The Ways of Her Household by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Essay Example

The Ways of Her Household by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Essay Ulrich argues that housekeeping can be a challenging, complex task requiring real skill and intelligence. How so? At the beginning of the essay, Ulrich sets out the details of some of the daily chores that women in Colonial America performed each day. Unlike the electronic amenities and appliances available to women in modern times, the colonial era was not technologically advanced. As a result, apparently simple activities such as cooking and cleaning took up lots of time and energy. And contrary to common beliefs, these tasks required real skill and intelligence. For example, colonial housewives were experts who understood the â€Å"ticklish chemical processes which changed milk into cheese, meal into bread, malt into beer, and flesh into bacon.† (Ulrich, p.48) Further, â€Å"preparing the simplest of meals required both judgment and skill†¦The most basic of housewife’s skills was building and regulating fires – a task so fundamental thtat it must have appeared more as habit than craft. Summer and winter, day and night, she kept a few brands smoldering, ready to stir into flame as needed.† (Ulrich, p,47) Simple as these activities might sound, one becomes an expert in them through long and arduous training during their formative years. Often times, women use intuition and common sense to supplement the skills they leart from their mothers and aunts to carry out these complex and challenging household tasks. We will write a custom essay sample on The Ways of Her Household by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Ways of Her Household by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Ways of Her Household by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Given that the colonial society was an agrarian society, the housewife’s domain extended â€Å"from the kitchen and its appendages, the cellars, pantries, brewhouses, mikhouses, washhouses, and butteries which appear in various combinations in household inventories, to the exterior of the house, where, even in the city, a melange of animal and vegetable life flourished among the straw, husks, clutter and muck†. (Ulrich, pg. 45) In order to handle all of these places on an everyday basis and single-handedly requires high skilfulness and presence of mind – both qualities women in colonial America possessed in abundance. How did colonial American women participate in economic activities that helped sustain their families, even if they did not have a job outside the home? In other words, what sort of things did they do? The importance and complexity of women’s contributions were not acknowledged due to the subordinate status assigned them by society and also due to the fact that their activities were confined within household limits. Whereas men, by virtue of involving themselves in more conspicuous labor activity in the open farms were easily recognized as the breadwinners and providers for their families. While men were the obvious bread-winners for their families, the role of women in Colonial America has conventionally been under-rated and poorly acknowledged. And also, while government bureau statistics took into account the economic activity of men, it does not take into account indirect and subtle economic contributions made by women. But a glimpse into the latter’s daily routines gives an idea about the economic worth of household work. For example, preparing breakfast and lunch for the entire family is a productive economic contribution, in that it aids and enables the men of the family to go out to their farms and work. After early morning milking, the choice for breakfast â€Å"featured prepared foods or leftovers – toasted bread, cheese, and perhaps meat and turnips kept from the day before, any of this washed down with cider or beer in winter, with milk in summer. Only on special occassions would there be pie or doughnuts.† (Ulrich, p.52) Also, the lady of the household carded wool or kneaded bread in other women’s kitchens. Other household activities would include washing and ironing of clothes, sewing shirts, pants, gowns and other garments for their husbands and children. In households with young, growing children, women would have an endless task of mending, altering and knitting clothes. As England was a naval empire at the time, many colonials were seafearers. During their long absenses from home, itis the lady of the house who would take charge of the shop owned by their husbands. In the case of Hannah Grafton, she managed a retain store offering â€Å"door locks, nails, hammers, gimlets, and other hardware as well as English cloth, pins, needles and thread†. But it is important to remember that â€Å"the lives of early American housewives were distinguished less by the tasks they performed than by forms of social organization which linked economic responsibilities to family responsibilities and which tied each woman’s household to the larger world of her village or town.† (Ulrich, p.53) How did those economic activities vary between rural and urban women, and middleclass and poor women? By comparing the lifestyles and household inventories of women such as Beatrice Plummer, Hannah Grafton and Magdalen Wear, we can come to understand the economic contributions made by women from different socio-economic backgrounds. While Plummer lived inthe frontier, Grafton lived in a farm; Wear though lived in an urban environment. In Colonial America, while the society was segregated into the propertied and unpropertied classes and disparities of wealth existed between the two divisions, the role of women was quite similar across the board. Beatrice Plummer’s marriage to land-owning farmer Francis Plummer (whose estate was worth 343 pounds) did not relieve her of everyday household duties. Similarly, Hannah Grafton, despite having married a mariner Joshua Grafton (whose estate was worth pounds 236) and who had connections with the ruling elite of New England, lived and raised a famly in a modest house. Magdalen Wear was the poorer of the three whose husband’s estate hardly added up to 90 pounds in value. The fact that Wear lived in a single-story cottage with an additional loft for extra space shows the level of relative poverty suffered by her. These three ladies might represent housewives from different economic classes. But a close inspection of their household responsibilities shows how their household duties and responsibilites were largely common and how much they contribute economically.

