Reflecting on my Skype exchange!

(Photo source)

This week I had my third Skype exchange with Chiara, my American peer! As time goes, I enjoy skyping with her more and more. Although this time we had a conference call made up of five people, we managed to discuss about our final project successfully!

First of all my Italian peers and I proposed Chiara our individual topics.

- Elisa suggested music as one of the main channels through which the culture of a country is conveyed. For example, she pointed out that in America there are many genres, and this reflects the multi-ethnic composition of America.

- Silvia N. proposed immigration, in particular the problems immigrants face when they have to find a job. For instance, Silvia underlined that in Italy skilled immigrants who have a long work experience or a qualified degree are often discriminated when they apply for a job.

- Silvia L., on the other hand, wanted to compare the situation of working women in the US and Italy, focusing on discrimination women suffer as for wages, job insecurity, positions they fill and involvement in politics.

- Finally, my proposal was abortion to see how Italy and America have faced this big ethical issue so far: the abortion laws, if health care covers abortion, abortion rates, and the influence of religion in the two countries.

As can be seen, our topics were all very interesting, but also very different! That’s why it took us much time before coming to an agreement! By the way, after discussing the pros and cons of each issue, we decided to develop women issue given that Chiara showed a particular interest in health care and abortion. Unfortunately, at that point Chiara had to leave the conversation, so we went on discussing without Chiara. Sarah told us that women issue was too broad and suggested us to narrow the topic and focus on one particular aspect.

Eventually, we decided to develop a wiki-page on “Women at work” by comparing the situation in the US and Italy. We immediately sent an e-mail to Chiara just to update her about our choice. Meanwhile, we sketched a first outline, divided the topic into subtopics and decided who’s doing what too. Thus, I’m going to present some data about working women (percentage of women who works vs housewives and of working mothers vs stay-at-home mothers, kinds of jobs women are usually employed in, wage discrimination between men and women); Elisa is going to deal with working mothers' rights; Silvia Lovato is going to discuss women in politics, and Silvia N. is going to talk about women immigrants.

During this weekend we are carrying out some research on the Web; we also established that, if we find useful sources, we bookmark them on delicious with a tag that is specific of our group. In addition, together with Chiara, we chose to communicate via e-mail because, in our opinion, it’s the more effective way since you can easily forward Chiara’s replies to all the members. In addition, we set out that each week one person will have the responsibility for writing to Chiara if there are any updates, or other important things she should know. That’s all for the moment! Now I’ll search for some sources…Hopefully, we’ll do a good job!