Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of

Question

Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of public policy and emphasize the role of the labor market when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies, arguing that prior to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, employers were already providing maternity leave in response to the increase in the number of women workers. Employers did create maternity-leave programs in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but not as a purely voluntary response in the absence of any government mandate. In 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that employers who allowed leaves for disabling medical conditions must also allow them for maternity and that failure to do so would constitute sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As early as 1973, a survey found that 58 percent of large employers had responded with new maternity-leave policies. Because the 1972 EEOC ruling was contested in court, the ruling won press attention that popularized maternity-leave policies. Yet perhaps because the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leave policies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.   1 
 C 
1. It can be inferred that the author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about government policy?

(A) Government policy is generally unaffected by pressures in the labor market.
(B) The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened by sustained press attention.
(C) It is possible for a particular government policy to continue to have an impact after that policy has been eliminated.
(D) A given government policy can be counterproductive when that policy has already unofficially been implemented.
(E) The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened when the ruling is contested in court.

2 
 D 
2. The passage suggests that the relationship between the view of the author with respect to maternity leave policy prior to passage of the FMLA and the view of the politicians, business leaders, and scholars mentioned in lines 1-2 can best be characterized by which of the following statements?

(A) They agree that both the 1972 EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy and the increasing feminization of the workplace had an impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree about the relative importance of each factor.
(B) They agree that the EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy had an initial impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree over whether the Supreme Court’s striking down of the EEOC ruling weakened that impact.
(C) They agree that creating maternity-leave programs was a necessary response to the needs of the increasing number of women workers but disagree about whether maternity should be classified as a disabling medical condition.
(D) They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about employers’ motivations for doing so.
(E) They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about how widespread those programs were.

3 
 A 
3. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) present an alternative to a commonly accepted explanation for a phenomenon
(B) reexamine a previously discredited explanation for a phenomenon in light of new evidence
(C) criticize politicians and scholars for failing to anticipate a phenomenon
(D) correct a common misconception about the impact a phenomenon has had on a government policy
(E) analyze the ways in which a phenomenon has changed over time in response to market forces

4 
 D 
4. According to the passage, the 1972 EEOC ruling did which of the following?

(A) It provided a government mandate for maternity-leave policies that employers were already offering voluntarily.
(B) It provoked a controversy among employers regarding the proper implementation of maternity-leave policies.
(C) It required all employers to provide employee leave for pregnant women and people with disabling medical conditions.
(D) It gave pregnant women the same rights to employee leave as people with disabling medical conditions.
(E) It increased pregnant women's awareness of their rights to employee leave.

KyleWiddison · Accepted Answer

If you want to get this question right, you have to have a solid understanding of the overall point of the passage. This passage is confusing because the point of the passage is to opposes the "point" made by the politicians. Politicians say that maternity leave is a result of labor market forces because public policy didn't exist until 1993. The author counters the politicians' point by saying that businesses started to change their maternity leave policies in 1972 in response to a ruling from the EEOC even though the ruling was struck down by the Court. Therefore, the driving force behind the change was not the labor market forces, but rather the short-lived public policy.

Answer choice C essentially restates the point of the passage. Public policy (the EEOC ruling) still has an impact (on maternity leave) even after eliminated (by the Court).

KW

Answer choice C essentially restates the point of the passage. Public policy (the EEOC ruling) still has an impact (on maternity leave) even after eliminated (by the Court).

KW

Ishan14 · Answer

Read option C Carefully.... "criticize politicians and scholars for failing to anticipate a phenomenon " Politicians and Scholars were able to anticipate the reasons behind the phenomenon , Phenomenon was already there ! , its the reasons behind the phenomenon , politicians and scholars were talking about , and they did not account for " how a government policy can affect a phenomenon" !

For the other option D) Again read the fully option , Misconception about how a phenomenon affects government policy is GMAT Trick to check your comprehension !

Its actually " Misconception about how a government policy affects a Phenomenon " :p. there is no option , by POE , you can only arrive at option A.

Kudos if you like the explanation !!

Hope it helps !?

ronr34 · Answer

I also chose D for Q2.
Can anyone confirm that the OA is B and explain why?

