Oxfam GB

Introduction to business and enterprise

Author(s): Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson
Source: Gender and Development, Vol. 20, No. 1, Business and Enterprise (March 2012), pp.
1-12
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Oxfam GB
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23408744
Accessed: 19-01-2020 10:44 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Taylor & Francis, Ltd., Oxfam GB are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Gender and Development

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
H"Tîtrod^^
Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson

This issue of Gender & Development features an innovative and inspiring collection of
articles from researchers, practitioners and activists, on gender aspects of business and
enterprise. The articles reflect the creative ways in which these issues are being
approached, via activism, advocacy, and grassroots development work.
Currently, many different actors are concerned that businesses should promote and
support the aims of gender justice and the empowerment of women. These actors
include women's organisations; organisations in the 'private sector' of the economy,
including national and transnational companies; development NGOs; and govern
ments. While some women workers are working within the 'formal economy' (that is,
the part of the market which returns accounts and is regulated by governments in
terms of licenses, taxation and labour protection), others are working beyond its
boundaries, in an undercounted and sometimes hidden part of the economy. The
reality of women's work in production is that much of it takes place in the informal
sector, conceptualised as integral to the global system of production, providing a
livelihood to those marginalised from formal employment (Bromley and Gerry 1979),
and subsidising the formal sector through enabling low-waged workers to survive
(Chen 2005).
Some women are employed in small enterprises and workshops, subcontracted by
formal sector firms. They include 'invisible' home-based workers. Some women try to
eke out a living as hawkers, traders, and domestic servants, while others are
attempting to create their own sustainable businesses, sometimes with the help of
workers' co-operatives, women's organisations, and NGOs. The agendas of ethical
trade1, fair trade2, corporate social responsibility3, and 'Decent Work for All'4 form a
part of the context in which women workers are operating throughout the global
economy. This issue possibly represents the first collection of articles by development
policymakers, practitioners and researchers, and feminist activists, focusing on this
broad range of concerns.
The debates on the connections between gender equality, women's rights, and the
world of business and enterprise have moved far over the past thirty years. So, too,
have the ways in which development policymakers, practitioners, lobbyists and
campaigners have engaged with businesses to ensure that the responsibility to treat
women and men equally and fairly in their operations is understood and upheld.
Today, a growing number of progressive national and transnational companies are

Gender ä Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

ISSN 1355-2074 print/1364-9221 online/12/010001-12 © Oxfam GB 2012
http: / /dx. doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2012.675690

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson

realising the business advantages of engaging with gender equality and women's
rights. Writers here share research and first-hand experience of a range of initiatives.

Global interconnections, work, and women's rights

Over the past three decades, activists and researchers in many different contexts have
drawn attention to the poor working conditions and pay of many women working for
big business in developing countries, arguing that gender-, race- and class-based
discrimination and exploitation intersects to create particularly weak bargaining
positions for women who have little choice but to accept jobs which fail to achieve
living wages, or decent and dignified working conditions. Gender stereotypes ('men
are the main breadwinners while women's work is of lesser importance to family
income'; 'women are docile, submissive and happy to accept low pay for work
drawing on skills learnt at home'), as well as women's primary responsibility fo
feeding family amid poverty and crisis, are important factors in explaining all-female
workforces in industries including garments, and electronics and computer related
manufacturing, and food production and processing (Elson and Pearson 1981). NGOs
women's organisations, and trade unions, have all worked long and hard to campaign
to challenge low pay, insecure employment contracts, and poor working conditions.
Economic globalisation has led to a growing awareness of the power of consumers,
and the companies they purchase goods and services from, to change the lives o
women, men, and children living in poverty, in the global South in particular
Awareness of the interconnectedness of the different levels of the global economy, and
the ways in which profit is made for powerful players who are able to affect the
conditions and remuneration offered to weaker actors linked to them via global value
chains5 has grown. As economic globalisation has proceeded, production in many
sectors has increasingly taken place in what seems like a unified global economy,
where production for Northern consumers takes place for export in many countries of
the global South. In recent years, consumers have become progressively more
informed and concerned about the working conditions and wages of workers involved
in global production, and are using their market power to demand acceptable labour
standards.

