Motivation Skills of Women vs. Men

It’s just like “he said, she said”. Men and women both interpret and give information differently. This translates into different motivations. To begin, let’s take a look at men and women and how they give information. Keep in mind that not all men and women will fit into these categories. The most important thing to keep in mind when motivating your employees is to get to know their personalities and what their personal goals are. When you understand who you are working with, and what they want from their job, your employee retention increases. However, studies show that there are many obvious differences in gender and how they react to different situations. Understanding this information can help you when planning to motivate your team. Once you get past the gender differences, you can better understand how to motivate your employees and have a more productive office. Let’s take a stereotypical look at men vs. women in the workplace:

1. Men tend to like power, control and strength.
2. Women are more emotionally driven.
3. A man tends to jump in when he comes face to face with an issue and take over. He will deal with it then and there and get it over with.
4. A woman asks questions first, make sure she understands the task, and then completes it to perfection.
5. Men like to work alone.
6. Women prefer to help each other.

Women vs. Men in Sports

Why don't women perform as well at sports as men do? Is it because women are not as strong as men are? Although it is commonly believed that women are not as skilled at sports as men are due to their lack of muscle strength, a recent study suggests that there may be other factors involved. The study points out those myths about the female body were quite common until fairly lately. In fact, it is only within the last 300 years that anatomists have begun to stress the differences between the male and female body. Until this time, the female body was simply viewed as a weaker, less efficient, form of the male body. Because of these views on the female body, women were actively warned by their physicians not to engage in exercise, because their bodies were too weak to handle it. Men, on the other hand, have been actively exercising and engaging in sports for about as long as men have existed. Women have had a lot of ground to cover to make up for lost time, but they are accomplishing this admirably. Women's best marathon times are about 10 minutes behind men's. However, records for women have only been kept since 1964. The best times for men have improved by a yearly increment of 66 seconds, whereas the best times for women have improved by a yearly increment of 2 minutes and 47 seconds. It would seem as though women are racing to catch up with the men.

Women, Militarism and Violence

It is often argued—and accepted—that women, being the “gentler sex”, and typically being the main care givers in society, are less aggressive than men. Feminists often argue that women, if given appropriate and full rights, could counter-balance a male-dominated world which is characterized by aggression in attitudes, thoughts, society and, ultimately, war. In May 2004, the Occupation/Coalition forces in Iraq were shown around the world to be committing torture and other grotesque acts on Iraqi captives. For feminists and others, what was also shocking was that some of these acts were being perpetrated by women in the U.S. military. Feminist activist Barbara Ehrenreich captures some of the thoughts and reactions quite well. Secretly, I hoped that the presence of women [in the U.S. army] would over time change the military, making it more respectful of other people and cultures, more capable of genuine peacekeeping. That’s what I thought, but I don’t think that anymore. Certain kind of feminism or perhaps should say a certain kind of feminist naïveté, died in Abu Ghraib [the prison facility from where most of the torture pictures and footage originated]. It was a feminism that saw men as the perpetual perpetrators, women as the perpetual victims and male sexual violence against women as the root of all injustice. Rape has repeatedly been an instrument of war and, to some feminists; it was beginning to look as if war was an extension of rape. There seemed to be at least some evidence that male sexual sadism was connected to our species' tragic propensity for violence. That was before we had seen female sexual sadism in action. But the assumption within feminism of women’s superiority over men, or at least a lesser inclination toward cruelty and violence, was more or less beyond debate. After all, women do most of the caring work in our culture, and in polls are consistently less inclined toward war than men. If that assumption had been accurate, then all we would have had to do to make the world a better place - kinder, less violent, more just - would have been to assimilate into what had been, for so many centuries, the world of men.

http://www.zmag.org/ZMagSite/Apr2004/marshall0404.html

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/terrorism.pdf

Women, Reproductive Rights

Only 17 states provide financial assistance to poor women seeking abortions; 14 of them do so under court order. Over 87% of the US counties do not have services even though 34% of all women ages 15-44 live in those counties. Over 31% of US metropolitan areas have no providers. 8 of 10 residency programs don't require doctors to learn abortion procedures. What's more, 50% of chief residents have no clinical experience or training for a life-saving abortion. A study conducted with 244 family practice residency programs found most graduates receive little or no clinical training in reproductive health care, including diaphragm fitting, or IUD insertion and removal. Over 50% of unwanted pregnancies are the result of failed birth control. Between 1994 and 2000 the overall abortion rate dropped by 11%. However, the rate for poor women increased by 7%. Since 1996 the number of providers has decreased by 11%. The ongoing harassment of doctors, family planning administrators and medical students by anti-choice zealots has taken a toll. Healthcare professionals who try to help are being cut down by terrorists. With each year there are fewer doctors who know how to help. Fewer doctors who are WILLING to help and, unfortunately, more women who NEED help. A woman's right to bear children when she chooses; the right to determine her reproductive life, and the right to have control over her own body depends on her ability to pay.

