A View of Sexism Evident in Nike’s Athletic Promotion

A View of Sexism Evident in Nike’s Athletic Promotion What’s One More Thing for Men to Rule: Finding Women’s place in Athletics This text is questioning why men are looked as being the superior athletes in comparison to women in sports, and more specifically in long distance running. It also questions why we as society feel the need to compare them. The Men Vs. Women challenge advertisement campaign put on by Nike plus acts as the representative example for this text in order to see how society still values male athletes more than female athletes. The author consulted Robert Degner’s work, which explains how men have experienced a longer predisposition to being competitive. The author also joined a conversation with Christine Wegner about her research regarding statistics of female marathon runners. It was found that the number has plateaued and it speculated that this is caused by social norms restricting women from spending extra time on training that they are using right now to raise children. One more thing for men to rule, is the caption on the advertisement of the Men vs. Women challenge put on by Nike Plus (Gould). This particular ad is obviously supporting the men in the challenge. One more thing for men to rule. Is it supposed to intimidate women? Or empower men? Did Nike even think about the fact that the ad might come off as offensive? What exactly are they trying to accomplish? But mainly, why are we making it a competition between men and women? With all this being said, if society knows that there are limitations that have held women back from being as physically capable as men and, if male and female bodies are created differently, why does society continue to value male athletes as more capable and superior to female athletes? My initial hypothesis is that because men have been participating in sports for a much longer period of time than women have, we tend to value them more than female athletes. The Nike Plus ad, which I will be analyzing as my representative example, was part of a campaign originally to get more women to join Nike plus, an app that connects to your iPod or phone to track your mileage and pace. I chose to use this advertisement as my representative example because Nike is a pretty well known company and they are still ignoring gender equality just for one of their campaigns. The employees at Nike decided that the best way to get women to join the app was to start a battle of the sexes. On the ad in favor of the men’s side there is a guy running wearing Nike running clothes. He looks very focused. There are big white words in front of him saying â€Å"one more thing for men to rule.† and then under that in smaller letters are words saying â€Å"join the men vs. women challenge at nikeplus.com.† He looks like he knows what he is doing, like he is an experienced runner (correct form, proper running clothes, defined muscles, etc.). There was an ad similar to the men’s ad supporting the women. There is an experienced, focused female runner with words in front of her saying, â€Å"Ladies First. Men second.† It seems ironic that they chose to say ladies first because at no point in history have women dominated sports. Men have a vastly different athletic background than women do. The Olympics have been around for thousands of years, running events have been included in all of them. Except, only for men. Women weren’t able to participate until 1900 and didn’t start competing in running events until the 1928 Olympics (The History of Women’s Running). A handful of women were able to compete in the 800m run in 1928, however a lot of them collapsed at the end of the race so it was banned until 1960. This seems really unfair because even though they were allowed to finally run they hadn’t gone through proper training, or education on how to race an 800m. After that event there became a rule that women could not race more than 1.5 miles because they physiologically incapable of running more than that. The marathon was not incorporated into the games for women until 1984 after a group of women fought long and hard to prove that they should have the rights to race more than 1.5 miles (The History of Women’s Running). Women have not had nearly enough time to adapt their bodies for maximum potential because our history did not include lots of physical activity. Why were men participating in sports when women weren’t? Men on the other hand have had plenty of time to adapt their bodies for physical activity. Robert Deaner and some of his colleagues published an article exploring the evidence that men have had an evolutionary history of physical competition, they hypothesized that because men were involved in more physical activity, â€Å"Men have experienced a longer predisposition to be competitive, which has driven them to be more interested in sports†¦Societies have documented female participation in sports but men were always shown to be more involved.† (Deaner) While they did document women participating in sports they weren’t nearly as competitive or involved in them as men were. Could this biological response have been influenced by the social norms of that time? Where these social norms influencing females drive for competition as well? How has women’s biology played a role into their athletic participation? Why was it acceptable for men to play sports while women stayed inside and cared for children? Women are still evolving their bodies to be capable of maximum athletic performance. Russell Pate and Jennifer O’Neill published a paper about the advances women have made in the sport of marathon running. They looked into the trend of the best marathon times for women over the span of 30 years to see how they have changed. It was discovered that women improved their marathon times by 15.6% over thirty years, while the best male marathon times have remained fairly constant for recent decades. They also looked at the physiological differences between male and female runners. â€Å"The male runners had statistically significant higher values of height, weight, sum of 6-site skinfolds, V ?O2max and V ?E compared with the female runners.