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Abstract
The achievement of women's equality is an elusive goal, especially in developing economies, where states have been unable or unwilling to protect and promote women's human rights and gender equality. Many argue that globalisation has heightened gender inequality. One response to this crisis is the United Nations corporate citizenship initiative: the Global Compact. This paper argues that the Global Compact has a strong gender equality mandate, which has not been fulfilled. The paper advances a number of reasons why this may be the case, including the lack of women's participation at many levels, the pervasive nature of women's inequality and the fact it may not be in the interests of Global Compact signatories to address this inequality. Despite the limitations of this voluntary initiative, it does have some potential to effect positive change. However, unless the pervasive and continued violation of women's human rights is addressed by the Global Compact, the claim that it is a viable new form of global governance for addressing major social and economic problems is severely weakened.
Notes
1 undp, Human Development Report: Human Development to Eradicate Poverty, 1997, at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1997/en/; and S Barrientos, Gender, Business and Poverty—Developing an Integrated Approach, Paper 5, International Business Leaders Forum, 2002, at http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/news/Archive/CHOG.pdf.
2 While acknowledging the importance of the concept of gender in understanding the social construction of identities, and while I refer to gender equality in some parts of the paper, I use ‘women’ as a concept here because the focus of the research is on how the Global Compact addresses inequality faced by women as a group. Although I do not distinguish among groups of women in this paper, it is important to realise that, just as the category of ‘women’ is not homogeneous, there are multiple and concurrent levels of oppression that women face, such as racism, homophobia, cultural genocide of aboriginal peoples, etc. Finally, I use the concept of ‘equality’ in a broad sense, referring to the goal of substantive equality and social justice, which is based on the recognition that women are differentially situated and have been historically and systemically discriminated against.
3 undp, Human Development Report: International Cooperation at a Crossroads—Aids, Trade and Security in an Unequal World, 2005, at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_HDI.pdf; and World Bank Gender and Development Group, Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003, at http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2003/05/27/000160016_20030527143713/Rendered/PDF/Gender0MDGs.pdf.
5 EJ Croll, ‘From the girl child to girls' rights’, Third World Quarterly, 27 (7) 2006, p 1288.
6 undp, Human Development Report: International Cooperation at a Crossroads.
7 N Kabeer, Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals, Ottawa: Commonwealth Secretariat/ idrc/cida, 2003.
8 G Kell & D Levin, ‘The Global Compact network: an historic experiment in learning and action’, Business and Society Review, 108 (2), 2003, pp 151 – 181.
9 A Zammit, Development at Risk: Rethinking UN – Business Partnerships, Geneva: South Centre, 2003, p 80.
10 U Baxi et al, ‘Coalition letter to Kofi Annan on the Global Compact’, at http://www.commondreams.org/news2000/0720-09.htm, accessed 7 January 2007.
11 S Rai, ‘Gendering global governance’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6 (4), 2004, p 582.
12 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, ‘Address to the una – USA Business Council for the United Nations and the Association for a Better New York’, New York, 10 January 2007, at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/NewsAndEvents/speeches_and_statements/10sgsmunausa.pdf.
13 UN Global Compact, ‘Impact and progress of the Global Compact's 105 largest Companies’, 2006, at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/NewsAndEvents/news_archives/2006_04_26.html.
14 A Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, p 15.
15 unrisd, Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World, Geneva: unrisd, 2005, p 36; and G Waylen, ‘Putting governance into the gendered political economy of globalization’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6 (4), 2004, pp 557 – 578.
16 J Scholte, Globalization: A Critical Introduction, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp 336 – 338.
17 UN Division for the Advancement of Women Working Paper, Engaging in Globalization: Implications for Gender Relations, 1999; and Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors, p 16.
18 VS Peterson, A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Economy: Intergrating Reproductive, Productive and Virtual Economies, London: Routledge, 2003.
19 Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors, pp 16 – 17.
20 J Elias, ‘International labour standards, codes of conduct and gender issues: a review of recent debates and controversies’, Non-State Actors and International Law, 3, 2003, p 285.
21 D Held & A McGrew, Governing Globalization: Power, Authority and Global Governance, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002, p 5.
