Gender Inequality in Workplace

People paying more and more attention on female equality but it still undeniable that female is unequal with men in work environment, especially in some Asian countries. For instance in Japan, many people would think female should belongs inside the house rather than work environment. Surveys and experiments show that women are generally perceived as more “communal” and “loyal” whereas men are described more as “protectors” and “competent”. Therefore, there are sexual inequalities exist in many companies. For example, Michael in “gender inequality in public media newsroom” mentioned, “serious sexual equalities exist in public media newsrooms. Firstly, male employee rate is 57% in media industry but female is only 43%. Otherwise, serious sexual inequalities exist in management position. For example, most news directors are male but female only charge in some position not such important like Sr ED.” The public media newsrooms is just one of the samples that there is more female dealing with sexual inequalities in work place. Manly people seems like didn’t consider female needs a career that they think female are belongs to family and should become housewife. In weeks lecture we saw many advertisement cases.in Julie Gooduin’s Fountain Sauce Lecipe, it states “taste of home” therefore it shows a housewife. Comprise to perfect Huliaro Ricotta that it focuses on a professional Ricotta brand therefore it shows a professional male chef.

As a result we can see, people usually think women should cook at home but when it is in work environment people would think about male first. Why sexual inequalities exist in work environment? Is it really female not as good as male? I believe it is not female’s ability not as good as male that it is just because female lack of fair chances. Since 1980, there have been more women enrolled in institutions of higher education than men. According to lensus fighter released in April 2011, among the population age 25-29, 36% of women had a bachelor degree or more, compared with 25% of men. However, no matter how high female been educated they still facing sexual inequalities in work. For example, if you are a mother, your chances of getting the job are reduced by 70% because many people think if women were married and had children that they would spend most time on family and without enough time for work.

Recently people always emphasis sexual equality but still undeniable female have to deal with sexual inequality in work environment. From my view, even though there are many excellent women, they are independent, with high education and good ability, the only thing they need is a chance.

References:

Hsu, C 2011, ‘Gender Inequality in the Workplace’, viewed 10 May 2015,<http://www.harvardindependent.com/2011/12/gender-inequality-in-the-workplace-education-does-not-equal-success-1201/&gt;

Michael,M2013, ‘Gender Inequity in Public Media Newsrooms’, MVM Consulting, viewed 10 May 2015,<http://www.mikemarcotte.com/2013/03/gender-inequity-in-public-media-newsrooms.html&gt;

 

The hidden cost — E-waste

E-waste is a term that means unwanted electronic materials such as obsolete computers and cell phones – are the world’s fastest growing waste stream. The 2012 UN report projected that by 2017 global e-waste will increase a further 33% from 49.7 million to 65.4 million tons per annum. 8 E-waste from cell phones in India alone is expected to increase 18-fold by 2020. 3 and 9 The total amount of e-waste produced is exponentially increasing because of multiple factors. Therefore, e-waste become  a rapidly growing global problem. Electronic products contain toxic materials, and improper disposal, which may lead to water and air pollution，and also severely damage people’s health. Nowadays, recovery and recycling are the main way to deal with e-waste. However, how to accurately deal with e-waste, which is not a straightforward question, especially in developing countries. Caution must be taken to select electronics recyclers who can certify that their practices ensure worker safety and the prevention of toxic releases to the environment. However, It is estimated that many developed countries exported their the 70-80% of the e-waste to developing countries. In these countries, labor costs are lower and environmental regulations may be lax or not enforced, often resulting in major pollution and health problems in these communities.

I think we need reduce the production of e-waste. Consumer demand and a high obsolescence rate lead to frequent and unnecessary purchases of electronic products, which are the main reason to lead to e-waste produced is sharply increasing. For example, new cell phone models are released at highly regular intervals. Not only do cell phone models evolve, but the accessories, such as chargers, often change with each new model.  These new electronic products always attract people change their electronic products and contribute to rapidly rising quantities of e-waste. However, most people are not realize the seriousness of the e-waste problem. For example, some youngster in order to pursues the fashion, they always change new cell phone and laptop. Meanwhile, these people also do not have a good awareness to deal with this old electronic products, which causing significant additions to e-waste. Therefore, enhancing people’s awareness is very important, which can enable more people to realize the seriousness of the e-waste problem. Meanwhile,  making more people understand how to correctly deal with and recycle e-waste, which also is a crucial step to reduce e-waste. Moreover, E-waste recycling is necessary but it should be conducted in a safe and standardized manor. The government should enhance monitoring and regulation e-waste recycling, especially for developing countries.  Meanwhile, we need active innovation to seek more scientific ways and means to promote environmentally sound disposal and recycling of e-waste.

Nowadays, electronic information technology brought many positive influences for people’s life, which always become an important part for people’s daily life. It cannot be denied that e-waste is a hidden cost for the developments of electronic information technology, which led to serious problem for environment and people’s health. Therefore, we must lay emphasis on this problem, and from yourself, from small start, minimize every possible e-waste.

