The Affects of Child Abuse Essay Example For Students

The Affects of Child Abuse Essay 1.One of the worst crimes in existence today is child abuse and neglect. Not only does child abuse affect and hurt a child when it happens, but, it stays with that person for the rest of their lives. It is a crime that does not stop after it has occurred, but, goes on and on for ever. This paper will discuss the horrid crime of child abuse, and identify why this is such a devastating thing to happen to a child. 2.Imagine for one moment that you are not yourself any longer. Visualize instead that you are a young girl; old enough to know right from wrong yet still young enough to be terrified by the dark shadows in your room. It is a cool autumn night and your parents have opted to attend a party which you are not allowed at. It will be fine, they say. Although you already know what is to come. We will write a custom essay on The Affects of Child Abuse specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now 3.Your uncle comes over to watch you for the evening, and your parents are so pleased by the fact that they do not have to find a sitter. As soon as he arrives, your mother kisses you on the cheek and scurries out the door to join your father already waiting in the car outside. The nightmare begins. His slimy hands casually slide a tape into the VCR as he smiles at you seductively. You can feel his eyes worming their gaze through your clothes every time that he looks at you. You feel dirty and violated every time you think about what he does to you when you are alone. He walks over to the couch and sits down next to you. His hand slithers its way onto your knee and you cringe in revulsion. Dont be afraid, I wont hurt you, he chides. 4.Your mind feels panicky as you feel his touch in more intimate places and you scream involuntarily. His grip tightens as he places his hand over your mouth. Well have to do this the hard way! comes his intense whisper. You flail your arms at him, but it doesnt help. His writhing massive body is on top of yours, and you feel so powerless. Eventually, you sink into a sobbing heap and simply wait for his passions to stop. You wait for the nightmare to end. When he is done, you limp to the laundry room and try fruitlessly to get the blood stains out of your clothes (Reardon p.5-68). 5. It is all your fault Abuse: The violation or defilement of; What you have just experienced is one type of abuse that occurs millions of times every year across America. Estimates of abuse range wildly depending on the source of ones information. Estimates of chld abuse or neglice by parents or guardians range from about 1 out of every 100 children to more than 1 out of every 7. At least 500,000 children are physically abused in the United States each year, and many more are emotionally abused and neglected.. (Brittanica p. 1) All sources agree on the simple truth that not nearly all cases of child abuse are reported or even estimated. Many cases go unreported. 7.It is clear that families are undergoing a number of important structural changes: families are smaller than in the past, with fewer children and sometimes with only one parent; parents have children at a later age; more couples live together without the bonds of matrimony which was accepted as a sacred bond so few years in human history. The source of this degradation of such a basic unit of society is unknown throughout all areas of research. It is a question that one person needs to answer for himself and solve for himself. .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 , .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .postImageUrl , .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 , .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254:hover , .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254:visited , .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254:active { border:0!important; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254:active , .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254 .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u122fee86a3e963c0b553b701ab8cc254:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Drug Abuse in the NFL Essay Something a young child is not capable of doing. 8.Physical abuse has many forms. It may involve the hitting or kicking of a child with the fists or the feet, or with another object; such as belts, shovels, changes, ropes, electric cords, leather straps, canes, baseball bats, sticks, broom handles, or assorted large objects. Other forms of abuse include the pouring of scalding water or coffee on a childs body, holding a childs head under the water of .

Women in Technology Fields

Women in Technology Fields Introduction As society evolves to become more dependent on science and technology for growth and development, the occupational segregation of women in the sciences relative to men, not only in terms of absolute numbers but also in terms of visibility in the upper echelons of the professions, represents a misuse of scarce human capital and continues to alarm academics, policy makers and mainstream commentators (Hatchell Aveling, 2008).Advertising We will write a custom dissertation sample on Women in Technology Fields specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More That’s good writing. As observed by a number of scholars (e.g., Huffman et al, 2010; Benson Yukongdi, 2005), it is indeed true that the gendered segregation of jobs and occupations in these critical sectors of the economy is a persistent characteristic in many labour markets globally, and is the proximate foundation of many forms of gender inequality. An extensive and well establ ished literature documents the destructive outcomes of gendered occupational segregation in science and technology fields (Deem, 2007), which include lower wages, expansive income disparities, fewer promotions, and less significant wage increases (Schweitzer et al, 2011). The worrying trend being replicated in nearly all economies worldwide is that although more women are being absorbed in the fields of science and technology than ever before, they persist to be considerably outnumbered by their male counterparts (Jones, 2010; Bhatia Amati, 2010). It is the purpose of the present study to perform a critical analysis of why women continue to be underrepresented in the telecommunication industry in Europe and Middle East. Very good start! Towards the realization of this broad objective, this section sets out to review and analyze extant literature on women’s occupational segregation in technology fields, with specific focus on the telecommunication sector in Europe and Middle East. The section will, among other things, analyze existing literature on women in engineering and technology fields, the dynamics of occupational segregation of women in these sectors, barriers to gendered occupation equality, and issues that need to be addressed to encourage and retain women in technology fields.Advertising Looking for dissertation on gender studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It is imperative to note that due to paucity of literature on women occupational segregation in the telecommunication sector, the analysis of critical literature will assume a broader scope to encompass segregation of women in technology fields based on the rationale that the telecommunication sector is technology-oriented. Women in Technology Fields Hersh (2000) cited in Kusk et al (2007) observed that although there have been marked increases in the number of women taking up technology-oriented occupations over the la st two decades, women still remain a minority in these fields in nearly all countries across the world. Indeed, according to Gillard et al (2008), as many Western technology-oriented organizations endeavour â€Å"†¦to recognize and validate difference through diversity policies, they in fact leave the power mechanisms of conformity unchallenged and intact, individualize the inequities, bypass tensions of coexistence, and actually reinforce and homogenize difference† (p. 266). In particular, these authors note that although the telecommunication and information communication technology (ICT) workforce forms fairly new professional sectors, women persistently occupy a minority of positions and gender segregation that has been well documented in many other occupations is being simulated in the telecommunication/ICT industries. Available literature demonstrate that women in telecommunication/ICT industries tend to be concentrated in particular occupational spheres, which are normally the lower skilled information technology (IT) jobs related to data entry, implying that women in these critical sectors of the economy comprise a marginal percentage of managerial, design, and software development personnel (Gillard et al, 2008). Yet, according to Bystydzienski (2004), as increasing numbers of women get absorbed into the telecommunication/ICT professions, not only are they faced with a slump in salaries, status, and working conditions but they also have to contend with the domain of masculinity that is well entrenched in these sectors. In other words, men still dictate access to, and advancement in, paid employment in telecommunication/ICT fields (Benson Yukongdi, 2005; Hafkin Huyer, 2007).Advertising We will write a custom dissertation sample on Women in Technology Fields specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Trends in various countries and regions Trends in the United States According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Labour (2005) cited in Oswald (2008), women currently make up approximately 50% of the total workforce, but they continue to be segregated in many occupations, particularly in engineering and technology-oriented occupations. This gendered occupational segregation, it seems, has its roots in the educational achievements of women. A report completed in 2007 by the National Science Foundation also cited in Oswald (2008) revealed that â€Å"†¦women earned only 29% of the bachelor’s degrees in math and computer science, 21% of the degrees in engineering, and 42% of the bachelor’s degrees in physical science† (p. 196). These disciplines form the foundation for a career trajectory in the telecommunication field. Available literature demonstrates that leading women engineers and ICT experts in the United Sates are regularly burdened with concerns about not being taken seriously, perceived non-performance, exclusionary social dynamics, relian ce on hostile workmates or seniors, and excessive pressure to imitate the male paradigm of doing science (Etzkowitz et al, 2010). Such experiences, according to these authors, not only obstruct interpersonal relationships but frustrate the women’s capacity to reach their full potential, no matter how able or talented they are. A survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labour cited in Coder et al (2009) indicates that while women made up an estimated 43% of the information technology (IT) workforce in 1983, the percentage dropped to a paltry 26 % in 2008 in spite of the fact that the total IT workforce had more than doubled for the indicated period. Trends in United Kingdom Sappleton Takrui-Rick (2008) posit that â€Å"†¦despite 30 years of equality legislation, women in science, engineering and technology in the U.K. remain severely underrepresented† (p. 284). Indeed, the U.K. has one of the highest levels of gendered occupation segregation in the European Union, particularly in science, engineering and technology domains. Available statistics contained in a report by the Engineering Council UK (2004) cited in Sappleton Takrui-Rick (2008) â€Å"†¦suggest that only 8% of those employed in engineering work and 15% of those employed in information, communication, and technology (ICT) work in the U.K. are female† (p. 285).Advertising Looking for dissertation on gender studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Current trends, however, demonstrate that organizations are increasingly realizing the intrinsic benefit of encouraging and retaining women in these fields though tangible results are yet to be achieved (Bhatia Amati, 2010). The limited success of intervention strategies aimed at achieving equal gender representation in these fields, according to Sappleton Takrui-Rick (2008), can be partially accredited to the fact that, after â€Å"getting in,† certain influences obstruct women in the U.K. from â€Å"staying on† and â€Å"getting on† in the sectors in parity with their male counterparts. In a recently concluded case study on network engineer training programs in Britain running the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) module, it was demonstrated that career openings commensurate with their skills were substantially restricted for women employees in general, but particularly so for women single parents (Gillard et al, 2008). A study conductad by Franzway(2 009), found that a large number of men are attracted to technical training programmes and courses. A study conducted by Hafkin Taggart (2001) cited in Gillard et al (2007) found that employers in the UK were reluctant to recruit women CCNA programmers and instructors ostensibly because women are poorly qualified and lack fundamental work experience. Indeed, according to Gillard et al (2008), the â€Å"†¦employers frequently maintained that not only were the supposed physical and computational demands of the job too exacting but that it was too risky to permit inexperienced personnel to tinker with the vital network infrastructure† (p. 272). Preferring to recruit men, this unconcealed stereotyped