Members: Elisa Caramori, Silvia Lovato, Silvia Nicolini, Elena Vivian
Monday March 3
CHECK LIST OF OUR MISTAKES IN THE MID-TERM PAPER
vocabulary and grammar:
- prepositions after nouns and verbs
- word order (adverbs)
-use of pronouns: avoid repetition of you, one
-marking the logical sequence of thoughts with introductory statements and linking words
-mixing of verb tenses
-use of punctuation (too many colons)
Wednesday March 5
Class discussion of YOGA form and intercultural awareness
1. Completing the YOGA form, we found some difficulties in interpreting the meaning of some points; for example in the part 'knowledge' we couldn't understand what was meant by 'common adjustment phases (from entry to reentry)' and by 'strategies for coping while immersed in the host culture and upon returning home'.
2. Since we have never spent an extended period in an English speaking country (more than 2 or 3 weeks), we were unable to complete the parts referring to level III (Professional) and level IV (Intercultural/Multicultural Specialist). However, we could fill out all the levels regarding 'language proficiency'.
3. The YOGA form helped us to think about different points of view and perspectives. In particular, it allowed us to reflect on how we are perceived by the host culture and on how we react to cultural differences.
4. Overall, we provided similar answers because we share the same experiences (University, Tandem learning, cultural exchanges). By comparing them we realized that our answers were more or less between 4 and 5 regarding the first two levels.
5. Our goals to improve our intercultural competence:
- to effectively communicate with people from different countries
- to improve our language skills (written and oral)
- to learn informal language
- to know more about the historical and sociopolitical situation of the host country
Ways to achieve them:
- keeping in touch with people we met abroad (e-mails, facebook, messenger, skype)
- actively participating in cultural exchanges
- using forums to exchange our ideas, beliefs, view points, habits with foreigners
- using skype to improve our speaking fluency and pronunciation
- blogging to learn new idiomatic expressions and informal language (slang and colloquialisms)
- reading online articles and participating in online discussions about different issues (history, politics, environment, economics etc...)
- watching movies and visiting YouTube
- listening to podcasts dealing with social topics
6. Intercultural competence is a set of skills which enables you to effectively communicate and interact with people from different cultures. It's an ability you can improve in your lifelong learning process.
Monday March 10
Obama/Clinton and PD: Silvia Lovato, Elena Vivian
McCain and PDL: Elisa Caramori, Silvia Nicolini
CLASS DISCUSSION ABOUT U.S. & ITALIAN ELECTIONS
- Berlusconi vs McCain
We noticed that their programs contain some similarities but above all differences. In particular, they both believe in the same values: patriotism, family, religious faith and national security. The two politicians frequently use short and incisive expressions to present their political platforms; Berlusconi in particular constantly criticizes the Left with his typical slogan (“
Talking about the differences between the two candidates, McCain talks a lot about honor, courage, dedication and responsibility in defending the country, focusing on the proud of being American and on defending the country against terrorism, whereas Berlusconi attaches more importance to the right of individual freedom. Moreover, McCain seems to be less confident than Berlusconi because he doesn’t hide his limits, for example when he speaks about the war against terrorism (“I do believe we can succeed, not we succeed”) or when he makes some deprecating comments about his background (“The issues of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should”). Furthermore, he interacts more with his audience than Berlusconi does, addressing them in a more friendly way, with his typical expression “my friends”. In addition, we think that the past experiences of the two politicians play an important role in defining their platforms: being a former entrepreneur, Berlusconi aims at giving more freedom to entrepreneurship while McCain, as he took part in the Vietnam War, focuses more on the concept of defending the American honor and serving the country.
- Veltroni vs Obama/Clinton
By listening to Veltroni’s speeches, anyone can see that he identifies himself with Barack Obama by adopting his same models (for example, J.F.K.) and a song to promote his campaign. He even created a user-friendly website which is very similar to Barack Obama's. He also adopted Obama's slogan, "Yes, we can!", and translated it into the Italian "Si può fare!". Veltroni likes mentioning Obama, and many points of their platforms coincide. As a matter of fact, Veltroni’s speeches are full of Obama’s themes: innovation, belief, hope, change. He uses more or less the same political strategy as Barack Obama by trying to eliminate the differences among his audience in order to get as many supporters as possible. However, Veltroni is a less charismatic orator than Obama, and sometimes his way of speaking is too rhetorical and his tone too pompous, whereas Obama's style is more informal, friendly and direct. In his speeches, Veltroni uses words, metaphors and expressions taken from Obama's campaign. Let's give some examples: “It’s time to turn the page” / "E' ora di cambiare pagina", "It is necessary to change the politics"/ "Cambiamo l'Italia, non il governo."/ "Comincia un tempo nuovo, il tempo del cambiamento."
