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Abstract Though there is now a great deal of attention to the question of women workers and Corporate Social Responsibility (csr), a more far reaching analysis, which is informed by feminist economics approaches, stresses the importance of the gendered nature of the institutional context in which value chains operate, and the importance of acknowledging that labour markets are themselves gendered institutions which reflect socially constructed divisions of labour. This paper explores what a more holistic approach to corporate social responsibility might mean, especially when explored through the lens of gender analysis. I use the concept of social reproduction to examine the kinds of issues a gendered approach to csr might embrace, with particular attention to the "social", in terms of the reproduction of the labour power used in production. I apply this scrutiny to the emblematic example of the current spate of murders of young women in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, the location of thousands of manufacturing assembly plants producing for export to the United States. The paper concludes with some suggestions of initiatives which might be developed to incorporate a gendered dimension into a more comprehensive notion of csr. Notes 1 Michael Blowfield and Peter Utting (ed), The Greening of Business in Developing Countries, London: Zed Press, 2000. 4 Major retailers, including Nestlé, Nike and Levy Stauss, were all the subject of consumer boycotts which threatened their market shares in the 1980s and 1990s. 5 See Patrick Macklem, 'Labour law beyond borders', Journal of International Economic Law, 5 (3), 2002 pp 605 – 645. 6 See unrisd, 'States in disarray: the social effects of globalization', Geneva: unrisd, 1995; and Ann Zammit, Development at Risk: Rethinking UN – Business Partnerships, Geneva: South Centre and unrisd, 2003. 7 Rhys Jenkins, 'Corporate codes of conduct: self regulation in a global economy', in ngls/unrisd (eds), Voluntary Approaches to Corporate Responsibility: Readings and a Resource Guide, ngls Development Dossier, United Nations, Geneva, 2002. The ilo retains its 'tripartite' status, meaning it is comprised of representatives of the state, employers and workers. However, since the 1990s the ilo has increasingly taken on a concern for 'Decent Work for All', which includes those in the informal economy who are often outside state regulation or trade unions. See ilo, Decent Work for All, at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc89/rep-i-a.htm. 8 See Jenkins, 'Corporate social responsibility'. 9 Stephanie Barrientos and Ruth Pearson unido, Industrial Development Report, Geneva: unido, 2004; and R Jenkins, Industry and Environment in Latin America, London: Routledge, 2002. 35 This includes high rates of miscarriage, infertility, and a higher than average incidence of still-born and severely ill and disabled children born to women who currently or previously worked at (mainly) electronics factories in the Northern Regional Industrial Estate in ChiangMai province, Thailand. See Sally Theobald, 'Occupational hazards in the electronics industry: gendered repercussions', Gender, Technology and Development, 2 (1), 1998, pp 89 – 96. 36 R Pearson, 'Gender perspectives on health and safety in information processing: learning from international experience', in Swasti Mitter and Vicky Funari Anne Browning-Aiken, Margaret Wilding and Amnesty International, 'Guatemala: no protection, no justice: killings of women in Guatemala', at http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR340172005. For other countries, eg Bangladesh, see http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/s26/banglad/index.htm. Many workers have died as the result of fires and inadequate heath and safety conditions. See also Anita Chan, China's Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy, New York: ME Sharpe, 2002. 44 According to Julia Estela Monarrez Fragasso, 'La cultural del feminicidio en Ciudad Juarez', Frontera Norte, 12 (23), 2000, p 108, 68% of the 162 women found dead between 1990 and 1999 were aged 30 or under. A further 11.1% were aged between 31 and 40. 45 Mexico Solidarity Network/Red de Solidaridad con Mexico, Femicides in Ciudad Juarez, 2004, at www.mexicocolidarity.org/site/specialreprots/2004femicides. 46 Melissa Wright, Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism, New York: Routledge, 2006, p 51; and Diego Cevallos, 'Mexico: toll of murdered young women tops 3000', 2004, at www.corpwatch.org/article. 47 Cited in J Treat, 'Casa Amiga: leading the fight to protect women in Ciudad Juarez', Americas programme at ipc, 3 December 2002, p 2, at http://americas.irc-onliine.org. Monarrez claims that 655 of the victims for whom there was occupational information were maquiladora workers, sex or entertainment workers or students—fitting the general demographic characteristics of the maquiladora workers' age cohort. Monarrez, 'La cultura del femicidio'. 48 The same demographic workplace characteristics have been reported in export processing plants in South and Southeast Asia, other parts of Central America and increasingly in China and parts of Eastern Europe. S Razavi, 'Labour-intensive growth, poverty and gender', Development and Change, 30 (3), 1999, pp 409 – 433; and Razavi Julia Moralez Fragasso, 'Serial sexual femicide in Ciudad Juárez, 1993 – 2001', Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, 28 (2), 2003, pp 153 – 178; and Alicia R Schmidt Camacho, 'Ciudadana X: gender violence and the denationalization of women's rights in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico', cr: The New Centennial Review, 5 (1), 2006, pp 255 – 292. 68 R Pearson, 'The social is political: towards the re-politicising of feminist analysis of the global economy', International Journal of Feminist Politics, 6 (4), 2004, pp 603 – 622.
Ruth Pearson (Fri,) studied this question.