discrimination in expertise recognition has also been experienced by female telecommunication engineers and network administrators in other parts of the world, with job advertisements for telecommunication/ICT professionals frequently specifying male job applicants (Gillard et a l, 2008; Hafkin Huyer, 2007). Extant literature (e.g., Bystydzienski, 2004; Benson Yukongdi, 2005; Bhatia Amati, 2010) demonstrate that once in formal employment in these technology-oriented sectors, however, women perform as well as, if not better than, their male counterparts. Trends in Middle East Although gendered occupation segregation is far more entrenched in the Middle East and other Arab-dominated regions than in other areas, this is mainly because, the Islamic religion is the main religion in the Middle East region. The Islamic religion, believes that women should concentrate more on their household responsibilities than technical careers. Bhatia Amati (2010) note that it becomes hard to dissect the problem due to paucity of statistical data, particularly sex-segregated data on gender inequality in the Middle East. However, various rationales as to why the problem is so deeply entrenched in the Middle East have surfaced. Benson Yukongdi (2005) posit that owing to reli gious and socio-cultural barriers, many countries in the Middle East abide by a social convention in which women are widely expected to play a supporting role relative to men. According to Hafkin Huyer (2007) cultural prohibitions in many countries in the Middle East restrict women from undertaking any gainful employment outside the home. According to Benson Yukongdi (2005), men in the Middle East are traditionally placed in core occupations and departments, and this becomes the basis for gender divergences in recruitment, promotion, training, rewards and decision-making authority. Dynamics of Occupational Segregation in Technology Fields Available literature demonstrates that in spite of their talent, ability, and opportunity, women continue to be underrepresented in engineering and technology-oriented sectors of the economy (Schweitzer et al, 2011; Bhatia Amati, 2010). This notwithstanding, it is indeed true that unlike other historically male-dominated jobs that have registere d considerable gains in attaining gendered equality, many engineering and technology-oriented fields have remained noticeably unbalanced in terms of gender (Deem, 2007). Still, other studies (e.g., Kusk et al, 2007; Coder et al, 2009; Kotsilieri Marshall, 2004) have demonstrated that underrepresentation of women in engineering and technology-oriented sectors continue to widen as women engineers and technicians find themselves swimming against the tide of prejudice intrinsically reinforced by the social, cultural, psychological and economic realities of life. A study by Hatchel Aveling (2008) found that women telecommunication engineers are eight times more likely to be working part-time, while women working in ICT are six times more likely to be working part-time. This section aims to explore critical literature on the dynamics of occupational segregation in technology-oriented fields, with particular focus on telecommunication and ICT sectors. Consequently, literature on the pipe line theory, the social constructionist perspectives, meritocracy and its implications, and organizational policies and culture, will be evaluated with a view to understand why the problem of gendered occupational segregation in technology-oriented fields continue to persist despite the spirited attempts by governments and organizations across the world to curtail the inequality progression. The unsuccessful Pipeline Theory According to Schweitzer et al (2011), â€Å"†¦the pipeline theory suggests that increasing the number of women in male dominated fields should lead to more equality in the labour market†¦This presumes that women and men in the pipeline expect comparable career outcomes† (p. 422). Given institutional, organizational and countrywide efforts to get girls into engineering and technology-oriented disciplines in institutions of higher learning, it was expected that, with a large proportion of women entering the engineering and technology fields, they w ould obviously filter into the traditionally male-dominated upper levels of these critical sectors in large numbers (Hatchel Aveling, 2008; Franzway et al, 2009). Indeed, according to these authors, the metaphor of the â€Å"pipeline effect† was based on the assertion that gender imbalances noted in engineering and technology-oriented occupations would be successfully dealt with once women overcame their reluctance to enter these sectors and acquire the requisite qualifications. However, as has been demonstrated in a number of research articles concerned with assessing the reasons behind gender-based underrepresentation in the labour market, the movement of more women into the pipeline failed to correspond with the attainment of enviable trends for women careers, particularly when it comes to engineering and technology-oriented sectors of the economy (Schweitzer et al, 2011; Coder et al, 2009). Hatchel Aveling (2008) are of the opinion that the pipeline theory promised â₠¬Å"†¦false hope as the pipeline turned out to be very leaky indeed† (p. 357). This view is reinforced by a host of other scholars (e.g. Coder et al, 2009; Bhatia Amati, 2010), who suggest that women are yet to achieve comparable outcomes relative to men in these sectors even after sustained efforts from various quarters, including organizations and governments, to â€Å"feed† the women into the pipeline. Various scholars have attempted to dissect why the â€Å"pipeline effect† failed to deliver the intended outcomes, particularly in the attainment of comparable career outcomes for women in engineering and technology-oriented occupations. Hatchel Aveling (2008) maintain that the pipeline theory has several limitations that make it impossible for women to achieve comparable career outcomes. According to these authors, the theory â€Å"†¦posits a straightforward linear career progression that is quite restrictive and does not easily accommodate the more complex life-patterns of females† (p. 358). Women employees have unique needs and demands, which in most occasions act as barriers to successful gendered occupation equality not only in the science fields but also in other areas (Gillard et al, 2008). These barriers will be discussed at length in the succeeding sections of this review. Other scholars have observed that the pipeline theory fails to take into consideration the multiple layers of culture in its attempt to guarantee comparable career outcomes for women relative to men. To understand the dynamics of occupational segregation and institute a framework which will enable women to achieve comparable career outcomes, therefore, â€Å"†¦gender must always be seen in terms of its cultural context, in which the intersection of gender and culture is closely linked to the issue of power† (Hatchel Aveling, 2008 p. 358). Lastly, the pipeline theory fails to account for why women are leaving science, engineering an d technology-oriented organizations in large numbers relative to their male counterparts (Screuders et al, 2009), even after successful efforts made by various agencies to encourage more girls into science and technology at the school and even the undergraduate level (Hatchel Aveling, 2008). The Social Constructionist Viewpoints Various scholars have attempted to explain the occupation segregation of women in engineering and technology-oriented occupations using the social constructionist perspectives. Kotsilieri Marshall (2004) are of the opinion that the experiences and characteristics accredited to women, portrayed in academia and industry as contributing to their current occupational segregation in engineering and technology-oriented fields, are not timeless and universal but are socially, historically, psychologically, and politically located. To deduce that all women judge, think, or relate in distinctive and universal ways when making career choices, particularly in fields traditionally considered as male-dominated, inarguably denies the contextualise that frames behaviour (Benson Yukongdi, 2005). To better understand the social constructionist perspectives in general and, by extension, the contextuality that denies behaviour, it is important to explain the difference between sex and gender. Gillard et al (2008) explain that â€Å"†¦while sex reflects biological difference, gender – although often based on biological sex – is a social construction† (p. 264). This therefore implies that individuals are born and straight away categorized as female or male, but with time obtain a gendered identity, that is, what it implies to be feminine or masculine. These authors further posit that â€Å"†¦both gendered concepts are relational, that is, they are construed in relation to each other by defining what the female is not in relation to the Western masculine norm; this varies from one environment to another and shifts over tim e† (p. 264). According to Bhatia Amati (2010), one of the most elaborated features of the social constructionist perspective is the recognition that women and men are located divergently in society and that not all women or all men share similar experiences or challenges. In pursuing the social constructionist line of thought, Gillard et al (2008) observe that the gendering of work, technology and indeed many other facets of occupational life and orientation â€Å"†¦constitute individuals as different types of value-added labourers can be made visible by documenting cultural values, beliefs, and activities, which contribute toward identity formulations, roles and responsibilities, and personal aspirations and opportunities† (p. 265). Consequently, these authors underline a value preposition suggesting that the micro dimensions of our everyday existence, reinforced by community, organizational and institutional hegemonic philosophies and processes that maintains th e normalized status quo, provides the basis for gendered occupational segregation not only in technology-oriented fields but also in other areas. Meritocracy its Implications The concept of meritocracy came into the limelight in the late 1950s to denote a social system that prescribes to merit, talent and capabilities as the foundation for recruiting employees into positions and dispensing rewards (Castilla Bernard, 2010). To date, opinion still remains divided on whether meritocracy promotes gendered occupation equality or occupational segregation. As observed by these authors, â€Å"†¦advocates of meritocracy stress that in true meritocratic systems everyone has an equal chance to advance and obtain rewards based on their individual merits and efforts, regardless of their gender, race, class, or other non-merit factors† (p. 543). This implies that men and women in engineering and technology-oriented occupations have equal opportunities for advancement despite the exi stence of gendered imbalances and barriers that may act to hinder one group, particularly women, to advance in their careers. Indeed, meritocracy has been culturally accepted as a reasonable and justifiable distributive standard in many developed capitalist countries and organizations (Castilla Bernard, 2010). In her research, Deem (2007) noted that meritocracy is a universal value that is absolutely compatible with gendered occupation equality, ensuring that recruitment and promotion in the workplace is through open competition rather than through concession or networks of associates. Critics of meritocracy, however, argue that the concept has failed to deliver equal gender representation in a number of occupations, particularly in the sciences. In their research, Castilla Bernard (2010) came up with what they called the ‘paradox of meritocracy’ to refer to a situation where organizations that prescribe to meritocratic principles were found to demonstrate greater bia s in favour of men over equally competitive and performing women. Many modern technology organizations, though based on meritocracy in recruitment and promotions, are heavily bureaucratized. Gillard et al (2008) note that â€Å"†¦the bureaucratization of gender guidelines all too often tends to reinforce institutional influence and silences those whose voices rarely get aired in the development forums where decisions are made† (p. 266). Recent empirical studies as quoted in Castilla Bernard (2010) found that occupational segregation continues even with the adoption of merit-based recruitment and reward systems, affirmative action and other diversity-oriented policies and strategies. Indeed, according to these researchers, some organizational practices and procedures instituted to entrench the meritocratic paradigm in the organization have been found to negatively affect employees’ opportunities and professions, particularly those practices developed to diminish i nequalities for women and ethnic minorities. This assertion leads Bhatia Amati (2010) to conclude that some organizational policies and practices supposedly adopted to enhance meritocracy are only factored in for symbolic reasons and do not in any way achieve their stated objectives. For example, research has revealed that some organizational recruitment programs and reward practices intended to reflect the meritocratic paradigm act to increase gender and racial inequalities by virtue of the fact that they introduce bias into employee recruitment and compensation decisions (Baron Cobb-Clark, 2010). Deem (2007) noted at least two challenges with the conception of meritocracy in