On the other hand, a comparison between the two left candidates, Hillary Clinton and Valter Veltroni, shows that they’re quite different with regard to their political aims. Clinton seems to be more concerned about foreign policy, national security, health care rather than national policy, whereas Veltroni's main goal is to solve the problems of short-term contracts, tax evasion, increasing wages and pensions, and developing alternative energy. Moreover, while words like change and innovation occur frequently in Veltroni’s speeches, the word values is never used. Hillary Clinton, on the contrary, underlines the importance of making traditional values of U.S. history revive, in particular American diplomacy, multilateralism, moral authority and leadership.
Wednesday March 12
Caucus
- It is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement (Wikipedia).
- It is a meeting of the members of a political party to choose people to represent them in a larger meeting, election etc... (Longman dictionary)
- It is a meeting of the members of a legislative body of a political party, to select candidates or decide policy (Oxford dictionary)
Super-delegate
- it's an informal term for one of the delegates to the democratic National Convention, the Presidental Nominating Convention of the United States Democratic Party. (Wikipedia)
delegates
-Delegate is the title of a person elected to the United States House of Representatives to serve the interests of an organized United States territory, at present only overseas or the District of Columbia, but historically in most cases in a portion of North America as precursor to one or more of the present states of the union. Delegates have powers similar to that of Representatives, including the right to vote in committee, but have no right to take part in the floor votes in which the full house actually decides whether the proposal is carried. See: Delegate (United States Congress).
Delegates from the major political parties are involved in the selection of candidates for President of the United States by such assemblies as a convention. Some of the officials involved in the process are called superdelegates.
(wikipedia)
- Someone who has been elected or chosen to speak, vote, or take decisions for a group (Longman dictionary)
primaries
-A primary election (nominating primary) is an election in which voters in a jurisdiction select candidates for a subsequent election. In other words, primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the following general election. "Primaries" are common in the United States, where their origins are traced to the progressive movement. There, primary elections are conducted by government on behalf of the parties.
(Wikipedia)
- primary election: an election in the U.S. at which people vote to decide who will be a party's candidate for a political position in the main election (Longman dictionary)
- In the U.S. it is a preliminary election to appoint delegates to a party conference or to select candidates for an election (Oxford dictionary).
United States presidential primary
The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses is one of the first steps in the process of electing the President of the United States of America. The primary elections are run by state and local governments, while caucuses are private events run by the political parties. A state primary election usually determines how many delegates to each party's national convention each candidate for president will receive from that state (Wikipedia).
Convention
- In politics, a political convention is a meeting of a political party, typically to select party candidates.
- In the United States, a political convention usually refers to a U.S. presidential nominating convention. In Canada, a political convention held to choose a party leader is often known as a leadership convention. The new leader of a party may then become Prime Minister (Wikipedia).
- a formal agreement, especially between countries, about particular rules or behaviour [= pact, treaty] (Longman dictionary).
- an assembly of the delegates of a political party to select candidates for office (Oxford dictionary).
Monday March 17
RIGHT-WING CANDIDATES:
JOHN MCCAIN & SILVIO BERLUSCONI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1. John McCain
- Childhood, education & private life
- Military career
- Political career
2. Silvio Berlusconi
- Childhood, education & private life
- Business career
- Political career
Introduction
Below you will find the milestones in John McCain and Silvio Berlusconi’s lives. Both of them are candidates for the right wing: John McCain is the Republican candidate for the
John McCain
John McCain is one of the candidates for the U.S. Presidential Elections together with the Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He won the Republican nomination on Tuesday March 4 after sweeping primaries in
Childhood, education & private life
John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in Panama Canal Zone, Panama. He was one of three children born to John S. “Jack” McCain, Jr. (1911-1981) and Roberta (Wright) McCain (b. 1912). Son and grandson of four-star navy admirals, he followed his family through the various military stations on the Pacific Ocean, attending several naval base schools during his early life (Wikipedia, 2008; John McCain, 2008).