Business Coursework

Business Coursework Business Coursework Any student attending business courses has to write a business courseworkat some point in their academic career. Actually, business coursework may weight up to 50% of your final grade. Thus, students should be very responsible with regards business coursework writing. You cannot handle such a project overnight, as you have to devote enough time to writing, organizing ideas, researching thoughts of others, and editing your final draft of business coursework. Business is complex study and it includes a lot of themes for discussion. Any them can be interpreted into the topic anyhow related to it, so while choosing the topic you should be sure that you are keen on it and, very important, that you can add something new into the current knowledge on the topic. It is of primary importance to use the most relevant, updated resources for your business coursework writing: Moreover, you should rely on journal and magazine articles, books, and governmental sites only to support your statements. Wikipedia, personal blogs, or forum postings are not treated as reliable sources of information and it will not help you get a good grade. Business coursework should: have a good topic for discussion. It must not be too narrow as well as not too wide, because in the first case you will have to search for the needed material and maybe to pay for the information; while in the second case you will not include all the information into one business coursework.There is a danger of the treading water. Thus, be wise with the choice of sources. be planned in advance. It is not easy to conduct thorough research. You will have to collect material, search for the questions, write an outline and format your paper and many other things to do. If you do not think over the sequence of ideas, the chaos will be the defining feature of your business coursework.Start working. be written according to the required structure. You have heard a lot of times that any written assignment should be done in the following structure: introduction, body parts and conclusion, - but you do not know that introduction should contain the thesis statement, the body parts should have as many paragraphs as many thoughts you want to develop in thebusiness coursework, the conclusion should be written according to the introduction and include your own solutions to the problem. So structure properly. You may avoid all of these painful aspects of business coursework writing process if you rely on professionalism of our writers! We can definitely deliver a well-written coursework on time. Satisfaction with quality guaranteed! Interesting posts: Cause and Effect Essay Argumentative Essay Topics English Essay Writing Thesis Writing Thesis Topics

Summary of chapter 11- business ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Summary of chapter 11- business ethics - Essay Example Any business in the creation of its products will use resources and make waste by products. Through this process it functions within an ecological system. Ecology is the â€Å"science of the interrelationships among organisms and their environments.† Ecosystem refers to everything within the ecology which is both living and nonliving. These systems are interconnected and have a framework of checks and balances. If one of these systems experiences a change, all those that are connected to it will be affected as well. Effects of tampering by man can have unforeseen consequences which can be both injurious and beneficial. Though businesses are usually blind to such factors they have a duty to take them into consideration. In a traditional sense both society and business have considered the environment a free and unlimited resource. Though actions by a singular company are negligible, collectively their pursuits cause depletion of natural resources. In certain cases these policies may end up affecting the public such cases are known as spillover or externality. Thus spillovers cause the public to not only pay for their products but also the byproducts of their manufacturing process. The efforts taken to internalize processes so they do not adversely affect the environment are essential for our own benefit. Certain businesses may choose not to follow this business contract and the public would find themselves dealing with the spillover. According to Blackstone, every person â€Å"has this right qua being human and because a livable environment is essential for one to fulfill his human capabilities.† Given this right, acknowledging our actions is the moral course. Though despite this acknowledgement all this does is prevent the environment from degrading further. We must thus be careful to not consume that which we know is scarce. Before we can save the environment, it must first be decided which state we want to leave it in. Do we want to preserve it or restore