KyleWiddison · Answer

I'm going to quote myself as a source here. The answer to question 2 is D - Both groups agree that programs existed before FMLA but differ on the motivations. There are recognized programs before FMLA but the author is suggesting that early public policy did have an impact on those program's creation but politicians (and others) believe that programs resulted from the increasingly feminized workforce.

The answer cannot be B because the politicians (and others) do NOT recognize the EEOC ruling as having an impact because it was struck down but the Supreme Court (see the last few lines of the passage).

KW

nithinjohn · Answer

Can somebody please explain how the answer for the primary purpose question is option A and not C? Th tone of the author indicates that he is criticizing politicians and business leaders.

BrulesRules · Answer

"According to the passage, the 1972 EEOC ruling did which..."

Isn't D wrong for the same reason as C.... The passage says "employers who allowed leaves.." , this implies that not ALL employers necessarily allowed leave.

as such, the generalization in answer D "pregnant women" is incorrect as well. if a pregnant women works at a company who offers no leave to any employees, then she does not have the same rights regarding work leave as "people with disabling conditions" that work for say, a different company. so pregnant women have the same rights as the disabled in the same company, but to generalize that all pregnant have these rights would be incorrect.

answer E on the other hand is irrefutable. Please advise?

Skywalker18 · Answer

Hi boobymiles , In 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that employers who allowed leaves for disabling medical conditions must also allow them for maternity and that failure to do so would constitute sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It does not talk about women becoming more aware of their rights. Hope this helps!!

suyashiitb · Answer

3. The primary purpose of the passage is to 
(A) present an alternative to a commonly accepted explanation for a phenomenon
(B) reexamine a previously discredited explanation for a phenomenon in light of new evidence
(C) criticize politicians and scholars for failing to anticipate a phenomenon
(D) correct a common misconception about the impact a phenomenon has had on a government policy
(E) analyze the ways in which a phenomenon has changed over time in response to market forces

Can someone please explain why option C is incorrect - in the last para, the author clearly says that "....politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects" which is pointing out an error?

GMATNinja · Answer

Sure, you could say that the author is being critical of the  explanation  offered by politicians and scholars. However, the author's primary purpose is not to  criticize  the politicians and scholars themselves. Instead, the author wants you to walk away believing that his/her  alternative  explanation is more accurate that the  commonly accepted  explanation of the politicians and scholars.

More importantly, the passage doesn't say anything about their failing to "anticipate" any phenomenon. Instead, the passage simply suggests that their analyses of maternity-leave policies are not accurate. So (C) can be eliminated.

I hope this helps!

hassu13 · Answer

GMATNinja 
For the primary purpose , can you pl explain why B is not the answer.
The politicians and other scholars regard labor market as the cause of better maternity leave policies . Hence they have discredited the explanation-govt policy` impact. Author has provided evidences to ensure that public policy does hold a significant place. Hence b seems to be a valid answer.

GMATNinja · Answer

The explanation the author reexamines is: the labor market explains employers' maternity-leave policies more than public policy.

At no point are we told that this explanation has been  previously discredited . Rather, this explanation has been widely accepted by "many politicians, business leaders, and scholars." Maybe the confusion is coming from the fact that those people have "discounted the role of public policy"? They do not, however, discredit the explanation that the author examines.

The author is writing this passage in order to question the wide acceptance of this explanation. If anyone is discrediting the explanation, it's the author -- nobody else previously did so.

I hope this helps!

hassu13 · Answer

GMATNinja your perception from the passage is that the explanation is: does the labor market explain employers' maternity-leave policies more than public policy. However, what i percieve from the passage is the explanation that: public policy holds more importance in the maternity leave policies. This explanation of public policy holding predence was discounted. Hence, the explanation of public policy was discredited. To emphasise more on his explanation, the author has given further evidences that have happened in the past. Hence, i feel that the option b is correct. The perception of yours is different from mine.

I still cant get how am i wrong.

GMATNinja · Answer

What explanation has  previously  been discredited?