relation to gendered occupation inequality. First, the researcher argued that meritocracy hindered women’s recruitment and progress in key sectors of the economy due to the â€Å"†¦individualistic focus of meritocratic judgments that reward the successful and stigmatize the unsuccessful† ( p. 617). Meritocracy, it was argued, has the supremacy to transfer the responsibility for unequal recruitment and promotional results back onto the individual and consequently to stigmatize the unsuccessful applicants as unskilled or incapable. A second challenge with meritocracy, according to this particular researcher, is the insinuation that it applies culturally and value-neutral standards to the recruitment and promotion of workers. However, it is unfeasible to develop totally neutral standards or evaluations by virtue of the fact that cultural and social ideals do enter into the recruitment and promotion processes. Organizational Policies Culture Organizational policies and cultures, of different societies, act as facilitators of gender segregation. A number of studies (e.g., Gillard et al, 2008; Bhatia Amati, 2010) have attempted to offer a gender construction in which critical reflection is applied to how occupational segregation of women in science and technology fields, of which the telecommunication sector is an integral component, is woven in organizational, national and international policies, business practices and concerns, and public and private employment configurations. Many organizational policies and strategies orient themselves to the unfounded paradigm that women posses less levels of human capital relative to men (Benson Yukongdi, 2005). Some organizational perceptions practiced in many countries, particularly in the Middle East, makes it permissible for occupations to be allocated along gender lines, implying that women are left with little prospect to develop the necessary work experience that is fundamentally needed in many technology-oriented organizations. On the other hand, there was something in the news last week about men being not allowed to serve customers in women’s clothing shops. For example, men in the Middle East are traditionally placed in core occupations and departments, and this becomes the basis for gender divergences in recruitment, promotion, training, rewards and decision-making authority. In a similar fashion a broad range of organizational policies and practices serve to prevent women from entering technology-oriented occupations. Benson Yukongdi (2005) point out the challenge of statistical discrimination, where organizations not only in telecommunication/ICT sectors but also in other fields make decisions on recruitment, promotion and training â€Å"†¦based on generalized data rather than on the actual experiences of individuals† (p. 287). For instance, absenteeism data for all women in the firm would be utilized to evaluate the commitment of particular women applying for promotion while not taking into consideration other dynamics that are unique to women, such as maternity leave and family responsibilities. Such an orientation only serves to enhance gendered occupational segregation. In line with this, it is indeed true that many organizations either do not have a statistical database on women occupational segregation or fail to collect such data in a consistent and regular manner, making it almost impossible to address the challenge (Franzway et al, 2009). As underscored by Hafkin Huyer (2007), the paucity of statistical data on gendered occupational segregation in the telecommunication/ICT sectors makes it difficult, if not unfeasible, to develop a case for the inclusion of gender issues in telecommunication/ICT policies, plans, and strategies to employers and policymakers. Extant literature demonstrate that although there is a substantial increase in the number of women joining engineering and technology-oriented firms (Morganson et al, 2010), the gains are being watered down by misplaced organizational policies and governance issues, which ensure that women do not stay longer in these critical sectors of the economy (Huffman et al, 2010). As noted by Hatchel Aveling (2008), â€Å"†¦the issue is no longer one of attracting women into the sciences but rather one of keeping them there† (p. 359). Morganson et al (2010) observes that when women complete undergraduate training in technical disciplines, they persist to be underrepresented in these fields and are more likely to leave the labour force than are men. A number of researchers (e.g., Bhatia Amati, 2010; Bystydzienski, 2004; Franzway et al, 2009) have blamed the gendered dimensions of organizational culture for the high turnover of women in engineering and technology-oriented organizations, while others (e.g., Gillard et al, 2008; Hafkin Huyer, 2007) argue that structural, cultural, interactional, and identity arrangements, even though irreversibly associated, are important classifications in understanding why women’s occupational segregation in engineering and technology-oriented fields can be fundamentally attributed to the gender subtext of organizations. Barriers to Gendered Occupation Equality in Technology Fields Many studies have be en conducted over time to understand the reasons behind the current gendered occupational segregation of women in engineering and technology fields. Kusk et al (2007) is of the opinion that women’s success in engineering and technology-related fields is often contingent upon them adopting an overtly male career pattern, implying that male domination in these sectors is barrier to entry of more women. This view is consistent with Morganson et al (2010) observation that the technology environment is often typified as a chilly environment, â€Å"†¦which tends to be male-dominated, highly impersonal and individualistic† (p. 169). According to these authors, the lack of support in the traditional engineering and technology working environments may be particularly destructive to women given that a number of researchers and theorists have continuously emphasized the fundamental importance of personalized relationships and interpersonal associations to women’s psyc hological development and well-being. The education system continues to be blamed for the swelling underrepresentation of women in technology-oriented fields, such as the telecommunication sector. According to Bhatia Amati (2010), girls in institutions of higher learning observe that there are few women in science and technology fields and, consequently, make a conclusion that a career trajectory in these fields is more suitable for men than for women. Indeed. Faced with the knowledge of both the bleak and subtle obstacles that face women in the male-dominated science and technology fields, girls in colleges and universities opt out of the disciplines and orient themselves for other fields that guarantee better opportunities of educational and career success. This view has been reinforced by Benson Yukongdi (2005), who observe that â€Å"†¦education, and particularly higher levels of education, has been denied to many women as families and society place more emphasis on wome n’s role as mother and homemaker† (p. 287). As a direct consequence, few women ever make it to technology-oriented occupations because these fields traditionally require higher levels of education. Historically, the image of technology fields have been perceived under the lens of complexity, time-intensive, challenging tasks, and involving machinery, and, consequently, both women and men continue to perceive engineering and technology fields as masculine both in nature and association (Kusk et al, 2007). Gillard et al (2008) describe how employees in telecommunication/ICT fields, interacting across time and space, are constantly obliged to work long hours to accommodate divergent time zones and regularly operate in crisis mode with strict project deadlines while having to continually update the job skills in response to rapid shifts in technology. In addition to these occupational demands, â€Å"†¦the mobile nature of these types of occupations often works to wome n’s disadvantage as they experience difficulties when faced with long hours, expectations of overseas travel, and participation in informal social networks† (Gillard et al, 2008 p. 271). Benson Yukongdi (2005) observe that even in instances where women have similar levels of education to their male colleagues, childbirth and family responsibilities implies that, for many women, gaining the pertinent and equivalent work expertise needed in technology-oriented occupations is impossible. Academics and industry view the gender pay gap as a strong contributing factor toward continued gender segregation of labour in science, engineering and technology sectors. As observed by Blau Khan (2007), women telecommunication engineers continue to earn substantially less than men even when they are tasked with the same responsibilities. Many research articles (e.g., Blau Khan, 2007; Franzway et al, 2009) have digested a positive correlation between gendered pay gap on the one hand a nd prejudice and discrimination on the other. Baron Cobb-Clark (2010) suggest that the notion of prejudice and its negative ramifications are readily transferrable to women versus men, while Etzkowitz et al (2010) conceptualized discriminatory preferences of women in engineering and technology fields as arising from an active desire by engineering-oriented organizations to maintain social distance from women due to their perceived family responsibilities, which negatively affect their performance and productivity. To reinforce this view of normalized discrimination in the workplace, Hatchel Aveling (2008) observe that many technology-oriented organizations are more likely to hire males than women, not mentioning that males working for these organizations are more likely than females to be given credit for ideas, concepts or work completed. According to Etzkowitz et al (2010), women are expected to work twice as hard to prove that they are capable of becoming productive telecommuni cation engineers, systems analysts and ICT experts. There is compelling evidence that women continue to be discriminated against in science and technology-oriented occupations due to their low levels of experience relative to men (Franzway et al, 2009). As rightly pointed out by Blau Khan (2007), â€Å"†¦the qualification that has proven to be quite important is work experience because traditionally women moved in and out of the labour market based on family considerations† (p. 9). Experience and the accumulation of skills that are fundamental in science and technology fields go hand in hand. Consequently, available studies (e.g., Blau Khan, 2007; Franzway et al, 2009; Deem, 2007) have demonstrated that women may particularly avoid career trajectories obliging large investments in skills that are distinctive to a particular endeavour mainly because of the fact that the returns to such investments are reaped only as long as the employee remains with that employer. Indee d, many employers may exhibit reinforced reluctance to hire women for such occupations because the organization bears some of the costs of such sector-specific training, not mentioning that their fear is further compounded by the fact that they may not get a full return on that investment due to higher turnover of women telecommunication engineers (Jones, 2010; Bhatia Amati, 2010). The lack of benefits perceived to be unique to women has worked to the disadvantage of women in technology-oriented fields. Indeed, Gillard et al (2008) posit that the majority of newly created technology and telecommunication occupations in developed as well as developing countries are predominantly found in the private sector, but the absence â€Å"†¦of benefits available means that women are unlikely to pursue these types of employment, instead having to opt for public sector work that is more likely to offer childcare provision, flexible hours, and maternity leave† (p. 272). As some gover nments formulate policies aimed at passing legislation for these benefits, which are perceived to encourage more women into technology and telecommunication occupations, the full responsibility for availing them often falls into the hands of private sector employers who are then inclined to discriminate against offering job positions to women in a bid to circumvent the financial cost of affording these services and benefits (Gillard et al, 2008; Baron Cobb-Clark, 2010; Franzway et al, 2009; Deem, 2007). Benson Yukongdi (2005) note that some organizations avail little in the way of family friendly policies or child care that would assist women professionals to deal with the role conflict arising from engagement with family related responsibilities as they perform organizational roles. According to Kusk et al (2007), â€Å"†¦explicit admittance of a belief in gender differences serve as a mechanism to sustain the status quo of the gender order by affirming current inequalities and prejudices as a natural difference† (p. 111). Women traditionally are perceived to be more oriented toward undertaking family responsibilities than engaging in paid labour. Where women engage in paid work, they nevertheless undertake major domestic responsibilities in addition to their organizational responsibilities. In many instances, as noted by Benson Yukongdi (2005), the gender-based division of family responsibilities and domestic work leaves women with few choices but to downsize their professional ambitions to fit with their family demands. In addition, some growth mind-sets have been found to influence girls into believing