My reflective insights- me as a leader in Early childhood report Assignment

My reflective insights- me as a leader in Early childhood report - Assignment Example To work collaboratively with director and gain insight into the leadership role of a director. 2. To have a further in-depth insight into administrative and management roles/duties and responsibilities. 3. To improve my communication skills and show respect to all staff, children and families. A critical overview of my PE goals would reveal that they were structure to span around three major aspects of my roles and leadership experience. The first of these is an individual goal that aims for my personal development and growth as a leader. The second is an organizational goal that aims for the growth and development of the institution where I was working. The third goal is a social goal that aims for the betterment and wellbeing of the larger society through all staff, children and their families. Reading through my personal experience goals, it would be noted that they are related directly to me service learning. This is because through the practicum, there has been a number of enhan ced learning experiences that have relate to the objectives. The first of these is the service learning on how to work in collaboration with a superior. There is also service learning on the daily administration and management of an early childhood institution. The final one is learning experience of how to relate with parents and other staff members at the centre. With a careful overview of my work plan as presented in Appendix 1, it would be noted that as posited by Smales (2002), I am more of an outsider rather than an insider. This is because most of my work plan was focused on establishing common grounds goals with the other staff so that our collective interest would be achieved rather than my personal interest. The first two activities listed in the work plan for each day from Monday to Friday gives a clear indication of such need to collaborate with other people. As Rodd (2013, p. 63) emphasised, a state of belonging as I tried to achieve as an outsider helps in personal cap acity development, which was of course an important aspect of my professional and related goals. In a related manner, a number of ‘so whats’ can be identified as the meanings and relevance of my goals in terms of what I want to be as a future leader. First, my collaborative goals would mean that in future leadership, I shall be more comfortable as a democratic leader (Culkin, 1997). Next, my urge to have further in-depth insight into administrative and management roles means that into the future as a leader, I shall be aspiring for the highest possible positions that can get me to the very top (Healy et al, 2001). Finally, my goal to improve communication skills and respect for others means that I shall be a people-centred leader in the future. Insights on Leadership The creation of a leader’s profile has come to me with so much importance and relevance. This is because it has helped me in identifying some key professional insights as a leader and why these insig hts are worthwhile for me. In the first place, it was through the leader’s profile that I have discovered the type of leadership style that I shall be more comfortable as a future leader. As noted by McCrea and Ehrich (1999), leadership styles come in several forms and perceptions but applying the wrong leadership style in a given situation would be just as bad as not having

The Use of DDT in Malaria Vector Control Article

The Use of DDT in Malaria Vector Control - Article Example As DDT is mainly used in indoors, it eventually generates the risks of deterioration of human health by a certain degree. This can be owing to the reason that direct exposure of this pesticide can damage the health of humans. Also, it can also be identified that there exist no such substitutes of DDT in order to prevent human health from severe diseases such as malaria. The other significant toxicology data which can be taken into concern in order to make the decision concerning the use of DDT in malaria vector control is that DDT is also responsible for causing various severe complexities. These complexities might comprise early pregnancy loss, fertility loss, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, diabetes, pyrethroids and neurodevelopmental deficits among others. By taking into concern the aforesaid toxicology data, it can be ascertained that DDT indeed imposes serious health hazards to the humans which is a major cause of concern. It can be viewed in this regard that due to the seriousness of this issue, countries such as the United States is strongly working upon to develop appropriate alternative pesticide in order to reduce the health hazards and provide health-related benefits to the humans. But relating to the case of Africa which has a record of occurring the disease i.e. malaria, World Health Organization has allowed indoor use of DDT. But the main dilemma concerning this factor is that DDT also acts as a strong deterrent to fight against malaria as well as vector control... It can be viewed in this regard that due to the seriousness of this issue, countries such as the United States is strongly working upon to develop appropriate alternative pesticide in order to reduce the health hazards and provide health related benefits to the humans. But relating to the case of Africa which has a record of occurring the disease i.e. malaria, World Health Organization (WHO) has allowed indoor use of DDT. But the main dilemma concerning this factor is that DDT also acts as a strong deterrent to fight against malaria as well as vector control and at the same time, it poses serious chronic health hazards to the humans (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, â€Å"DDT, DDE, AND DDD†). However, a decision of creating an alternative pesticide is needed to be taken which may help in resolving this particular issue by a certain degree (Berg, â€Å"Global Status of DDT and Its Alternatives for Use in Vector Control to Prevent Disease†). 2. USE THE FO UR PHASES OF THE DISPOSITION OF A TOXIC COMPOUND TO ASSESS THE TOXICITY OF DDT The four phases have been described hereunder. Absorption-DDT mainly gets absorbed in the human body when the pesticide is exposed to the skin and lung. Ingestion also happens due to DDT which enters into the human body causing deterioration in the health of human beings at large. Distribution-If DDT is able to enter the human body, then it is circulated/distributed to the entire body parts in a fast way. It also contains high amount of fat which quickly spreads into the body imposing adverse effect upon human’s health. Metabolism-The metabolism phase or process of DDT primarily include certain effective processes that encompass dechlorination, dehydrochlorination, oxidation,

