservative management of this condition includes frequent cleansing of the lids, digital lacrimal sac massage and application of topical antibiotic drops when there was a mucopurulent discharge. This change was initiated by some others who have applied traditional therapy such as instillation of mothers milk as eye drops. This study concluded that instillation of mothers milk drops had effectiveness than antibiotic eye drops in the treatment of infant epiphora. Gulsen Vural Sezer Kizar (2006) did a case control design on umbilical cord care: comparing topical human milk, povidone iodine and dry cord care, in Urban University Hospital at Turkey. The study subjects were 150 newborns which were divided into three groups. Each group had 50 newborns. Group I received breast milk on t

Equal Opportunities for Women in Management Positions

Equal Opportunities for Women in Management Positions Women in Management This paper looks at the issue of women in management within the financial services sector, focusing on high street banks in the United Kingdom, in the context of addressing the issue of gender discrimination within top management. This is done by looking at past and present published papers that revolve around the subject matter under a theoretical hypothesis. The theoretical hypothesis, which is based on published material on women in management, is used to explain the issues surrounding women in management. Three high street banks were assessed as case studies to identify the issue of gender discrimination within UK banks. The outcomes are also categorised under specific themes. Finally a critical review of matches and mismatches is used to compare and contrast similarities between the theoretical hypothesis and the empirical evidence gathered for this paper. Chapter 1: The Concept of Women In Management Since the end of the Second World War, organisations all over the world have been slow to recognize the importance of women in the development and building of strong solid leadership from within. This has raised serious issues with regard to top management particularly within the financial services sectors, being male dominated, not allowing women into positions of authority, or top management. Although, organisations all over the world have moved on since then, and there have been positive results so far in today’s modern day society, however the relative percentage of women in relation to men in top management positions still remains unsolved. In the United Kingdom, certain sectors seem to have made substantial progress with regard to addressing these issues, e.g. the financial sectors, and the health and social services. However, this is not the case across the whole spectrum of job sectors. E.g. the military, production services, distribution, Information and communication technology, and agriculture. Aims and Objectives The aim of this paper is to address the issue of top management, which is predominantly male dominated, within the financial services sector allowing and encouraging women to progress into management positions in their field of expertise. I.e. Understanding the problems associated with women breaking through the glass ceiling into top management within the financial services sector. The objective of this research is to first provide a detailed analysis of the theoretical aspects that women face when it comes to stepping into management positions within banks in the United Kingdom. Secondly, to understand the processes and mechanisms that are inherent within financial organisations that slowdown the pace of women into management positions. Thirdly, to highlight the issue of gender discrimination associated with the latter mentioned. Lastly, I will critically appraise the validity of published material so far covering women in management in the context of equal opportunity policies and flexible work patterns. Chapter 2: Existing Literature Reviewed Over the past 50 years gender inequalities i.e. women in management, particularly within the UK banking sector has been the subject of bureaucratic scrutiny to a certain degree. For example Crompton (1989)states that UK banks have increasingly become the major employers of female labour. However, women in banks have not historically had the same career opportunities as men, for a variety of reasons, ranging from deliberate male exclusion practices to the broken and often short-term nature of many women’s work histories. Additionally, the contrast between the experiences of men and women in the same occupation is used to question the conventional view of occupational class analysis, where the (male) occupational structure is treated as if it were the class structure. Rutherford’s (1999) case study of banking, also illustrates how the discourses of gendered biological and psychological difference might be used to justify the scarcity of women in management grades and in so doing reproduce the status quo of male domination. After all, if women were not suited to management in banking what would be the point of creating policies to attempt to improve their representation there? Thus jobs become infused with stereotyped characteristics, which are believed to be linked to gender, race (Liff and Dickens, 2000) and to some extent age. Alvesson and Billing (1997) talks about the pressures for homogeneity and cultural competent behaviour. This involves individuals, consciously or unconsciously, conforming and adapting to organisational norms in order to fit in or progress their careers, for example by adopting the expected and desired language, work style, appearance and so on. The demand for cultural competence reinforces and reproduces the dominant, from which those who do not comply, or conform, remain excluded. Collin son (1990) argues about the cultural assumptions underlying male manager’s stereotypes of male and female attributes. He states that when evaluating male candidates, involvement in sport was a definite advantage, whereas females sporting achievements we reread as indicative of a very narrow existence. Another example was behaviour of men which was described as ‘pushy’ when exhibited by female candidate and as ‘showing initiative’ when a male candidate was involved. Thus women were less likely to be recruited to what were viewed as gender-incongruent jobs. It must also be recognised that policy approaches, which focus on certain groups of employees most typically women and ethnic minorities, tend to engender employee resentment (Cockburn, 1991; Miller and Rowney, 1999). Webb (1997) adds that ironically the radical feminist agenda, which asserts women’s differences from men and their potential for creating a better world, had been adapted to the concerns of liberal feminism with providing rationale for the promotion of women in management, on the grounds that women’s nurturing capacities contribute to the diversity needed by post-modern organisations. Webb (1997) goes on to state that we need to move beyond the ultimately limiting debate about whether women are the same as or different from men to a renewed concern with the material conditions of women’s lives and with the construction of equality initiatives which address the continuing exclusion of many women from adequate standards of living. Rees (1998) argues that relative strenuous efforts to tackle discrimination and disadvantage within the organisation are hampered by structural inequalities at societal level, in particular the interrelationship between education, training and employment. The continued existence of social inequalities could be said to indicate that as a society we are not yet ready to value gender diversity, or ethnic diversity, adopting the language will not make it happen. However, this should not be used as an excuse for organisational inertia or fatalism. Businesses have social responsibilities (one of these is to treat employees fairly) and they also have a need for social legitimacy in order to survive in the longer term (Miller and Rowney, 