In order for us to accept choice (B) as correct, we must show that there was some  prior  explanation that emphasized public policy. We must also show that this phantom explanation was, at some point  in the past, discredited . To "reexamine a previously discredited explanation in light of new evidence" would involve:

1) describing an old explanation,
2) telling us that it previously was discredited,
3) telling us about some new evidence, and then
4) reexamining that same old explanation in light of the new evidence.

That's not what happens in this passage. The author describes a commonly held, present-day explanation that emphasizes the role of labor markets: "employers were already providing maternity leave  in response to the increase in the number of women workers ." Ah, okay, so the number of women workers increased, and that's why employers started providing maternity leave. This is what many politicians, business leaders, and scholars believe to this day.

This portion of the passage...

...is dedicated to presenting an alternative to the commonly held explanation.

The author  does not reexamine  what happened with the number of women in markets. The author does not reexamine the relationship between this number and employers' decision to provide maternity leave. Instead, the author  presents an entirely new explanation : that public policy rulings focused on discrimination led to maternity leave being introduced as early as 1973.

So, is the primary purpose to reexamine an explanation from the past? No. There was no past explanation to reexamine. In order to accept (B), we'd really have to twist some of the author's words or ignore critical wording in choice (B) as it's written.

The primary purpose of the passage is to present the author's new explanation -- an alternative to a commonly accepted explanation. (A) is a much better answer than (B), so we stick with (A).

I hope this helps!

ovrup007 · Answer

Could someone please explain why D is OA for Qno. 04?
I understand C is incorrect as it refers ALL Employees whereas in passage we see "employers who allowed leaves for disabling medical conditions"
But why is D correct? How is the statement generalizing?

GMATNinja · Answer

As  Skywalker18  pointed out in  this reply , choice (D) — as well as the passage — is concerned with the  rights  held by people with disabling medical conditions. According to the passage, the 1972 ruling stated that if an employer grants such rights to any person with a disabling condition, then they must also extend those same rights to any pregnant woman in their workforce.

Whether or not  all  employers literally extended these rights to the greater population of women  in general  is never mentioned. But with regards to the right to employee leave at a given company, the passage states that women at that company hold the same right as people with disabling medical conditions at that company.

NandishSS · Answer

If we paraphrase the passage, it might look like this:
- people think that maternity leave policies were driven solely by market forces, because...
- the law about it was was passed in 1993
- but many employers enacted policies in the 70s and 80s, long before the law
- however... there was a version of the law put forward in 1972
- it was widely publicized, so perhaps employers started getting on board because they heard about it
- the law was struck down in 1973, but employers kept the policies
- because the law was struck down, people forget that it might have had an effect
- it might not be just the market that had the effect

Or, boiled down even further...
- people think that X caused Y
- however, there was a Z that could have caused Y, but people forgot about it

For the main idea, we want something that captures the idea of "people tend to think it's one explanation, but it might be this other thing they forgot about."

The primary purpose is to

A. present an alternative to a commonly accepted explanation for a phenomenon

Exactly. We know that "many politicians,  ... emphasize the role of the labor market." So that's the commonly accepted viewpoint. The alternative is that the 1972 law might have actually impacted company policies, even though "perhaps... politicians and scholars failed to recognize its effects."

B. reexamine a previously discredited explanation for a phenomenon in light of new evidence

There is no discredited explanation. There is just the commonly accepted one, and the alternative one that the author puts forward. There is also no new evidence, just overlooked evidence.

C. criticize politicians and scholars for failing to anticipate a phenomenon

Nope. "Criticize" is WAY too strong / opinionated. Also, "anticipate" would be future-looking, and this passage stated that politicians and scholars failed to look backwards and realize the effects of something.

D. correct a common misconception about the impact a phenomenon has had on a government policy

The author is not definitively stating that people are misinformed, only that "PERHAPS" they've overlooked something. Also, the causation is backwards. The government policy affected the phenomenon (of maternity leave), not the other way around.

E. analyze the ways in which a phenomenon has changed over time in response to market forces

It's not about the market forces. The purpose of the passage was to show that it was the government's law, not the market forces, that shaped this phenomenon.

For main idea questions, trying paraphrasing the passage, and abstracting the structure to the highest level. Don't get lost in the details - the specific nouns. Find the moments of transition and contrast.