Effectiveness of Health Management Program

Effectiveness of Health Management Program Abstract The purpose of this study is to determine if the SoonerCare health management program and its associated practice management program, in a rural family practice setting, is an effective program to decrease hospital admission, improve patient care, and is a financially viable system. Data was obtained through chart review of two clinics in Durant, Oklahoma. Durant is a town of just over 15,000 as of the 2010 census. Both clinics are considered rural family medicine clinics. Out of the 170 patients enrolled in the health management program 115 patients were included in the study. The Data showed that over a period of seven months there was a significant reduction of patients going to the hospital for admission. A reduction of 50% was demonstrated with a significant p-value of 0.025896. There was no significant reduction in the office visit rates seen over the same time period. Emergency room visits did decrease by seven percent over this time period, but this was not found to be statistically significant. This reduction correlates to a savings of $551 per patient per year enrolled in the program. The study concurs with the Pacific Health Policy Group that shows a significant cost savings to the state due to the SoonerCare health management program and with practice facilitation. With the decrease in hospital admissions and subsequently the cost savings to the state of Oklahoma this program is an efficient means to provide good health care to the SoonerCare population. Background The cost of health care to the nation, private and public, in 2013 was 2.8 trillion dollars (1). This constituted 18% of the GDP (1). The average cost of health care was 9.5% of GDP for industrialized countries (1). This puts the average cost per capita in the United States at $8,508 in 2013 (1). This is two and a half times the world average of $3,322 per capita in the industrialized world (1). Add to this the projected growth of health care to increase by 5.8% each year until 2022 (2). Total health care costs, in the United States, are expected to grow to 19.9% of the GDP by 2022(1). This could be tolerable if the outcomes correlated with cost but they don’t. The United States is currently ranked twenty sixth out of thirty four in the world for life expectancy, twelfth out of thirty two in heart attack fatalities, and twenty seventh out of twenty eight for unmanaged asthma(3). With the continued increase in health care costs and diminishing return on health care dollars the state of Oklahoma has instituted a health management program and included in this program is a practice management program. The practice management program consists of an in office nurse that is a personal health coach for patients qualified for the program. My concern for this program is whether the benefit of the program outweighs the administrative costs. The purpose of this study is to determine that in a rural family practice patient population does the use of a health coach improve the care of my patients and by extension decrease hospital admissions. My hypothesis is that the use of an in office health coach allows for better care, decreased hospital visits, and at the same time saves money for the state. Methods A 14 month chart review was performed over the 7 months after the installation of a health coach in both the Gastorf Family Clinic and Durant Family Medicine Clinic. The same time a year ago, in the involved clinics, the charts were also reviewed to take out seasonal bias. Charts were reviewed in office and at the local hospital for office visits, hospital admissions, and emergency department visits. No data were obtained regarding the reasons for the office visits, emergency room visits, or for the admitting diagnosis. Data and Results The total enrollment of patients in both the Gastorf Family Clinic and the Durant Family Medicine Clinic was 170 patients. Total of 55 patients were eliminated from the study. Of the 55 patients, 31 patients were eliminated from the study due to not being established with Durant Family Medicine Clinic prior to August 2012 or no longer a patient of the involved clinics after the start of the study. Another 22 patient were eliminated from the study due to not being established with Gastorf Family Clinic prior to August 2012 or no longer being a patient after the start of the study. 2 patients enrolled in the health management system did not have any records in either of the clinics. Total patients used for the study was 115 patients. The average age of patients was 42.8. The distribution of patients in the study was 30.4% male and 69.6 % female. The Durant Family Medicine Clinic had 44 patients or 38.3% of the participants in the study. Gastorf Family Clinic had 71 patients or 61.7% of the participants in the study. The study evaluated inpatient and outpatient data from August 2012 through February 2013 and August 2013 through February 2014. These dates were determined due to the start of the practice management program was in August 2013. The August 2012 to February 2013 dates were used for comparison, in an attempt to negate seasonal admission changes. Data was obtained from a chart review at both involved clinics. Upon discovery of those patients who qualified, with continued care through the study time period, a hospital chart analysis was performed. Data was obtained from the local regional medical center in regards to emergency room visits, hospital admits, and total hospital days. Office Visits Emergency Visits Hospital Admits Pre-study 605 81 14 Study 617 75 7 p-value 0.371 0.317 0.026 Analysis of the data showed a 50% reduction in the number of individuals who were admitted to the hospital at least once in the same time period over 7 months. A one-tail paired t-test was performed and demonstrated a significant result with a p-value of p=0.026. The International Federation of Health Plans 2013 Comparative Price report shows that the average cost per hospital day in the United States is $4,293 (4). Based on evaluation of emergency room visits and hospital costs per day, this program saved about $63,387 over a seven month period for a total of 115 