1999). This would point to need for organisations to value workforce diversity, irrespective of the purchase of short-term solutions. Sisson (1995) also adds that the problem with regard to women in management within the UK banking industry is that most organisations are predominantly concerned with the bottom line, short-term profitability and this orientation militates against long-term agendas. This renders it all the more important that the retrograde step of abandoning or neglecting equal opportunity policy should be avoided. Dickens (1994) argues that there is not a business case but a series of business rationales that are contingent. Organizational and managerial receptiveness to them is uneven, and they lead to only selective action. He goes on to state that the business case ‘carrot’ shares a similar weakness to the legal compliance ‘stick’. Calls for action beyond the individual organisation in a multi-pronged approach requiring state action, in which equality legislation and business case rationales each have apart to play. Chapter 3: Research Approach and Methodology Employed Research Approach The research approach will be carried out using the positivist case research approach. According to Cavite (1996), positivist epistemology tries to understand a social setting by identifying individual components of a phenomenon and explains the phenomenon in terms of constructs and relationships between constructs. The theoretical constructs describing the phenomenon are considered to be distinct from empirical reality. Hence, empirical observations can be used to test theory. This looks at the world as external and objective. Positivism employs four major research evaluation criteria: a good research should make controlled observations, should be able to be replicated should be generalizable and should use formal logic. Under positivism, case research findings are not statistically generalizable to a population, as the case or cases cannot be considered representative of a population, however, case research can claim theoretical generalizability. This will also include comparing, contrasting and critically evaluating past and present papers, articles, journals, and established theories that have been published on the subject matter. Methodology Employed Multiple-Case Study Design This project uses the multiple case study method in order to enable analysis of data across cases and relating it to the theoretical perspectives in the available literature of Information systems strategy. This enables the researcher to verify that findings are not merely the result of idiosyncrasies of research setting (Miles andHuberman, 1984). According to Yin (1994), in such a method it is important to use: multiple sources of evidence. Due to the time constraint attached with this paper, only three case studies of Women in management within the UK banking sector were gathered. The appropriate number of cases depends, firstly, on how much is known about the phenomenon after studying a case and secondly, on how much new information is likely to emerge from studying further cases(Eisenhardt, 1997). The paper provides three case studies of UK high street banks namely HSBC, NatWest Bank, and Lloyds TSB. Comparing and contrasting the roles of the women who are in the top management in these banks. Qualitative Data Cavite (1996) states that qualitative investigation refers to distilling meaning and understanding from a phenomenon and is not primarily concerned with measuring and quantification of the phenomenon. Direct and in-depth knowledge of a research setting are necessary to achieve contextual understanding. Hence, qualitative methods are associated with face-to-face contact with persons in the research setting, with verbal data being gathered. Qualitative data can be collected in a number of forms. One major form of qualitative evidence is interviews, which may be recorded and later transcribed. Qualitative data are rich, full, holistic ‘real’ their face validity seems impeachable; they preserve chronological flow where that is important. In spite of the above mentioned, qualitative data have weaknesses (Miles1979; Miles and Huberman, 1984). Collecting and analysing data is time-consuming and demanding. In addition, data analysis is not easy, as qualitative data analysis methods are not well established. Recognised rules of logic can be applied to verbal data in order to make sense of the evidence and to formally analyse the data. Rubin and Rubin (1995) state that it is most desirable to disclose the identities of both the case and the individuals interviewed because, †¢ The reader is able to recall any other previous information he or she may have learned about the same case from previous research or other sources in reading and interpreting the case report. †¢ The entire case can be reviewed more readily, so that footnotes and citations can be checked, if necessary, and appropriate criticisms can be raised about the published case. Nevertheless, there are some occasions when anonymity is necessary. The most common rationale is that when the case study has been on controversial topic, anonymity serves to protect the real case and its real participants. The second reason is that the issuance of the final case report may affect the subsequent actions of those that were studied. In the case of this paper, the positions of the participants within the organisations interviewed are mentioned. However, anonymity is adopted to protect the Identities of the participants and the real case. Why? Because the issue of women in management within Banks in the UK has been a long standing problem, in which revealing their names could hinder future revelations on their part and their jobs. The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows: Chapter 4: Theoretical Hypothesis on Women in Management Chapter 5: Empirical Analysis (Three Banks) Chapter 6: Comparing and contrasting Theoretical Hypothesis and Empirical Analysis Chapter 7: Summary and Conclusion. Chapter 4: Theoretical Hypothesis of Women In Management In order to have a clear understanding of women in management, we will first need to identify the meaning attached to this phenomenon. Since the mid 1990s, women’s representation amongst executives has doubled and amongst company directors it has tripled. At the same time there has been an overall increase in women working in management jobs. However, women still comprise less than a quarter of executives and only one in ten company directors. The ‘glass ceiling’, the situation where women can see but not reach higher level jobs and so are prevented from progressing in their careers, appears still to exist in many organisations. This is what led to the creation of the terminology ‘women in management’. Several key factors account for the continuing low representation of women in management. Firstly, like most other occupations, there is a tendency for some types of management jobs to be associated with either women or men. For example, whilst women are comparatively well represented in personnel and the public sector, men still predominate in production management and Information and communication technology. Secondly, opportunities to work part-time are limited, with only six present of managers and senior officials employed part-time. Although it may be difficult to carry out some management functions on a part-time basis, there are still far too few opportunities for flexible working at senior levels in organisations. With this in mind, we can now move on to discuss the theoretical perspectives of women in management. There are several already established theoretical perspectives that have been used to gather a better understanding of this issue, however, the ones used in this paper are: 1) Issues and problems facing women reaching the top (manager) 2) Why so few women reaching the top? 3) Why are women workers still going cheap? 4) What causes the gender pay gap? 5) Have women achieved equality in the UK banking industry? 