† (Pate). These biological differences have been adapted over many centuries so that men could run to catch food or fight off enemies. It’s okay to compare males and females. However, we need to draw the line when comparison turns int o a hierarchical comparison and a placement of women and men on a scale based on factors that shouldn’t be compared. This is why I found the Nike ad destructive to the work that many people have put their entire lives into for gender equality. Does being a child bearer mean that women’s bodies aren’t as physically capable of athletic performance because their bodies are able to bear children? It seems like we’ve made a lot of progress with feminism but we still have a lot of work to do. Social norms of women and mothers being the primary caregivers for children have had an impact on the number of women participating in sports. Christine Wegner did a study about the number of women running full marathons and discovered that â€Å"While the percentage of female runners at every distance up to and including the half marathon has increased continually over the past 10 years, the percentage of women participating in full marathons has plateaued since 2006, with women still representing the minority in this distance at 43%.† (Wegner) Women are now the majority of half marathon runners at 61%. They suggested that women have found their spot in running and have become most comfortable running half marathons. They continue and say, â€Å"The environmental filter that once precluded women from distance running has appeared to shift, moving the exclusionary barriers, and now seems to apply only to the longest race distances of 26.2 miles and beyond.† (Wegner) The article mentioned that it is not difficult for women to start running initially, that we have jumped that hurdle but it does become difficult for women to up the amount of time they spend training for races longer than the half marathon (Wegner). They speculate this is because it takes more time out of each day to train for a full marathon that most women using to take care of their children. So have we really jumped over social norms? Society used to see women as exclusively caregivers and nothing else. Their job was to stay at home, care for the kids, and clean the house. Now, it’s socially acceptable for women to run and race but they still have to devote their main priorities to caring for children, given that they are mothers, but running is something they can do if they have spare time. Men have less of a hard time fitting running into their schedules because of they aren’t expected to see to their children as much as women are. Another issue with society’s hierarchy or gender is the pay scale for women compared to men. This article titled, â€Å"Heres why its fair that female athletes make less than men† by Shane Ferro discussed why its fair that women get paid less. It’s because not as many people come to watch female athletics. This specific article looked into soccer players but this is common among most sports. The writers used â€Å"fair† in the sense that what their sport makes is relatively equal to what each athletes makes. They went on to point out that what we really need to be focusing on is why, why are people less inclined to go see women compete, and put less time and money into female sporting events? â€Å"The real question is not why female athletes are paid less. People should be asking why fans and sponsors are less interested in supporting womens sports — and this is what they should be outraged about.†(Ferro) Once again it all goes back to socia l norms that male sports are dominate, which somehow makes them more interesting. Why? Could this difference in pay scale discourage women from running? Could it also empower them to fight for their rights to have equal pay? If we know that our historical differences have led to different biological capabilities than why are we still initiating competitions between men and women? Who is this healthy for? Could this be potentially harmful to men as well? Men too feel pressure from the hierarchy that we have created as well. Except, they don’t worry about whether they will be able to compete in a sport, rather they worry If they will be able to keep up with the expectations that society has set for them as ‘fit males’. When men see that women can beat them in a race they feel intimidated and embarrassed that a girl could beat them. This hierarchy has led to many male athletes afraid because they are supposed to be better, according to society. If they aren’t though, they can feel pressure from other males as well as media to be better, stronger and faster. Athletes will go to extreme measures to prove to society that they are the top dog. One common way they do this is by abusing performance-enhancing drugs. A document released by The American College of Sports Medicine stated that, â€Å"Lifetime prevalence rates for steroid use among male adolescents generally range between 4 and 12 percent and between .5 and 2 percent for female adolescents.†(Yesalis) This is showing that males have a higher chance of using steroids, this article also mentioned that drug use can start pretty early in life, signaling that it could be due to social pressures. If kids are using steroids so early in life it could be hard for them to stop later in life and also change their mindset that they don’t need to use steroids to be great athletes. How do we move forward? I think we have done a lot to get women in sports to where we are today, but yet we still see sexist acts and comments being made on a large scale. Eric Anderson did a study on the cultural forces that are affecting male athlete’s attitude towards sexism. He says in his research, â€Å"Competitive male team sport athletes might maintain socio-negative attitudes toward women even in a time when institutional sexism has been shown to be decreasing.† (Anderson 258). He used data from heterosexual men who played football in high school, a much masculinized sport, and then went on to join collegiate cheerleading in college. He found that the guys largely changed their views regarding women’s athletics. They respected women’s leadership abilities and valued their friendship. While this is all well and good, it astonishes me that men have to actually see women participating in sports close up and interact with them for us to gain their res pect. It shouldn’t have to be like this, but if it helps men take women more seriously in the athletic world then we need to continue in that direction. Maybe this means that we just need to combine more sports and allow men to see that we are just as willing to put in the work as they are. Is this the right way right that we should be going about trying to demolish gender norms? I don’t think there is a â€Å"right† way to do it, however, we need to continue to talk about gender norms and help break them down. There really is no need for comparison, we should be able to respect each other’s differences whether it be due to biological differences or others, but at the same time be able to support one another. Athletics is about bettering yourself and improving your health, ultimately.