After World War II the McCain family settled in Alexandria (Northern Virginia), where John attended the elite Episcopal High School from 1946 to 1949. When he was a child, John was known for his strong attitude towards his superiors and classmates, which caused him a lot of demerits during his high school career (John McCain: Biography and Much More from Answers.com, 2008). Continuing the McCain tradition of serving the country, he attended the United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, Maryland), from where he graduated in 1958. In 1965 he married Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia whom he had met at Annapolis. They adopted two children, Douglas and Andrew (who were 5 and 3 years old respectively at the time) and had a daughter, called Sidney, in September 1966 (Wikipedia, 2008).
In 1979, when he was in Hawaii for a military reunion, he met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, and began a relationship with her; he separated from his wife Carol in 1980 and married Cindy a few months later, on May 17. They have four children: Meghan, Jack, Jimmy, and Bridget (Wikipedia, 2008).
Military career
After having spent two and a half years of practicing as a naval aviator at Pensacola Station, Florida, he graduated from flight school in 1960 and became a naval pilot of attack aircrafts. He was enrolled in A-1 Skyraider military force of the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise. After two bad collisions McCain was then recalled to shore duty at Pensacola Station, where he became a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. In 1966, during the Vietnam War, McCain was stationed in the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, which was soon assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder, an air campaign against North Vietnam (McCain's military career, 2008).
On July 29, 1967, at Yankee Station, he was almost killed when a rocket accidentally slammed into the carrier deck, but he eventually managed to escape from the jet aircraft. The explosion partly destroyed the Forrestal; McCain was then moved to the USS Oriskany squadron, but soon after he was shot down and captured by the Vietnamese. He was then sent to Hanoi's Hoa Loa Prison, where he was denied medical care and often underwent tortures (McCain's Military Career, 2008). Thanks to the Paris Peace accords (signed in 1973), which put an end to U.S. direct commitment to the war, he was finally released on March 15, 1973 after 5 years’ captivity (Wikipedia, 2008).
Once he came back to the US, he reunited with his wife Carol, who got disabled after a car accident when his husband was in Vietnam. During 1973-74 he received medical treatment for his injuries and attended the National War College at Fort Mc Nair in Washington. There he underwent physical therapy in order to be able to fly again. He managed to regain his naval flight status and shortly afterwards became the Commanding Officer of VA-174, a Navy training squadron in Florida. In 1974 the Admiral Jim Holloway promoted McCain to captain and moved him to Washington, where he served as the Navy Senate liaison officer (Wikipedia, 2008).
Political career
John McCain began his political career in 1982 becoming a Representative for
Three years later he began his Senate career after having defeated his Democratic opponent Richard Kimball. He soon became a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Commerce Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee as well. Even though all these posts gave him a considerable visibility, he was implicated in a scandal in the 1980s, which clearly threatened his political career even if he was only judged of having used quotes and poor judgement. Since this unpleasant event, he had long been considered a “maverick” Senator (Wikipedia, 2008). As far as his policy is concerned, he attacked pork barrel spending within Congress and worked on financial reforms, cigarette taxes and health funds increasing.
As regards his presidential campaign, McCain announced his candidacy for President on
Finally, McCain started his present-day 2008 presidential campaign in
Sources
Nowicki D. Muller B. (2007), "The maverick and President Bush", retrieved from
http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter11.html
Wikipedia (2008), "John McCain", retrieved on March 20, 2008 from
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
"John McCain 2008 - John McCain for president", retrieved on March March 20, 2008 from
http://www.johnmccain.com/about
"John McCain: Biography and Much More from Answers.com", retrieved on March 21, 2008 from
http://www.answers.com/topic/john-mccain?nr=1&lsc=true
"McCain's Military Career", retrieved on March 20, 2008 from
http://arclightzero.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/mccains-military-career/
OUTLINE
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi (born September 29, 1936) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, media mogul and ex premier. He has been President of the Council of Ministers twice (1994 and 2001-2006); now he is the leader of PdL (Il Popolo della Libertà), a centre-right coalition, and one of the candidates for the Italian general elections 2008. According to Forbes magazine (2008), he is in the second place in the list of Italy Italy
Childhood, education & private life
Berlusconi is the first-born son of an upper middle-class family. His father, Luigi (1908-1989), was bank clerk at Banca Rasini (a small bank in Milan
In 1954 he completed his classical studies at the Salesian Liceo “Sant’Ambrogio” in Milan Milan
In 1965 he married Carla Elvira Lucia Dall'Oglio, and they had two children: Maria Elvira, also known as Marina
Business career
It’s in the building industry that Berlusconi started his business career in the 1960s. Over two decades, he set up several companies operating in this field. For his success in the construction business, Berlusconi was nominated Knight of Labor by the President of the Republic, Giovanni Leone, in 1977 (Wikipedia, 2008).