4.1 Issues and problems facing women reaching the top (manager) Several factors account for the continuing low representation of women reaching the top. One of the key issues is that women consider family obligations and the predominance of ‘male values’ in corporate culture to be the main obstacles to career advancement for them. The nature of the obstacles blocking women’s progress to higher management varies, however, from those encountered at lower levels. Higher ranking female bank managers seem to experience discrimination to a greater extent, both on terms of structural and cultural barriers, where insufficient personal contacts and dominance of ‘male values’ adversely affect their advancement. The difficulties women face in reaching the top is also reflected in the higher levels of education and effort often demanded of them. The hurdles facing women aspiring to management jobs can be so formidable that they sometimes abandon efforts to make it to the top of large firms. They often take their energy and know-how to smaller and more flexible companies or set up their own businesses. Another principal constraint on the level and type of labour market participation of women is the responsibility they carry for raising children and performing household tasks. An important feature of professional and especially managerial work is the extended working hours that seem to be required to gain recognition and eventual promotion. It can be practically impossible to reconcile the long hours often required of management staff with the amount of time needed to care for a home and children, not to mention care of the elderly. Yet the availability of part-time managerial work varies across organisations. Women who desire both a family and a career often juggle heavy responsibilities in both domains. Those who opt for part-time work early in their careers may find their advancement hampered, even after a return to full-time employment, since their male counterparts will have invested heavily in career building during the same period. 4.2 Why so few women reaching the top? Few women gain access to the highest positions as executive heads of organizations and, despite some improvements, many would claim that the pace of change is still far too slow given the large number of qualified women in the labour market today. Where figures are available (ILO data, 2002), they show women holding from 1 present to 5percent of top executive positions. While it must be acknowledged that time is still needed for women at junior and middle management levels(those in the pipeline) to move into executive positions, the fact still remains that women are not moving quickly enough nor insufficient numbers into line or strategic positions. Yet this factories crucial for enlarging the pool of women aspiring to senior positions and for building a critical mass of senior women for networking and providing role models for those down the line. Speeding up women’s movement towards the top requires that recruitment and promotion methods be objective and fair. Above all, there has to be awareness and commitment from directors of companies as to the benefits for their organizations from promoting women to high-level managerial positions. Women seem to experience the most difficulty in obtaining executive jobs in large corporations, even though they often have greater opportunities at junior and middle management levels in these same corporations. Another reason for this purge is the educational attainment required for top management positions. Evidence provided byte Equal opportunities Commission in the United Kingdom suggest that, in some cases women do not have the educational qualifications to get into management positions, and even when that is not the case, they still do find it hard to break into management, due to the fact that its predominantly male dominated. Another reason is that few senior women are in the so called ‘line’ positions that involve profit and loss or revenue generating responsibilities, and which are critical for advancement to the highest level. Additionally, in the United Kingdom, the share of women among financial managers rose from 11 present to 17percent in the 1980s and still increasing, although they are still outnumbered by men in top management positions in the 21st century. 4.3 Why are women workers still going cheap? Much of women’s work has historically tended to be undervalued or unrecognized. While the United Nations system and governments are making more systematic efforts to value and account for women’s work in national statistics, research on women in management is a relatively new field and comparisons over time and across countries are limited. This is further made complicated by the range of definitions employed and the non-availability of statistics for different countries overtime. Under a report provided by the United Nations in 1996 called the Human development report, it states that ‘no society treats its women as well as men’. A gender related development index was created to record achievements and monitor progress. This is based on life expectancy, educational attainment and income, but adjusts the latter mentioned for gender equality. They noted that life expectancy rates are positively affected by care in different forms, such as social support and social relationships. For example, unmarried adults have higher mortality rates than married ones and, according to them, children in a caring environment fare better in terms of health than those who lack this attention. It is not only the weak and sick that need care to prosper; even the healthiest of adults need a certain amount of care. A deficit in care services not only destroys human development, but it also undermines economic growth. That these factors are overlooked has considerable implications for gender equality, as women still carry the main responsibility for care. Gender discrimination is perpetuated through the lack of value placed on women’s caring role in society. As managers, women are affected byte common assumption that in the event of building families they will bear the main burden of responsibility arising out of this. Thus, there is not the same degree of investment in women. They are less likely to receive the same encouragement or career advice through mentoring as men. Another important factor is that in some countries equal opportunity policies tend to be established within organizations, however, in some countries they are not strictly adhered to. In the Ukase scheme known as ‘Opportunity 2000’ was launched in 2000. Its member included 300 organizations ranging from the financial services to the educational departments. They agreed to increase the number of women into management positions, and between 1994 to 2000, women’s share of management positions increased from 25 present to 35 present. Therefore, one can say although women are still going cheap in certain jobs in other parts of the world this is not the case universally. 4.4 What causes the gender pay gap? A difference in management positions does tend to contribute to earnings differentials. Although rates of pay may be similar, actual earnings can vary because of the different salary packages offered to managers, which provide various fringe benefits and access to certain schemes for boosting bonuses. Earnings gaps may also reflect differences in seniority and concentration of women in low-paid managerial sub-groups. Additionally, certain jobs tend to be affiliated with men and to women, i.e. productions and manufacturing jobs tend to be affiliated with men, while nursing, and household jobs tend to be affiliated with women, this contributes to the pay gap between men and women. Within the Banking sector in the United Kingdom, there has been an increase of the number of women into both middle and top management. However, the positions they tend to head are not profit-making positions or revenue generating positions, which are positions of higher pay and responsibility. They tend to be based within the retail, customer services, and bookkeeping departments, which are areas of significance to the organization, but are of less repute. 