Economic analysis for marketing plan to expand a current company to Research Paper

Economic analysis for marketing plan to expand a current company to operate internationally in Israel - Research Paper Example This shows that all other charges that follow such as delivery, commissions and distribution are upon the buyer. The disadvantage of this is that the risks involved transfer so early to the buyer. Arrangement of export and import licenses as well as customs formalities is a tedious process for the buyer (Deardorff, 2006). The disadvantage to the seller is that he loses control over the company to transport his goods. A term closely related to ex-works is free on board (FOB). This one show that the price quoted by a seller or invoiced includes all charges up to where the goods are placed on board on a ship for transportation. It can also be called, freight collect, freight forward or freight. The advantage of this to the seller is that he can easily recover the goods before it is on board especially where the buyer defaults in payment or contract (Madura, 2011). The disadvantage of this term of trade is that the seller has limited or no responsibility of recovering the merchandise aft er the cargo crosses the rail of the ship. The buyer also suffers in case the cargo gets lost when the ship is in transit (Deardorff, 2006). ... Cost and freight (C & F), is a term of sale showing that the price quoted or invoiced by a seller for shipment purposes does not include insurance charges but includes all charges up to the destination port. The advantage to the buyer is that all the legal processes are done for him by the seller. The disadvantage to the seller is that he will be responsible if the cargo gets lost or spoilt during transit (Deardorff, 2006). Cost, Insurance, freight (CIF), is a terms of sale signifying that the price quoted by a seller includes the insurance charges, the cost of the goods and transportation costs up to the named port of destination. From the analysis of the terms of trade above, the most preferred to a buyer is the cost, insurance and freight. On the other hand, the most preferred to a seller is the ex-works. Cash in advance (CIA), is a payment method where an order from a buyer is not processed until full payment is received in advance (Madura, 2011). It is also called cash with orde r. Open accounts is a method of payment where the buyer of goods pays the sum payable only after the receipt of goods or on deferred payment terms. A consignment sale is a trading agreement in which the seller of goods sends them to a reseller or a buyer who is supposed to pay for the goods when they are sold. In this case, the seller remains the owner of the goods until they are sold and paid for in full. If the goods are not paid for within the agreed upon period, the goods are taken back by the seller (Deardorff, 2006). This type of payment is also called sale or return or goods on consignment. A sight draft is a bill of exchange which is payable only when it is presented. If not seen by the required party it will not have matured (Deardorff, 2006). On the other hand, a time