that they are not as good as boys in science and technology-oriented fields, and that men are more appropriate to venture into scientific careers than are women (Jones, 2010). Consequently, when girls and women take a stand that they only have a fixed amount of knowledge that is undesirable in scientific careers, they are more likely to believ e in the stereotype, lose confidence and self-belief, and eventually disengage from science, engineering and technology-oriented disciplines. This implies that women career trajectories in the mentioned disciplines become misplaced early in life due to the stereotype (Gillard et al, 2008; Schreuders et al, 2009). Inflexible and unfavourable organizational environment, reinforced by strategies and policies that are unfavourable to the progression of women in engineering and technology fields, have been blamed by leading scholars and practitioners as one of the foremost barriers to gendered occupational equality in these fields (Franzway et al, 2009). Indeed, Kusk et al (2007) observe that some of the best women telecommunication engineers are opting to retire early and set up their own businesses because they can create the type of environment that is free of unfavourable organizational policies and working environment. Encouraging Retaining Women in Technology Fields While it is cl ear that some of the issues and challenges contributing to gendered occupational segregation in technology-oriented firms represent the unique situation in a particular country, various studies have concluded that, in most cases, the problems and challenges are more universal in nature and scope (Benson Yukongdi, 2005). This implies that the solutions to the gender inequalities can also assume universal dimensions. Upon undertaking a comprehensive review of extant literature on continued occupational segregation of women in engineering and technology fields, Kusk et al (2007) noted that â€Å"†¦encouragement from family, friends, teachers and advisors is pivotal both in choosing and succeeding in engineering education† (p. 111). Blattel-Mink (2002) cited in Kusk et al (2007) posited that â€Å"†¦true gender equality requires both that those individual women in scientific subjects should have strong career orientation and that structural, institutional and cultural environs should become more welcoming towards women† (p. 111). Benson Yukongdi (2005) posit that increased access to educational opportunities for women, particularly in tertiary-level course, could deal a major blow to gendered occupational segregation in technology-oriented fields. Organizations and countries need to pass legislation that will minimize gendered occupational segregation in technology-oriented field as â€Å"†¦legislative reform constitutes an important component of any strategy to achieve equality in employment† (p. 289). According to these authors, legislation can be instrumental in setting up a community standard, not mentioning that it can serve to demonstrate acceptable behaviour. However, legislation cannot avail a swift remedy to the embedded gender equality segregation in technology-oriented fields, and can lead to manifold informal strategies to outwit the intent of such legislation. Countries also need to pass legislation that would all ow the girl child to have access to technology in elementary schools with a view to downgrade or diminish the gendered stereotype that a career in technology is only meant for men. According to Hafkin Huyer (2007), â€Å"†¦ICTs impact men and women differentially, and in almost all cases, women have many disadvantages that result in their having less access to technology and therefore less use of it† (p. 26). Etzkowitz et al (2010) observe that the access to technology in many countries across the world has allowed women to enhance their economic conditions, progress politically and widen participation in science and technology-oriented occupations for future generations. Benson Yukongdi (2005) are of the opinion that increased marketization of childcare and domestic work could assist women to achieve equal employment opportunities in technology-related sectors by neutralizing the division of domestic labour and the role expectations placed on women. Increasing the ran ge of governmental and organizational support mechanisms through marketization of these services will go a long way to assist women institute a more focused and equitable balance between work roles and family responsibilities. This notwithstanding, the role conflict experienced by women as they attempt to balance their domestic responsibilities and organizational roles will only be assuaged when more substantial social, cultural and attitudinal change transpires within society (Benson Yukongdi, 2005; Deem, 2007; Schreuders et al, 2009). Coping skills and strategies should be taught in institutions of higher learning to make girls understand the barriers and limitations that women in engineering and technology-oriented curricula face and the coping strategies known to be effective in these environments (Morganson et al 2010). These researchers posit that â€Å"†¦coping is a transportable skill that can continue to assist girls and women in overcoming barriers as they move forw ard in their careers† (p. 170). It is important to note that men and women cope in different ways; while men tend to cope by attempting to either alter the stressor (problem-focused coping) or ignore it totally (avoidant coping), women, in contrast, engage in social support coping. Consequently, women must rely on others in the work environment not only for emotional support but as a way to deal with work or family related challenges and seek assistance from others to overcome the stressors (Morganson et al, 2010; Schreuders et al, 2009). Lack of adequate social support coping mechanisms in technology-oriented organizations, therefore, may translate into recruitment of fewer women and higher turnover of women. Conclusion From the analysis it is clear that despite spirited attempts by governments and organizations to achieve equal gender representation in engineering and technology-oriented fields, the problem is far from over. In countries which have achieved tangible outcomes in narrowing down the gap, â€Å"†¦the steady increase in participation of women in science is marred by the tendency of fields to lower in status as women achieve equality of representation, and by continued resistance to women reaching positions of authority† (Etzkowitz et al, 2010 p. 83). Consequently, these negative progressions must be reversed if women are to enjoy the economic and social gains that are attached to the highly prestigious fields of science, engineering and technology. Collecting and analyzing data on why women fail to, make a tangible impact in these fields is a necessary prerequisite to achieving more gendered occupation equality in the industry. As noted in a report by the United Nations Development Programme cited in Hafkin Huyer (2007), â€Å"†¦without data, there is no visibility; without visibility, there is no priority† (p. 26). It is this understanding that provides the impetus for the next section, which aims to collect data t o analyze why there are few women employees in the telecommunications sector in Europe and Middle East. Summary of Conceptual Frame Work From the analysis and statistics, carried out in various regions globally, it is evident that careers which comprise of; technology, engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, telecommunication and ICT, have little or no women in them. This is because of the gender disparity that is exorbitant in diverse societies globally (Baron 2010, p.203). Whereby, the believes in these societies, define different careers in terms of being feminine or masculine. This has affected women in making career choices, where most of the women find it odd to choose careers that are more masculine in the society than they are feminine. Moreover, even when women take technical occupations, the job market prejudices them because it prefers men to do masculine occupations. Organisational policies that do not encourage women on technical careers have watered down e fforts to eliminate gender segregation in occupations (Schreuders 2009, p103). Meritocracy, which is a strategy developed to eliminate occupational gender segregation, has also failed due to this same prejudice in the job market. The pipeline theory, established to maximize and increase the number of women in masculine occupation, also failed since women who acted in reaction to this theory, did not take masculine and technological occupations (schreuders 2009, p110) On the other hand, unusually many societies globally have painted technical courses masculine. However, despite this, most men have shown a lot of unfading interest in these courses. This has raised a real, crucial question why it is so. Various sociological researchers have answered this critical intriguing question. First, the greatest fear of a man is to become a failure, and for man to overcome this fear he has to find something that is sufficient so as to overcome this fear. Hence or otherwise, most men go for tech nical courses because they are more prestigious in the society and moreover because the job market is remarkably open and diverse for technical course (Franzway 2009, p96). In addition to that, there’s an enormous guarantee that technical courses offer jobs to men. All in all, men have majorly many family responsibilities in life, and so it is necessary for a man to take a course that will guarantee the security of his family sufficiently. However, this is not enough reason for occupational gender segregation in technical courses. Lastly, occupational gender segregation can be eliminated with time if the systems of various organisations and associations globally can be changed to be more feminine friendly in relation to technical careers (Franzway 2009, p103) References Baron, J.D., Cobb-Clark, D.A (2010). Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Private- and Public-Sector Employment: A Distributional Analysis. Economic Record, 86 (273), pp. 227-246. Benson, J., Yukongdi, V (2005). Asian Women Managers: Participation, Barriers and Future Prospects. Asian Pacific Business Review, 11 (2), pp. 283-291. Bhatia, S., Amati, J (2010). ‘If these Women can do it, I can do it, Too’: Building Women Engineering Leaders through Graduate Peer Mentoring. Leadership Management in Engineering, 10 (4), pp. 174-184. Blau, F.D., Kahn, L.M (2007). The Gender Pay Gap: Have Women gone as Far as they Can? Academy of Management Perspectives, 11 (2), pp. 283-291. Bystydzienski, J.M (2004). (Re)Gendering Science Fields: Transforming Academic Science and Engineering. NWSA Journal, 16 (1), pp. 8-12. Castilla, E.J., Bernard, S (2010). The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55 (4), pp. 543-576. Coder, L., Rosenbloom, J.L., Ash, R.A., DuPont, B.R (2009). Economic and Business Dimensions: Increasing Gender Diversity in the IT Workforce. Communications of the ACM, 52 (5), pp. 25-27. Deem, R (2007). Managing a Meritoc racy or an Equitable Organization? Senior Managers’ and Employees’ Views about Equal Opportunities Policies in UK Universities. Journal of Education Policy, 22 (6), pp. 615-636. Etzkowitz, H., Gupta, N., Kamelgor, C (2010). The Gender Revolution in Science and Technology. Journal of International Affairs, 64 (1), pp. 83-100. Franzway, S., Sharp, R., Mills, J.E., Gill, J (2009). Engineering Ignorance. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 30 (1), pp. 89-106. Gillard, H., Howcroft, D., Mitev, N., Richardson, H (2008). â€Å"Missing Women†: Gender, ICTs, and the Shaping of the Global Economy. Information Technology for Development, 14 (4), pp. 262-279. Hafkin, N.J., Huyer, S (2007). Women and Gender in ICT Statistics and Indicators for Development. Information Technologies International Development, 4 (2), pp. 25-41. Hatchell, H., Aveling, N (2008). Those same Old Prejudices? Gendered Experiences in the Science Workplace. Journal of Workplace Rights, 13 (4), pp. 355-375. Huffman, M.L., Cohen, P.N., Pearlman, J (2010). Engendering Change: Organizational Dynamics and Workplace Gender Desegregation, 1975-2005. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55 (2), pp. 255-277. Jones, J (2010). Closing the Gender Gap. Civil Engineering, 80 (7), pp. 60-63. Kotsilieri, F., Marshall, J (2004). Hellenic Women Managers in the Telecommunications Sector: Living in Transition. New Technology, Work Employment, 19 (3), pp. 177-191. Kusk, F., Ozbilgin, M., Ozkale, L (2007). Against the Tide: Gendered Prejudice and Disadvantage in Engineering. Gender, Work Organization, 14 (2), pp. 109-129. Morganson, V.J., Jones, M.P., Major, D.A (2010). Understanding Women’s Underrepresentation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: The Role of Social Coping. Career Development Quarterly, 59 (2), pp. 169-179. Oswald, D.L (2008). Gender Stereotypes and Women’s Reports of Liking and Ability in Traditionally Masculine and Feminine Occupations. Psy chology of Women Quarterly, 32 (2), pp. 196-203. Sappleton, N., Takrui-Rick, H (2008). The Gender Subtext of Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) Organizations: A Review and Critique. Women’s Studies, 37 (3), 284-316. Schreuders, P. D., Mannon, S.E., Rutherford, B (2009). Pipeline or Personal Preference: Women in Engineering. European Journal of Engineering Education, 34 (1), pp. 97-112. Schweitzer, L., Ng, E., Lyons, S., Kuron, L (2011). Exploring the Career Pipeline: Gender Differences in Pre-Career Expectations. Industrial Relations, 66 (3), pp. 422-444.