4.5 Have women achieved equality in the UK banking industry? In the area of finance, women have certainly increased their share of management positions, although at a varying pace. In the United Kingdom, the share of women among financial managers rose from 11 present to 17 present during the 1980’s and at the turn of the century increased to 25 present. While women have captured an ever-increasing share of the labour market, improvements in the quality of women’s jobs have not kept pace. This is reflected in the smaller representation of women in management positions, particularly in the private sector, and their virtual absence from most senior jobs, i.e. Directorships, or Presidents of Banks. Wage differentials in male and female managerial jobs stem from the reality that even when women hold management jobs, they are often in less strategic lower-paying areas oaf company’s operations. They are also linked to the fact that women managers tend to be younger on average, as most senior jobs tend to be dominated by older men. Despite the persistent inequalities at managerial level, the continuous entry of women into higher-level jobs is being addressed; however, they still remain under-represented in senior management. With few exceptions, the main challenge appears tube the sheer slowness in the in the progress of women into senior leadership positions in organizations, which suggests that discrimination is greatest where the most power is exercised. However, the growth in entrepreneurship and increasing numbers of women running their own businesses, both large and small, heralds a different future for societies. The economic power gained by women will play a key role in the struggle to sweep aside gender inequalities in all walks of life in which the UK banking sector is no exception. Chapter 5: Empirical Analysis In this chapter I present (3)case descriptions from my research on Women in management within the Banking Sector. The descriptions are organised in terms of the following headings; Continuity and Change in Women’s twentieth century in comparison to now experience, the position of women in the financial industry in general, the position of women in the UK banking sector, the changing role of women in the UK banking sector, pay differentials, women broken through glass ceiling, employment law and maternity right, and balancing work and family responsibilities. Due to the short timespan to collect data and incorporate to this paper I have been limited to three UK high street banks. The names of the individuals interviewed are not mentioned to protect confidentiality. It must be said that there are some differences in the both the quality and quantity of data available between the cases described, but in each case there is sufficient data for comparability across the features mentioned above. Women managers or the most senior of positions with regard to women in the three high street banks are analysed to address the issue of women in management. See Appendix A for the questions used. All interviews lasted approximately 40 minutes. 5.1 Case Study 1: Natwest Bank Continuity and Change in Women’s twentieth century in comparison to now experience The Woman interviewed was the manager of the branch. She is responsible for 25 people in the branch. She argues that in the past there were no female managers, most women, were household wives and lacked career progression. She believes that a lot has changed over the past 20 years and that within the bank a lot of progress has been made with regard to women into management positions. Additionally, she states that there is a continuing need to have women in management positions because it depicts the bank as being an equal opportunities bank. The position of women in the financial industry in general She argues that they are a lot more women in Finance ministries, central banks, and banking supervisory agencies, which are among the most important political institutions with regard to the coordination and regulation of the financial system than the case maybe in the past. The position of women in UK banking sector She states that although there has been a huge increase in the number of women in management positions within the bank, relative to male managers, it is small percentage that are in this category compared to over 50 years ago. The changing role of women in the UK banking sector She believes that the role of women in the bank has changed over the years. In the past women within the bank were more concentrated in the retail department, but more and more women are going into the trading of stocks and products which are revenue generating departments within the bank. Pay Differential She states categorically, that she is quite happy and content with how much she is being paid and comparing herself to her male counterpart sat other branches of the bank, there isn’t a difference with regard other pay package (it’s the same). Women broken through glass ceiling She believes that within NatWest bank the case of women breaking through the glass ceiling is not an issue. As far as she is concerned if you have the right qualifications and attributes, you will make it through regardless of gender differences. Employment law and Maternity right She argues that there are policies within the bank that ensures equal opportunities for both male and female employees to get into top management. And that women are encouraged to take maternity leave if needs be, and when they are ready to come back to their previous position the job would still be there. Flexible part-time work is available for those who fall under this category she says. Balancing work and Family For the hours she works, it could affect family life being the manager of the branch, however, for the top directors within the bank the want staff to have a good work and family life balance. They do encourage women, if they need to go out on maternity leave and come back to their previous job. 5.2 Case Study 2: Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Continuity and Change in Women’s twentieth century in comparison to now experience The Woman interviewed was the branch counsellor (Customer services/accounts); she is the most senior woman (retail). She is responsible for 5 people. She argues that in the Bank there were few female managers compared to their male counterparts. Although she believes a lot has changed over the years with regard to women getting into management positions, she states that due to the lack of proper qualifications and starting a family, women have not in general been able to move into management positions. The position of women in financial industry in general She argues that there are not enough women in the financial industry. She acknowledges that there have been improvements but that there is still barrier. The position of women in the UK banking sector She believes that only the determined ones (women) get through. However, from heron knowledge of the bank, there are not a lot of women in top management positions. The changing role of women in the UK banking sector The branch counsellor states that when a woman says she works in a bank it would be depicted that she works as a secretary. This is due to the lack of qualifications and top management being male dominated, the role of women within the bank has remained static. Pay Differential She states that there are certain grades within the bank and each and every person is categorised into one of those grades. The salary band is applied in that manner. She states that for the job responsibilities, she is quite content and happy with what she is being paid, however there is still need for improvement. Women broken through glass ceiling She argues that there is a glass ceiling within the bank and women can only go so far. She