Steve Jobs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Steve Jobs - Essay Example Jobs actively get involved in the process whether that is his department of operation or not. Due to his different style of management and remarkable success in global business, most references relating to entrepreneurship are drawn from him. He portrays a different way of doing the same things we are used to, and sees the normal things that we see in a different version. Any start up businessperson who aims to succeed has to draw quite a lot of inference from Jobs, and then apply creativity in running of the enterprise. Most start up business actually does not live beyond the initial stages and end up collapsing a few days in operation. Their owners loose hope, focus, and vision too fast that their dream becomes nothing more than a curse. At liquidation, the owners loose capital invested, time, and efforts. It is due to these reasons that learning how Steve Jobs managed to put Apple Corporation and provide great products to the world is important for any aspiring start up business o wner (Napier, 2006). A start up business requires owner involvement and participation in the running of the business. Just as Steve Jobs was involved in every aspect of the production process of the products Apple manufactured and was able to monitor them to the product, a startup business owner should be there to monitor the progress of the business. Understanding the weaknesses and majoring on these weaknesses are the strengths of a business. The entrepreneur understands the various difficulties that the business is facing. Environment of operation of the business is yet another aspect of a business the entrepreneur understands by involvement in the daily operations of the business. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses the business faces is key in its success. For Steve, the simple things regarded as final touches of a product matter to him a lot. The color of the computer casing, the sound a product produces when opened or closed or the size of the product to him is strengt h. He asks questions relating to these issues, and makes sure that he understands every bit of them, for example, why the designers opted for a black casing instead of a blue or yellow one. Through this, Steve has managed to understand the kind of weaknesses the business face with in its operations. For a businessperson, understanding the simple things goes a long way in understanding the needs of customers. Prioritizing on these needs wins the business more customers and gives a competitive advantage over other companies (McDaniel & Gitman, 2009). Knowing where an entrepreneur’s talent and passion lies is a better way to develop a business idea. According to Jobs, his area of passion is what brought the huge success that he is today. Entrepreneurship is a hard task and requires patience and not unless a potential entrepreneur majors on his area of strengths and where he feels he is more passionate, the hurdles experienced in the field would be will definitely break him (McDa niel & Gitman, 2009). Jobs, while advising young entrepreneurs said, â€Å"Go out and get a job as a busboy until you find something you’re really passionate about.† Passion drives desire and investing in a passionate field makes a person look forward to working the following day. Great ideas are born out of creativity, with a broader understanding of a particular phenomenon or aspect of a product leading to a

Leader Centric Approaches versus Group-Centric Approaches Essay

Leader Centric Approaches versus Group-Centric Approaches - Essay Example Employees expect corporate company leaders to be people of superior character and serve as role models to their employees. Trust and commitment are very important in ethical leadership. Ethical standards of leaders should not be diverse from those of the followers. Ethical behavior â€Å"†¦means that which is morally right, as opposed to that which is legally or procedurally right† (Kanungo, 2001, p. 258). Despite nurturing leaders out of morally imperfect humans, we still expect them to perform in an exemplary manner despite the challenges they face in their managerial endeavors. Appreciating the moral characteristics and challenges of leaders is elemental in understanding the nature of leaders. It is thus important to understand the ethical failures of leaders in order to understand the development of leadership. Based on ethical values, motives, and assumptions, transformational and transactional leadership behaviors are considered ethical. Transformational leaders have moral philanthropic motives grounded in a deontological perspective. Transactional leaders, on the other hand, have atomistic mutually altruistic intentions based on a teleological perspective. Basically, â€Å"Transformational leadership appears to be most closely connected to deontology, while transactional leadership would seem to be related more to teleological ethics†.... Transactional leaders, on the other hand, have atomistic mutually altruistic intentions based on a teleological perspective (Burnes & By 2012; Kanungo, 2001). Basically, â€Å"Transformational leadership appears to be most closely connected to deontology, while transactional leadership would seem to be related more to teleological ethics† (Aronson, 2001, p. 245). Certain leadership traits are important for effective leadership, most leaders, particularly American leaders, lack them. These traits include the ability to inspire; vision, supportiveness, self-sacrifice, genuineness, personal responsibility; being non-egalitarian, not discriminatory, honest, and selfless. These traits are crucial and require societal acceptance for the development of effective leadership (Bertsch, 2012). Leadership Ethics Leaders tend to act as if they have a different code of ethics from that of their followers. According to Guillen and Gonzalez (2001), â€Å"Leadership goes beyond the scope of f ormal power and involves a continuous exchange of influence and free acceptance.† Leaders tend to justify their actions and make it appear as if the rightfulness or the wrongfulness of an action is dependent on the person doing the action (Bertsch, 2012, p.176). The main difference between the leader-centric approach and the group-centric approach lies in considering leaders as special in the leader-centric approaches and considering them as equal with their followers in the group-centric approach. Leader-centric ethics approaches tend to justify the actions of the leaders since they consider leaders as special entities who deserve special treatment on moral issues (Ciulla, 2001).On the other hand,

