Australian Sociology ESSAY PLANNING EXERCISE (10% of total assessment)
To be handed in to your tutor at the Week 8 (April 29/30) tutorial This exercise requires you to learn to:
Select recent and relevant items using research library catalogues.
Access refereed scholarly journal literature using online and electronic index systems (such as Expanded Academic, Sociological Abstracts &/or APAIS),
Use and report on refined research techniques that enable you to focus your search and locate scholarly articles of high relevance.
Write annotated bibliographies in your own words for a book or a refereed journal article.
Explore the kind of information available from the Internet, including from government sights such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Use the Harvard system, sometimes called in-text referencing or the author-date system to create a bibliography
Focusing your essay planning exercise
In completing this essay planning exercise, you focus on finding information relevant to your essay and you start outlining your argument.
The essay questions can be accessed by clicking here.
You can approach your tutor at any time during this exercise.
When should I start this exercise?:
This exercise is designed for you to start after the April 10 lecture. By that stage, you will have heard a range of views and topics relating to inequality. Furthermore, in the April 4 lecture, representatives from the Library’s Information Literacy Program will speak to you about your sociology essay topics and about information search strategies.
So, you will be able to spend time during the two-week teaching break practicing these skills and be ready to submit the exercise by Week 8 (April 29/30). Your tutor will hand the exercise back to you in Week 9 (May 6/7). Remember, after you hand this plan in, you will continue with your essay research and writing. DO NOT HALT PRODUCTION WHILE YOU WAIT FOR YOUR PLAN TO BE RETURNED.
Your essay will be submitted at the beginning of Week 10 (Monday May 12).
We hope that you will have explored more than two books, two articles and two websites by the time you submit this exercise. However, choose two of each as examples of your progress.
The Essay Planning Assignment
Complete the following tasks and submit them to your tutor at your tutorial class in Week 8 (April 29/30).
You can ‘cut’ this webpage and then ‘paste’ it into a Word Document (it might take some fiddling, but that’s all part of the fun!)
NAME _______________________________________
Student No. ___________
Tutor and Tutorial Time:
My essay topic: Does formal legal equality translate into social equality for women in modern Australia?
BOOKS
Locate two relevant books or book chapters from an edited collection.
List your sources using the Harvard (author/date) referencing conventions. Make sure you use this bibliographic style in your essay.
2 books or book chapters published relevant to my topic are:
1. Summers, A. 2003. The End of Equality: Work, Babies and Women’s Choices in 21st Century Australia. Random House Australia.
2. Woollacott, A. 2001. To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity. Oxford University Press.
In a few sentences, critically assess the value of these sources for your essay:
1) The author of the book is very critical in their evaluation of the current situation in Australia pertaining to the status of women. The author argues that women in modern Australia are still oppressed. Although legal equality exists, social equality has not been realized. The author underlines that women have fewer job opportunities, limited career choices, and often have to focus their energies on household activities. Instead of pursuing positions of employment equivalent to those enjoyed by men, women must often care for the family and devote their time to the upbringing of children. The book suggests that social inequality experienced by women in modern Australia persists because of employment inequality. This book will provide employment data and other important statistics to support my argument that women continue to experience discrimination in the Australian workforce.
This book is a good source of information relevant to my essay because it reveals the persistence of the problem of the “glass ceiling” in Australia. Other challenges faced by Australian women include higher unemployment rates compared to men, and the problems posed by the challenge of continuing a professional career after the birth of a child. Child-rearing often forces women to look for part-time jobs, instead of continuing their professional careers. This book will be used as a source of evidence to demonstrate the social inequality and low employment opportunities experienced by Australian women.
2) This reference describes the historical development of the feminist movement in Australia, beginning from the epoch of colonialism to the present day. The author discusses the recent changes in the status of women in Australia, which has occurred as a result of legislative changes designed to prevent discrimination. The progression of feminist movements is also described. The feminist movement began as a movement for equal rights that resulted in the implementation of legislative changes aiming to prevent discrimination against women. In the present epoch, the feminist movement is focused on the provision of equal opportunities for women to exercise their rights.