adds that women tend to leave to have children and look after the home. Also, she says that there are gender diversity policies within the bank, but they are not adhered to from top management. Employment law and maternity right Within the bank there is policy that allows for part-time flexible work patterns. Legally, they have to keep the position for you, if for example you left to have baby. Equal Opportunities for Women in Management Positions Equal Opportunities for Women in Management Positions Women in Management This paper looks at the issue of women in management within the financial services sector, focusing on high street banks in the United Kingdom, in the context of addressing the issue of gender discrimination within top management. This is done by looking at past and present published papers that revolve around the subject matter under a theoretical hypothesis. The theoretical hypothesis, which is based on published material on women in management, is used to explain the issues surrounding women in management. Three high street banks were assessed as case studies to identify the issue of gender discrimination within UK banks. The outcomes are also categorised under specific themes. Finally a critical review of matches and mismatches is used to compare and contrast similarities between the theoretical hypothesis and the empirical evidence gathered for this paper. Chapter 1: The Concept of Women In Management Since the end of the Second World War, organisations all over the world have been slow to recognize the importance of women in the development and building of strong solid leadership from within. This has raised serious issues with regard to top management particularly within the financial services sectors, being male dominated, not allowing women into positions of authority, or top management. Although, organisations all over the world have moved on since then, and there have been positive results so far in today’s modern day society, however the relative percentage of women in relation to men in top management positions still remains unsolved. In the United Kingdom, certain sectors seem to have made substantial progress with regard to addressing these issues, e.g. the financial sectors, and the health and social services. However, this is not the case across the whole spectrum of job sectors. E.g. the military, production services, distribution, Information and communication technology, and agriculture. Aims and Objectives The aim of this paper is to address the issue of top management, which is predominantly male dominated, within the financial services sector allowing and encouraging women to progress into management positions in their field of expertise. I.e. Understanding the problems associated with women breaking through the glass ceiling into top management within the financial services sector. The objective of this research is to first provide a detailed analysis of the theoretical aspects that women face when it comes to stepping into management positions within banks in the United Kingdom. Secondly, to understand the processes and mechanisms that are inherent within financial organisations that slowdown the pace of women into management positions. Thirdly, to highlight the issue of gender discrimination associated with the latter mentioned. Lastly, I will critically appraise the validity of published material so far covering women in management in the context of equal opportunity policies and flexible work patterns. Chapter 2: Existing Literature Reviewed Over the past 50 years gender inequalities i.e. women in management, particularly within the UK banking sector has been the subject of bureaucratic scrutiny to a certain degree. For example Crompton (1989)states that UK banks have increasingly become the major employers of female labour. However, women in banks have not historically had the same career opportunities as men, for a variety of reasons, ranging from deliberate male exclusion practices to the broken and often short-term nature of many women’s work histories. Additionally, the contrast between the experiences of men and women in the same occupation is used to question the conventional view of occupational class analysis, where the (male) occupational structure is treated as if it were the class structure. Rutherford’s (1999) case study of banking, also illustrates how the discourses of gendered biological and psychological difference might be used to justify the scarcity of women in management grades and in so doing reproduce the status quo of male domination. After all, if women were not suited to management in banking what would be the point of creating policies to attempt to improve their representation there? Thus jobs become infused with stereotyped characteristics, which are believed to be linked to gender, race (Liff and Dickens, 2000) and to some extent age. Alvesson and Billing (1997) talks about the pressures for homogeneity and cultural competent behaviour. This involves individuals, consciously or unconsciously, conforming and adapting to organisational norms in order to fit in or progress their careers, for example by adopting the expected and desired language, work style, appearance and so on. The demand for cultural competence reinforces and reproduces the dominant, from which those who do not comply, or conform, remain excluded. Collin son (1990) argues about the cultural assumptions underlying male manager’s stereotypes of male and female attributes. He states that when evaluating male candidates, involvement in sport was a definite advantage, whereas females sporting achievements we reread as indicative of a very narrow existence. Another example was behaviour of men which was described as ‘pushy’ when exhibited by female candidate and as ‘showing initiative’ when a male candidate was involved. Thus women were less likely to be recruited to what were viewed as gender-incongruent jobs. It must also be recognised that policy approaches, which focus on certain groups of employees most typically women and ethnic minorities, tend to engender employee resentment (Cockburn, 1991; Miller and Rowney, 1999). Webb (1997) adds that ironically the radical feminist agenda, which asserts women’s differences from men and their potential for creating a better world, had been adapted to the concerns of liberal feminism with providing rationale for the promotion of women in management, on the grounds that women’s nurturing capacities contribute to the diversity needed by post-modern organisations. Webb (1997) goes on to state that we need to move beyond the ultimately limiting debate about whether women are the same as or different from men to a renewed concern with the material conditions of women’s lives and with the construction of equality initiatives which address the continuing exclusion of many women from adequate standards of living. Rees (1998) argues that relative strenuous efforts to tackle discrimination and disadvantage within the organisation are hampered by structural inequalities at societal level, in particular the interrelationship between education, training and employment. The continued existence of social inequalities could be said to indicate that as a society we are not yet ready to value gender diversity, or ethnic diversity, adopting the language will not make it happen. However, this should not be used as an excuse for organisational inertia or fatalism. Businesses have social responsibilities (one of these is to treat employees fairly) and they also have a need for social legitimacy in order to survive in the longer term (Miller and Rowney, 1999). This would point to need for organisations to value workforce diversity, irrespective of the purchase of short-term solutions. Sisson (1995) also adds that the problem with regard to women in management within the UK banking industry is that most organisations are predominantly concerned with the bottom line, short-term profitability and this orientation militates against long-term agendas. This