http://www.now.org/issues/judicial/supreme/
http://www.wrrap.org/

Gender discrimination throughout a lifetime

The above-mentioned 2007 report on state of the world’s had an informative section on how women are discriminated against at various stages through life, summarized here:
UNICEF notes that Where there is a clear economic or cultural preference for sons, the misuse of [pregnancy diagnostic tools] can facilitate female feticide. A principal focus of the middle years of childhood and adolescence is ensuring access to, and completion of, quality primary and secondary education. With a few exceptions, it is mostly girls who suffer from educational disadvantage. “Among the greatest threats to adolescent development are abuse, exploitation and violence, and the lack of vital knowledge about sexual and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS.” Specific areas that UNICEF highlighted were female genital mutilation/cutting; child marriage and premature parenthood; sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking; sexual and reproductive health; and HIV/AIDS. Motherhood and old age are “two key periods in many women’s lives when the pernicious effects of both poverty and inequality can combine.” Shockingly, “It is estimated that each year more than half a million women—roughly one woman every minute—die as a result of pregnancy complications and childbirth,” 99% of which occur in developing countries. Yet “many of these women’s lives could be saved if they had access to basic health care services.” In addition, elderly women may face double discrimination on the basis of both gender and age. Many older women are plunged into poverty at a time of life when they are very vulnerable.

http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/WomensRights.asp#Genderdiscriminationthroughoutlifetime

Why women are still paid less than men? :-(

According to Inter Press Service, “On a global scale, women cultivate more than half of all the food that is grown. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, they produce up to 80 percent of basic foodstuffs. In Asia, they account for around 50 percent of food production. In Latin America, they are mainly engaged in subsistence farming, horticulture, poultry and raising small livestock.” Yet women often get little recognition for that. In fact, many go unpaid. It is very difficult for these women to get the financial resources required to buy equipment etc, as many societies still do not accept, or realize, that there is a change in the “traditional” roles. UNICEF’s 2007 report on state of the world’s children focused on the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives and how that impacts children’s lives. UNICEF notes that the data isn’t always perfect, and that generalizations such as the above can hide wider fluctuations. “In Brazil, for example, women under the age of 25 earn a higher average hourly wage than their male counterparts.” UNICEF’s main summary of equality in employment included the following points: For many women, unpaid work in and for the household takes up the majority of their working hours, with much less time spent in remunerative employment. Even when they participate in the labor market for paid employment, women still undertake the majority of the housework. When women work outside the household, they make, on average, far less than men. They are also more likely to work in more precarious forms of employment with low earnings, little financial security and few or no social benefits. Women not only earn less than men but also tend to own fewer assets. Smaller salaries and less control over household income constrain their ability to accumulate capital. Gender biases in property and inheritance laws and in other channels of acquiring assets also leave women and children at greater risk of poverty. Paid employment for women does not automatically lead to better outcomes for children. Factors such as the amount of time women spend working outside the household, the conditions under which they are employed and who controls the income they generate determine how the work undertaken by women in the labor market affects their own well-being and that of children.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/09/the_wage_gap/

Historical Background ;-)

Suffrage parade, New York City, May 6, 1912. Until the mid-nineteenth century, writers assumed that a patriarchal order was a natural order that had existed as John Stuart Mill wrote, since "the very earliest twilight of human society". This was not seriously challenged until the eighteenth century when Jesuit missionaries found matrilineality in native North American peoples. Women were not accorded with such legal status in other cultures, including the West, until centuries later. Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a "status" but rather as an "agreement", in which the woman's consent was essential. Annemarie Schimmel states that "compared to the pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law, to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work." Some have claimed that women generally had more legal rights under Islamic law than they did under Western legal systems until more recent times. English Common Law transferred property held by a wife at the time of a marriage to her husband, which contrasted with the Sura: "Unto men (of the family) belongs a share of that which Parents and near kindred leave, and unto women a share of that which parents and near kindred leave, whether it be a little or much - a determinate share" (Quran 4:7), albeit maintaining that husbands were solely responsible for the maintenance and leadership of his wife and family. In the 16th century, the Reformation in Europe allowed more women to add their voices, including the English writers Jane Anger, Aemilia Lanyer, and the prophetess Anna Trapnell. However, it has been claimed that the termination and resulting closure of convents had deprived many such women of one path to education. Giving voice in the material circumstance became more difficult when deprived of the rationale and protection of divine inspiration. Queen Elizabeth I demonstrated leadership amongst women, even if she was unsupportive of their causes, and subsequently became a role model for the education of women.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights#A_history_of_women.27s_rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Suffrage_parade-New_York_City-May_6_1912.jpg