Arsonist motivations and methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Arsonist motivations and methods - Essay Example The person who commits arson or the arsonist has been categorized into types, degrees by statutes and socio-psychological analyses. This paper discusses this aspect as we try to shed some light to the arsonists and their motivations and methods. There is some degree of debate whether there is such a thing as a universal profile of an arsonist. Goldstein (1996) suggested a psychological profile as explained by Rider of the typical pathological fire setter in his review of literature on the subject: {An arsonist is] an individual of below average intelligence, with a history of poor academic achievement and significant school failure. He or she comes from a large family and a harsh and unstable home environment and displays a clearly troubled and inadequate social, marital, and employment history. (p. 25) In a research undertaken by Bradshaw and Huff (1985), about 52% of the arsonists surveyed burn properties out of revenge, 12% out of excitement while the rest cover those of crime concealment, for profit and those simply without reason. (p. 1-5) For this paper, we will discuss three of the most common arsonists, the arsonists who burn homes and building out of revenge, those who do for profit, out of excitement and those who burn building in order to conceal another crime. As previously explained, the most typical type of arsonist is the one who burns buildings and homes in order to get back at someone for some slight that may be real or imaginary. Somehow this is also related to arson entailing psychological disorder on the part of the arsonist such as schizophrenia which is characterized by excessive and irrational suspiciousness. Fire is used as a weapon or a defense in this case against what is perceived as a threat. According to Rossmo and Kim (2000), targets of revenge arsonist may include individual homes and vehicles, places and symbolic targets or government buildings depending of whether their motivation is to

Philosophie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Philosophie - Essay Example The second part, on the other hand, will compare some important concepts that have been forwarded by each of them in order to underscore some important lessons. The last part will conclude this paper by stating the relevance of each of their views in the subsequent studies on the philosophy of the mind—how their analyses guided various schools of thought pertaining to metaphysica and the mind-body problem (philosophies of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, and Martin Heiddeger). To Plato, the physical world is nothing but an immitation of a perfect world, as stated clearly in the article entitled "Plato Overview" (Clark 1). Physical objects are construed as beings lacking the state of perfection. In this regard, the humans’ acquisition of sensible experiences gives them what Plato called ’opinions or beliefs’ (Clark 2). Such position, as reinforced in an academic paper entitled "Temporal Platonic Metaphysics," is based on the assumption that: (1) physical objects can only be regarded as imperfect versions of their perfect counterparts and (2) humans’ senses can only grasp these imperfect characteristics of physical objects (Mikovic 1). Following this reasoning and connecting this to his position on the nature of the human mind, Plato then recognized the need to transcend physicality as he regarded humans as more spiritual than physical. In Plato’s renowned metaphor, humans are souls trapped in physical bodies. Such conception of the state of ’being trapped’ is both revolutionary and developmental—revolutionary because it introduced the concept of non-materiality as another facet of humanity, and developmental because it highlighted the proper way through which the spiritual or ideal state of objects could be grasped. While humans gain sensible experiences through the physical contact with physical objects (as mediated by the five senses), such occurrence is made possible by the author and governor of the visible world of appearances called

English Language and Cultural Homogenization

English Language and Cultural Homogenization Abstract In this paper, I will look at the subject matter of English language and the relative importance it stages in the sphere of globalization and cultural homogenization. The usage of English language has intensified the ongoing process of the modern communicative world amidst the impact of socio-cultural globalization. Its competency in the global scenario is highly sought in communication as also in occupying better positions in the market economy as an inter-linkage of understanding between two or more countries that inhabit cultural attachment of ones own language. However English language is criticized on account of heterogeneity that exists in the world countries which often provoke conflicts, along with the varying cultural settings through different practices and physical characteristics, and for which language is one that define their cultural background. Despite the fact that English language being the most influential panorama in the global language field, especially on the so cio-cultural aspect, it has been argued that its impact has devalued certain cultural norms and practices which is meant to have a negative impact on the language and culture of certain countries, especially of those colonized countries and the non-English speaking cultures. Nevertheless English language has a great impact on how people view themselves and others in the diversity of cultural background and within ones own cultural milieu. Furthermore, English language and its mode of education have a greater impact on our culture and relevant understandings. Despite being critiqued in many aspects, it establishes a dominant feature in the process of globalization with the subsequent effect it has on the socio- cultural exchange and learning. Introduction Language is one of the most important tools that greatly distinguish the capacity of human beings, placing humans at the top of the evolutionary ladder (Neuliep 2006: 246). Anthropologist and linguist like Edward Sapir argued that the language of a culture has an impact on the people belonging to that particular area on how they think, how they perceive the world around them, how they view their natural and social environments; Similarly, Whorf also stress on the idea that the languages of the people determine different types of observations that helps perceive the world differently (Ibid.). This led to the Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis that rests on two principles- the principle of linguistic determinism which believes that what one thinks depends on what language one speaks and the principle of linguistic relativity which determines that the different views of the world as seen by the speakers are based on the different languages they belong to. While there are linguists who believe that the language of the people is determined by the vocabulary and the grammar structure that corresponds to the nonverbal culture depending on the geographic, climatic, kinesic, spatial, and proxemic aspects of culture that shows itself to the cultures language (Ibid.246-248). On one hand, the varied forms of vocabulary and the meanings attached to the language is a form of culture and as such language and culture are inextricably linked; while on the other hand, a groups language defines their cultural group and cultural identity that enable social bonds stronger  [1]  . Language make possible, people belonging to different cultures, to communicate effectively that are in a way enriching ones personal and professional connectivity. It is an important tool for a knowledge based skills attitudes which incorporate ideas, customs, habits, and values that enable oneself to participate in the local and international subjects, while enriching ones personal and professional life  [2]  that characterize its impact in the process of the socio-cultural globalization. Language determines the historical tradition of people and their respective culture that are rooted in their attitudes and behavior through varied form (Ibid) In the domain of socio-cultural perspectives, Waters (1995: 3) defines globalization as a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding (in Sengupta 2000: 3140). Certain terms that attributes to the global culture effects are Westernization, Mcdonalisation or Cocacolonization which are much talked about in the discourse of globalization, to which Westernization draws much of its critique on account of the relative effects that draws upon the rest of the world as much as cultural diffusion is concerned (Ibid.). In addition, those factors that influence the process of globalization are met through symbols of values, preferences and tastes, and not through economic materials and political power exchanges (Ibid. 3141). In the domain of establishing English language as a global practice, Britain and United States seem to have an upper hand because of its strong political and economic power for the past two centuries. The use of English Language in the fields varying from publishing, science, technology, commerce, diplomacy, air-traffic control and popular music, are drawn mostly by the aforesaid countries to forming a well known world language more popularly  [3]   English Language in the Globalization era . In the earlier times, there was an indication with regard to English as a world language, i.e., The International Herald Tribune, the former New York Herald Tribune described as The worlds daily newspaper (Phillipson 2001: 188-89). English language is perhaps the most well known language in the world spoken by native as well non-native speakers. Globalization is the buzzword the world is talking about and there are extensive literatures that relate to it but there is not much literature that specifically relates to globalization and the English language as much as the study on the global English is concerned (Ibid.). English competency is regarded as an essential tool for survival in the era of globalization, which is predominantly used in the computers when the world is largely interpreted through it  [4]  . The language of English is very popular worldwide that it has an immense role in specifying the dominance of communicators in the present globalization times that affects socio-cultural identities. The language of English is also a central part in the dominance of international politics and commerce  [5]  while also in the military links  [6]  and culture  [7]  (Phillipson 2001: 187). In the European Union too, there is much visibility on English being its dominant language, while in the central Europe the knowledge of English language is now a basic skill for a modern adaptability just like any other skills like driving a car or using a computer  [8]  . It is therefore acknowledgeable that English language is regarded as an international language that enable people to understand the ways of the world better and even communicate more smoothly  [9]  . It enables people belonging to different cultural background to come closer and to understand each other better through the communicative mode of interaction. English language is now regarded as the dominant language in the world, more popular than French because the latter is seen to be losing its ground of priority in its studies and in the everyday usage  [10]  . Further, Arnold (2006) stresses on issues as to how in the global world the English language implicates the non-English speaking culture or countries to construct itself to a form a global culture, while denoting that the globalization effect on socio cultural aspect is also caused by the colonization influences and power. Then there are instances where, about 6000-7000 spoken languages and many more sign languages and hundreds of languages across the national borders, in addition to the role of the monolingual speaking nation states that greatly affected the marketing systems and the consequent threatening affects caused by globalization (Phillipson 2001: 188-89). Critical aspects of English Language in the globalization era There are a lot of controversial issues as much as the conceptualization on English as the global language is concerned. Even though the language has marked its potency as an essentially standardized form in the speaking languages of the world, it has been critiqued for its limitations because it cannot be applied to every country or speaking communities in the world. Phillipson (2001) mentions that majority of the worlds citizens do not speak English, whether as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language and as such, urges upon scholars to analyze things in this particular matter as to whether the English language really do serve the need of the citizens in the world or, if its use serve the better of everyone in the world if it is being considered as the world language. A lot of decisions that affect the worlds population are taken in English including the educational academics and including the scholars , and as such it is questionable as to whether it serves the interests of people in the world or whose interests does it actually serve? (Ibid.189). In addition, the colonial legacy in India is considered as capturing not only the regions economy and territory but in conquering minds that further states that the educational policy of the British was based to create A class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect (Ibid. 189). Likewise, we can find the dominance of the English language at every educational institutions and universities, as also of the distance educational policies and purposes. On critiquing the diffusion and domination of the English language, it entails that the promotion of one language (English) and one culture (the USAs) at the expense of others through linguistic imperialism with a system of production and ideologies brings about an economically expansionist and exploitative world order, while Agnihotri and Khanna (1997) argue for a need to shift language planning paradigms so that English would sustain and not destroy the multi-lingual ethos of India (Ibid. 193). While there is a prominent diffusion especially on the part of English language spreading throughout the world, it is also important to preserve ones language that incorporates its cultural settings. On account of this, it well known that apart from ones mother tongue there are numerous people who speak English which has an enormous effect on ones identity. In this regard, it has been argued that the cultural attachments in a language dies once there is a prominent and constant use of English while the local one diminishes, and as such, there is a need to stress to preserve linguistic diversity so that ones culture be prevailed (Arnold 2006) In the process of globalization, the World Bank also retains the usage and role of English as the pioneer of educational policy along with other transnational corporations including the European Union (EU), while there are certain corporations that aid and provide funding projects  [11]  in order to upgrade their business for the purpose of English and likewise, making use of English education for business purpose (Phillipson 2001: 190-92). David Blunkett, the British Minister for Education and Employment alleged that they make use of English language as a tool for economic development and competency, while they also intends to expand their culture overseas from the viewpoint of cultural globalization (Ibid.). With the globalization as the spark of the various ongoing factors between the world countries, even the usage of the present Information Technology (IT) characterizes English as the e-language of the world. English language being supposedly the language of electronic globalization at the present world was also the language of geographic globalization in the earlier times which has an impact on the related cultural imperialism (Arnold 2006: 2). This effect that it has on the colonized countries and their relative cultures is understood to have a negative impact as far as preserving ones original identity and culture is concerned. In this connection, it has been critiqued that English language as global language destructs the non-English speaking communities  [12]  , which is understood to be affecting their local cultures lives. It is therefore assumed that considering English language as a global form of language will be like one world: one dictionary or questions if it could al so mean one world: one language?  [13]   The British culture is considered as the most dominant in the cultural imperialism effect, as also because of the fact that it has influenced the culture of the world education that lines through Africa, America, Asia, and Australia; it has enabled to form a sort of community different  [14]  from its own cultural background (Ibid. 3). Hence, the English language is criticized on the base that it has led to a devalued form of our own languages in the community practices that involves our customs and beliefs, laws and preferred form of lives, which in turn has made our culture strayed from its original belonging. Nevertheless, the English language is considered as the strongest of all global influences as far as the diffusion of languages are concerned (Ibid.). The imperialistic attitude of English language in the globalization process is also seen at the two theories namely Exploitation Theory which is the imperialistic form of approach and the Grassroots Theory that takes a neut ral role in the cross border communication process  [15]   Impact of English Language on globalization and cultural homogenization After the II world war, the globalization effect brought with it the free trade agreement  [16]  that further led to transfer of goods and services (economic as well cultural); the economic front were the production, trade and transportation while the cultural transfer in the form of music, art, fashion and lifestyles, communication through World Wide Web and Language  [17]  . This aspect of goods and service transfer in the globalization process places English language as one important aspect, that in turn has a huge impact on the level of communicators linkages, locally and internationally, and this criterion makes English as the dominant form of communication process in the globalized world. With the globalization effect and the role of information technology that has ushered in, the earlier definition of geographic colonization has terminated to formation of an electronic globalization that has now role to play in the socio-cultural aspects of peoples life, in a way that geography does not matter anymore, however that, local lives can be lived and stretched out through electronic ways of communication and sharing ideas and knowledge (Arnold 2006). English language is predominantly used as the global mode of communication that has a greater affect in the global culture characterized by a form of modernized e-language throughout the diffusion of culture sharing. Hence, English language is characterized by its impact on the homogeneity and heterogeneity of world cultures despite being critiqued that it is based on its colonized mission and strategies that furthers the problem of non-English speaking communities. Its enables one to identify the different cultures that exist s in the world and also to view ones own within the cultural background and the diverse set of practices in the world on account of it. Redman (2002) have argued that, communities that express their languages and cultures are learning to become homogenized and for which English spans the divide between people and cultures. It isnt owned by Britain and America: now it belongs to everyone, in addition, Burnett (2004) argues that English language could belong to everyone and all the practices and cultures of other languages vanish or of no usage any longer (in Arnold 2006: 3). The globalization and technological intervention has brought about a most popular form of a web-based language- English language that has initially led to a formation of a new form of culture and language authenticity (Ibid.). Hence the web-based English language is intensifying the process of communication and in sharing world wide cultures across various communities. The role of English language has a great impact on various aspects such as political, economic-business, education, socio-cultural and other factors that vary from local to international perspectives. Its usage is like opening windows to the wider world that is believed to bring about economic progress and a better means of communicating for any kind of international understandings  [18]  . English language is taking over the world communicative process and hence, the local culture too (Arnold 2006). Arguing on a topic as to whether English language is a killer language or not, it has been observed that it is not necessarily a killer language because it acts in accordance to situation or dominance, while another important aspect of it is that, it does not merely impose applications of vocabularies to other countries; it has also been adopting itself to the expressions of other languages and cultures  [19]   Eventually it has led to the formation of a borderless world, a techno-driven on the global real/virtual basis of online connectivity, a global culture, often described as the culture of global village (Arnold 2006). According to Krishnaswamy and Brude (1998), the English language and its spread in the global world of developmental aspect after the two world war was that It is almost as if God said, Let there be language, and there was English, while it is also seen as a necessity and a form of key to success in the process of globalization (Kak 2005: 39) Conclusion English Language has brought about an immense cultural interlink age through the communicative process along with the role of the educational system that it hinges upon in almost the entire world. As such, it stages a relative importance in the sphere of globalization and cultural homogenization process. The mode of communication has greatly intensified the sharing of ideas and knowledge of the world cultures. The Information Age has made the means of communication a lot easier and the cultural homogenization stronger. It has globalized countries that inhabit their own cultural attachment through the diffusion of languages and most importantly specifying the dominance of English language in the process. Even though it has been criticized on account of the conflicts that arise because of heterogeneity or being blamed for devaluing certain cultural norms and practices, it has a great impact on the cultural homogenization in the form of blending knowledge, ideas and cultures through the effects of information and communication process, be it virtual or real and vice versa. The globalization era has therefore greatly enhanced the role of English language and its impact on the cultural homogenization enabling people to come closer beyond boundaries in the diverse set of different cultural backgrounds into forming a cultural homogenization.

Mansfield’s Short Stories Essay

This article discusses how emotions are depicted in two Katherine Mansfield’s short stories, †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†. Emotions are mapped through linguistic markers such as adjectives and adverbs that imply a character’s emotional response to story events. The study focuses on narratorial discourse and distinguishes between verbalized speech and thought (free indirect discourse) and non-verbalised thought-processes (psycho-narration). The analysis is carried out by studying the deictic centre or the perspective in the short stories. The study shows that passages of psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are rich in emotional language, including such features as interjections, repetition and orthographic markers. 1. Introduction Emotions often play a significant role in depicting a literary character’s mind. This study discusses how characters’ emotions are depicted in two Katherine Mansfield’s short stories, †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†.1 The focus is on those sections in Mansfield’s stories that depict characters’ psyches and feelings. The analysis maps the features that imply the presence of consciousness or perspective in Katherine Mansfield’s texts. The analysis is carried out by studying linguistic features such as adjectives, adverbs and orthography to find out whose consciousness and emotions are depicted in the text. Consciousness report is an umbrella term for several techniques that share some common features in depicting characters’ consciousness. This study focuses on the interplay between psycho-narration, the narrator’s rendering of characters’ psyches or their non-verbalised thought processes, and free ind irect discourse, the narrator’s indirect quotation of the words that the characters say or think, their verbalised speech or thought. Both free indirect discourse and psycho-narration depict character speech within the framework of third person narrative, and in Mansfield’s stories characters’ feelings are often filtered through the narrator’s discourse . 2 There are also feelings that the characters may be unaware of but that the narrator reports to the reader. For this reason, the focus of the study is on the narrator’s description of characters’ emotions, as psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are narrator’s discourse by nature. The differences between psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are illustrated in another example from Mansfield, a story called †The Doll’s House† (see subsection 2.3). In analysing characters’ emotions perspective plays an important role. Perspective tells the reader whose point of view is adopted in the text. Perspective is realised through visuo-spatial or temporal indicators that are also called deictic features (see subsection 2.1). The first aim of the analysis is to pinpoint the deictic features that imply the presence of consciousness or emotional involvement in †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†. The second aim is to study consciousness report that is often marked by reporting devices such as evaluative adjectives and adverbs, or other perspective-building elements such as backshifting of tenses and orthographic markers. The analysis is based on linguistic evidence in sections of psycho-narration or free indirect discourse with reference to characters’ emotions and emotional changes. When a fictional character’s feelings change, the readers may also change their views of that character (Miall and Kuiken 2001: 291). Thus, changing emotions affect the reader’s interpretation of the story. The next section takes a closer look at the linguistic features that indicate characters’ emotions depicted in psycho-narration and free indirect discourse. 2. Linguistic Features in the Representation of Character Emotions This section discusses linguistic features that imply psycho-narration and free indirect discourse. In the first subsection, the connection between the deictic centre and emotions is explained. The second subsection takes a look at specific reporting devices and features that indicate a deictic centre. In the third part, psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are d iscussed with examples from Mansfield’s †Doll’s House†. 2.1 Deixis and Deictic Centre Emotions are an essential part of depicting a literary character’s consciousness. In analysing emotions or characters’ consciousness deixis is a useful tool. Deixis means †features of language which fasten utterances temporally or spatially: ‘here’, ‘now’† (Hawthorn 1994: 37). Consciousness presentation becomes apparent through many indicators, most clearly through orthographic markers such as quotation marks or words in italics. Orthographic markers are especially used in direct discourse where quotation marks show the beginning and ending of a dialogue. Parentheticals or brackets indicating the speaker and his or her act of speaking or thinking within a sentence, for example, †she said† or †he thought† are also used in direct discourse to indicate the speaking or thinking person. As these markers seldom occur in consciousness report, however, there are other markers like expressive elements that help to ide ntify the consciousness and emotions in an extract. Thus, linguistic analysis helps to find out which features refer to which character. Studying linguistic features is a key element in analyzing the deictic centre of the short stories in this paper. In the English language, deixis consists of features that indicate a subjective deictic centre (Fludernik 1993: 6). The features include personal pronouns, for example I, you,it; spatial and temporal adverbs such as left, in front of, ten years ago; verbal categories indicating distance like come and go; relational designations implying emotional involvement, for instance the enemy or darling; and terms of endearment, such as sweetheart and mummy, which also suggest that the speaker’s feelings are involved. Another way to trace a perspective is to study lexical, pragmatic, syntactic and morphological features indicating consciousness report. Deixis and subjective elements play a crucial role in analysing the material of this paper. The two other types of deixis are discourse/text deixis and social deixis (cf. Levinson 1983). Discourse deixis or text deixis refers to parts of unfolding discourse in which the utterance is located, for instance that in the following example: †Puff puff puff: That is what it sounded like.