22 Rai, ‘Gendering global governance’, p 579.
23 Held & McGrew, Governing Globalization, p 8.
24 Waylen, ‘Putting governance into the gendered political economy of globalization’.
25 Scholte, Globalization.
26 Ibid, pp 186, 214.
27 J Ruggie, ‘Taking embedded liberalism global: the corporate connection’, in D Held & M Koenig-Archibugi (eds), Taming Globalization: Frontiers of Governance, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003, pp 93 – 129.
28 For example, as discussed by Rai, ‘Gendering global governance’.
29 Z Randriamaro, ‘“We, the women”: the United Nations, feminism and economic justice’, Spotlight, 2004, pp 1 – 12, at http://www.awid.org/publications/OccasionalPapers/spotlight2_en.pdf.
30 H Steiner & P Alston, International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals (2nd ed), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
31 For example, O de Schutter (ed), Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006; and Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors.
32 The concepts of corporate accountability, corporate responsibility and citizenship give rise to numerous debates and definitions. Matten and Crane suggest that corporate citizenship can be understood as a firm's administration of citizenship rights. OF Williams, ‘The UN Global Compact: the challenge and the promise’, Business Ethics Quarterly, 14 (4), 2004, pp 755 – 774; and D Matten & A Crane, ‘Corporate citizenship: toward an extended theoretical conceptualization’, Academy of Management Review, 30 (1), 2005, pp 166 – 179.
33 There are other actors involved, such as ngos, university research centres, etc, but the main player and the focus of this study is business.
34 P Utting, ‘Corporate responsibility and the movement of business’, Development in Practice, 15 (3 – 4), 2005, p 382.
35 WD Reinicke & Francis Deng, Critical Choices: The United Nations, Networks and the Future of Global Governance, Ottawa: idrc, 2000, p 5.
36 ‘Corporate citizenship’ is the term used by the Global Compact itself. While there is significant debate over the terminology used to define these type of activities (csr, cr, sustainability, etc), because it is not central to this paper, I will use the term corporate citizenship. For an interesting discussion on the meaning of corporate citizenship, see Matten & Crane, ‘Corporate citizenship’.
37 UN Global Compact, 2006, at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples.
38 J Ruggie, ‘Global_governance.net: the Global Compact as learning network’, Global Governance, 7, 2001, pp 371 – 378.
39 J Ruggie, ‘Reconstituting the global public domain—issues, actors, and practices’, European Journal of International Relations, 10 (4), 2004, pp 499 – 531; and Ruggie, ‘Taking embedded liberalism global’.
40 Ruggie, ‘Taking embedded liberalism global’.
41 A MacGillivray, P Raynard, S Zadek, C Oliveira, V Murray & M Forstater, Towards Responsible Lobbying: Leadership and Public Policy, London: Accountability, 2005, p 9.
43 The Global Compact is different from some other corporate citizenship or csr initiatives in the sense that firms have made an explicit and public commitment to a specific list of principles. But for the purposes of this paper, while acknowledging the importance of the burgeoning debate over the variations of csr and corporate citizenship, those distinctions are less relevant here, and I simply refer to the Global Compact as a csr initiative.
44 M Friedman, ‘The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits’, New York Times Magazine, 13 September 1970.
45 Matten & Crane, ‘Corporate citizenship’.
46 The UN Global Compact suggests a broad definition of sphere of influence: ‘Understanding a company's sphere of influence can be accomplished by mapping the stakeholder groups affected by a business's operations. A key stakeholder group that will normally lie at the center of any company's sphere of influence will be employees. Other groups, such as business partners, suppliers, trade unions, local communities, and customers will follow. The final group will usually be government and the wider society.’ A Guide for Integrating Human Rights into Business Management, Business Leaders' Initiative on Human Rights, UN Global Compact and Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006, at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/NewsAndEvents/recent_publications.html.
47 C Crouch, ‘Modelling the firm in its market and organizational environment: methodologies for studying corporate social responsibility’, Organization Studies, 27 (10), 2006, pp 1533 – 1551, where csr is characterised as ‘corporate externality recognition’ and distinguished from broader business-in-society initiatives.
