Half the Sky References to Problems Women Face - Essay Example

Section Differentials of Purpose: An Exemplification of How Two Top Fortune 500 Companies Choose to Integratean Understanding of the Current Issues Pertaining to Women Although there is not specifically a right or a wrong way to tackle the issue of women’s rights in finding new and unique means to provide a greater level of liberty, empowerment, and economic parity with regards to women, the fact of the matter is that far too many organizations and entities focus upon the abstract rather than focusing upon clear and identifiable metrics with regards to how women’s rights, economic parity, education, and a host of other factors can be accomplished. This cannot and should not be understood to mean that organizations and entities which do not ascribe to a high level of identifiable metrics and milestones for affecting their goals are ultimately worthless. Rather, similar organizations oftentimes seek to utilize metrics as a way of defining and elaborating upon the ultimate goal(s) which they seek to promote. Furthermore, both Coca-Cola’s 5 by 20 organization as well as Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative will be analyzed. It is the hope of this author that the reader will come to a more full and complete understanding of what differentiates organizations that list no level will of metrics are milestones as compared to those such as the two which it previously been mentioned. Although these two organizations are similar with respect to the way in which they placed value in numbers, the Coca-Cola organization’s 5 by 20 initiative focuses on empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs within the Coca-Cola value chain by the year 2020. In this way, it can and should be understood that Coca-Cola realizes and defines the problem is ultimately one in which there are not enough opportunities for female particiapnts within the given economic system. As a means of ameliorating this unique drawback, Coca-Cola has put forth an organization as well as a large amount of resources with regards to ensuring that a quota of female entrepreneurs are represented within its value chain by the year 2020. Interestingly, compared to Goldman Sachs, the Coca-Cola Company’s organization defines the issue related to one in which business organizations are ultimately responsible for ensuring that women have a certain level of parity. Although Coca-Cola’s stance on the topic does not preclude other factors, the sole focus upon this one determinant differentiates it from Goldman Sachs in that Goldman Sachs places the highest emphasis upon access and availability of education. In this particular way, rather than striking at the issue of women’s rights, representation, poverty, and economic injustice through merely offering jobs in encouraging the quote of standard, Goldman Sachs instead determined that the most appropriate means by which the issue could be understood and assessed/improved is with regards to increasing the overall level of business and management education available to women the world over. In keeping with the trend which is previously been discussed, Goldman Sachs contends to directly the system 10,000 women within a period of five years of investment. This is ultimately done with the end goal of providing underserved female entrepreneurs the world over with both management and business education; education that can in turn be used to provide greatly increased representation of women within the workforce. In such a way, the reader can understand and note that although Coca-Cola and Goldman Sachs are both intending to affect the same goal, they are approaching the topic from polar opposite ends of the spectrum. Whereas Coca-Cola approaches the issue from the perspective of seeking to increase quota representation of women within its own firm, Goldman Sachs seeks to educate women within the external environment as a means of ensuring that they are able to achieve a greater level of representation within firms globally. Although the Coca-Cola approach the situation is laudable, the fact of the matter is that it only seeks to provide improvement of female representation and quality within the firm itself. In this way, the external environment is made only nominally better with regards to the representation, education, and opportunities that exist for women. In such a way, it is the opinion of this particular author that the approach offered by Goldman Sachs is both more equitable and more effective in integrating with and speaking to the needs of women around the globe. However, before throwing in full support behind Goldman Sachs particular efforts, it should be understood that the actual scope of Goldman Sachs contribution to women’s issues is nearly laughable. This is of course due to the fact that Goldman Sachs is the wealthiest company in the entire United States and yet only is capable of engaging with 10,000 women globally. In such a way, although this particular author appreciates the way in which Goldman Sachs has sought to decrease the representation of inequality by striking directly at education, the fact of the matter is that Coca-Cola, a much smaller firm in terms of profits, engages with several orders of magnitude more women with their 5 million person goal. Ultimately, both approaches are effective due to fact that they not only help to ameliorate women’s issues and seek to foster further levels of representation and equality within the global system, they both set verifiable metrics with regards to these. This is a necessary determinant with regards to many institutions and organizations that merely seek to do some level of good as a means of promoting themselves, adding a further level of marketing to their firms, and seeking to engage with some level of the philanthropy. As such, the most important differential that exists between the Coca-Cola organization and Goldman Sachs with regards to their philanthropy is the scope and definition of what the core an underlying problem facing women of the 21st-century ultimately is. 2. It is an undeniable fact that adults do not possess or otherwise utilize all of the emotional understandings and definitions that children and young adults do. Of course the reason for this could be the subject of a dissertation length analysis upon sociology, early childhood development, anthropology, or any other number of developmental social studies. However, with regards to a layman’s term of understanding, it can and should be realized that as a function of growing up, adults oftentimes tend to accept normative values or definitions as a means of simplifying the world in which they live. It is such a simplification that oftentimes misses the varying nuances of what takes place, how the world ultimately acts, and what anticipations for future action exist within the given construct. As a function of all of these factors, the child narrator within the short story “My Parents Bedroom” will be analyzed within this brief response. Ultimately, situations of genocide, torture, rape, and other untold human cruelties are oftentimes some of the most difficult to in such a way, the child narrator for of “My Parent’s Bedroom” was able to integrate with the reader a more nuanced and complete understanding of what was taking place within her own home, region, and life that an adult narrator would have necessarily found difficult to relate. This is of course the direct result of the fact that the child narrator struggle to accept the reality of human cruelty, the indignation of moral absolutism, and the way in which those individuals should it seemingly not so well and so unthinkable return on one another and forms such a written his deeds. Oftentimes, in situations such as this, individuals who were interviewed (invariably adult), stutter and reiterate time and again that the situation was unreal, unbelievable, even unthinkable. Due to the level of cruelty and violence, the adult mind, as well as the child’s, is uniquely predisposed to reject and miss comprehend such a level of human cruelty and sadism. However, through utilizing the child’s voice as a means of informing the reader with regards to the way in which the human understanding of the inhuman treatment and torture/violence that was occurring should be understood, the reader is left with a keen appreciation for the way in which this child relates a seemingly indescribable situation (Akpam 3). In short, the utilization of the child’s voice, only 9 ? years old at the time that the story takes place, allows for the author underscore the indiscriminance and nonsense of what was taking place. Whereas an adult might have a nearly impossible time explaining the gruesome acts that were ongoing through existing definitions of human behavior, the child was able to approach the situation from something of a blank slate and relate it in a way that the adult most certainly could not. Finally, by utilizing the voice of the child, the reader is brought a deeper understanding of the lasting level of trauma that such a situation must necessarily have impacted upon a girl of such a tender age. Work Cited Akpam, Uwem. "My Parents’ Bedroom : The New Yorker." The New Yorker. N.p., 6 Jan. 2006. Web. 6 May 2013. Read More