renders it all the more important that the retrograde step of abandoning or neglecting equal opportunity policy should be avoided. Dickens (1994) argues that there is not a business case but a series of business rationales that are contingent. Organizational and managerial receptiveness to them is uneven, and they lead to only selective action. He goes on to state that the business case ‘carrot’ shares a similar weakness to the legal compliance ‘stick’. Calls for action beyond the individual organisation in a multi-pronged approach requiring state action, in which equality legislation and business case rationales each have apart to play. Chapter 3: Research Approach and Methodology Employed Research Approach The research approach will be carried out using the positivist case research approach. According to Cavite (1996), positivist epistemology tries to understand a social setting by identifying individual components of a phenomenon and explains the phenomenon in terms of constructs and relationships between constructs. The theoretical constructs describing the phenomenon are considered to be distinct from empirical reality. Hence, empirical observations can be used to test theory. This looks at the world as external and objective. Positivism employs four major research evaluation criteria: a good research should make controlled observations, should be able to be replicated should be generalizable and should use formal logic. Under positivism, case research findings are not statistically generalizable to a population, as the case or cases cannot be considered representative of a population, however, case research can claim theoretical generalizability. This will also include comparing, contrasting and critically evaluating past and present papers, articles, journals, and established theories that have been published on the subject matter. Methodology Employed Multiple-Case Study Design This project uses the multiple case study method in order to enable analysis of data across cases and relating it to the theoretical perspectives in the available literature of Information systems strategy. This enables the researcher to verify that findings are not merely the result of idiosyncrasies of research setting (Miles andHuberman, 1984). According to Yin (1994), in such a method it is important to use: multiple sources of evidence. Due to the time constraint attached with this paper, only three case studies of Women in management within the UK banking sector were gathered. The appropriate number of cases depends, firstly, on how much is known about the phenomenon after studying a case and secondly, on how much new information is likely to emerge from studying further cases(Eisenhardt, 1997). The paper provides three case studies of UK high street banks namely HSBC, NatWest Bank, and Lloyds TSB. Comparing and contrasting the roles of the women who are in the top management in these banks. Qualitative Data Cavite (1996) states that qualitative investigation refers to distilling meaning and understanding from a phenomenon and is not primarily concerned with measuring and quantification of the phenomenon. Direct and in-depth knowledge of a research setting are necessary to achieve contextual understanding. Hence, qualitative methods are associated with face-to-face contact with persons in the research setting, with verbal data being gathered. Qualitative data can be collected in a number of forms. One major form of qualitative evidence is interviews, which may be recorded and later transcribed. Qualitative data are rich, full, holistic ‘real’ their face validity seems impeachable; they preserve chronological flow where that is important. In spite of the above mentioned, qualitative data have weaknesses (Miles1979; Miles and Huberman, 1984). Collecting and analysing data is time-consuming and demanding. In addition, data analysis is not easy, as qualitative data analysis methods are not well established. Recognised rules of logic can be applied to verbal data in order to make sense of the evidence and to formally analyse the data. Rubin and Rubin (1995) state that it is most desirable to disclose the identities of both the case and the individuals interviewed because, †¢ The reader is able to recall any other previous information he or she may have learned about the same case from previous research or other sources in reading and interpreting the case report. †¢ The entire case can be reviewed more readily, so that footnotes and citations can be checked, if necessary, and appropriate criticisms can be raised about the published case. Nevertheless, there are some occasions when anonymity is necessary. The most common rationale is that when the case study has been on controversial topic, anonymity serves to protect the real case and its real participants. The second reason is that the issuance of the final case report may affect the subsequent actions of those that were studied. In the case of this paper, the positions of the participants within the organisations interviewed are mentioned. However, anonymity is adopted to protect the Identities of the participants and the real case. Why? Because the issue of women in management within Banks in the UK has been a long standing problem, in which revealing their names could hinder future revelations on their part and their jobs. The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows: Chapter 4: Theoretical Hypothesis on Women in Management Chapter 5: Empirical Analysis (Three Banks) Chapter 6: Comparing and contrasting Theoretical Hypothesis and Empirical Analysis Chapter 7: Summary and Conclusion. Chapter 4: Theoretical Hypothesis of Women In Management In order to have a clear understanding of women in management, we will first need to identify the meaning attached to this phenomenon. Since the mid 1990s, women’s representation amongst executives has doubled and amongst company directors it has tripled. At the same time there has been an overall increase in women working in management jobs. However, women still comprise less than a quarter of executives and only one in ten company directors. The ‘glass ceiling’, the situation where women can see but not reach higher level jobs and so are prevented from progressing in their careers, appears still to exist in many organisations. This is what led to the creation of the terminology ‘women in management’. Several key factors account for the continuing low representation of women in management. Firstly, like most other occupations, there is a tendency for some types of management jobs to be associated with either women or men. For example, whilst women are comparatively well represented in personnel and the public sector, men still predominate in production management and Information and communication technology. Secondly, opportunities to work part-time are limited, with only six present of managers and senior officials employed part-time. Although it may be difficult to carry out some management functions on a part-time basis, there are still far too few opportunities for flexible working at senior levels in organisations. With this in mind, we can now move on to discuss the theoretical perspectives of women in management. There are several already established theoretical perspectives that have been used to gather a better understanding of this issue, however, the ones used in this paper are: 1) Issues and problems facing women reaching the top (manager) 2) Why so few women reaching the top? 3) Why are women workers still going cheap? 4) What causes the gender pay gap? 5) Have women achieved equality in the UK banking industry? 