Economic globalisation creates conditions in which it is possible to exploit workers

whose (labour market) power is weak, due to gender-, race- and class-based
constraints. Yet it also creates opportunities for co-operation and collective action,
between women workers themselves, and local, national, and international organisa
tions, to promote fair, dignified, and decent work for women - and men - workers
throughout the world.
The rest of this Introduction examines some of the main themes and areas of focus
which come up in the articles. For the writers here, much of the innovation and energy
on gender, business, and enterprise starts from understanding the reality of the

2 Gender & Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Introduction to business and enterprise

situation women face - an unequal, challenging context, in which they need to make a
living and support their dependents. Whether they are employees of formal
businesses, or operating small- or medium-sized enterprises or working as home
based workers further down in the value chain, women, in particular, need support,
not only as producers, but because their working experiences typically span a number
of different activities. They can be paid employees, owners, and managers of small
enterprises, or unpaid family workers in (male-controlled) production. At the same
time, most women are carrying out unpaid care work for children, and adult family
members including sick, infirm, and elderly people.
The case studies here give new insights into the interconnections and close
relationships between different organisations, groups, and individuals working in
business and enterprise along the value chain - from the growers of crops and raw
materials, all the way through to the consumers who purchase the end products after
manufacturing.

Making a business case for gender equality

One of the ways in which the international economy has become globalised is for
international companies to source production from countries offering favourable
business conditions, including large - and cheap - labour forces. This has resulted in
many women finding new openings for work, as large-scale businesses outsource their
production to small, informal enterprises. However, many of these opportunities in
complex international supply chains result in a poorly paid, precarious work
experience, with very unequal power relations between large international firms and
local producers. A group of articles in this issue focuses on responses from
community-based organisations, and national and international NGOs, who are
working in partnership with producers to improve their bargaining position.
Considerable public pressure has both fed into, and been amplified by, advocacy
and campaigning by human rights and development NGOs, and organisations
working on labour rights from the grassroots to international levels. These activities
have resulted in both governments, and the businesses operating within particular
countries and regions, turning attention to the working conditions of their employees
and sub-contractors.

In order to bring about lasting change and maximise impact, campaigners,

advocates and activists are increasingly engaging with businesses to support them
in piloting new and innovative management systems which attempt to balance
business goals with social progress. Many businesses are concerned with improving
their impact on the wellbeing of women workers inside their own companies and those
linked to them through the value chain, due to awareness of their social responsibilities
to their workers to ensure they are able to make a decent living for themselves and
their families. But in addition to the relatively small proportion of businesses which are

Gender ô Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson

powerfully influenced by philanthropic principles, there are many others which are
recognising that a synergy can exist between socially progressive goals and
commercial goals.
In terms of creating a sustainable business which looks beyond short- term profit,
many of the arguments used in persuading businesses to improve their environmental
awareness can be adapted and deployed in pursuit of gender equality and equal rights
for women. The argument runs as follows: since women play a double role as paid
workers and unpaid carers, the terms and conditions of women's employment
(including the hours they are expected to work, the rules about taking time off to
care for sick children, lack of transport to get home safely, lack of childcare facilities at
work) affect their ability to care for their dependents. Thus, short-term, profit-driven
approaches towards gender and labour endanger not only women in precarious
employment, but investments in the wellbeing, education, and health of the workers
and consumers of the future.