48 E Paine, ‘The road to the Global Compact: corporate power and the road to the United Nations’, Global Policy Forum, October 2000, at http://www.globalpolicy.org/reform/papers/2000/road.htm#31; and O de Schutter, ‘The challenge of imposing human rights norms on corporate actors’, in Schutter, Transnational Corporations and Human Rights.
49 K Annan, ‘Markets for a better world’, speech to World Economic Forum, 31 January 1998.
50 ML Cattaui, ‘Get the UN and business talking’, International Herald Tribune, 5 February 1998.
51 BL Hocking & D Kelly, ‘Doing the business? The International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations and the Global Compact’, in A Cooper, J English & R Thakur (eds), Enhancing Global Governance: Towards a New Diplomacy, Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2002, p 223.
52 M Blowfield, ‘Corporate social responsibility: reinventing the meaning of development?’, International Affairs, 81 (3), pp 515 – 524.
53 Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, A/CONF.151/26 (Vol I), 12 July 1992, at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm, accessed September 2006.
54 World Bank, Gender Equality as Smart Economics, at www.worldbank.org/gender/.
55 A complete list of the mdgs is available at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.
56 UN Global Compact, at http://www.unglobalcompact.org.
57 Kell & Levin, ‘The Global Compact network’.
58 P Bond, ‘Global governance campaigning and mdgs: from top-down to bottom-up anti-poverty work’, Third World Quarterly, 27 (2), 2006, pp 339 – 354.
59 P Antrobus, cited in ibid.
60 K Staudt, ‘Gender mainstreaming: conceptual links to institutional machineries’, in S Rai (ed), Mainstreaming Gender, Democratizing the State? National Machineries for the Advancement of Women, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003, pp 40 – 65.
61 KA Grosser & JA Moon, ‘The role of corporate social responsibility in gender mainstreaming’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 7 (4), 2005, pp 532 – 554; and M Prieto-Carrón, ‘Is there anyone listening? Women workers in factories in Central America, and corporate codes of conduct’, Development, 47 (3), 2004, p 101.
62 KA Grosser & JA Moon, ‘Gender mainstreaming and corporate social responsibility: reporting workplace issues’, Journal of Business Ethics, 62 (4), 2005, p 332.
63 G Coleman, ‘Gender, power and post-structuralism in corporate citizenship: a personal perspective on theory and change’, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 5, 2002, p 20.
64 V Peterson & A Runyan, Global Gender Issues, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.
65 G Rao Gupta, ‘Globalization, women and the hiv/aids epidemic’, Peace Review, 16 (1), 2004, pp 79 – 83.
66 M Tambudzai Mushunje, ‘Challenges and opportunities for promoting the girl child's rights in the face of hiv/aids’, Gender and Development, 14 (1), 2006, pp 115 – 125.
67 P Utting, ‘Promoting development through corporate social responsibility—prospects and limitations’, Global Future, 3, 2003, pp 11 – 13, at www.globalfutureonline.org.
68 UN Global Compact and ilo, ‘Global Compact Policy Dialogue on hiv/aids’, hosted by the ilo, 12 May 2003, at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav/aids/events/gcreport.pdf.
69 Peterson & Runyan, Global Gender Issues.
70 Apart from the vast academic literature on issues affecting women in developing economies, there are numerous csos which address the same issues, eg the Women's Environment and Development Organization (wedo) at http://www.wedo.org/.
71 A Simms, J Magrath & H Reid, Up in Smoke? Threats from, and Responses to, the Impact of Global Warming on Human Development, Oxford: Oxfam, 2004, at http://www.iied.org/pubs/pdf/full/9512IIED.pdf.
72 One recent example is among banana packers in Central America, as reported at http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2970.
