The Television Show Yes Minister
The British comedy Yes Minister is a brilliant satire in which the characters are creatively manipulated to form a humorous program. It deals with the wheeling and dealing of political life behind the scenes and attempts to expose its true nature. Although the series is set within the British political scene, it deals with political games and clashes between politicians and the civil service that could be found almost anywhere in the world.
Yes Minister started airing in 1980 on BBC 2 with each episode running for about 30 minutes. With its astounding success it ran for six years until Jim Hacker finally became what he always dreamt of throughout the course of the series: Prime Minister. At this point the BBC started a new series called Yes Prime Minister. The series is still shown on television today and people continue to enjoy the satirical British humour.
In the third season of Yes Minister and for the first time on 11 November 1982, two years into the series, ran an episode called Equal Opportunities. As its title suggests it encompasses the issues to do with Equal Employment Opportunities, focusing on the Civil Services and their attitudes towards women in the workforce. As in other episodes of Yes Minister, Equal Opportunities aims to educate and summon change, while simultaneously entertaining the audience it is targeted towards.
Clever incorporation of a variety of different types of humour creates a jovial façade for the underlying issues. In Equal Opportunities it has allowed the exploration of each sexes emotions and thoughts towards each other in the workforce.
A twist of irony occurs when Sarah announces that she is leaving the civil services. She explains to Jim Hacker that she wants a job that will appreciate her as a person and where she personally can achieve things and therefore has accepted a job at a merchant bank. She is absolutely not charmed by the fact that she would be part of a 25% quota and does not appreciate being patronised:
"Quite honestly, Minister, I want a job where I don't spend endless hours circulating information that isn't relevant, about subjects that don't matter to people who aren't interested. I want a job where there is achievement rather than merely activity. I am tired of pushing paper. I want to be able to point to something and say: 'I did that.'"
Sarcasm is used to cunningly say what is really meant without saying it straight out.
Although there are similarities and differences in lever of party discipline between the MPs and the Senate, they both work and are effective. For the MPs, levers such as collective responability, the danger of being re-elected or suspension, and control over Question Period help in securing high party discipline and unity by defining a stiff boundary and pulled them together. While the Senate does not face the problem of being removed from the party for displeasing their party leaders as the MPs do, the very method of being appointed directly by the Governor General (under the advice of the PM) and their background similarities ensure that they think alike and therefore have high party discipline. In contrast, MPs have a relatively more individualistic reasons for maintaining high party discipline while the motive for the Senate is more group-oriented.
As the issue is examined from the view of social justice, it appears that women are still not at the equal level that Mills proposed in this bill in Parliament. While women are entitled to the basic human rights of employment, land and business ownership and voting, there remains an inequality in expectations for an adult female. These expectations are garnered from long-standing traditional views held by a large portion of society that will take many years to eradicate.
Gaze, G (2009) ‘The Sex Discrimination Act after 25 years: What is its role in eliminating gender inequality and discrimination in Australia?’, Insights, vol.7,p.13-17, viewed 5 October 2011, .
Occupational segregation by gender is at the heart of stereotyped career choices and has shown a stubborn resistance to change in the labour market of the United Kingdom, despite women entering the labor market more highly qualified Clouds Work (2009).
The 4 ministries of the party are: The Ministry of Truth, The Ministry of Peace, The Ministry of Plenty and The Ministry of Love. The Ministry of Truth is responsible for constantly revising all forms of media. In this way, The Party and Big Brother become omnipotent as everything they say and are infallible. A major part of the work of the Ministry of Truth inc...
Due to the high performance in education, workplace and family, society expects women more than before, such as: A wife must cook “good” food for her family, give “more” respect to her husband and nurture her children “properly”. A female employee is often perceived as a careful, conservative, considerate and friendly character of others. Regardless to any nature of individual and the group, an outstanding woman constantly involves conflicts because of her need and desire; now, need evolves to basic luxury need and the desire mutates to “I must have it”. Not only men, women fight for a better home, salary, job promotion, status and many more too. In the article, Cunningham speculates women’s smile as their burdens more than a weapon: “ Woe to the waitress, the personal assistant or receptionist, the flight attendant, or any other woman in the line of public service whose smile is not offered up to the boss or client as proof that there are no storm clouds-no kids to support, no sleep that’s been missed rolling into the sunny workplace landscape” (372). On that occasion, Cunningham sounds like a victim. In comparing to their social image, women have a stronger mentality and perseverance in the reality. The emotional appeal (ethos) is wonderful, it connects audience and writer instantly, but there is a risk; some rational readers might suspect writer is an implicit bias because her article laden with too much
Sherman, Mitchell. “Equal Employment Opportunity: Legal Issues and Societal Consequences.” Public Personnel Management. Washington: March-April 2008. Print.
It is a general notion that the people in the workplace have to be valued for their capability in doing a job, but this is far from true rampant nepotism prevalent in many workplaces where men are preferred over women to do a particular task. This discrimination has stunted the growth of women in the workplace as they were looking over to do jobs, even if they were capable of doing them. Legally, it has never been agreed t...
In Mellon’s article, several aspects are mentioned supporting the belief that the prime minister is too powerful. One significant tool the prime minister possesses is “… the power to make a multitude of senior governmental and public service appointments both at home and abroad,” (Mellon 164). Mellon goes on to state the significance the prime minister has when allowed to appoint the government’s key member...
...d more enjoyable place to work. Studies have shown that people who have fun in the workplace, work harder and are more efficient in his or her work (Terrion & Ashforth, 2002, p.58). It has helped others to understand why people joke and how groups are developed through communicating with humor. While there are some limitations where humor can negatively impact the workplace, these circumstances are rare (Terrion & Ashforth, 2002, p.83-84). Further research might concern itself with the important of humor at work, the relationship between the culture and workplace humor (Plester and Sayers, 2005). This is another research question that could lead to further research and studies. Workplace humor examination may identify suggestions for handling staff effectively to avoid conflict, lawsuits and to ensure a pleasant, productive work environment (Plester & Sayers, 2005).
Equality is about an individual’s rights, giving people choices and respect. It is about ‘creating a fairer society, where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential’ (DoH, 2004).
...men to come into the industry. The 1960s and 70s, famous for their war and the forward thinking ‘hippies’ along side the ‘perfect housewives’, shattered the glass ceiling in many male dominated occupations (Gender Equality as Contingent, Modernities as Multiple). The success of those decades, however, did not create total equality in the workforce for women. At the pace that the woman versus men pay rate has been equalizing it could still take another fifty years for total equality (Still A Man’s Labor Market).
the speaker's meaning is far from the usual meaning. For example, Sally rushes all. morning to get to the parking lot early, only to find her space taken, she then exclaims,"This is exactly why I rushed, just so I can hunt for an empty space. " We understand that she is not happy, and that her meaning is not literal. A form of verbal irony is sarcasm, this is when the statement made is ironic, but it is bitter, coarse, and vulgar.
USA Today, “How Men, Women are Different at the Office.” Retrieved October 4, 2004 from http://www.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/communication/2002-11-15-mars-venus
“Women have talent and intelligence but, due to social constraints and prejudices, it is still a long distance away from the goal of gender equality” (Pratibha Patil). A common misconception that is prominent in many modern day ideologies, is that gender does not have as much of an effect on workplace experience as it did several decades ago. This is untrue. “Most occupations remain skewed toward either men or women” (Jacobs 32). This occupational gap is an unmistakable reason for men and women being treated so vastly differently. Many people tend to believe that after women gained the right to vote and became eligible for many workforce positions,