For businesses dealing with food commodities, there are specific gender issues to
consider: women are the major producers of global food commodities, and these are
processed in the main by women workers, before being sold on to end consumers -
once again, mostly women whose unpaid work converts them into meals for their
families. A final way in which big businesses are affected by gender concerns is related
to the fact that they provide products and services to specific groups of consumers in
both the global South and North, targeting women and girls, men and boys, in specific
ways that have a social impact on the communities they focus on. Consumers in
developing countries, in particular, have the right to demand high-quality, appropriate
products.
Many corporations are now signing up to codes of conduct which demonstrate
their awareness of the need to support women - and men - workers to achieve living
wages and decent work, and their acceptance that this is a key concern for a growing
number of their customers. This is part of their corporate social responsibility agenda.
In her article in this issue, Daisy Gardener, of Oxfam Australia, explores a process in
Indonesia from 2009-2011, which brought together Indonesian factories, international
sportswear brands, and Indonesian unions to develop a protocol to ensure that
workers' human rights are upheld inside factories. The protocol has now been agreed:
a big step, which is to the credit of all involved. Women union leaders were
instrumental in the development of this protocol, and will be integral to the
implementation of these new guidelines.
Some businesses aim to support poor women as sellers and consumers of their
goods, by involving them in Bottom of the Pyramid sales systems6. In their article,
Catherine Dolan, Mary Johnstone-Louis and Linda Scott focus on this strategy of
'bridg[ing] development ambitions of women's empowerment with the pursuit of
profit'. The logic is that they extend their outreach into new markets, while offering
employment to women who are keen to find it. Some of these initiatives, the CARE

Gender â Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Introduction to business and enterprise

Bangladesh Rural Sales Program (RSP) on which Catherine Dolan et al. focus, are
undertaken in collaboration with development organisations. The RSP sells goods
produced by world brands alongside local products, and now involves 2,400 women. It
aims to provide poor women with an opportunity to participate in new forms of
economic activity, and earn an independent income, expecting that this will help
them build a better future for their families. The article finds that women in the RSP

used this opportunity to achieve several empowering outcomes, from improving

material conditions and building a sense of dignity, to enhancing participation in
household decision-making, which enabled them to negotiate better terms for
themselves and their children, but ' while the RSP has opened up new pathways of
empowerment for some marginalised women in a context of considerable socio
economic and cultural constraints, it remains an open question whether such schemes
provide a model for broad-based and sustainable socio-economic development' (Dolan
et al. 2012, 35).
Carmen Niethammer and Peter Alstone's article discusses new research from

Lighting Africa, in five sub-Saharan African countries. This article responds to the
issue raised earlier in this section of failures to provide appropriate high-quality
products for consumers in developing countries. Lighting Africa is a joint IFC
(International Finance Corporation) and World Bank programme which seeks to
realise a key development goal - the provision of appropriate, affordable means of
lighting - through the development of commercial off-grid lighting markets in sub
Saharan Africa. This is a part of a wider commitment to improve access to energy, by
replacing fuel-based lighting—enabling women and men to save money, reduce indoor
pollution, and operate their small enterprises with reliable, clean lighting. The article
analyses women's relationship with off-grid lighting as both consumers and
entrepreneurs, and identifies women-specific opportunities in the expanding market
for modern off-grid lighting.

Fair Trade certification schemes and their impact on gender relations

Another major innovation over the past twenty years has been fair trade - a movement
which links consumers to producers through persuading them to purchase particular
commodities certified to have been produced to particular standards, focusing on the
pay and conditions of producers and their communities (Raynolds, Murray and
Wilkinson 2007). International NGOs aiming to promote sustainable livelihoods and
rights for women and men living in poverty in the global South have often been
involved in these enterprises.
To what extent does certification for socially and environmentally progressive
goals - for example, fair trade and organic status - result in a working experience that
positively affects the lives of women workers specifically, as compared to men? A
group of articles in this issue examine these issues. In her article focusing on women