The book provides information on the current social status of women and their representation in legislative, political and judicial branches of power, which is lower compared to men. The book describes positive legal advancements as well as the lack of positive social change for women in Australia. This book will be used as a source of information on the evolution of the position of women in Australia as well as their current position. The book describes legislative changes preventing discrimination of women and the strengthening of the feminist movement whose aim is to protect the rights of women in Australia.
Briefly describe your search strategy for finding these books.
These books were found in the Chifley Library using word search technology. The search was conducted on the basis of the theme of equality and the position of women in Australia since this theme was more likely to reveal the disparity which exists between the legal and social equality of women. The target theme for the first book was “Australia, work, women and equality”. The target theme for the second book was “Australia, women and modernity”.
REFEREED SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ARTICLES
List your sources using the Harvard (author/date) referencing conventions. Make sure you use this bibliographic style in your essay.
2 refereed scholarly journal articles I located on my topic are:
1. Flouri, E. & Buchanan, A. 2002. Childhood predictors of labor force participation in adult life. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Vol. 32: 101-120.
2. Lake, M. 1997. Women and Nation in Australia: The Politics of Representation. The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 43: 132-146.
In a few sentences, critically assess the value of these articles for your essay:
1) The authors of the article emphasize that women are still in a much more disadvantaged position than men. In this respect, it should be said that the position of women is particularly difficult in the labor market and, to a significant extent, the career opportunities of women are consistently lower compared to men. The authors argue that gender roles are determined during childhood. As a result, top positions are occupied by men, while women, who have the same educational and professional qualifications, do not have an opportunity to take higher positions in the organizations in which they work. The article reveals the disadvantaged position of women in modern Australia with respect to employment opportunities and social status. Women still occupy a lower social position compared to men and have fewer employment opportunities.
This article will be used as a source of information on the discrimination of women since childhood, namely, the formation of an inferior identity that leads to a disadvantaged position in adulthood. Consequently, women are viewed by employers as being unable to perform “top jobs” or jobs that are traditionally viewed as “male” jobs.
2) The author argues that in the present epoch, women are still under-represented, though officially they have equal rights. On the other hand, there have been positive changes in the status of women in Australia as well. Access to education is considerably higher nowadays than in the past. The article shows that there have been positive social changes in the position of women in modern Australia because they have access to higher education and better careers. In addition, their representation in politics has been growing steadily.
This article may be used to show that there are some improvements in the position of women, namely, in the field of education. Women have larger opportunities to get higher education and they become more represented on the political level that reveals the perspective of social equality of women in Australia in the future.
Briefly describe your search strategy for finding these articles:
The journal articles were found on the basis of theme. They dealt with women’s rights and legal issues in Australia. The focus was on articles in which the issue of women’s rights had been raised. The journals dedicated to feminist movements and the problems experienced by women in contemporary society were found in the Chifley Library using a word search. The target “theme words” for the first journal were “family, economic and issues”. The target theme words for the second journal were “Australian, journal and history”. The articles were found on the basis of a match between the article title and the target theme words.
AUTHORITATIVE ITEMS PUBLISHED ON THE INTERNET
List your sources using the Harvard (author/date) referencing conventions. Make sure you use this bibliographic style in your essay.
2 authoritative sources available on the internet are:
1. Australian Government Office for Women. (2008). Women and the Law. Retrieved April 11, 2008 from http://ofw.facs.gov.au/women_law/index.htm.
2. National Museum of Australia. (2008). Women and equality as citizens. Retrieved April 11, 2008 from http://www.nma.gov.au/education/school_resources/events/women_and_equality_as_citizens/.
