Although the industrial union organizations that emerged under the ban

Hello Steinbeck,
Thank you for the appreciation .

I approach Reading Comprehension questions as a Critical Reasoning one.
I look at the question first and then read the passage to infer what are the author's thoughts ?
For every paragraph ,think what is the purpose, why it is mentioned here ?
Try to identify the conclusion . Each passage will have a conclusion .
Also, even if you are a native speaker, cultivate the habit of reading .Read on wide variety of topics. It is very handy when solving RC questions

Let's take this passage as a example :

The conclusion is the 3rd line : " the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period"
Going ahead ,next set of lines defend the conclusion .
In the second paragraph, the author quotes another study to strengthen the conclusion.

So to summarize, this passage is about the role of women in a given period. Author provides two sets of study to strengthen the conclusion .
Keeping this conclusion in mind look at the questions.

Let me know if it helps.

1)
PARA 1: Elizabeth Faue's
... the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period..
.. women were marginalized by union bureaucratization..

PARA 2 : Nancy F. Gabin
..Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination...


A – Inclusion of women could be attributed to non discrimination and inclusion policies but we can not infer that both ladies(E.F and NG) agreed on this point. Nowhere mentioned in the passage. – Eliminated
B – importance of unions at community level – again not mentioned in passage.
C- according to the passage –
” Faue stresses the importance of women’s contribution to the development of unions at the community level”
“Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions, but maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women”
But there is no mention of establishment of union – Eliminated
D – Both acknowledged pervasive male domination and women where marginalized. So it suggests that women played a subordinate role.
E – Interests of women workers were not compatible – Nowhere mentioned in the passage.

Hence D is correct.



2)
A. It prevented women from making significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions

The passage says 'to which women's contributions were so vital' and 'Faue stresses the importance of women's contribution to the development of unions'. This clearly shows that women actually did contribute, nothing prevented them from doing so.

B. It resulted from the marginalization of women in Industrial unions

The passage says 'unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period'. That means that the gender ideology existed before the unions did so it couldn't have resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions. In fact, it's probably the opposite - the marginalization of women resulted from the gender ideology.

C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions

Like I mentioned above, the passages suggests that gender ideology caused the marginalization of women in industrial unions. The passage states 'the community base [women] ...became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life'. The industrial unions marginalized the women and their issues as they began to view them as irrelevant - you can infer that this is because of the prevailing gender ideology. The 'significant effect' is that gender ideology actually prevented the advancement of women issues. Thus the passage implies that the gender ideology negatively affected the way women's issues were treated and thus had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.

D. Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion

Gender ideology is the exact opposite. The tenets of the industrial unions 'embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion'. The passages uses 'although' in the same sentence to suggest a contrast in the way they actually did treat issues and further states that 'the role of women... reflected the prevailing gender ideology' - the complete opposite of its tenets.

E. Its effects were mitigated by the growth of industrial unions

the passage states 'as unions reached the peak of their strength in the 1940s, the community base that had made their success possible and to which women's contributions were so vital became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life.' This shows that as the unions grew, the way they viewed women and their issues became worse or irrelevant.

I probably wouldn't focus on the word women's issues - the purpose of industrial unions is to address and support issues of the industrial workers. The first passage is shows how gender ideology affected how women were viewed in industrial unions. A natural byproduct would be the way their issues were viewed and treated as well. In addition, the second passage implies that the viewpoint in the first paragraph is that women weren't really able to advance their interests through this statement: 'but maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women.'
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Time taken 8 mins.
Q1 & 2 spoiled my timing.

1. According to the passage, Faue's study and Gabin's study agree in that both
D. suggest that women in industrial union organizations played a subordinate role
"Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions"

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?
B: It resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions.
>>the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period.Blah blah.. that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization ..
Option B is something that we cant prove from given argument. It may be that it led to MOW.
C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.
>>"the community base that had made their success possible and to which women's contributions were so vital became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life." Thi indirectly implies C.
D:Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion.
>> Opposite. Also D is said abt CIO not GI.
industrial union organizations ..... embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period.

3. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with
A. presenting two views
C. assessing conflicting evidence
Close call for me between A and C.
But this is why A is correct.Second Para doesnt present conflicting evidence but something that was missed or not covered in Faue's study(Para 1).
"Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions, but maintains ..."

manishkhare

Thank You for such a prompt response. I hardly see anyone active on the RC Forum. I was delighted to see that some one replied. I see that you have a very good strategy at tackling RC's. This might work for me too

Looking at the questions first, trying to locate the conclusion of each paragraph and then trying to relate each paragraph with one another. Sounds like a great therapy! I am eager to apply this in a couple of RC's that I am going to solve now. The only thing that's bugging me is how do you manage to solve all the questions with 100% accuracy and that too in less than average time.

Your timing is just more than perfect. Can you suggest something on that front apart from the reading exercise that you have already mentioned.

Many Thanks again.

Hello Steinbeck,
I am sure my strategy will work for you too. Coming to the timing part, you need to train your ears for RC. There is no short-cut for this process. Make a habit to ready daily. Cover variety of topics from economics to bio-technology. Initially, it will be difficult but over a period of time you will be able to build speed.

atshy21saraf

Happy to help

Well, I'll say that I have a flair for Quantitative Reasoning since High School. I have been actively participating in Math Olympiads and I love number crunching a lot. Having said that, I cannot totally attribute this trait to a great quant score. When I first started preparing I wasn't as good as I am today. Reason is simple. GMAT Quant is quite different from what we have learned at 'high school'. So, what really helped me?

1. I have practised 2000+ questions and the reason that I am able to do them is that I just love solving them. I have exhausted almost everything 'Official' and I'd highly recommend that you at least solve the following:
a) OG Latest Edition 2016 (Or any edition you have 13,15)
b) OG Quantitative Review
c) GMAT Question Pack (This has around 200+ PS and DS questions) - Paid product by GMAC
d) GMAT Prep 1, 2, 3, and 4 (This has a minimum of 37 X 4 = 148 questions. Take the tests at least twice. This will give you close to ~200 questions) -Prep 3 and 4 again are paid.

I have seen a lot of people commenting that the questions in Official Guide and other 'Official' material are comparatively easier than what they see on the GMAT. Even after that, I'd say practice these questions. Why ? Because this will help you think the GMAT way. This should at least take you to a level of Q 45-46!

2. Another reason that I think I do well is that I don't write much when I solve a Math question. I usually do Math in my mind so my scratch pad is not even half filled by the time I complete the Math section. This will be tough in the beginning but trust me as you'll practice you'll realise that it can do a lot good to you. This will save a lot of time. Start doing it on the DS section. Just on my say - Pick a set of 10 questions and set a timer of 20 mins. Behave as if you don't have a pen and paper and do it in the mind. If that helps, thank yourself that you discovered something good. If it doesn't, ignore and move ahead.

3. [redacted]

4. Ian Stewart Sets - A must. I just cannot emphasise how good they are. Be it a entry level student or a highly qualified candidate.

5. MGMAT 5 Books (If you have time) : Make notes of important rules/formulas and jot down few examples and solution to questions that you stuck at.
[ Those who would like to build their basics, they can practise Manhattan Guides before doing what I have listed from Step 1 ]

And yes, whatever questions you get wrong from any of the sources that you are practising from, keep noting them down in Microsoft Word file along with the best possible explanation available on the Internet so that by the time you finish your preparation you have a handful of questions to review. Revise them after a period of 7 days. Keep accumulating and keep revising. This is the most important thing to scoring well on Quant (or rather on Verbal Section too)

Hope this helps.

Let me know if you have any doubt. I'd be happy to address

Took 7 mins 30 second , including 2 mins 20 seconds to read
-The author does not provide an opinion but merely provides 2 views on a subject
-The two views agree on certain aspects and also differ in certain aspects

1.
"In her study of CIO industrial unions from the 1930s to the 1970s, Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions"

The above lines suggest that Nanacy Gabin agrees with Faue on the fact that there was a pervasive male domination in the Unions. This implies that Women in Industrial Unions played Subordinate roles.Hence Option (D) is the best answer.

2.
(C) It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.

3. Wasn't sure about this answer
A. presenting two views
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Hello

I want to review my opinion on question 2. still I am not able to convince myself that option C is correct , let me explain my reasoning, from the given extract

Although the industrial union organizations that emerged under the banner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s and 1940s embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period. Elizabeth Faue's study of the labor movement in Minneapolis argues that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization and b

I have underlined the sentence that will help in answer question 2, The sentence start with Although so definitely going to contrast the sub-clause right? the first clause after Although talk about embraceing the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion , which is positive thing so after comma i expected the negative the thing.

The clause after Comma talk about prevailing Gender Ideology, and even after this sentence there is an example of women Marginalization so how can gender ideology will convey so positive fact about women as in answer option C
Prevailing ideology i believe was that they still had discrimination at that time as the next example follow-
Please tell why my understanding is wrong

Choice (C) is the best answer. I hope that helps!
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Can you please explain why option A is incorrect and option C correct for Q2?

2. Which of the following can be inferred regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?

A. It prevented women from making significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions.

"Faue stresses the importance of women's contribution to the development of unions at the community level, ..."
" the community base that had made their success possible and to which women's contributions were so vital "

show that women did make significant contributions to the establishment of industrial unions.

B. It resulted from the marginalization of women in industrial unions.

"gender ideology" was not the result of marginalisation of women. The ideology was that women were marginalised.

