Globalizing ‘Girl Power’: Corporate Social Responsibility and Transnational Business Initiatives for Gender Equality

Abstract

The recent emergence of ‘transnational business feminism’ [Roberts, A. (2014). The political economy of ‘transnational business feminism’. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17(2), 209–231] accompanied by numerous ‘transnational business initiatives for the governance of gender’ [Prügl, E., & True, J. (2014). Equality means business? Governing gender through transnational public–private partnerships. Review of International Political Economy, 21(6), 1137–1169] constitutes a significant area of debate in the feminist political economy literature. In this paper I focus on the confluence of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda with the visibility of gender issues in development and the resultant corporate agenda for the promotion of women and girls’ empowerment. The paper draws on two gender-focused World Bank collaborations with private sector actors: the Global Private Sector Leaders Forum and the Girl Effect campaign. The paper argues that the dominant model of corporate citizenship inscribed within the discourse of transnational business initiatives is framed in terms of capitalizing on the potential power of girls and women, achieving an easy convergence between gender equality and corporate profit. I suggest that the construction of an unproblematic synergy between these goals serves to moralize corporate-led development interventions and therefore does not challenge corporate power in the development process, but instead allows corporations to subscribe to voluntary, non-binding codes and cultivate a socially conscious brand image.

Keywords:

• corporate social responsibility
• gender equality
• women's empowerment
• World Bank
• Nike

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Carole Spary and Audra Mitchell for their comments on earlier versions of this article and to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Noting the distinction between my own feminist approach and the ‘gender-sensitive’ approach employed in CSR, I do not assume that the gendering of CSR means it will necessarily evince feminist ideas or advance feminist goals. I do, however, argue that the gender equality focus in CSR merits feminist scrutiny because of the ways that the gender equality rhetoric is deployed and sold in service of the corporation.

2 The data in the remainder of the article come from a qualitative, thematic coding analysis of these texts. This analysis, carried out with the assistance of Atlas.TI research software, involved an iterative process of developing conceptual categories from the feminist political economy literature, reading and coding the report through these categories, and returning to adapt the coding framework in light of new themes that emerged from the text; this approach therefore draws on the methodology of Critical Frame Analysis. Although documentary analysis provides helpful insights into the power of a discourse and its material effects (and the Bank's gender discourses are more powerful than most), there are limits to the use of documentary analysis to study complex institutions like the World Bank (see Bedford, 2009b). While mindful of these limits, in my analysis I employ a Critical Frame Analysis to understand the way that policy frames discursively diagnose problems, propose solutions, and therefore ‘set the conditions for future actions and realities’ (Verloo & Lombardo, 2007, p. 32). In particular, I use Critical Frame Analysis because it allows for attention to silences/closures in the texts; in the context of CSR, these silences often serve to foreclose further regulatory action and deflect criticism from particular corporate practices through attention to philanthropic efforts.

3 The Girl Effect is supported by the Nike Foundation, Novo Foundation, United Nations Foundation, Coalition for Adolescent Girls (of which the Bank is a member), and UK Department for International Development.

4 The first video (‘The Girl Effect’) was debuted at the 2008 World Economic forum and appeared on the Girl Effect website at its launch in May 2008; the second video (‘I dare you to see I am the answer’) also appeared on the website in May 2008; the third video (‘Clock is Ticking’) was released at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in September 2010 (Kylander, 2011, p. 2). Two of these videos (‘The Girl Effect’ and ‘Clock is Ticking’) were also aired by Oprah Winfrey on her talk show (Kylander, 2011, p. 3). As of May 2014, the three videos together had been viewed over three million times.

5 Given the limitations on space, this article does not provide detailed analysis of the Adolescent Girl Initiative. Nonetheless, the AGI is important because of its position between the World Bank and Nike Foundation, and its close relation to the Girl Effect campaign.

6 Although it is not primarily authored by Bank staff, the white paper produced by McKinsey & Co. on the ‘Business of Empowering Women’ is a frequently cited source in GPSLF documentation, and it is promoted by McKinsey & Co. as having been written with GPSLF World Bank staff and consultation from some corporate members of the GPSLF (McKinsey & Co., 2010). Bexell (2012) also cites the McKinsey report as essential documentation for the study of the GPSLF because of the frequency of its citations in GSPLF speeches and documents.

7 Nike Inc. has, for the past two decades, faced accusations of unfree labour practices in their factories worldwide, including accusations of exploitation of child labour in certain factories. It has since implemented stricter codes of supplier conduct, auditing processes, and a wide variety of CSR initiatives, but nonetheless continues to face accusations of unethical labour practices and worker abuse. (See Boje & Khan, 2009; Spar & Burns, 2002.)

8 See also Prügl and True (2014, pp. 19–23), who lay out a detailed and promising research agenda for future feminist political economy study of TBIs for the governance of gender.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sydney Calkin

Sydney Calkin was awarded her Ph.D. in Politics from the University of York in 2014. Her current research explores the corporatization of Gender and Development Governance, with a focus on the gendering of corporate social responsibility. Her writing has recently appeared in Third World Quarterly, Feminist Review, and Global Discourse.