QUESTION- Explain each main point

Thesis Statement

The article being summarised is titled How does the effect of Utilitarianism affect gender inequality in Iceland?

According to (Driver; 2009), Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes. It is a form of consequentialism.

Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. It is the only moral framework that can be used to justify military force or war. It is also the most common approach to moral reasoning used in business because of the way in which it accounts for costs and benefits.

Gender inequality can be defined as the advantage to men as a social group expressed in the form of higher authority, respect, monetary benefits, safety, access to power and institutional opportunities, housing and control over one's own life (Gensler, 2011). In the context of gender inequality, directly involved stakeholders are the representatives of both genders, men and women. The indirect group involves stakeholders within the organisations, communities and the whole society. In order to evaluate gender inequality from the positions of act utilitarianism, it is necessary to assess total utility changes for each stakeholder group (Morales, 1996).

Additionally, This measure of Inequality adjusted happiness is meant to indicate how well a society meets the demands of utilitarian and egalitarian ideology. It does so by adjusting average happiness for inequality in happiness. There are advantages and disadvantages to this combination. The main advantage is that this index conveys a broader meaning than each of its constituents separately does; it provides information about the degree to which both demands are met and warns against attainment of one at the cost of the other. A disadvantage is that a same score can represent different situations, especially in the medium range: A score of 50 can result from the combination of low average - high inequality, but also from the combination high average - low inequality. Any projection of a vector space onto one with a lower dimensionality gives rise to loss of information and is justified only if this loss is relatively small. The proposal of the index is an attempt to minimise this loss. This combination of level and inequality of happiness seems easy to understand and makes more sense than currently used indicators of societal performance such as the Human Development Index (UNDP 2000) and the Index of Social Progress (Estes 1984).

It was also stated that gender inequality can lead to negative consequences. In the areas where gender inequality is strong, Ones experience less respect, less authority, it is more difficult for them to find employment and to get an education. In some countries, women even do not have a right to choose their own husband and to control their own life choices like giving birth to children. For example, Iceland is a prominent country where rights are restricted for women to have a family.(UNFPA, 2014).

The article also speaks about situations that cause suffering of women around the world and notably reduces total utility. As for men, they have some moderate gains in utility due to greater opportunities, greater power and respect, but there also exist negative aspects of gender inequality for men. In particular, mens denial of pain, discomfort and greater focus on physical activity contribute to mens shorter lifespan compared to women (Gensler, 2011). Therefore, there is a moderate increase of total utility due to the benefits men have from gender inequality, which is partly offset by health consequences for men.

He then goes on to speak about Gender inequality's dramatic impact on the decrease of total utility for businesses, communities and for the whole society. Gender inequality has a negative impact on public health resulting in higher rates of HIV/AIDS among women. Also the increased spread of infectious diseases among women, teen pregnancies, etc. (UNFPA, 2014). Many women have to do unpaid work; such a situation disrupts market mechanisms which affects economic growth (UNFPA, 2014). Gender inequality also leads to inefficient distribution of resources (mens activities preferred over womens) and reduces economic efficiency of organisations and of the society (UNFPA, 2014). Therefore, gender inequality reduces total utility for organisations, communities and for the society, and reduces the total utility for all considered stakeholders.

QUESTION- Explain each main point