What issues involving straight women have been resolved since the Essay

What issues involving straight women have been resolved since the 1920s in the United States, and which have not - Essay Example Yet, business enterprises did not easily accept the notion that women deserve equal remuneration as that of their male colleagues. While the magnitude of the disparity had eased up during the subsequent decades of the century, the issue is not satisfactorily resolved. The disparity is not just confined to the realm of business. Even in interpersonal relations, starting from courtship, men prefer women who earn lesser than they do. Toward the end of the twentieth century, where a small but significant number of Fortune 500 Chief Executive Officers are women, there is no apparent change in the mentality of men. Hence, while the law affords equal economic opportunities for men and women, deep-rooted prejudices and cultural norms have thwarted further progress for women. The status of women as second class work-force is at no time better expressed during economic crisis. In the history of the United States since the 1920s, in each episode of economic recession, more women lose jobs when compared to men. While the reasons given by employers are ‘rationalization’, ‘right-sizing’ or ‘redundancy’, it is obvious that gender is a significant factor in the equation. These tendencies are best exemplified by the film Nor th Country starring Charlize Theron as a working class single mother. But, all is not doom and gloom for women. Laws pertaining to marriage, divorce and child custody have been amended time and again in favor of women. This is a crucial victory for American women and serves to symbolize the break down of the conventionally patriarchic justice system. The percentage of the ex-husband’s wealth that the ex-wife is legally entitled to has increased multiple times in the last fifty years or so. The 1960’s civil rights movement, which originated from agitations by the Black American community, has had a spill over effect on other areas of

Managment Audit of Wal-Mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Managment Audit of Wal-Mart - Essay Example A management audit would help to determine whether Wal-Mart is a destructive force or is good for the local economy. While it is generally believed that a population of 100,000 was necessary for a discount store to be viable Wal-Mart argued that if prices were right, the stores could attract people from a wider area (Grant, 2002). Wal-Mart chose isolated rural towns and national brands at low prices. Each store of Wal-Mart has the discretion to place orders with the vendors directly and receive supplies also directly. This strategy of decentralization leads to efficiency in terms of time and administrative costs apart from making the employees feel ‘associates’ and not wage earners. Wal-Mart has the image of a friendly, all-American company employing happy workers and smiling greeters who are eager to help and grateful to work at Wal-Mart (Bianchi & Swinney, 2004). Wal-Mart started off as an entrepreneurial venture but Wal-Mart’s Sam Walton, while constantly upgrading and expanding did not ignore the need to identify and groom a successor. A corporate culture encourages the employees and managers to consider the customer the focus of business. The customer is the king was the policy at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has helped to hold down inflation in US. Wal-Mart is responsible for about 12% of the economy’s productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s (Fishman, 2003). Wal-Mart believes in constantly learning and improving, conscious of the fact that competitors would stay. They are always alert at finding and implementing new retail concepts. They concentrate on each store depending on its location. The merchandise is available according to the need of that community. The associate in charge of that store is given incentives to plan out promotional campaigns for a given period for the product suitable to local adaptation. Human resource management is a stronghold of Wal-Mart as right from the inception they did not believe in