Courtesy :  Ceilidh Erickson 
Manhattan Prep GMAT & GRE instructor

sneck28 · Answer

1. It can be inferred that the author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about government policy?
 
(A) Government policy is generally unaffected by pressures in the labor market.
(B) The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened by sustained press attention.
(C) It is possible for a particular government policy to continue to have an impact after that policy has been eliminated. - RIGHT
 
Yet perhaps because the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leave policies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.

The policy was struck down, yet it did continue to have an impact in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.

(D) A given government policy can be counterproductive when that policy has already unofficially been implemented.
(E) The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened when the ruling is contested in court.

2. The passage suggests that the relationship between the view of the author with respect to maternity leave policy prior to passage of the FMLA and the view of the politicians, business leaders, and scholars mentioned in lines 1-2 can best be characterized by which of the following statements?
 
(A) They agree that both the 1972 EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy and the increasing feminization of the workplace had an impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree about the relative importance of each factor.
(B) They agree that the EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy had an initial impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree over whether the Supreme Court’s striking down of the EEOC ruling weakened that impact.
(C) They agree that creating maternity-leave programs was a necessary response to the needs of the increasing number of women workers but disagree about whether maternity should be classified as a disabling medical condition.
(D) They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about employers’ motivations for doing so. - RIGHT

General view
arguing that prior to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, employers were already providing maternity leave in response to the increase in the number of women workers. 
Author's view
Employers did create maternity-leave programs in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but not as a purely voluntary response in the absence of any government mandate. Yet perhaps because the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leave policies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.

(E) They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about how widespread those programs were.

3. The primary purpose of the passage is to
 
(A) present an alternative to a commonly accepted explanation for a phenomenon - RIGHT

commonly accepted explanation 
  Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of public policy and emphasize the role of the labor market when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies, arguing that prior to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, employers were already providing maternity leave in response to the increase in the number of women workers.

Authors explanation
 
 Yet perhaps because the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leave policies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.

(B) reexamine a previously discredited explanation for a phenomenon in light of new evidence
(C) criticize politicians and scholars for failing to anticipate a phenomenon
(D) correct a common misconception about the impact a phenomenon has had on a government policy
(E) analyze the ways in which a phenomenon has changed over time in response to market forces

4. According to the passage, the 1972 EEOC ruling did which of the following?
 
(A) It provided a government mandate for maternity-leave policies that employers were already offering voluntarily.
(B) It provoked controversy among employers regarding the proper implementation of maternity-leave policies.
(C) It required all employers to provide employee leave for pregnant women and people with disabling medical conditions.
(D) It gave pregnant women the same rights to employee leave as people with disabling medical conditions. - RIGHT
 (EEOC) ruled that employers who allowed leaves for disabling medical conditions must also allow them for maternity and that failure to do so would constitute sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
 
(E) It increased pregnant women's awareness of their rights to employee leave.

IGIG · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja ,

Could you please explain option A and option D of Question 3. Thanks

GMATNinja · Answer

Question 3 
 
When thinking about primary purpose questions, first break down the passage to understand why the author wrote each piece.

In the first sentence, the author  provides a commonly held view :

This view discounts the role of public policy and emphasizes the role of the labor market when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies

Then, the author  argues against this commonly held view :

He/she thinks that public policy DID have a big impact on companies' maternity-leave policies.

So, overall, why did the author write this passage? He/she wanted to argue that the commonly held view was wrong, and to offer another explanation.

With that in mind, which answer choice captures the author's primary purpose? Take a look at (D):
 
The first part seems fine: the author does want to "correct a common misconception."

However, there's a problem with the rest of (D). Remember that the author thinks that public policy (in other words, government policy) had a big impact on the phenomenon of maternity leave.

(D) is written the other way around -- as if maternity leave had an impact on government policy!

That's not at all what the author is getting at, so you can eliminate (D).

Here's (A):
 
This fits nicely with our analysis of the passage. The author presents an alternate explanation for why companies adopted maternity-leave policies.

(A) is the correct answer for question 3.

I hope that helps!

Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of

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Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of

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