Effects of Upholding the Traditions Research Paper

Effects of Upholding the Traditions - Research Paper Example The research paper "Effects of Upholding the Traditions" aims to examine the effects, both positive and negative, of traditions in the society. A tradition is a belief mostly manifested through behaviors. Such behaviors are portrayed by members of a group or even a society. These behaviors can be traced from a certain origin and hence given a meaning. This implies that the behaviors practiced are significant to that particular group or society and, therefore, can be explained. This study will analyze the concept of tradition as depicted in the article â€Å"The lottery†. It will specifically look at the effects of traditions in society. It will examine both the positive and negative aspects of traditions. Some of the positive effects are: fostering socialization, enhancing unity, nurturing responsibilities, fostering harmony, passing on of traditional values and enhancing virtues in the society. Some of the negative effects include; acting blindly without questioning, can lead to conflict between the old generation and the new generations, can lead to evils and barbaric actions. The society should identify the positive traditions that lead to positive effects and uphold them. On the other hand, harmful traditions that lead to negative effects should be done away with. Traditions can enhance unity in the society. From the lottery article, this unity is seen when there is concern shown for those who had not arrived for the event; others were late while others did not show up for one reason, or another.

Is Money Neutral Contrast the view regarding the neutrality of money Essay

Is Money Neutral Contrast the view regarding the neutrality of money between Real Business Cycle theory and New Keynesian Theor - Essay Example This is an important question to ask, as it affects the way, the government chooses to govern the economy and the ways to control it. The two schools of thought, the New Keynesian Theory and the Real Business Cycle Theory, debate the answer to this question (Mankiw, pp. 181-220, 2003). Both of these theories have a unique perspective to offer on the answer, and since each raises valid arguments, neither has yet been discredited for the other. The theory of money neutrality maintains that the effect of money does not affect real, inflation-adjusted factors like employment; real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and ‘real’ consumption (real because they have are all adjusted for inflation). This is because this theory considers the force of money as an inflationary one, with no large implications for the economy in terms of the macroeconomic factors. However, the theory does acknowledge the impact money has on nominal variables, such as price and wages, and even exchange rate o f the country’s currency (Wickens, pp. 199, 2009). These factors bound to gain influence from the money rate of interest, as they have a direct link to money and its circulation in the economy. The two schools of thought that debates on the neutrality of money have opposite views about how far-reaching the effect of money can be in an economy. The classical model states that money is neutral in both the short run as well as the long run. This means that this model considers money to be a neutral force, one that does not affect macro factors such as GDP or employment in the economy. Whereas, the Keynesian school of thought states that a force as strong as money does have its impact on the economy in the end. It believes that monetary policy does have a strong impact on the real economy, if one waits enough time before observing the changes. Each of these schools believes that this effect is visible within the short run for a short period of time, which is a factor on which the y both see eye to eye, but for different reasons. For the long term however, they both offer opposing views (Wickens, pp. 199, 2009). The classical model presents the view that monetary policy cannot affect the real economy and its macro factors, neither in the short run, nor in the long-run (Gali, pp 50-79, 2008). It states that nominal shocks, which are changes in the money supply and money demand, do not have any effect on the business cycle. This monetary policy is one of the tools that a government uses to control the economy, which it does by manipulating the money supply and circulation. According to the theory, when ‘money supply’ changes, it affects price proportionately. However, there is no effect on the real variables in the economy, such as the real interest rate or the unemployment level in the economy. As mentioned above, the classical school does also believe that the money supply affects the real factors for a short period. However, it believes that ver y soon, the price level adjusts to this change in money supply, thus making it ineffective to any real factors in the economy. This is apparent in the diagram below, which shows how the equilibrium reverts to normal after a temporary price shock (Abel and Bernanke, pp. 2005). In other words, it believes that the non-neutrality of money is short-lived, persisting over a period of insignificant length. Thus,

A Comparison between Male and Female Organizational Commitment and Dissertation

A Comparison between Male and Female Organizational Commitment and Turnover - Dissertation Example While various researches have been conducted on organizational commitment in the Western world, the Eastern corporate world, such as that of Qatar still lacks research on this topic. This research aims to uncover who organizational commitment differs among employees in terms of factors including but not limited to gender. In order to understand the concept of organizational commitment, this research depends largely on the contribution of Meyer and Allen and their three types of organizational commitment, affective, normative and continuance commitment. This research further takes inspiration from the organizational commitment scale developed by Meyer and Allen that is based on a Likert scale. The method of conducting the research was quantitative in nature where the questionnaire was inspired from Meyer and Allen’s organizational scale that was distributed among all the employees of XYZ Co., a leading gas company in Qatar. The results of the survey were analyzed using percenta ges and descriptive analysis. The results pointed to the fact that organizational commitment among males and females differs by the type; that is, males are more normatively committed with the organization while females are continually commitment. Affective commitment increases as employees move higher up in the organization because the organization gives more power in their hands. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 4 1.1. Background of the Study 4 1.2. Significance of the Study 5 1.3. Research Methodologies and Theories 6 1.4. Research Aims and Objectives 7 1.5. Ethical Considerations 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review 11 2.1. Gender Difference in the Workplace 11 2.1.1. Female Characteristics 11 2.1.1.1. Work Style 12 2.1.1.2 Conflict Resolution 12 2.1.1.3 Management Style 12 2.1.2. Male Characteristics 13 2.1.2.1. Work Style 13 2.1.2.2 Conflict Resolution 14 2.1.2.3 Management Style 14 2.2. Organizational Commitment 15 2.2.1 Impact of Organizational Commitment 15 2.2.2. 3 Comp onent Model of Organizational Commitment 16 2.2.2.1. Affective Commitment 16 2.2.2.2. Continuance Commitment 17 2.2.2.3. Normative Commitment 17 2.2.3 Levels of Organizational Commitment 18 2.2.3.1.1 The Level of Accordance 18 2.2.3.1.2 The Level of Identification 19 2.2.3.1.3 The Level of Internalization 19 2.2.4 Antecedents of Organizational Commitment 19 2.2.4.1. Personal Characteristics 20 2.2.4.2. Work Experiences 21 2.2.4.3. Job and Role Related Characteristics 22 2.2.4.4 Assessing Organizational Commitment 23 2.2.5. Male Organizational Commitment 24 2.2.6. Female Organizational Commitment 25 2.2.7 Comparison Between Male and Female OC 26 2.2.8. Organizational culture in Qatar†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 28 2.3. Employee Turnover 28 2.3.1.Definition of Employee Turnover 28 2.3.2. Types of Employee Turnover 29 2.3.2.1 Involuntary Turnover 29 2.3.2.2 Voluntary Turnover 30 2.3.2.3Positive Turnover 30 2.3.2.4 Negative Turnover 30 2.3.3 Reasons behind E mployee Turnover. 31 2.3.4. Impact of Employee Turnover 33 2.3.4.1 Negative Consequences 33 2.3.5 Male Employee Turnover and its Reasons 34 2.3.6Female Employee Turnover and its Reasons 34 2.3.7 Comparison Between Male and Female Turnover. 36 2.3.7 Reducing Employee Turnover. 37 2.4. Conclusion 39 Chapter 3: Methods 42 Chapter 4: Results 52 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion 67 Chapter 7: References 73 Appendix 1 78 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background of the Study Today’s corporate world is becoming increasingly competitive as people from all gender, ages and races have entered the workforce in large numbers. In terms of gender, the attitudes of