Gender Et Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson

handicraft producers in Bangladesh in order to analyse processes of empowerment,

Ann le Mare discusses research she undertook to explore the progress the women
producers feel they are achieving and how such change was linked to Fair Trade
employment. Using understandings of empowerment from women themselves and
from key gender and development writers, Ann's research suggests that fair trade
enterprises have a significant role in empowerment processes, and offer lessons for
businesses aspiring to offer women socially-responsible forms of employment.
In a second article on fair trade and its impact on gender equality and the rights of
women workers, Deborah Kasente reviews the impact of participation in fair trade and
organic certified coffee production in Uganda. She found that gender equality issues
remain to be integrated into all stages of coffee production and marketing if women are
to realise sustainable livelihoods from their labour, and to be involved as active
participants and decision-makers. Producer organisations need to develop strategies
for addressing gender-specific constraints, and to build women's capabilities and
confidence to aspire to positions and influence across the whole value chain. They
should also seek to dismantle gender discrimination in the design, implementation and
monitoring of the wider certification code in coffee value chains.
It is clear that fair trade and other initiatives aiming to empower all workers can
suffer as much as other development initiatives from 'gender-blindness- in that they
are not automatically sensitive to the whole range of issues faced by women producers.
Ensuring that these schemes respond to the practical and strategic issues faced by
women is imperative not only for effective poverty reduction but because gender-blind
policies and programmes can actually worsen relationships between women and men.
Addressing gender-specific issues requires shifting beyond a focus on 'poor commu
nities' to a nuanced analysis of the ways in which inequality operates and shapes lives
within communities and households. In particular, such schemes need to ensure they
have a positive impact on women's lives by ensuring that they support them to
challenge gender inequality and play a full role in leadership and management of
workers' organisations and groups. This means supporting women's own organisa
tions as well as supporting the integration of gender concerns into mixed-sex
organisations, where they are often very slow to be taken up.

Collective working, gender issues and poor producers' power in markets

In the 1970s and 80s, governments and NGOs often tried to support women producers
to earn more money to combat poverty and feed their families, largely through so
called income generating initiatives. Through developing women's power as produ
cers, the idea was that they would ultimately boost national economic growth.
Through the years of economic austerity in the mid-1980s into the 1990s, policymakers
and planners emphasised the role of women business-owners and employees in
helping families and communities survive.

Gender & Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Introduction to business and enterprise

The idea of promoting autonomous businesswomen who see gaps in the market
and are able to develop not only profitable work for themselves, but potentially create
new businesses has obviously been very attractive to governments and international
development organisations, as well as local NGOs. In the absence of sufficient formal
sector jobs, the idea was to support resourceful women within the informal sector to
create their own work, and become motors of economic growth for national economies,
as well as alleviating poverty at household level.
Much research time and money has been devoted to studying how best to offer
support so that more would-be entrepreneurs can make it past the stage of eking out
hand-to-mouth survival, to thrive and prosper (Grown and Sebstad 1989). This was
part of the motivation of the micro credit movement, pioneered by the Grameen Bank,
which sought to offer poor women small amounts of working credit to facilitate them
moving into viable business activities (Mayoux 2000). There is a large literature on the
gender differences between women and men as entrepreneurs, and in particular on the
factors to do with gendered roles and power relations which make women's
experience of business very different from men's. There is a lively controversy over
the extent to which the gender division of labour and unequal power relations
handicap women from taking risks as entrepreneurs (for example, Goffee and Scase
1985). The reasoning is that the multiple roles and obligations to dependents that most
women have make it very hard for them to focus single-mindedly on business,
innovating and taking risks. These arguments and insights will be familiar to many
readers of Gender & Development, and so they should be. However, this issue aims to do
something rather different, to focus on some case studies of women producers who
have experienced success in business, and highlight ways in which the work of
development practitioners and policymakers can support this, and areas that they have
yet to address.
Yet while this analysis is useful in that it points to the gender-related challenges that
women face in enterprises, to suggest that they simply cannot be entrepreneurs as a
result is a limiting stereotype, which fails to take sufficient notice of individual
circumstances and other aspects of identity which make it possible for some women to
run very successful enterprises. A significant number of women business operators
experience sufficient stability in their livelihoods to take risks, and factors including
age and life-stage may create sufficient time, and other resources, to invest in a
business.

In their article here on Lebanon, Nabil Abdo and Carole Kerbage argue that the
middle-income women who might actually be able to make it as genuine entrepre
neurs are largely missing from NGOs' development initiatives focussing on low
income women in the aftermath of the civil war. They mainly focus on 'feminised'
sectors of the economy where most women are situated, and do not challenge this
occupational segregation, despite the fact that the rewards to be made in the feminised
sectors are very low. In contrast, government policies to support entrepreneurship

Gender ö Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson

development in Lebanon barely target women, and benefit only the most well-off.
NGOs, in contrast, tend to stress responding to basic needs, rather than supporting
women's rights.
In other contexts, NGOs and co-operatives are increasingly concerned with rights
and give more attention to women entrepreneurs operating at the 'meso-level'. They
seek to support women producers to enter new markets, and build their power to
claim resources and a bigger share of the profits. In their article, Sally King, Hugo
Sintes and Maria Alemu discuss the progress of Oxfam's Enterprise Development
Programme (EDP), which uses a business approach to create wealth, and deliver
economic growth, while aiming to increase women's power in markets and wider
society. The programme links investors with small and medium enterprises that are
rural, agricultural, remote, which have low existing capacities and a limited track
record, but have the potential to become profitable and create new social and economic
opportunities for women.

Innovating new models of collaborative working for gender equality

Some successful women entrepreneurs may go on to work with other women, either
by employing them in a traditional business model, or working with them in different
and more innovative business models, including co-operatives.
There are obvious issues here. The fact that class and race, along with many other
aspects of identity, create differences among women means that development
interventions which have economic empowerment as an aim should not elide the
empowerment of individual women with the empowerment of all women. A
traditional approach for development NGOs and workers' organisations is to
encourage individuals to build on their power as individuals by finding 'power
with' others who share their goals. Programmes which challenge gender inequality
might choose to stress co-operative methods of generating income, meetings which
build women's sense of agency, self-confidence, management and leadership skills
and appropriate training for business which builds their capacity but takes note of the
gendered constraints which women entrepreneurs face. A key issue for programmes
aiming to support women to strengthen their power in markets is the extent to which
they have time to give to their enterprises. Understanding the gendered aspects of
poverty involves seeing the intrinsic link between productive work and unpaid caring
work, which is performed in the main by women. This additional work at home affects
both women's ability to produce, and their experience of the production process.
In their article, Elaine Jones, Sally Smith and Carol Wills examine evidence from
different contexts about the efficacy of women working collectively as a strategy to
address the complex factors, related to poverty, gender inequality, and poor
implementation of legislation and public policy, which can limit the power of women
producers to engage in trade in ways which offer them significant benefits. Collective

Gender Et Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Introduction to business and enterprise

action is one way in which women producers, especially those in the informal
economy, can render themselves less vulnerable to exploitative trading practices, and
strengthen their bargaining positions with buyers. This article highlights how working
co-operatively to produce and market goods, as well as to access inputs, credit,
services and information, can offer economies of scale, knowledge-sharing and
increased bargaining power. Collective enterprises also have the potential to play a
political role in advocating for the interests of their members - especially when linked
together through networks, alliances or federated structures.
In an article focusing on the Markets for Afghan Artisans (MFAA) programme,
Kerry Jane Wilson, Barbara Everdene, and Floortje Kljin focus on an approach
developed by an Afghan NGO, Zardozi, which has created an effective approach to
facilitating market access for very poor women in the informal, handcrafted garment
industry. The organisation sees its role as 'a market facilitator rather than a service
provider, aiming to foster independence for the women involved' (Wilson et al. 2012,
89). By constructing a system whereby women act as 'middle-men', to market the
goods made by other women at home, mobility issues are addressed which enable
housebound women to participate in production. This is a very pragmatic approach
which, the authors argue, enables the programme to overcome the multiple barriers
faced by women, and developing full business cycle support, customised to their
specific needs. Zardozi focuses its energies on four principles: commitment to
facilitation and fostering client independence; flexible and agile strategy development;
having female business advisers as mentors and market experts; and undertaking
participatory problem analysis with clients and stakeholders.