patients enrolled in the study. That is a savings of $551 over a years’ time per patient. Study did not show any significance with regards to a decrease in office visits and emergency room visits. There was an absolute difference of 6 emergency department visits or decrease of 7.4%. Discussion What are the cost savings if we extrapolated the results to the entire SoonerCare population? The current enrollment of Oklahoma SoonerCare as of the end of December 2013 was 555,436 (5). The annual budget of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority is over 5.3 billion dollars with 4.7 billion going towards Medicaid payments (6). If you use the results of the study with the total SoonerCare enrollment the savings would be $306 million dollars. The value of $306 million is overstated due to may issue. The extrapolation this number is unfair and inaccurate. The program as stated is for those patients with chronic conditions that are at risk, or potentially at high risk. This is but a minority portion of the SoonerCare population, which I will discuss below. The other issue is the population size of the study. This study included less than 0.03% of the total SoonerCare population. To extrapolate any data from that small sample size is fraught with inaccuracies. That being said, this study did show a significant decrease in hospital stays for the population involved in the study. Why is there so much focus on reducing cost associated with patients with chronic conditions? A 2010 report by the Agency for Health care Research and Quality found that the top 1 percent of patients ranked based on health care expenses amassed 21.4 percent of the total health care cost (7). The annual cost for these patients was estimated to be $87,570 per year per person (7). They also found that the top 50% of health associated expenders correlated to 97.2% of all health care dollars (7). Further analysis of this study also showed that those patients with four or more chronic conditions are responsible for 29.7% of health care expenditures (7). Who is enrolled in the SoonerCare health management program? Those members with, or at risk for developing chronic disease and are high risk for adverse outcomes and increase likelihood of a health care crisis. By addressing those with multiple chronic medical conditions you are addressing the most concentrated cost centers and will get the best return on investment of health care expenditures. This has been shown through analysis of the SoonerCare health management program. Currently there is over five thousand patients enrolled in the program (8). What is the cost of the program in relations to the cost savings? Study done by the Pacific Health Policy Group has shown that the SoonerCare health management program had an aggregated savings of $214 million for the 2013 fiscal year (9). The Practice facilitation component was shown to decrease the cost per patient from $678 down to $634 including the administrative costs of the program (9). In the same study it was found that the total cost of the program and administrative costs was $32 million (9). When taken from the overall medical savings it showed a return on investment of 562% (9). The SoonerCare health management program saved $5.62 for every dollar spent on the program. So what about patient care? The Study from the Pacific Health Policy Group did show of the 21 clinical performance measures 16 showed increased compliance with standards and of those 11 were statistically significant (9). This study showed the most significant improvements in the area of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension (9). So do clinical performance measures correlate with patient outcome improvement? First health care professionals need information on performance to develop quality care that is also efficient (10). This is where the diagnostic specific measures fit in. The new PQRS standards for Medicare for 2014 there are 287 separate diagnostic measures over 25 groups. The scope of this research was not to address the specific patient care outcomes, but in a retrospective review of each of the clinic’s clinical performance measures before and after the institution of this program did show increase compliance with c linical performance measures being studied in the clinics. So what is the practice management program? It involves a health coach, which is a RN, to assist primary care practices in building a high quality care delivery processes through evaluation and coaching patients with chronic medical conditions, to oversee data capture to identify gaps in care delivery, implement and teach quality improvement methods to close gaps and improve the practice’s ability to effectively manage its patients population through data analysis and process design. Through the SoonerCare health management program patient receive the following services in table 1 (11). Through the practice facilitation portion of the program the patients receive the following services in table 2 (12). Conclusions There were many limitations to this study. As mentioned above, this study was a very small population compared to the affected group. The study only reviewed seven months before and seven months after the start of the program. As with any study group local effect must be accounted for. A larger study with multiple clinics in different locations throughout the state would give a more reliable result. An example of this study was performed by the Pacific Health Policy Group, which showed similar results to this study. In conclusion, in the practices involved in the study, it was shown that there was a significant decrease in hospital visits with the use of an in office health coach and the SoonerCare health management program. A significant financial benefit for the state with the SoonerCare health management program was also seen with a cost savings of $551 per patient per year. This study did not address specific diagnostic measures, but with decreased hospital admissions an assumption can be made in regards to improved patient care. Also in retrospective review of clinical outcome measures did show improvement in both clinics after the institution of the SoonerCare health management program.

Wedding Speech Delivered by the Groom -- Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeche

Wedding Speech Delivered by the Groom Before I start I have to ask... Do you like my outfit?... you see, I asked the tailor for Versace... but he thought I said "Liberace"! Ladies, Gentlemen, Friends, Relatives and any stray pedestrians who may have wandered in. On behalf of my wife and I... or as I prefer to call her "my most recent ex-girlfriend", welcome to our wedding. I hope you're all enjoying yourselves on this special day. Its great to see you all and I can honestly say it would have been rubbish without you. It would also have been a lot cheaper without you, but that's beside the point. We'd like to thank my new Father-in-law for his kind words and good wishes. And to thank both my new in-laws for all the help (both organisational and financial) they have given us in arranging this reception. I'd like to thank them personally also for all the kindness and generosity they have shown me over the last 8 years, especially after we got off on the wrong foot 8 years ago with the awful blocked toilet incident. I won't go into the details here, but suffice to say their toilet was not blocked before I went in there, but it was very blocked when I left... and overflowing. Nothing much was said at the time, but I did notice on my next visit that the bathroom carpet had been replaced with easy wipe laminate floor! So for that discretion and everything else: thank you. We'd also like to thank my mum for ... ...or those who don't know, Nuala is the one with the plaster cast on her arm, sustained in an arm-wrestling contest to decide who would be the chief bridesmaid. And Shiv who is the chief bridesmaid! We'd like to thank both of you for all the support given to the bride today as well as the other kind of support offered on the way home from the hen do. But most of all we want to thank you for blending in so well with the table cloths. So if you would all stand and raise your glasses and join me in toasting the bridesmaids... "The bridesmaids!" OK I could go on all night, trotting out the usual tired old jokes and fictitious anecdotes, but instead I'm going to leave that to the best man. Thank you.