In the late 1970s Berlusconi entered the world of media for the first time. In 1978 he took over Telemilano (before Telemilanocavo), a local cable television station, and soon afterwards he formed his first media group, Fininvest, a network of local TV stations which had similar programming throughout the whole country and functioned therefore like a single national network. This marked a break with the public broadcaster RAI’s monopoly. In 1980 Telemilano became Canale 5 – Italy Publitalia , Italy
In the publishing industry, Berlusconi is the major shareholder of the two largest publishing houses in Italy, Mondadori (whose publications include Panorama, one of the most popular news magazines) and Einaudi, and of some other minor publishers too. His brother Paolo owns Il Giornale, a centre-right newspaper which has a clear bias in favour of Berlusconi (Spiritus Temporis, 2005; Wikipedia, 2008).
As for cinema and home video distribution, Silvio Berlusconi held shares in Blockbuster Italia from 1994 to 2002, and now he is the main shareholder of Medusa Cinema, a movie production company. As far as the distribution business is concerned, Berlusconi bought Standa, an Italian chain of department stores, which was then sold off to Coin (another chain of stores) in 1997-98 (Wikipedia, 2008).
Berlusconi has interests in insurance and banking too, as he is the majority shareholder of Mediolanum, a company providing financial services. In addition, he is the president of one of the leading football club in the world, AC Milan (Athletic Club Milan), which became a sport club association in the early 1990s, when Berlusconi bought some baseball, rugby, volleyball and ice-hockey companies in Lombardy, a region in the North of Italy (Wikipedia, 2008).
Political Career
In 1993 Berlusconi founded his own political party, Forza Italia, and publicly announced his decision to enter politics. He formed a coalition with the right-wing parties, Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance) and Lega Nord (Northern League), and managed to win the national elections in 1994. However, Berlusconi’s government collapsed as a result of the inherent contradictions in his coalition and the rivalries between the leaders of the three different parties.
In 2001 Berlusconi ran as leader of the centre-right coalition Casa delle Libertà (House of Freedom), once more with his former partners and UDC. During the electoral campaign he signed the so-called Contratto con gli Italiani (an agreement with the Italian citizens) where he declared that he would improve the economical situation, lower taxes, increase employment and diminish crime. His coalition received 45.5% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 42.5 for the Senate. Thanks to this success, he managed to lead the country for the second time.
In the 2006 Parliamentary elections Berlusconi’s coalition narrowly lost to Prodi’s left bloc. Berlusconi tendered his resignations after leading the longest Italian government of the post war period.
In 2007 Berlusconi managed to unite centre-right parties under a new grouping, named Popolo delle libertà (People of Freedom). After the collapse of the centre-left government led by Prodi, Berlusconi is running as the leader of his new cohalition in the elections set for 13 and 14 April.
Recent pools suggest that the PdL has enough votes to win the elections (source: Il Sole 24 ore ). The main challenge is still that of facing Veltroni’s PD (Democratic Party). As a matter of fact, analysts say that the Democratic party represents an incredible novelty and Italian people would be easily led to vote for Veltroni.
Sources
Forbes (2008). “The World's Billionaires”. Retrieved on March 18, 2008 from http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank.html
Indopedia (2004). “Silvio Berlusconi”. Retrieved on March 20, 2008 from http://www.indopedia.org/Silvio_Berlusconi.html
Spiritus Temporis (2005). “Silvio Berlusconi”. Retrieved on March 20, 2008 from http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/silvio-berlusconi/
Wikipedia (2008). “Silvio Berlusconi”. Retrieved on March 18, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi (English version)
Wikipedia (2008). “Silvio Berlusconi”. Retrieved on March 18, 2008 from http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi (Italian version)
Wednesday March 19
Question to American students: "In Italy very few women are involved in politics, and Italians don't seem to be ready to have a female President. Do you feel that the USA is prepared to have Hillary as President? Please give your reasons.