† Social deixis encodes the social status and aspects of socia l relationships between speakers and addressees: †My husband and I are both teachers, and so is my father† (Levinson 1983: 62-63). Deixis is usually organised in an egocentric way. The deictic context is speaker-based and centred upon the speaker’s †here-and-now† (Lyons 1981: 230). People are more apt to refer to their own viewpoint in discussions and prefer proximal personal expressions, such as the pronoun I, or place indexicals, such as here, to distal expressions like he or there. We can also talk about a deictic centre, meaning the perspective of the discourse participant from which utterances are delivered (Levinson 1983: 63-64, Yule 1996: 9). There are five unmarked anchorage points that constitute the deictic centre (Levinson 1983: 64). They consist of the speaker who is the central person – in literature usually the protagonist, the narrator or some other character – and of the central place which refers to the speaker’s location at utterance time. The third anchorage point of the deictic centre is the central time, the time when the speaker produces the utterance. Fourth, the discourse centre is the speaker’s current point during the production of his or her utterance. Thus, the discourse centre changes from one person to another when the producer of the utterance changes. And last, the social centre is the speaker’s social status and rank to which the addressee or referent’s status is relative (Yule 1996: 10). Another common deictic phenomenon in language is the transference of human body orientation (Fludernik 1993: 49). This method is used extensively in literature to create the illusion of naturalness. When an author uses this technique in a literary text, he or she describes an event, a phenomenon or space from a certain physical viewpoint that demands the reader’s body orientation, as in the sentence †There was a chair to the left† (Fludernik 1993: 49). To sum up, literary texts create a world of their own, including their own deictic structure. In good narratives, the reader has the impression of experiencing the fictional world directly, because he or she adopts the deictic centre as his or her own (cf. Banfield 1982, Zubin and Hewitt 1995: 131). 2.2 Reporting Devices This section introduces other linguistic features that are used in creating deictic centres in narratives. The devices consist of backshifting of tenses and other perspective-building elements, such as adjectives and adverbs, orthographic markers and textual coherence. The first device, backshifting of tenses, is connected with the †was-now† paradox, an especially interesting feature in literature. The †was† encodes the narrator in the process of narrating, introducing the fictional world mode to the reader. The †now† encodes the protagonist for whom the story world events are part of the current experience (cf. Adamson 1994). Mansfield sometimes uses the present tense in her stories, which attracts the reader’s attention and raises the question of why the †was-now† principle is violated. The change in tenses suggests a change in perspectives, including a change in the feeling experience of the story’s characters. The impl ications of these linguistic devices for the characters’ emotional world are discussed in section 3. In the analysis of the deictic centre and literary figures’ emotions, adjectives and adverbs sometimes have a significant meaning. I apply Biber, Conrad and Leech’s (2002) classification of adjectives and adverbs in this study. Descriptive adjectives or descriptors often imply consciousness report when they co-occur with other deictic elements such as place and time deixis. Evaluative/emotive (dreadful) and miscellaneous descriptors covering many kinds of characteristics (sudden) suggest consciousness report in narratives and need to be studied to trace the source of emotions in a literary text. Descriptive adjectives give personal flavour to the text, but the reader has to decide whether descriptors refer to the narrator’s or some character’s emotions. Sometimes it may be very difficult to distinguish different sources of emotion from each other, as examples from Mansfield’s stories show (see section 3) . In the analysis of Mansfield’s texts, degree adverbs and stance adverbs receive special attention. Degree adverbs like amplifiers/intensifiers (generously) and diminishers/downtoners (somewhat) as well as stance adverbs, such as attitude (unfortunately), epistemic (probably) and style stance adverbs (simply) are discussed in the analysis of the material, as are place, time and process adverbials. Of place adverbials, those of distance (a long way), direction (from within) and position (up there) often imply whose perspective is adopted in the story. Additionally, such time adverbials as point in time (tomorrow night), duration (for fifteen years), frequency (sometimes) and time relationship (after this) indicate the source of consciousness. The process of action described in stories provides the reader with valuable information on the events and characters. Manner adverbials (carelessly) are often used especially by modern authors to describe characters’ behaviour. Degree adverbials (e.g. very much, completely) are often used to amplify characters’ emotions and to describe their emotional response to story events. Adjectives and adverbs are elements in constructing perspective in a narrative. They help the reader to respond to the feeling experiences of a character that are embodied in the stylistic and linguistic devices of a text (Miall and Kuiken 2001: 292). The following subchapter discusses the connection between linguistic features and feeling experiences in psycho-narration and free indirect discourse. 2.3 Psycho-narration and Free Indirect Discourse In this section the features of psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are discussed with examples from Mansfield’s story †The Doll’s House†. Special attention is paid to linguistic devices that support the interpretation of psycho-narration or free indirect discourse in a textual passage. Psycho-narration is the narrator’s presentation of a character’s psyche. Its main focus is on a character’s thoughts and feelings and it is defined in terms of deictic qualities (Fludernik 1993: 304).3 Psycho-narration reports those feelings or states of consciousness that the character may be unaware of. Psycho-narration †has almost unlimited temporal flexibility† (Cohn 1978: 32), so it can occur both in the present and the past tense. The analysis of Mansfield’s works shows the temporal varieties of psycho-narration. Free indirect discourse consists of expressions or utterances that could be produced by the characters as such or with minor alterations, like the use of the preterite instead of the present tense.4 In free indirect discourse the narrator quotes the speech or thought of the protagonist or other characters. Direct discourse and free indirect discourse have common features such as deictics, word order in questions and lexical elements including vocatives, interjections, or dialectal features (cf. Fludernik 1993: 261). In order to retain proximity, proximal deictics likehere, now and today occur in free indirect discourse. The question word order remains direct in free indirect discourse. This narrative technique also favours expressive lexical elements from characters’ idiolects to give the narration personal flavour. McHale (1978: 269) aptly remarks that formal signs are not the only means to trace free indirect discourse, since semantic signs such as the †content† of utterances, and a character’s †thoughts† or †intended meanings† also contribute to the reader’s interpretation of free indirect discourse. The terms psycho-narration and free indirect discourse overlap to some extent. The former borrows elements from the speech of ch aracters, but a character could hardly use the (narrator’s) syntax as such. To demonstrate the difference between the various consciousness report techniques, I have chosen an extract from Katherine Mansfield’s story †The Doll’s House†. It is a story about middle-class life and the Burnell children, and how they invite classmates of the same social class to see their new doll’s house. Lower-class children are not invited, until one of the daughters, Kezia, defies her parents and asks the Kelvey girls, the daughters of a washerwoman, to see the house. The following extract depicts Kezia’s aunt’s reaction when she sees the unwelcome children in the garden. (1)†Wicked, disobedient little girl!† said Aunt Beryl bitterly to Kezia, and she slammed the doll’s house to. The afternoon had been awful. A letter had come from Willie Brent, a terrifying, threateningletter, saying if she did not meet him that evening in Pulman’s Bush, he’d come to the front door and ask the reason why! But now that she had frightened those little rats of Kelveys and given Kezia a good scolding, her heart felt lighter. That ghastly pressure was gone. She went back to the house humming. (†The Doll’s House†, 265; emphasis added) Example (1) is a description of Aunt Beryl’s consciousness presentation after she has scolded her niece and her friends in the courtyard. After the quotation in direct discourse, Aunt Beryl’s perspective (in bold type) is introduced in the first sentences as a flashback, the past perfect verb form had come implying a movement towards Aunt Beryl, come being a verb suggesting proximal activity. Even though Beryl’s name is not mentioned in the whole paragraph, she is the subject of the sentence starting the quotation and the most recent character mentioned earlier in the text. Aunt Beryl and the third person reference to her (she) in the quotation can be seen as an example of referential linking which is an important factor in maintaining textual cohesion in the depiction of characters’ emotions (cf. Ehrlich 1990). Descriptive adjectives likeawful, terrifying and threatening, and noun phrases like those little rats of Kelveys depict Beryl’s feelings, the distal demonstrative pronoun those and the descriptive noun phrase little rats of Kelveys underlining the contempt of upper classes towards lo wer-class people and the social distance between Beryl and the Kelveys. The distal demonstrative determiner that and the proximal temporal adverb now illustrate how proximal and distal linguistic features are mixed in psycho-narration, suggesting a transition from Aunt Beryl’s earlier emotional turmoil caused by her lover’s letter to her present state of mind (†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦her heart felt lighter. That ghastly pressure was gone†). There is also Willie Brent’s perspective occurring in the extract (in italics). It has elements of free indirect discourse including past tense verb forms, third person pronouns, orthographic markers and a colloquial tone. The past perfect verb form changes into the past tense did not meet, which is followed by he’d come. An exclamation mark finishes the free indirect discourse passage which is reflected through Beryl’s consciousness in the memory of the letter. The final sentence is the narrator’s neutral report of the narrative events. 3. Emotional Features in Mansfield’s Stories Psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are ways of presenting characters’ emotions to readers. In this section, Katherine Mansfield’s stories †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil† are analysed in order to find linguistic features that suggest a character’s emotional involvement. Mansfield uses psycho-narration and free indirect discourse in †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†. In the analysis of the texts, underlined words point out subjective features and fragments of characters’ idiom. Some quotations from Mansfield’s short stories are integrated into the analysis for a more convenient discussion of the context. †Bliss† is a story of a wealthy young couple, Bertha and Harry, and their social life. In †Bliss†, psycho-narrative description is reserved for Bertha’s feelings of bliss, her relationship with Harry-the-husband, and her feelings towards their friends. The paragraphs th at include psycho-narration often start with impersonal narratorial description. The shift from the narrator’s perspective to that of the character takes place within paragraph boundaries, as the following examples show. The first paragraph of †Bliss† introduces society’s expectations of 30-year-old women’s behaviour. The narrator implies that Bertha’s thoughts and feelings are quite exceptional for her age: (2) Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at – nothing – at nothing, simply. (†Bliss†, 91; emphasis added) The narrator adopts an omniscient perspective: she knows exactly how Bertha is feeling and what she feels like doing. The reader’s attention is directed towards the protagonist’s perspective through the use of the demonstrative this, symbolising the here-and-now narrative present, Bertha’s present state of mind. The italicised words imply Bertha’s wishes. The narrator’s speech presents societ y’s expectations at the beginning of example (2) (although,still) and Bertha’s own thoughts at the end of it (nothing – at nothing, simply). The phenomenon of Ansteckung is apparent in the fragments of Bertha’s idiom. Ansteckungmeans the narrator’s empathetic or ironic borrowing of characters’ idioms or expressions (cf. Fludernik (1993) for examples of Ansteckung or †contamination†). Fragments of Bertha’s consciousness are not complete thoughts or words uttered by her. When it comes to Bertha’s psyche, the narrator seems to be aware of it, depicting elements of Bertha’s thoughts at the end of example (2) (see the words in bold). It is obvious in the last sentence of example (2); dashes evoke Bertha’s consciousness. She is incapable of finding suitable words for the peculiar feeling; the impression is increased by the repeated words at nothing. The effect of immediacy is created by hints of Bertha’s psyche within narratorial discourse, suggesting that after the first part of the sentence the writer resorts to free indirect discourse at the end of the passa ge. There are two longer paragraphs of psycho-narration in †Bliss†. They discuss Bertha’s