4.1 Issues and problems facing women reaching the top (manager) Several factors account for the continuing low representation of women reaching the top. One of the key issues is that women consider family obligations and the predominance of ‘male values’ in corporate culture to be the main obstacles to career advancement for them. The nature of the obstacles blocking women’s progress to higher management varies, however, from those encountered at lower levels. Higher ranking female bank managers seem to experience discrimination to a greater extent, both on terms of structural and cultural barriers, where insufficient personal contacts and dominance of ‘male values’ adversely affect their advancement. The difficulties women face in reaching the top is also reflected in the higher levels of education and effort often demanded of them. The hurdles facing women aspiring to management jobs can be so formidable that they sometimes abandon efforts to make it to the top of large firms. They often take their energy and know-how to smaller and more flexible companies or set up their own businesses. Another principal constraint on the level and type of labour market participation of women is the responsibility they carry for raising children and performing household tasks. An important feature of professional and especially managerial work is the extended working hours that seem to be required to gain recognition and eventual promotion. It can be practically impossible to reconcile the long hours often required of management staff with the amount of time needed to care for a home and children, not to mention care of the elderly. Yet the availability of part-time managerial work varies across organisations. Women who desire both a family and a career often juggle heavy responsibilities in both domains. Those who opt for part-time work early in their careers may find their advancement hampered, even after a return to full-time employment, since their male counterparts will have invested heavily in career building during the same period. 4.2 Why so few women reaching the top? Few women gain access to the highest positions as executive heads of organizations and, despite some improvements, many would claim that the pace of change is still far too slow given the large number of qualified women in the labour market today. Where figures are available (ILO data, 2002), they show women holding from 1 present to 5percent of top executive positions. While it must be acknowledged that time is still needed for women at junior and middle management levels(those in the pipeline) to move into executive positions, the fact still remains that women are not moving quickly enough nor insufficient numbers into line or strategic positions. Yet this factories crucial for enlarging the pool of women aspiring to senior positions and for building a critical mass of senior women for networking and providing role models for those down the line. Speeding up women’s movement towards the top requires that recruitment and promotion methods be objective and fair. Above all, there has to be awareness and commitment from directors of companies as to the benefits for their organizations from promoting women to high-level managerial positions. Women seem to experience the most difficulty in obtaining executive jobs in large corporations, even though they often have greater opportunities at junior and middle management levels in these same corporations. Another reason for this purge is the educational attainment required for top management positions. Evidence provided byte Equal opportunities Commission in the United Kingdom suggest that, in some cases women do not have the educational qualifications to get into management positions, and even when that is not the case, they still do find it hard to break into management, due to the fact that its predominantly male dominated. Another reason is that few senior women are in the so called ‘line’ positions that involve profit and loss or revenue generating responsibilities, and which are critical for advancement to the highest level. Additionally, in the United Kingdom, the share of women among financial managers rose from 11 present to 17percent in the 1980s and still increasing, although they are still outnumbered by men in top management positions in the 21st century. 4.3 Why are women workers still going cheap? Much of women’s work has historically tended to be undervalued or unrecognized. While the United Nations system and governments are making more systematic efforts to value and account for women’s work in national statistics, research on women in management is a relatively new field and comparisons over time and across countries are limited. This is further made complicated by the range of definitions employed and the non-availability of statistics for different countries overtime. Under a report provided by the United Nations in 1996 called the Human development report, it states that ‘no society treats its women as well as men’. A gender related development index was created to record achievements and monitor progress. This is based on life expectancy, educational attainment and income, but adjusts the latter mentioned for gender equality. They noted that life expectancy rates are positively affected by care in different forms, such as social support and social relationships. For example, unmarried adults have higher mortality rates than married ones and, according to them, children in a caring environment fare better in terms of health than those who lack this attention. It is not only the weak and sick that need care to prosper; even the healthiest of adults need a certain amount of care. A deficit in care services not only destroys human development, but it also undermines economic growth. That these factors are overlooked has considerable implications for gender equality, as women still carry the main responsibility for care. Gender discrimination is perpetuated through the lack of value placed on women’s caring role in society. As managers, women are affected byte common assumption that in the event of building families they will bear the main burden of responsibility arising out of this. Thus, there is not the same degree of investment in women. They are less likely to receive the same encouragement or career advice through mentoring as men. Another important factor is that in some countries equal opportunity policies tend to be established within organizations, however, in some countries they are not strictly adhered to. In the Ukase scheme known as ‘Opportunity 2000’ was launched in 2000. Its member included 300 organizations ranging from the financial services to the educational departments. They agreed to increase the number of women into management positions, and between 1994 to 2000, women’s share of management positions increased from 25 present to 35 present. Therefore, one can say although women are still going cheap in certain jobs in other parts of the world this is not the case universally. 4.4 What causes the gender pay gap? A difference in management positions does tend to contribute to earnings differentials. Although rates of pay may be similar, actual earnings can vary because of the different salary packages offered to managers, which provide various fringe benefits and access to certain schemes for boosting bonuses. Earnings gaps may also reflect differences in seniority and concentration of women in low-paid managerial sub-groups. Additionally, certain jobs tend to be affiliated with men and to women, i.e. productions and manufacturing jobs tend to be affiliated with men, while nursing, and household jobs tend to be affiliated with women, this contributes to the pay gap between men and women. Within the Banking sector in the United Kingdom, there has been an increase of the number of women into both middle and top management. However, the positions they tend to head are not profit-making positions or revenue generating positions, which are positions of higher pay and responsibility. They tend to be based within the retail, customer services, and bookkeeping departments, which are areas of significance to the organization, but are of less repute. 