Topic: Women
Monday March 31
CULTURAL ASPECTS IN THE VIDEOS ABOUT THE ELECTIONS
"Meno male che Silvio c'è" video:
- common people with ordinary lives taken from everyday situations (working, doing sports...) who think that Berlusconi could be the fulfilment of their dreams
- it wants to convey the idea of a country sharing the same ideals and united in supporting Berlusconi's policy
- there are only white people
- opponents are not mentioned
- there are several scenes of squares and streets full of people strongly supporting their leader
"Obama girl" video:
- Obama and Obama girl are represented as superheroes
- They are the only two characters (there aren't common people)
- Obama is a sort of a rockstar and Obama girl behaves like a crazy fan, crying aloud his name, kissing his posters, waving banners, wearing T-shirts with his image
"I'm PD" video:
- it attacks some of his opponents (Berlusconi, Dini, Mastella)
- key words of Veltroni's platforms: "premiare il talento, aumentare i salari, più stabilità, si può fare"
- only political slogans are presented whereas politicians don't appear
Friday April 11
Pros and cons about using a wiki
Pros:
Cons:
Monday April 14
Questions on immigration
1. What are the requirements (job, marriage, house etc.) to achieve the visa in the United States?
2. In what kind of sectors are immigrants usually employed? Do you think that they are a resource or that they 'steal jobs'?
3. Do you think that your laws are appropriate to prevent illegal immigration? What kind of procedures do these laws provide for?
Monday April 21
OUTLINE:
Women at work
1. USA
- women's employment (Elena)
- Women’s participation in the
- Women distribution in the labor market
- Women’s unemployment rate
- Women’s education
- Gender pay gap
- working women's rights (Elisa)
- Women at work: a timeline of their emergence
- Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws
- Maternity Leave: The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA)
- women in politics (Silvia L.)
- immigrant women and prostitution (Silvia N.)
2. ITALIA
- occupazione femminile (Elena)
- Percentuale della forza lavoro femminile (differenze Nord e Sud)
- Distribuzione dell'occupazione femminile nel mondo del lavoro
- Tasso di disoccupazione femminile
- Livello di istruzione delle donne
- Discriminazione salariale di genere
- diritti delle donne lavoratrici (Elisa)
- L'emergere delle donne lavoratrici nella storia italiana
- Leggi a tutela delle donne lavoratrici dal 1945
- Leggi a tutela della maternità
- donne in politica (Silvia L.)
- donne immigrate e prostituzione (Chiara)
3. SUMMARY/COMPARISON
UNITED STATES
Women’s employment
Over the past decades the
Figure 1:
As regards women distribution in the labor market, the largest percentage of women (39%) are employed in management, professional, and related occupations, followed by 34% in sales and office occupations, and 20% in service occupations (Chart 4). In the high-paying jobs, women account for 51% of all workers; they even outnumber men in occupations such as financial and human resource managers, education administrators and teachers, medical and health care managers, accountants, budget analysts, physical therapists, and registered nurses. However, women presence in sectors such as mining, construction, manufacturing, transportation and utilities is extremely low. There are differences by ethnicity as well: the majority of Asian and white women work in management, professional, and related jobs, whereas the majority of black and Hispanic women work in the sales and office occupations (Chao, E.L. & Rones, P.L., 2007; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007).
Since the early 1980s women’s unemployment rate has been very similar to men’s; in 2007 the rate of jobless women was 4.5% – compared to 4.7% of men. However, this rate varies significantly among the different ethnic groups. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007), Asian women have the lowest unemployment rate (3.4 percent), followed by white (4.0 percent), Hispanic (6.1 percent), and black woman (7.5 percent). Furthermore, the unemployment rate varies by educational qualifications as well. For instance, the unemployment rate of women with less than a high school diploma is 8.2%, while that of women with a bachelor’s or higher degree is only 2.1%.