In a few sentences, critically assess the value of these sites for your essay:
1. The first site provides valuable information on current legislation and statistics pertaining to the status of women, including work and education in modern Australia. The site provides information on legislative acts protecting women’s rights. This site will be used to illustrate the types of legislative changes that have occurred which affect the position of women in modern Australia. It provides the formal legal basis and link to the first section of the outline. The site describes the legislative acts which protect women from discrimination.
The site will be used to cite legislative acts, such as the Federal Discrimination Act of 1984, to show that these legislative acts do protect women from discrimination in the pursuit of employment in the fields of education, healthcare and politics, etc.
2. The second site describes the educational rights and opportunities of women in modern Australia. The site will be used to describe improvements in the status of women in Australia in the field of education which has resulted from greater educational opportunities. The site describes positive social changes in education, which have became more accessible to women. For instance, the number of women with higher education has increased consistently within last several decades.
The site will be used to show that discrimination against women has become less significant in modern Australia and that they can receive an education similar to that available to men.
What makes you confident that these sites are authoritative?:
I am confident in these sites because they are government sites and all information is based on documentary evidence that is reinforced by other scholarly works. At the same time, I trust the sites because I have already used these sites before and they have proven their reliability and trustworthiness during previous research. Government websites usually have a good reputation because there is a good deal of transparency and anything that is too biased is usually questioned. There is usually an acceptable level of rigor applied to the standards of research conducted by government websites because we live in a democratic society. This ensures that a degree of pluralist questioning is maintained.
ESSAY PLAN
Remember: you may well change your argument after more consideration or further reading. This is only a draft plan that describes your current thoughts. You will not be held accountable to this plan although you can discuss any changes to your ideas with your tutor or with Alastair.
ARGUMENT
Complete the following sentence:
This essay will argue that in spite of formal legal equality, positive change in the status of Australian women has been insufficient. Furthermore, social inequality in the modern workplace continues to be a problem for women in Australia.
OUTLINE
In half-a-page to one page, provide a structure for your essay. This should be presented as a series of dot-points.
For a template of an essay structure, click here and scroll down to ‘One possible way to meet these criteria’.
Indeed, now that you are at this stage, this whole essay-writing page will become valuable.
Introduction – My argument concerns the gap between the formal legal rights of women and the lack of opportunities which exist for women to exercise these rights. That is to say, women have rights but they do not have opportunities. It is necessary to analyze legislative acts to assess legal changes in the status of women and to analyze statistical information concerning the socioeconomic position of women. Examples of such information might include rates of unemployment and part-time employment.
Section 1 – The legislative acts on equality include the definition of the position of women and prevention of discrimination. Women are protected by legislative acts and norms that forbid gender discrimination and formally provide them with equal opportunities. Examples include the Federal Discrimination Act of 1984, which protects women from discrimination.
Section 2 – The actual situation in modern Australia. In actuality, social inequality is still prevalent, as women have fewer opportunities, especially in the field of work. They are still under-represented and discriminated against; though there are a few signs of improvement, as has been the case in education accessibility.
Issues will be defined after an analysis of the literature and other resources found during my literature review. These sources provide ample information on the existing disparity between legal and social equality of women in modern Australia. The position of women in the labor market will be researched through the analysis of statistics pertaining to the wage levels, part-time employment rates and unemployment rates of women and men.
· Employment: This section will examine employment opportunities for women and examine issues including discrimination and major areas of employment. These issues are discussed by A. Summers (2003). Employment statistics best illustrate the disparities which exist between men and women in Australia.
· Unemployment: This is the analysis of unemployment rates among women in comparison to men. Unemployment trends for Australian women have been described in exhaustive detail by Summers (2003), Flouri and Buchanan (2002), and will provide support for my argument that social inequality is closely related to differences in unemployment rates between men and women. The social and economic status of women has been adversely affected by higher unemployment rates.
· Part-time employment: This is the analysis of age groups of women employed part-time and the share of women in part-time jobs compared to men. More women are employed in part-time jobs compared to men, and though they have equal rights before the law, in actuality, inequality persists. For a group which lacks opportunity and is under-employed, part-time employment may be an indicator of an “opportunity disparity” between men and women in Australia. This will show that the high number of women employed in part-time jobs supports the argument that there exists a lack of opportunities for full-time employment and the pursuit of a successful career.
· Wages: This will be the comparison of wages of women and men having the same qualification and education. A wage disparity between men and women would illustrate the effects of discrimination. Lower wages of women illustrate the unequal status of women compared to men. This means that, in spite of legal equality, women still earn less than men.
· Conclusion – The current status of women in modern Australia requires further improvement to provide women with opportunities to exercise their rights.
Essay Questions 2008
Choose one of the following essay questions. They are based on the topics that have been explored during the first 7 weeks of the semester:
a) Critically evaluate the claim by the 2004 Senate Inquiry on Poverty and Financial Hardship that: ‘… there is growing evidence within our community that the strong economic gains of the past two decades have not been shared fairly’.
b) Does formal legal equality translate into social equality for women in modern Australia?
c) To what extent does your position in the class structure affect you from cradle to grave?
d) What forces determine educational opportunities and outcomes in Australian society?
e) Professor Hopkins noted that modern capitalist society operates on the basis of contractual relationships. To what extent can workers freely negotiate entry into different types of work and determine their conditions of employment?
f) Critically evaluate Jeffrey Sachs’ claim that: ‘The long-term driving force of modern economic growth has been science-based technological advance. Without modern technologies, the world would still be where it was centuries ago, with people at the edge of survival, always pressing on the margins of available food supply’.
2,000 word essay
- The essay will be due on the Monday of Week 10 (i.e., 12 May).
- The topics will be discussed during tutorials and can be found here
- Time will be devoted during the tutorial in Week 7 (8/9 April) and Week 8 (29/30 April) to discussing essay writing and expectations. For the Week 8 tutorial, you should consult the course essay-writing guide. In addition, students are always encouraged to see their tutor or the Course Coordinator to discuss any problems with essay writing.
- An essay plan will be handed in on week 8 tutorials (29/30 April) . The content of this two-page draft will be explained in Week 7 (8/9 April). It will contain a half-page essay outline, and an annotated bibliography with at least two journal articles, two books and two websites.
The grading system and its meaning
FACULTY OF ARTS ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
High Distinction (Above 80):
o Work of exceptional quality showing a command of subject matter and appreciation of issues;
o Has a clearly formulated argument which is developed throughout the work;
o Engages the question or topic throughout the assignment;
o Demonstrates wide reading of relevant literature;
o Very well expressed;
o High level of intellectual work.
Distinction (70-79):
o Work of high quality showing strong grasp of subject matter and appreciation of major issues though not necessarily of the finer points;
o Has a clear argument which may not be fully sustained throughout the work;
o Masters most of the concepts and issues raised by the question;
o Shows diligent research;
o Clearly expressed;
o Good intellectual work.
Credit (60-69):
o Work of good quality showing an understanding of subject matter and appreciation of main issues though possibly with some lapses and inadequacies;
o Has an argument which may not be fully sustained throughout the essay and is possibly marred by minor weaknesses; o Fair range of reading;
o Well prepared and presented;
o Expression may need improvement in places;
o Solid intellectual work.
Pass (50-59):
o Work of fair quality showing awareness of the main issues in the question but has difficulty framing a relevant response; o Argument may be weak;
o Takes a factual approach and does not attempt to interpret the findings;
o Modest level of research;
o Written expression and scholarly conventions need improvement;
o Competent intellectual work.
Fail (Below 50):
o Work of poor quality;
o A lack of understanding or misconception of the issues and concepts raised in the question;
o No clear argument is presented; o Insufficient grasp of the relevance and interrelatedness of the material being presented; o Poorly researched;
o Expression that is difficult to understand;
o Careless about scholarly conventions, spelling and other aspects of presentation.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment