Women and Poverty essays

Women and Poverty essays World poverty is a social welfare issue that has plagued nearly every society, more specifically women in poverty. The issue of women and poverty and the Feminization of Poverty is a very disturbing issue indeed. The way our society is built and a history of oppression has lead to the inequalities in the genders. This inequality and social status is among the reasons for this trend of Feminization of Poverty. The trend of the Feminization of Poverty is not new throughout the world. It is however a new trend in America. Feminization of Poverty simply means that a larger number of people in poverty are women. The gap between women and men in poverty has continued to grow in the past decade. Reasons for this increasing gap come from many different levels of our society. The majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 dollar a day or less are women. Through out the world women earn just above fifty cents on every mans dollar. This proves that even in a working society that women are oppressed and rewarded less for their efforts. This impact of this difference becomes stronger as income decreases. As women approach poverty they are denied critical items such as land, housing, and credit. This denial comes sooner for women than men because on average they are earning less. This creates a poverty cycle nearly impossible to escape. Governments throughout the world have recognized the gender dimension of poverty. This has lead to implementation of politics to help eradicate this problem. Unfortunately it is difficult if not impossible to change the views and actions of an entire society. Even at the level of the family, a smaller amount of reward is given to women than to men. This seems to radiate out into society and creates gender inequality. Factors that have lead to the increasing gender dimension in poverty stem from the changes to the institution of the family. In America the current divorce rate ...

Examples of Sanctions in International Relations

Examples of Sanctions in International Relations In international relations, sanctions are a tool that nations and nongovernmental agencies use to influence or to punish other nations or non-state actors. Most sanctions are economic in nature, but they may also carry the threat of diplomatic or military consequences as well. Sanctions can be unilateral, meaning they are imposed only by one nation, or bilateral, meaning a bloc of nations (such as a trade group) is imposing the penalties. Economic Sanctions The Council on Foreign Relations defines sanctions as a lower-cost, lower-risk, middle course of action between diplomacy and war. Money is that middle course, and economic sanctions are the means. Some of the most common punitive financial measures include: Tariffs: Surcharges on imported goods, often imposed to aid domestic industries and markets.Quotas: Limits on the number of goods that may be imported or exported.  Embargoes: Restrictions on or cessation of trading with a nation or bloc of nations. These can include limiting or banning travel by individuals to and from nations.Non-tariff barriers: These are designed to make foreign goods more expensive by complying with onerous  regulatory requirements.Asset seizure/freeze: Capturing or holding the financial assets of nations, citizens, or preventing the sale or moving of those assets.   Oftentimes, economic sanctions are linked to treaties or other diplomatic agreements between nations. They could be revocation of preferential treatment such as Most Favored Nation status or import quotas against a country not abiding by agreed international rules of trade. Sanctions may also be imposed to isolate a nation for political or military reasons. The United States has imposed severe economic penalties against North Korea in response to that nations efforts to develop nuclear weapons, for example, and the U.S. does not maintain diplomatic relations, either. Sanctions are not always economic in nature.  President Carters  boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 can be viewed as a form of diplomatic and cultural sanctions imposed in protest against the  Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan. Russia retaliated in 1984, leading a multination boycott of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Do Sanctions Work? Although sanctions have become a common diplomatic tool for nations, especially in the decades after the end of the Cold War, political scientists say they are not particularly effective. According to one landmark study, sanctions have only about a 30 percent chance of succeeding. And the longer sanctions are in place, the less effective they become, as the targeted nations or individuals learn how to work around them. Others criticize sanctions, saying they are most often felt by innocent civilians and not the intended government officials. Sanctions imposed against Iraq in the 1990s after its invasion of Kuwait, for example, caused prices for basic commodities to spike, led to extreme food shortages, and triggered outbreaks of disease and famine. Despite the crushing impact these sanctions had on the general Iraqi population, they did not lead to the ouster of their target, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. International sanctions can and do work sometimes, however. One of the most famous examples is the near-total economic isolation imposed on South Africa in the 1980s in protest against that nations policy of racial apartheid. The United States and many other nations ceased trading and companies divested their holdings, which in conjunction with strong domestic resistance led to the end of South Africas white-minority government in 1994. Source Masters, Jonathan. What Are Economic Sanctions? CFR.org. 7 August 2017.