situation in life and her relationship with Harry. The first paragraph reads as follows: (3) Really – really – she had everything. She was young. Harry and she were as much in love as ever, and they got on together splendidly and were really good pals. She had anadorable baby. They didn’t have to worry about money. They had this absolutely satisfactory house and garden. And friends – modern, thrilling friends, writers andpainters and poets or people keen on social questions – just the kind of friends they wanted. And then there were books, and there was music, and she had found a wonderful little dressmaker, and they were going abroad in the summer, and their new cook made the most superb omelettes †¦ (†Bliss†, 96; emphasis added) Example (3) starts in free indirect discourse and shows many syntactic markers that imply consciousn ess report, such as the epistemic stance adverb really, the proximal deictic thisindicating Bertha’s spatial perspective, and the frequent use of and acting as a clause-initial co-ordinating conjunction and creating the illusion of Bertha’s happy thoughts. Other features include pragmatic indicators, such as dashes, and lexical features, for example idioms (really good pals), phrases or descriptive adjectives (absolutely satisfactory, adorable, modern, thrilling, wonderful little etc.) borrowed from Bertha. As Fludernik (1993: 117) suggests, referential positions are often shifted into the third person in heterodiegetic narratives, excluding second person narratives. This extract is a good example of such a referential shift in personal pronouns, as it contains only the third person she instead of the first person I. Example (3) describes a happy woman counting her blessings. Another paragraph reflects the problems Bertha encounters in her marriage: (4) Oh, she had loved him – she’d been in love with him, of course, in every other way, butjust not in that way. And equally, of course, she’d understood that he was different. They’d discussed it so often. It had worried her dreadfully at first to find that she was so cold, but after a time it had not seemed to matter. They were so frank with each other – such good pals. That was the best of being modern. (†Bliss†, 104; emphasis added) The extract leads readers into Bertha’s consciousnes s with the clause-initial interjection ohsuggesting free indirect discourse. Repetitive elements, such as of course and the intensifierso, emphasise the impression of Bertha rationalising her marriage to Harry. The sentence-initial and helps her to articulate her understanding of Harry and his different feelings on the topic, as she is negotiating the good and bad things about her marriage in her mind. There are also some lexical indications of consciousness report, such as just, the intensifier such, anddreadfully, a colloquialism only to be attached to Bertha’s consciousness. These emotive features create an impression of Bertha’s inner conflict and the suppression of her feelings, which is evident throughout the story.5 †Taking the Veil† is a story about Edna and her lover Jimmy, and Edna’s dreams of becoming a nun. In †Taking the Veil†, psycho-narration is reserved for Edna’s internal debate and her memories of the crisis of her life. A typical example is a theatre scene, where Edna goes through the happenings of the previous night: (5) The play had begun fairly cheerfully. That was at the chocolate almond stage. Then the hero had gone blind. Terrible moment! †¦Then there had been that ghastly scene with the hero alone on stage in a deserted room†¦He had tried – ah, how painfully, how pitifully! –to grope his way to the window†¦and the band faded away into the distance. (†Taking the Veil†, 284; emphasis added) Example (5) shows how Mansfield uses distal deictics like that (in that ghastly scene) to imply Edna’s perspective by creating a personal tone. Additionally, she uses the evaluative adjectives terrible and ghastly to refer to Edna’s emotional response. The repetitive pattern in the exclamations above (in bold type) is separated from the rest of the psycho-narration by dashes and emphasised by other orthographic signals, such as exclamation marks. An introductory exclamation ah adds to the colloquial tone, as does the repetition of the wh-element how. Mansfield often uses clause-initial wh-elements in exclamations to introduce free indirect discourse in the telling (Kuivalainen 2005). These features contain elements representative of speech rather than thought. The impression in this extract is that of narratorial discourse flavoured by free indirect discourse (in bold type). Psycho-narration continues when the narrator describes Edna’s internal debate: (6) If she did not marry Jimmy, of course she would marry nobody. The man she was in love with, the famous actor – Edna had far too much common-sense not to realise thatwould never be. It was very odd. She didn’t even want it to be. Her love was too intense for that. It had to be endured, silently; it had to torment her. It was, she supposed, simply that kind of love. (†Taking the Veil†, 285; italics original, emphasis added) The extract above shows how Edna debates her love for Jimmy, her fiancà ©, and for the actor she has fallen in love with. The words in bold include an attitude stance adverb of course, a comment on a possible marriage with the famous actor, and a distal pronoun that. All these elements imply a reference to Edna’s perspective which, however, intermingles with that of the narrator after the dash on the second line. Edna’s emotional perspective, the vacillating feelings she suddenly faces in the story, re-occurs with the comment on the nature of her love (†It was very odd†) and remains unchanged till the end of the extract, with another comment at the end of the paragraph introduced by the style stance adverb simply. The extract above shows the subtlety of the change from one perspective to another: at the beginning we only have a personal pro noun reference to the speaker, but later the protagonist’s proper name is used to help the reader realise the change, to introduce the perspective of the narrator penetrating that of Edna. The effect is that of immediate access to the character’s thoughts and feelings. In the paragraph preceding example (6) the closest proper noun is †Sister Agnes†. However, the reader does not connect the personal pronoun she in example (6) with Sister Agnes but with Edna, who is mentioned earlier in the text, because semantic connectors such as marriage and †Jimmy† imply her. The narrator’s statement-like comment after the dash supports this interpretation. However, this sentence is affected by Edna’s idiom, the use of that(in italics) emphasising the impossibility of the suggestion of love for an actress. Edna’s eighteen-year-old girl’s voice is also heard at the end of the paragraph with the simply that kind of love quotation of Edna’s thoughts. As example (6) suggests, psycho-narration at the beginning of the paragraph depicts Edna’s feelings from her perspective, but later the narrator’s perspective becomes predominant in the example, providing the reader with an external perspective to Edna’s love life. A drastic change in psycho-narration happens when the tenses change from the past to the present. This change implies a shift from the past or present events to the future. (7) She takes the name of Sister Angela. Snip, snip! All her lovely hair is cut off†¦And in a blue gown with a white head-band Sister Angela goes from the convent to the chapel, from the chapel to the convent †¦she greets the little children who run to her. A saint! She hears it whispered as she paces the chill, wax-smelling corridors. A saint! (†Taking the Veil†, 286; emphasis added) The extract above shows how Edna dreams about the life of a nun and imagines her future as Sister Angela. The short onomatopoeic snip and the repetition of a saint, both ending with an exclamation mark, refer to Edna’s imagination. Her emotional involvement shows in the sacrifices she makes (†All her lovely hair is cut off†) and in the description of the new environment she enters (†chill, wax-smelling corridors†). The present tense adds to the effect. It is used throughout the passage to relate Edna’s convent dreams, as another quotation below shows: (8) Now it is evening. Two old people leaning on each other come slowly to the grave†¦Now there comes another. He is all in black; he comes slowly. But when he is there and lifts his black hat, Edna sees to her horror his hair is snow-white. Jimmy! Too late, too late! The tears are running down his face; he is crying now. Too late, too late!(ibid.: 287; italics original, emphasis added) In example (8), the same elements of exclamatory repetition too late! and the present tense are used to depict Edna’s reveries about the future. Additionally, immediacy is emphasised with the temporal proximal deictic now, a favourite of Mansfield’s in this story, and the present continuous are running and is crying. The use of present continuous verb forms and the proximal deictic now mark Edna’s mental crisis, which culminates at the end of example (8) and ends the sections in the present tense. The non-use of the †was-now† pattern reflects a change in perspective from the narrator to Edna in example (8), as the sections that do not imply Edna’s consciousness in †Taking the Veil† are written in the past tense (see example (5)). When the paragraph after example (8) begins, Edna has changed her mind about becoming a nun and realised she actually loves Jimmy. 4. Discussion †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil† consist of a mixture of speech and thought report. It is noticeable in these works that, as a narrative technique, free indirect discourse is clearly separated from psycho-narration. The shift from psycho-narration into free indirect discourse and then back to psycho-narration can be found in †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†, as the linguistic analysis of characters’ emotions showed in section three. The reverie-like atmosphere of †Taking the Veil† is strikingly different from the passionate, hectic mood in †Bliss†, where the narrator first describes the setting for the psychological phenomena, Bertha’s mixed feelings about her marriage, and then resorts to consciousness presentation. In †Taking the Veil† the narrator’s function is to offer the reader an insight into Edna’s mind mostly through psycho-narration, thus, psycho-narrative passages begi n with narratorial description which introduces Edna’s mental world to the reader. Psycho-narration serves to depict the protagonist’s internal debate: example (5) depicts the crucial moment of the past in the past tense and example (7) future dreams in the present tense. On the other hand, free indirect discourse in example (5) helps in creating sensual perceptions that present a contrast to Edna’s inner thoughts. Passages in free indirect discourse often start with a clause-initial coordinator (and), interjection (oh) or a wh-element (how) and can be spotted from the rest of the narration through orthography, like dashes surrounding the free indirect discourse passage, exclamation or question marks. Mansfield frequently uses italics and ellipses in reporting characters’ consciousness and feelings, which gives the impression of free indirect discourse. Extensive use of stance adverbs is striking in the two stories. A common feature in Mansfield’s psycho-narration is the adoption of epistemic stance adverbs such as really in example (3).6In †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†, the interplay between the two dominant voices, that of the narrator and the protagonist, becomes evident through the rich use of stance ad verbs. The narrator’s perspective is mostly introduced through epistemic adverbs indicating certainty or doubt (e.g. perhaps), whereas the protagonist’s perspective mostly consists of those of actuality and reality (e.g. in fact, really). The effect is a narrator with no intention to intrude upon the story events, and a protagonist with a distinctly marked emotional world including feelings of bliss, future dreams, and moments of despair and love. Mansfield’s narrator steers the reader towards the protagonist’s climax with subtle remarks and hardly visible hints. Psycho-narration demonstrates different functions in the texts of this study. Mansfield uses evaluative and emotive descriptors in psycho-narrative sections; she borrows characters’ idiomatic expressions and marks internal discourse with orthography (dashes, exclamation marks), intensifiers and repetition to imply a shift from one perspective or feeling experience to another, for example, from the narrator to the protagonist. Mansfield describes the inner conflict or the dream world of the characters through psycho-narration, which is usually triggered by an emotional climax, in Bertha’s case the revelation of her husband’s adultery and in Edna’s case understanding who she really loves. In Mansfield’s fiction, the climax almost has a hallucinatory effect, as Edna’s convent dreams and the graveyard scene in exampl e (8) show. The use of the present tense seems to have a role in Mansfield’s text. Mansfield uses it mostly in psycho-narrative sections. All in all, there are certain features that are used frequently in Mansfield’s stories, such as dashes, repetition of adverbs or other clausal elements like intensifiers, interjections or co-ordinators. Temporal and spatial deictics have a significant role in the two stories, as the reader has very few other means to orient him- or herself while reading a literary text. Deictics help the reader to pinpoint the perspective in the passage and understand whose experiences are depicted in the story. The study of the deictic features in Mansfield’s fictional prose shows that the author uses various markers to create a deictic centre. These markers create a picture of characters’ emotional world. Free indirect discourse and psycho-narration are motivated, for example, by an internal debate or a crisis, as Edna’s ponderings showed in example (8). As was suggested in the analysis, linguistic features such as reporting devices and deictic features can be used to pinpoint the source of emotions in a literary text. Verbs, adjectives, adverbs and other consciousness markers work for the same effect, to describe the emotional world of characters. Psycho-narration and free indirect discourse provide Mansfield with a tool to point out the significant moments in the protagonists’ lives and separate them from the rest of the narration. Mansfield is the master of her characters and their emotions, making them breathe and feel as if they really existed.