C. It had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions.

Note here that effect on advancement does not mean it led to advancement. The effect could be negative too i.e. it did not let advancement happen. Due to the prevailing gender ideology

The very first sentence tells you that gender ideology had a negative impact by using the word "Although"
"Although the industrial union organizations ... embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period."
Then use of "women were marginalized" etc in rest of paragraph one shows that gender ideology had significant impact.

D. Its primary tenets were nondiscrimination and inclusion.

No, as shown in option (C), the first sentence tells us that union adopted these tenets but gender ideology led to different results.

E. Its effects were mitigated by the growth of industrial unions.

No, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology.

Answer (C)
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Only C works. This is because the ideology embraced non-inclusion and discrimination - and the significant effect it had was the marginalization of women's issues and the limited space in which (Gabin's study) women had to advance their interests.

Option A is out - Faue's study shows women were able to make contributions that started unions at the community level.

Option B is out since nothing has been said of the source of the gender ideology.

Discrimination and non-inclusion were the prevailing ideology of the period. Hence D is out - answer choice is completely opposite from the prevailing ideology.

In addition, it is suggested by Faue's study that the prevailing gender ideology and its effects were not 100% mitigated by the growth of unions - in fact, Faue states that 'as unions reached the peak of their strength... the community base that made their success possible... became irrelevant to union's institutional life."

Therefore, E is out as well.

Which of the following can be inferred regarding the "gender ideology" mentioned in the highlighted text?
How Gender Ideology had a significant effect on the advancement of women's issues within industrial unions is difficult to understand?
As per my understanding passage suggest is Marginalization of women is because of 2 factor:
1. union bureaucratization
2. the separation of unions from the community politics from which industrial unionism had emerged.

Faue stresses the importance of women's contribution to the development of unions at the community level (which lead to Industrial Union). Thus Women Contribution rather that gender Ideology creates significant impact.

Can anyone explain why C is correct and Option is Dead Wrong ?

this is hard
passage is short and contain no new words. but it is hard to understand. the key is read slowly and reread slowly. the sentence is complex and the ideas in the sentences are also complex. that is why the passage is hard though no new words are here.
so, gmat test us slow reading of complex ideas and complex sentences. dont read fast, dont learn new words.

the questions are hard because high level of inference is needed. inference is time consuming. we need to infer from one sentence or a few words in the passage to get information needed for correct answer. though the inference is from just a few words or one sentence, it is not easy. take rereading the the sentence

Q2 - Inference

The sentence in which "gender ideology" is contained basically states that although organisations embraced women and diversity, they still held the same beliefs pre-diversity.. We know that Women wanted to participate in unions, but this in someway limited their participation.

A is incorrect - nothing is mentioned of the ESTABLISHMENT of unions
B - marginalisation is what happened to women after they joined the unions, not before. Incorrect
C - Correct. It impeded women's participation. We are in no way told that women wanted to establish unions, we just know that they wanted to participate.
D - No. A tenet = a belief. The prevailing ideology was actually the opposite.
E - No. The whole passage goes onto present 2 perspectives on why women were subordinate.

Choice (C) is the best answer. I hope that helps![/quote]

Dear GMATNinja,
honestly I cannot understand
We can infer that the prevailing idealogy was one that marginalized women. So the marginalization of women in unions was a product of this prevailing idealogy.

IMO, the role of women reflect gender ideology, which is a bad thing for women.
then following says a study of Elizabeth Faue, and she pointed out that women were marginalized, so I think marginalization is one example of gender ideology, is an example of a bad thing. how can I infer that marginalization was a product of gender ideology.??

please elaborate further.

thanks in advance

[/quote]

1. If you notice the passage has many sentences highlighting gender bias
-Elizabeth Faue's study of the labor movement in Minneapolis argues that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization
-women's contributions were so vital became increasingly irrelevant to unions' institutional life.
-the pervasive male domination in the unions,

2. Gender ideology is mentioned for period 1930-40s and later in passage it mentioned till 1970s. During this time , women had issues on the progress within union due to pervasive male domination, sidelined women contributions etc.


The question to infer about gender biasness to men, from above 2 sentences, it tends to infer that women couldn’t grow in unions due to gender biasness prevailing during that period.
( If in the passage it was mentioned that some people or poor people or lower class or any other category expect based on gender then we could n’t have inferred such points)

I hope it is clear.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma - Can you pls share your understanding of the passage ?

These are the key points of the passage:

Although the union orgs that emerged under the banner of CIO in the 1930s and 1940s embraced the principles of nondiscrimination and inclusion, the role of women within unions reflected the prevailing gender ideology of the period (it means they were discriminated against).

Elizabeth Faue's study argues that women were marginalized by union bureaucratization though they made important contribution to the development of unions at the community level.

Nancy F. Gabin also acknowledges the pervasive male domination in the unions, but maintains that women workers were able to create a political space within some unions to advance their interests as women.

With the use of "but", the author shows the contrast between the two views - Faue says women played almost no role but Gabin says that they were able to create some space.
Though both agree that women did play a subordinate role.
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