References:

United Nations University (UNU), Solve the E-waste Problem (StEP), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER). World e-waste map reveals national volumes, international flows. 2013, Accessed 7 May, 2015.  https://www.vie.unu.edu/file/get/11505.pdf

Meanings of the Selfie

With the rise of smartphones and social media, selfie become very popular. In 2013, the word “selfie” was voted as the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter. I think everyone has this situation that their friend on social networking(Facebook or Twitter) update their different selfies whatever they are happy, sad, traveling or working. Selfie seems to become the part of their life. Some people think that this explosion of selfies proves that ours is an unusually narcissistic age. However, I think that selfie is a new way of communication. Selfie also facilitate connection with our friends so we can share in what we’re doing, who we’re seeing, and what we’re wearing that day. which enable our communication to become more vivid. Meanwhile, selfie also is a new way to help people express ourself. When we take selfies, we aim to impress and inform others about who we are. Selfie offer people a opportunity  to show their best side, or the part they want to show people. All selfies have one thing in common: they present us at our best, whether that is attractive, impressive, funny, or intelligent. People want to gain the approval from others. It cannot be denied that selfie also enable people to derive immense satisfaction from vanity. Some people use social media and selfie to boost and depress their self-image and social life, making them feel overly vulnerable to approval from their peers and overly concerned with how they are presenting themselves online(Greenwood G2014). Therefore, some people will easy to become increasingly addicted to selfie, especially for youngsters. For example, 19-year-old Danny Bowman’s selfie addiction spiralled out of control, spending ten hours a day taking up to 200 snaps of himself on his iPhone. The teenager is believed to be the UK’s first selfie addict and has had therapy to treat his technology addiction as well as OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. This situation also will lead to  people perceptions of self-indulgence or pay more attention to seek social dependence.

In conclusion, selfie is a mirror which is a small me that we send out to give others a sense of who we are. However,  when people overindulge selfies, which will lead to people perceptions of self-indulgence and narcissistic. However, I think that in age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to enable more people to understand ourselves and tell people “Hello, this is me.”

 

Reference:

Greenwood, D 2014, “Three Reasons Why We Shouldn’t Confuse Selfies with Vanity” Psychology Today, viewed at 9/April/2015.[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mirror-mirror/201409/three-reasons-why-we-shouldnt-confuse-selfies-vanity]

Keating,F 2014, “Selfies Linked to Narcissism, Addiction and Mental Illness, Say Scientists”, International Business Times,viewed at 9/April/2015. [http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/selfies-linked-narcissism-addiction-mental-illness-say-scientists-1441480]

 

Wonderful Friends

About two months ago, I went to the biggest zoo and aquarium of China. It is undeniable that I love to go to zoo very much since I was a littles girl. However, when I saw the title of the week four which makes me wants to reflect myself. I still remember that polar bear I saw in the zoo two month ago. Those polar bears have lost their freedom, they have been put in a small glass house, and they seem skinny, dirty and tired, which totally different with what those polar bears I saw on TV.  At that moment, I feel their pain, their grief. Human activity lead to a huge harmful for animals, even some behavior which seems very cruel. For example, when Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, aired an episode of current affairs program Four Corners called “A Bloody Business” on 30 May 2011, it showed cattle being slaughtered in Indonesian abattoirs. I was shocked when I read this news. People wants to taste better quality cattle meat therefore they would used very cruel slaughtering process. This is not asking people to become vegetarian. This is because that  humans are omnivores , so asking people to become vegetarian which is impossible. However,  I hope human being adapt less painful slaughtering process to reduce animals pain.

In addition, compare to slaughter animals, I think that people close animals in cage, or training them to let people watch and carry out a variety of performances to please people, which is more painful for animals. Over recent months, A popular Chinese TV show featuring celebrities paired with animals which called “wonderful friends”,  it has been criticised by animal rights activists for its ‘cruel’ tasks. The show dresses up chimpanzees and orang-utans in human clothes and markets them as “cute pets”, and the animals are placed in many stressful and harmful situations, in order to create “entertaining” story lines.

This TV show led to huge harmful for animals in the name of protect animals. For example, people are misunderstanding the animal’s distressed reactions as cute. A chimpanzee that appears to be ‘grinning’ is actually showing signs of anxiety, fear and threat. Moreover, in one part of this TV show, a celebrity taking a young chimpanzee to ‘Find its Father’ which led to the father suddenly becoming emotional and violent.

In this TV show, animals just like toy or entertainment tool to please people, and to garner higher audience ratings. Finally, this TV show was cut, but this kind of situation still happening. Animals is our wonderful friend but not our toy or something make fun. We need to respect them and protect them. People now are paying more and more attention on protect animals but there still a long way to go.

Reference:

GRASP2015, “Joint Statement on “Wonderful Friends” a Reality Show Promoting Unnatural Contact Between People and Captive Great Apes”,  viewed at 6/April/2015. [http://www.un-grasp.org/joint-statement-wonderful-friends/ ]