73 Amnesty International, Nigeria: Rape—The Silent Weapon, November 2006, at http://www.amnesty.org.
74 P Utting, ‘Corporate responsibility and the movement of business’, p 383.
76 Zammit, Development at Risk, p 101.
77 UN Global Compact, at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/index.html.
78 UN, ‘Evaluation of gender mainstreaming in undp’, DP/2006/5, 2006, at http://www.undp.org/execbrd/adv2006-first.htm.
79 S Lewis, Race Against Time, Toronto: Anansi, 2005.
80 Scholte, Globalization, p 339. Perhaps recognising the gaps in the way the UN addresses gender inequality, late in 2006 the UN Secretary-General's Panel for UN Reform recommended the creation of a well funded, well staffed agency (which would merge unifem with other agencies dealing with gender equality), with a higher profile within the UN system. Delivering as One, Report of the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and the Environment, 9 November 2006.
81 UN Daily Journal, Terra Viva, 23 June 2004. The Calvert Fund is a large US mutual fund corporation based in Washington, DC and a Global Compact signatory.
82 unifem Press Release, at http://www.unifem.org.in/PressRelease-CII%20MoU.pdf.
83 S Waddock & N Smith, ‘Relationships: the real challenge of corporate global citizenship’, Business and Society Review, 105 (1), 2000, pp 47 – 62.
84 UN Global Compact at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/ParticipantsAndStakeholders/civil_society.html, 2006.
85 Ibid.
86 awid, ‘What are some current trends in the global women's movement?’, at http://www.awid.org/go.php?stid=286, 2006.
87 S Kobrin, ‘Oil and politics: Talisman Energy and Sudan’, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 36 (2 – 3), 2004.
88 Randriamaro, “‘We, the women’”.
89 Steans, ‘Global governance: a feminist perspective’, in Held & McGrew, Governing Globalization, p 103.
90 P Newell, ‘Citizenship, accountability and community: the limits of the csr agenda’, International Affairs, 81 (3), 2005, pp 541 – 557.
91 R Pearson & G Seyfang, ‘“‘I'll tell you what I want…”: women workers and codes of conduct’, in R Jenkins, R Pearson & G Seyfang (eds), Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights: Codes of Conduct in the Global Economy, London: Earthscan, 2002, pp 43 – 60.
92 M Prieto & J Bendell, If You Want to Help Us then Start Listening to Us: From Factories and Plantations in Central America, Women Speak Out about Corporate Responsibility, Bath: New Academy of Business, 2002, at http://www.new-academy.ac.uk/research/gendercodesauditing/report.pdf, p 11.
93 Reinicke & Deng, Critical Choices.
94 Global Reporting Initiative, at http://www.globalreporting.org.
95 Grosser & Moon, ‘Gender mainstreaming and corporate social responsibility’, p 327.
97 Coleman, ‘Gender, power and post-structuralism in corporate citizenship’, p 21.
98 P Bourdieu, ‘De la domination masculine’, Le Monde Diplomatique, October 1998, at http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1998/08/BOURDIEU/10801.
99 Elias, ‘International labour standards, codes of conduct and gender issues’, p. 301; and Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors, p 16.
100 Blowfield, ‘Corporate social responsibility’; Newell, ‘Citizenship, accountability and community’; and Utting, ‘Corporate social responsibility and the movement of business’, address this contradiction.
101 Ruggie, ‘Global_governance.net’, p 373.
102 Waylen, ‘Putting governance into the gendered political economy of globalization’, offers the example of gender mainstreaming at the World Bank, and cites studies which argue that, despite no fundamental change to its vision, gender equality has begun to be addressed in a measurable way.
103 M Monshipouri, CE Welch Jr & ET Kennedy, ‘Multinational corporations and the ethics of global responsibility: problems and possibilities’, Human Rights Quarterly, 25, 2003, pp 965 – 989; and Elias, ‘International labour standards, codes of conduct and gender issues’, p 293.
104 JG Freynas, ‘The false developmental promise of corporate social responsibility: evidence from multinational oil companies’, International Affairs, 81 (3), 2005, pp 581 – 598. Frynas argues that ‘there are fundamental problems about the capacity of private firms to deliver development, and the aspiration of achieving broader development goals through csr may be flawed’.
105 Ruggie, ‘Reconstituting the global public domain’.
106 K Nowrot, ‘The new governance structure of the Global Compact—transforming a “learning network” into a federalized and parliamentarized transnational regulatory regime’, Essays in Transnational Economic Law (Transnational Economic Law Research Centre, Halle), 47, November 2005, p 5.