4.5 Have women achieved equality in the UK banking industry? In the area of finance, women have certainly increased their share of management positions, although at a varying pace. In the United Kingdom, the share of women among financial managers rose from 11 present to 17 present during the 1980’s and at the turn of the century increased to 25 present. While women have captured an ever-increasing share of the labour market, improvements in the quality of women’s jobs have not kept pace. This is reflected in the smaller representation of women in management positions, particularly in the private sector, and their virtual absence from most senior jobs, i.e. Directorships, or Presidents of Banks. Wage differentials in male and female managerial jobs stem from the reality that even when women hold management jobs, they are often in less strategic lower-paying areas oaf company’s operations. They are also linked to the fact that women managers tend to be younger on average, as most senior jobs tend to be dominated by older men. Despite the persistent inequalities at managerial level, the continuous entry of women into higher-level jobs is being addressed; however, they still remain under-represented in senior management. With few exceptions, the main challenge appears tube the sheer slowness in the in the progress of women into senior leadership positions in organizations, which suggests that discrimination is greatest where the most power is exercised. However, the growth in entrepreneurship and increasing numbers of women running their own businesses, both large and small, heralds a different future for societies. The economic power gained by women will play a key role in the struggle to sweep aside gender inequalities in all walks of life in which the UK banking sector is no exception. Chapter 5: Empirical Analysis In this chapter I present (3)case descriptions from my research on Women in management within the Banking Sector. The descriptions are organised in terms of the following headings; Continuity and Change in Women’s twentieth century in comparison to now experience, the position of women in the financial industry in general, the position of women in the UK banking sector, the changing role of women in the UK banking sector, pay differentials, women broken through glass ceiling, employment law and maternity right, and balancing work and family responsibilities. Due to the short timespan to collect data and incorporate to this paper I have been limited to three UK high street banks. The names of the individuals interviewed are not mentioned to protect confidentiality. It must be said that there are some differences in the both the quality and quantity of data available between the cases described, but in each case there is sufficient data for comparability across the features mentioned above. Women managers or the most senior of positions with regard to women in the three high street banks are analysed to address the issue of women in management. See Appendix A for the questions used. All interviews lasted approximately 40 minutes. 5.1 Case Study 1: Natwest Bank Continuity and Change in Women’s twentieth century in comparison to now experience The Woman interviewed was the manager of the branch. She is responsible for 25 people in the branch. She argues that in the past there were no female managers, most women, were household wives and lacked career progression. She believes that a lot has changed over the past 20 years and that within the bank a lot of progress has been made with regard to women into management positions. Additionally, she states that there is a continuing need to have women in management positions because it depicts the bank as being an equal opportunities bank. The position of women in the financial industry in general She argues that they are a lot more women in Finance ministries, central banks, and banking supervisory agencies, which are among the most important political institutions with regard to the coordination and regulation of the financial system than the case maybe in the past. The position of women in UK banking sector She states that although there has been a huge increase in the number of women in management positions within the bank, relative to male managers, it is small percentage that are in this category compared to over 50 years ago. The changing role of women in the UK banking sector She believes that the role of women in the bank has changed over the years. In the past women within the bank were more concentrated in the retail department, but more and more women are going into the trading of stocks and products which are revenue generating departments within the bank. Pay Differential She states categorically, that she is quite happy and content with how much she is being paid and comparing herself to her male counterpart sat other branches of the bank, there isn’t a difference with regard other pay package (it’s the same). Women broken through glass ceiling She believes that within NatWest bank the case of women breaking through the glass ceiling is not an issue. As far as she is concerned if you have the right qualifications and attributes, you will make it through regardless of gender differences. Employment law and Maternity right She argues that there are policies within the bank that ensures equal opportunities for both male and female employees to get into top management. And that women are encouraged to take maternity leave if needs be, and when they are ready to come back to their previous position the job would still be there. Flexible part-time work is available for those who fall under this category she says. Balancing work and Family For the hours she works, it could affect family life being the manager of the branch, however, for the top directors within the bank the want staff to have a good work and family life balance. They do encourage women, if they need to go out on maternity leave and come back to their previous job. 5.2 Case Study 2: Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Continuity and Change in Women’s twentieth century in comparison to now experience The Woman interviewed was the branch counsellor (Customer services/accounts); she is the most senior woman (retail). She is responsible for 5 people. She argues that in the Bank there were few female managers compared to their male counterparts. Although she believes a lot has changed over the years with regard to women getting into management positions, she states that due to the lack of proper qualifications and starting a family, women have not in general been able to move into management positions. The position of women in financial industry in general She argues that there are not enough women in the financial industry. She acknowledges that there have been improvements but that there is still barrier. The position of women in the UK banking sector She believes that only the determined ones (women) get through. However, from heron knowledge of the bank, there are not a lot of women in top management positions. The changing role of women in the UK banking sector The branch counsellor states that when a woman says she works in a bank it would be depicted that she works as a secretary. This is due to the lack of qualifications and top management being male dominated, the role of women within the bank has remained static. Pay Differential She states that there are certain grades within the bank and each and every person is categorised into one of those grades. The salary band is applied in that manner. She states that for the job responsibilities, she is quite content and happy with what she is being paid, however there is still need for improvement. Women broken through glass ceiling She argues that there is a glass ceiling within the bank and women can only go so far. She adds that women tend to leave to have children and look after the home. Also, she says that there are gender diversity policies within the bank, but they are not adhered to from top management. Employment law and maternity right Within the bank there is policy that allows for part-time flexible work patterns. Legally, they have to keep the position for you, if for example you left to have baby.