Conclusion

Writers in this collection of articles address the challenges of working with business
and enterprise at a moment of widespread and growing interest in gender inequality
as a barrier to sustainable development. It makes sense for global and national
companies to engage with gender concerns, not only as part of a philanthropic
commitment to supporting progressive social change. It is also because promoting
gender equality and supporting women workers to claim their rights makes sense in
business terms. Enlightened businesses are realising that enabling women's full
potential is not only the right thing to do, but delivers gains to them, in both the short
and longer-term.
Yet it is true to say that there have been - and continue to be - tensions among
political activists who support the rights of workers around some of the fundamental
issues which shape attitudes to business and enterprise. This holds true for women's
organisations which focus on labour rights. The relationship between capitalism and
women's interests - in particular, their gender-specific interest in challenging
inequality with men - is an area of contention (Cudd and Holmstrom 2011). For

Gender â Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson

many, it is a challenge to accept the idea of working with big business. Can capitalism
and gender equality be harmonised in new and innovative ways, expressed through
shared work which renders businesses socially responsible and sustainable, while
those working with and for them are able to make decent and dignified livelihoods?
Feminists of different political persuasions continue to debate the ways in which
capitalism affects, and has affected the lives of women. Market forces and the economy
have enormous power to change the social, economic - and even political - realities in
which we live our lives. Like state institutions they are controlled by elites in ou
societies, but history shows that they can be forces for progressive change. National
and multinational businesses are large, direct employers of women workers, many of
whom are recruited and employed on highly gendered and unequal pay and
conditions. In addition, businesses are powerful players in value chains, and thus
have a high level of influence on the income and conditions of workers who are not
directly employed by them.
Increasingly, businesses are adopting a focus on their potential to invest in socially
useful goals which enable them to be positive forces for change in the communities in
which they operate. Development policymakers and practitioners are increasingly
involved in dialogue, debate, and joint planning and running of activities with privat
sector interests, and hence the goals of gender equality and the empowerment of
women are relevant in these new initiatives.

Development policymakers and planners are developing their understanding of the

nature of women's work, yet the data collected by statisticians remains inadequate,
failing to fully capture women's work in the informal sector and work and other
activities undertaken outside the money economy.
There is enormous interest on the part of development organisations of different
kinds - including multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, NGOs, and grassroots co
operatives - in addition to the traditional workers' rights organisations including trade
unions - in working with progressive companies on shared goals of securing workers'
rights and ensuring sustainable, profitable businesses which have a beneficial
'footprint' in social development terms.
From the point of view of women who work in and run businesses, these activities
are essential in the livelihood strategies they and their households evolve to ensure
survival, and stability. From the point of view of businesses, women as employees -
and as consumers - are key to their growth and profitability.

Acknowledgement
Caroline Sweetman would like to thank not only her co-editor for this issue, Ruth Pearson,
Professor of International Development, University of Leeds, but also others who shaped
the planning and commissioning of the issue: in particular, Caren Grown, Economist
in-Residence at the American University.

Gender & Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Introduction to business and enterprise