Undoubtedly, the increased involvement of women in the labor market, especially in the higher paying occupations, is a direct outcome of their achievement of higher education. In 1970 only 43% of women had a bachelor’s degree, whereas today more than half of all bachelor ’s degrees are earned by women (Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, 2007). In addition, the dropout rate at the high school has sensitively decreased since 1970. Nowadays it is about 8%, while it was 34% thirty years ago. Statistics show that the higher education a woman has attained, the more likely she will be a labor force participant (see Figure 2 below) (Chao, E.L. & Rones, P.L., 2007; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007).
Figure 2: Women labor force by education in 2007 (???)
In the last years pay discrimination between men and women has reduced (Chart 1). Women’s earnings grew from 62% in 1979 to about 80% of the corrisponding men’s weekly earnings in 2007 (Chao, E.L. & Rones, P.L., 2007; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007). However, women are still paid less than men. According to the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation (2007), an average
Bibliography:
Chao, E.L. & Rones, P.L. (2007). Women in the Labor Force: A Databook.
Business and Professional Women’s Foundation (2007). 101 Facts on the Status of Working women. Retrieved on April 20, 2008 from http://www.bpwusa.org/files/public/101FactsOct07.pdf
See also:
To see more statistical tables about women labor force in 2006 which were carried out by the U.S. Department of Labor click here http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-databook2007.htm
WORKING WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Women had long been considered weaker than men, unable to hold important positions requiring physical strength and certain specific intellectual faculties. Their traditional roles were wifehood and motherhood and this social view contributed to spreading the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home” (Women’s history in America, 1995). Confined in their natural biological role, women were debarred from the rights and the freedoms men enjoyed in the eyes of the government, the law and the church as well.
The 19th century had been a real turning point for them. Many women began working outside their homes, particularly in textile miles and garment shops. Since working conditions were hard, in 1910 The United States passed laws limiting working hours (10 daily hours instead of 12) and improving working conditions of women and children. However, the protective labor laws, passed by The National Consumer’s League and Women’s Trade Union, limited women’s jobs rather than favouring their rising to the working field because they were excluded from many leading positions requiring greater effort (Women’s Rights in America, 1999).
Their status improved between the years of 1930 to 1960. In particular, the Depression before and after World War II, which showed an increasing entrance of women into the workforce, laid the basis of promulgating laws preventing their discrimination in workplaces (Morse, 2007).
The oldest workplace civil rights law is The Equal Pay Act (EPA), which was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy on June 1963. It prohibits sex discrimination in the payment of wages or benefits ‘between men and women in the same establishment who are performing under similar working conditions’ (The Equal Pay Act of 1963, 1997). A year later, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act granted women equal working opportunities, since it prohibits not only employment discrimination based on race, color, religion and national origin, but also on sex (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 1997). Activists joined together in 1996 in order to create the National Organization for Women (NOW), which was supposed to enforce the act’s provisions for women. Nowadays it is the largest organization for feminists in the
Another federal law that prohibits discrimination is the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA). It contains the so called ‘prohibited personnel practices’, designed to protect fairness in federal personnel actions. Finally, an important law enforced by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission is the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which provides for ‘monetary damages in cases of intentional monetary discrimination’ (Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws, 2004).
The presence of women in the work force has increased, but they still have to face the problem of reconciling work with family care. A crucial issue is maternity leave because The United States is one of the five countries in the world, together with
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Morse J. (2007), Women’s Rights in the United States, retrieved on April 23, 2008 from
http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2007/February/20070226171718ajesrom0.6366846.html
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2004), Federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Laws, retrieved on April 24, 2008 from http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeo/overview_laws.html
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2004), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, retrived on April 24, 2008 from
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2004), The Equal Pay Act of 1963, retrieved on April 24, 2008 from
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/epa.html
Women’s International Center (1995), Women’s History in America, retrieved on April 25, 2008 from
http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm
Michigan State University (1999), Women’s Rights in America, retrieved on April 25, 2008 from
http://www.msu.edu/~reinste2/women.html
Schweitzer T. (2007), U.S. Policies on Maternity Leave “Among the Worst”, retrived on April 26, 2008 from
http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200702/family.html
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, (2005), The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), retrieved on April 26, 2008 from
http://hr.unlv.edu/Benefits/fmla.html
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