[ PART 1 ] What progress has been made so far 1. Have come a long way DOC 1/2/3/ 2. Still some way to go DOC 1/2/3/

[ LINE OF REASONING]

[ TITLE ]

[ PRESENTING DOCUMENTS ]

‘Synthèse’ -- CORRECTION DST 4 Synthèse CCP/E3A (Gender-related issues) – CORRECTION

American society getting more tolerant lately –how so, and why.

The set of documents focuses on greater social acceptance in the US. Areas of social progress include issues like euthanasia or pot legalization, as well as several gender-related questions such as same-sex marriage, abortion rights or the gender gap.

The dossier comprises three US press articles released in the fall of 2014. A Wall Street Journal article discusses a Gallup chart of 50 years worth of polling data. Bloomberg Businessweek relates the statement made by Apple’s CEO coming out as a gay man. While NBC News analyzes how gender might shape Hillary Clinton’s possible 2016 presidential run.

All three documents shed a different light –whether statistical, personal or political– on social progress, especially as to what progress has been made so far, and how. Social issues have come a long way. Gallup’s chart is crystal-clear about that. Legal pot, end-of-life and gay marriage all started off at about a third or less of public support. They now all stand above (sometimes well above) 50%. The shift is echoed by Cook vividly recalling the America he grew up in as a gay teenager, a world much less accepting than today’s.

Gender equality has made inroads too, NBC points out. Evidence of this is how little discussed gender was during Clinton’s first presidential bid –a topic now much higher up her tentative 2016 presidential agenda. Yet there’s still some way to go, two documents suggest. Cook mentions some state legislation is still slanted against female professionals. And there’s still room for improvement for women in top jobs, NBC insists. Few make it to the corner office, and gender bias still plays against Clinton on the campaign trail. On balance, though, progress has been made, no doubt. Understanding how is another question.

Leaders –as the WSJ put its– or what Cook refers to as ‘public figures’, play a major part, for sure, it seems. But it’s hard to grasp who’s actually effecting change, hard to distinguish between cause and effect. Are public figures prompting the trend or only riding on the back of it? NBC-interviewed PR adviser Phil Singer reckons it’s a bit of both, really, as does the financial daily using the chicken-and-egg analogy.

Opportunities also play a role, female conservatives quoted by NBC suggest. Some like Clinton may be using social issues to their own game, jumping on the bandwagon when most convenient. Women’s support could indeed benefit Clinton as it did Obama in 2012. Similarly, Tim Cook speaking up may raise questions as to who’s actually talking : the next (gay) guy and/or a CEO in for some publicity stunt?

440 [ 360 – 440 ]

[ PART 2 ] Understand what drives social progress 2.1. Leadership DOC 1/2/3 2.2. Opportunities DOC 1/2/3

[ WORD COUNT ]

DST 4 Synthèse CCP/E3A (Gender-related issues) – CORRECTION

American society getting more tolerant lately –how so, and why.

The set of documents focuses on greater social acceptance in the US. Areas of social progress include issues like euthanasia or pot legalization, as well as several gender-related questions such as same-sex marriage, abortion rights or the gender gap.

The dossier comprises three US press articles released in the fall of 2014. A Wall Street Journal article discusses a Gallup chart of 50 years worth of polling data. Bloomberg Businessweek relates the statement made by Apple’s CEO coming out as a gay man. While NBC News analyzes how gender might shape Hillary Clinton’s possible 2016 presidential run.

All three documents shed a different light –whether statistical, personal or political– on social progress, especially as to what progress has been made so far, and how. Social issues have come a long way. Gallup’s chart is crystal-clear about that. Legal pot, end-of-life and gay marriage all started off at about a third or less of public support. They now all stand above (sometimes well above) 50%. The shift is echoed by Cook vividly recalling the America he grew up in as a gay teenager, a world much less accepting than today’s.

Gender equality has made inroads too, NBC points out. Evidence of this is how little discussed gender was during Clinton’s first presidential bid –a topic now much higher up her tentative 2016 presidential agenda. Yet there’s still some way to go, two documents suggest. Cook mentions some state legislation is still slanted against female professionals. And there’s still room for improvement for women in top jobs, NBC insists. Few make it to the corner office, and gender bias still plays against Clinton on the campaign trail. On balance, though, progress has been made, no doubt. Understanding how is another question.

Leaders –as the WSJ put its– or what Cook refers to as ‘public figures’, play a major part, for sure, it seems. But it’s hard to grasp who’s actually effecting change, hard to distinguish between cause and effect. Are public figures prompting the trend or only riding on the back of it? NBC-interviewed PR adviser Phil Singer reckons it’s a bit of both, really, as does the financial daily using the chicken-and-egg analogy.

Opportunities also play a role, female conservatives quoted by NBC suggest. Some like Clinton may be using social issues to their own game, jumping on the bandwagon when most convenient. Women’s support could indeed benefit Clinton as it did Obama in 2012. Similarly, Tim Cook speaking up may raise questions as to who’s actually talking : the next (gay) guy and/or a CEO in for some publicity stunt?

440 [ 360 – 440 ]

-- some LEXICON that came up --

•  a graph / a chart / !statistics / !data / a few facts & figures •  !public figures, celebrities, politicians or businesspeople like Clinton, such as Cook •  (+) much progress has been made / these issues have come a long way •  (-) still room for improvement toward greater tolerance / equality is still a long way away •  Over half of Americans now support / 2 in 3 Americans still oppose same-sex marriage

-- some METHOD some should improve on--

•  Don’t copy & paste the documents’ titles ! briefly explain what they talk about •  Underline publications : as explain both WSJ and NBC, leadership plays a major part in … •  1 paragraph = make 1 major point using at least 2 documents which you compare/oppose to one another

Opposition to homosexual marriage moved from 68% in 1996 to 42% in 2014.

! Opposition to same-sex marriage has dropped 25 points to 42% in about 2 decades

Euthanasia’s opinion has grown from 36% in 1950 to 69% people in favour today.

! Support for euthanasia has roughly doubled in over a half-century.

There was a rise in supporters for gay marriage. In 1996, 27% supported this cause but the Gallup poll in May 2014 showed that today 55% support it.

! Support for gay marriage has doubled in 20 years or so.

Only one in five Senators are women and none of them go to major talk-shows.

! Women are still under-represented in both politics and the news industry.

Sta

tistic

s

If we believe the graphic, and if we took on consideration the fact that more and more people are mobilized, …

!  If the graph is to be believed, [passive]

and if people’s increasing activism is taken into account, … [passive]

We could ask a question: what does public opinion add to the matter? We can ask ourselves: have inequalities been solved?

! One may wonder what public opinion adds to the matter. ! One may wonder whether inequalities have been solved.

Even if we can’t say exactly why they happened, one thing is to know, we should keep them in our sight.

! Even though reasons can’t be given for current social changes, [passive]

One thing is for sure, they are here for the long haul.

We can see the same in Clinton’s article. We can oppose both NBC and Cook to the WSJ article.

! The same goes for Clinton OR Likewise, … Similarly, …

! Both NBC and Cook seem at odds with the WSJ article.

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