Notes

1 Ethical Trade has social or environmental aims as well as commercial goals.

Organisations engaged in ethical trade include businesses which adopt social and
environmental concerns in the name of corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship,
business ethics or corporate accountability. Also involved are non-profit making
organisations that further their traditional social and environmental aims, via social
enterprises, fair trade, community development, and cause-related marketing.
The Ethical Trading Initiative states: 'Ethical trade means that retailers, brands and
their suppliers take responsibility for improving the working conditions of the people
who make the products they sell. Most of these workers are employed by supplier
companies around the world, many of them based in poor countries where laws
designed to protect workers' rights are inadequate or not enforced. Companies with a
commitment to ethical trade adopt a code of labour practice that they expect all their
suppliers to work towards. Such codes address issues like wages, hours of work, health
and safety and the right to join free trade unions.' (www.ethicaltrade.org/about-eti, last
accessed 8 March 2012).
2 Fair Trade is an organised social movement and market-based approach to develop
ment, aiming to help producers in developing countries to realise better trading
conditions and higher rates of payment for their produce, and promote long-term
sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to exporters, as
well as higher social and environmental standards. It focuses, in particular, on exports
from developing countries to the global North. For more information see www.
fairtrade.org.uk (last accessed 8 March 2012).
3 Corporate Social Responsibility is a form of self-regulation on the part of businesses. It
can be defined as operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical,
legal, commercial, and public expectations that society has of business. While some
understandings focus on the core operations of the business, others extend the
responsibility of business to the achievement of broader social goals.
4 'Decent Work for All' is an initiative of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The
Decent Work concept was formulated by the ILO's constituents - governments and
employers and workers - as a means to identify the Organization's major priorities. It is
based on the understanding that work is a source of personal dignity, family stability,
peace in the community, democracies that deliver for people, and economic growth that
expands opportunities for productive jobs and enterprise development. For further
information see www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/decent-work-agenda/lang-en/index.
htm (last accessed 9 March 2012).
5 The term 'global value chain' refers to all the activities involved in creating a product or
service. Stages include design, production, marketing, distribution, sale, and beyond to
customer support. These activities can either be contained within a single business, or
might be divided between different businesses. Over the past two decades value chains
have become more likely to be spread over wide areas, and global value chains have
become much more prevalent and elaborate. This means that firms and workers in
widely separated locations affect one another more than they have in the past. For more

Gender Et Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Caroline Sweetman and Ruth Pearson

information see http://www.globalvaluechains.org/concepts.html (last accessed 12

March 2012).
6 Bottom of the Pyramid approaches promote entrepreneurship among women and men
living in poverty, arguing that there are synergies between poverty alleviation and
commercial interests through meeting consumer demand for products and services.
BOP approaches are critiqued by some researchers and commentators, for failures to
understand the true characteristics and dimensions of poverty: in particular, under
estimating the degree to which individual 'agents' can take responsibility for ending
poverty through market activities, without structural changes and support from the
state (for example, Karnani 2009).

References

Bromley, R. and C. Gerry (1979) 'Who Are the Casual Poor?', in R. Bromley and C. Gerry
(eds.) Casual Work and Poverty in Third World Cities, Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons
Chen, M. (2005) The State of the World's Women, New York: UNIFEM
Cudd, A. and N. Holmstrom (2011) Capitalism For and Against: a Feminist Debate,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Dolan, C., M. Johnstone-Louis and L. Scott (2012) 'Shampoo, saris and SIM cards: seeking
entrepreneurial futures at the bottom of the pyramid', Gender & Development 20(1): 33-47
Elson, D. and R. Pearson (1981) 'The subordination of women and the internationalism of
factory production', in K. Young, et al. (eds.) Of Marriage and the Market: Women's
subordination internationally and its lessons, London: Routledge
Goffee, R. and R. Scase (1995) Women in Charge. The Experience of Female Entrepreneurs,
London: George Allen and Unwin
Grown, C. and J. Sebstad (1989) 'Towards a wider perspective on Women's Employment',
in World Development 17(7): 937-952
Karnani, A. (2009) The Bottom of the Pyramid Strategy for Reducing Poverty: A Failed Promise,
DESA Working Paper No. 80, Genevea: United Nations, available at www.un.org/esa/
desa/papers/2009/wp80_2009.pdf, (last accessed 9 March 2012)
Mayoux, L. (2000) Microfinance and the Empowerment of Women: A Review of the Key Issues,
Geneva: International Labour Organization, Social Finance Working Paper No. 23,
available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_emp/documents/publication/
wcms_117993.pdf, (last accessed 9 March 2012)
Raynolds, L., D. Murray and J. Wilkinson (2007) Fair trade: the challenges of transforming
globalization, London: Routledge.
Wilson, K.J., B. Everdene and F. Kliin (2012) 'The Markets for Afghan Artisans approach to
women's economic empowerment', Gender & Development 20(1): 81-94

Gender & Development Vol. 20, No. 1, March 2012

This content downloaded from 146.0.189.27 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 10:44:15 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms