15879787 Women Workers Industrialization Global Supply Chains and Corporate Codes of Conduct

8/8/2019 15879787 Women Workers Industrialization Global Supply Chains and Corporate Codes of Conduct

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Women Workers, Industrialization,

Global Supply Chains and CorporateCodes of Conduct Marina Prieto-Carron

ABSTRACT. The restructured globalized economy has

provided women with employment opportunities.

Globalisation has also meant a shift towards self-regulation

of multinationals as part of the restructuring of the world

economy that increases among others things, flexible

employment practices, worsening of labour conditions

and lower wages for many women workers around the

world. In this context, as part of the global trend

emphasising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in

the 1980s, one important development has been the

growth of voluntary Corporate Codes of Conduct to

improve labour conditions. This article reviews from a

feminist interdisciplinary perspective the broad academic

literature on women workers, covering the more classical

debate on women workers in the industrialization process

and entering into women workers in the global supply

chains and women workers and corporate codes of con-duct. The main argument is that this research on women

workers is crucial to frame the issues of business ethics and

in particular CSR and Codes of Conduct in the context

of women in the global political economy. When this

crucial knowledge is ignored, then the ethical policies of

the companies also ignore the real situation of the women

workers at the bottom of their supply chains.

KEY WORDS: corporate codes of conduct, feminist

research, globalization, labour, women workers

Women Workers in the globalized economy and

global supply chains are the margins, silences and

bottom-rungs (Enloe, 1996) and the paradigmatic

worker of the new global labour regime in the

restructured economy (Sazlinger, 1997, p. 549). A

feminised labour market where export orientated

sectors like factory work in export processing zones

and horticulture mean insecure, flexible jobs with

poor labour conditions and low wages.

Increasingly, labour conditions need to be ana-lysed within the context of the global supply chains

where working conditions are conditioned by the

dynamics of demand-driven production chains

(Gereffi, 1994) controlled mainly by big supermar-

kets and brand names. It is in this context that

companies such as Levis Strauss & Co., GAP Inc.

and Chiquita have developed Corporate Codes of

Conduct, as part of their Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) agenda (Jenkins et al., 2002).

Codes of Conduct can be described as voluntary

policy tools that set up social (and environmental)

standards for multinationals in their supply chain

operations around the world and tend to include

generic clauses on child labour, forced labour,

harassment, health and safety, freedom of association

and discrimination.

In particular, it has been recently argued that there

is a need for more critical research addressing issues

of CSR. Blowfield and Frynas argue that: by

leaving unquestioned CSRs reliance on consensus

and win-win outcomes, we leave the poor and

marginalized exposed to the possibility of further

exploitation and marginalization as a result of ineq-uitable exertions of power (2005, p. 513). The

CSR movement is proving to be a market-based

solution to a question which is in fact more about

the political and social empowerment of workers

(Lipschutz, 2004).This article goes one step further: I1 argue that the

feminist literature on women workers and industri-

alization, global supply chains and codes of conduct

has much to inform the debates and practices around

business ethics and CSR. In particular, I review this

This article is based on my PhD on Nicaraguan women workers

in factories (maquilas ) and banana plantations and corporate

codes of conduct (Prieto, 2006, unpublished).

Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 83:517 Springer 2008

DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9650-7


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literature from an interdisciplinary feminist per-

spective including selected studies in development

studies, politics, sociology and human geography,

and I include a section on research on women

workers in the banana and maquila sector (mainlytextile export factories in free trade zones). The

review helps to put the issues of ethical business and

in particular corporate codes of conduct in the

proper context of women and labour in the gen-

dered global political economy. Above all, it brings a

gender perspective to issues that tend to be part of

androcentric knowledge. As Mies puts it: the

virtual exclusion of women, of their lives, work and

struggles from the bulk of research can be adequately

epitomised in Bertolt Brechts phrase: one does not

see those who are in the dark (Mies, 1993, p. 65).

Women workers in the globalized

economy and global supply chains

Below, I review the broad feminist academic liter-

ature on women workers covering the more classical

feminist debate on women workers in the industri-

alization process and entering into women workers

in the global supply chains and the specific research

on women workers in Central America in the textile

and banana sector.

Patriarchal subordination

Research on women workers has a long tradition.

By the mid-1970s the rising number of women

incorporated in the Export Processing Zones

(EPZs), mainly in Latin America and Southeast Asia,

suggested that industrialization had provided women

with employment opportunities. However, the

trend towards a global feminisation of labour

suggested that industrialization rested on women as

gendered bearers of labour as they tend to do

unskilled jobs (Elson and Pearson, 1981, p. 151).

Pearson explains why women are preferred and ar-

gues that once:

cheap labour is deconstructed beyond the absolute

wage levels to include employee protection, employ-

ers contribution to the social wage, taxation, invest-

ment and working conditions in combination with

non-militancy, docility, manual dexterity and consci-

entious application to often monotonous production

process, women are almost invariably the preferred

labour force (1998, p. 173).

The sexual division of labour in the factory andthe way it reflects gender divisions in the home is a

very important part of womens paid work. Men

occupy virtually all managerial positions in manu-

facturing, and the principle of gender divisions

established in families is reproduced on the factory

floor (Pearson, 1998; Ward, 1990). This division is

based in part on the belief that women are more

suited to jobs that are similar to domestic skills at

home (Elson and Pearson, 1981). Also, the fact that

women earn less in comparison with the male

earners wage rests partly on the assumption that

women workers income is secondary. Thesewomen that are cheap workers are known for their

nimble fingers (ibid.). In addition, many women

workers are in their twenties, and can be easily

dismissed when they become pregnant or get

married (Elson and Pearson, 1997). Research on

womens working lives also reveals the double

burden of paid and unpaid work that women carry

as they struggle to combine their productive and

reproductive or domestic responsibilities (Elson and

Pearson, 1981). Thus, ideologies of gender are

crucial to the understanding of the recruitment anddismissal of women workers, their earning power,

and the work they do at work and at home.

The impact of industrialization on women

While the subordinate position of the women

workers is well argued in the feminist literature, the

impact on women as a result of their integration into

the workforce is as yet unclear. Lim explains:

there is a central theoretical and political question that

as yet remains unanswered, is the employment of

women factory workers by multinational corporations

in developing countries primarily an experience of

liberation, as development economics maintain, or one

of exploitation, as feminists assert, for the women

concerned? (1997, p. 216).

The positive impact of wage employment for

women and their status in the household and beyond

is an important issue. Paid work may offer women a

number of potential advantages and women workers

6 Marina Prieto-Carron


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have cited benefits such as economic independence,

greater equality in the household, personal freedom

and female companionship (Lim, 1990).

These benefits are associated with the alternatives

available to women while conditions in the factorymay be poor, they are often no worse than other

employment opportunities available to women and

the wages tend to be higher than in other sectors

(Lim, 1990; Tiano, 1990). These studies also reflect

on the ways in which women may gain power in the

public and private spheres. There are many feminist

ethnographies of women workers around the world

that support the argument that women are

exploited but note that they also gain in terms of

new forms of consciousness (Fernandez-Kelly, 1997;

Ong, 1987; Rosa, 1994). In addition to research onwomen workers organising at the local level, further

studies explore international networks of women

workers. Bandy and Bickham Mendez (2003) for

example, in a study of women in the maquilas of

Nicaragua and Mexico, show how women workers

organise resistance trans-nationally. This study

highlights the complex ways in which gender/class-

based oppression, on the one hand and womens

agency on the other hand, operate under conditions

of global capitalism.

Paid work also offers opportunities for women

to renegotiate power within the household. Kabeerand Mahmud (2004) tell us how for 1.5 million

women workers in Bangladesh, factory work has

provided greater self-reliance for the first time,

including economic agency within the family and

challenging the myth of the male breadwinner.

Evidence from a 1990 survey of female garment

factory workers in Bangladesh indicated that two-

thirds of women working had some control over

their earnings and in 2003, married women claimed

that they had greater decision-making power in the

household (Raworth, 2004). This finding is alsosupported by research in Honduras, where maquila

workers were more likely to feel that their

household relationships have improved, and that

male members of the household help with chores

(Ver Beek, 2001, p. 165).

However, it could be argued that there is also a

danger in seeing womens paid employment as

offering them a source of power. When women

challenge male economic domination by entering

the labour force, the maquiladoras women workers

are kept in place though machismo phallocent-

rism on the part of the managers, foremen and male

co-workers (Wilson, 2003). Similarly, when women

workers challenge trade unions machismo and create

their own organisations, trade unions may respondwith hostility (Bickham Mendez and Kopke, 2001;

Prieto and Quinteros, 2004). Moreover, the relo-

cation of factories to different parts of the world, in

the search of skills and cheaper labour, limits wo-

mens power (Hopper, 2000).

What is more, women workers all over the

world are still kept in marginalized and subordi-

nated jobs, while suffering multiple forms of

discrimination. There is considerable evidence

available regarding labour rights violations across

the globe and the Internet carries a large amount ofinformation on labour rights abuses, often of

women workers (see for example, www.business-

humanrights.org). According to this information,

women workers remain largely marginalized and

exploited. These labour violations occur not only in

the global South, where most of the campaigns are

concentrated, but also in places such as Los Angeles

(Bonacich and Appelbaum, 2000) and East London,

where Kabeer (1999) argues that women workers

have worse working conditions than women

workers in Dhaka.

Moreover, while we can see that some commonissues and proposals regarding women workers

around the world are possible, we also have to be

wary. What these studies show is that our global

understanding must be based on historically situated

localities. Women are not homogenous and undif-

ferentiated. Some of the most important differences

among women are between groups of workers, on

the basis of skill, job classification and sectors; per-

manency and security, (depending on sector, casual,

migrants and home-based workers); formal with

access to legal safeguards or informal; based ongender, religion or ethnicity; poorer or richer

employment conditions and with more or less labour

rights (Barrientos, 2003).

This literature survey reveals some important in-

sights into the position of women workers in the

industrialization process. Although, the focus of

many studies is the garment sector, findings are

similar in other export sectors including agriculture

(see for example, Barrientos, 1997; Christian Aid,

2004). I now move to the literature that focuses on

Women Workers, and Global Supply Chains 7


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the analysis of women workers issues within the

global supply chains of multinational companies.

Women workers in global supply chains: beyondthe factory floor

More recent studies researching women workers

have moved beyond the factory floor to the global

labour market in the context of national and inter-

national governance and institutions that coordinate

labour and business issues. A branch of this literature

deals with the issue of global supply chains from a

feminist perspective.

After more than two decades of ethnographies of

factory work, Collins confirms that the conflict of

interest and intersections of interest among workers

in different locations and at different points along the

commodity chain remains unclear (2003, p. 10).

Hale and Wills argue in a recent book for a renewed

focus on the politics and practices of international

subcontracting and its impacts on workers in gar-

ment production and beyond; and for tackling the

structure of the industry and the way in which

subcontracting is managed, rather than focusing on

the particularities of production and working con-

ditions in particular parts of the world (2005, p. 4).

However, Collins warns us that there is still not asingle framework that allows us to integrate an

understanding of labour struggles as they unfold on

the ground with the financial imperatives for firms

to deliver not just higher rates of return, but con-

sistently rising share prices (2003, p. 5). Although

both of these studies concentrate on the garment

sector, similar kinds of analyses have been conducted

in other industries and such studies reveal parallel

findings (for example, Hale and Opondo, 2005).

We can use the perspective of the Global Value

Chain following the full range of activities from the

conception of the product to the consumer to ana-

lyse linkages between workers and the global com-

panies (Gereffi, 1994; Kaplinski and Morris, 2001).

Although, perhaps surprisingly, much of the research

on the commodity chain has neglected workers

(Hale and Wills, 2005), who along the chain are less

powerful because:

power relations between different actors is far from

equal, and the most vulnerable workers are those who

have least power in relation to employers and large

commercial players, and are weakest in relation to la-

bour representation or organisations (Barrientos, 2003,

p. 2).

There is also further differentiation among

workers in terms of the labour rights they are able to

enjoy and working conditions that they have in the

supply chain. This differentiation happens depending

on (a) their place in the chain and (b) their

employment status (Hensmann, 2005, p. 208). In

the Philippines, up to 92% of the work can be

contracted and no labour code applies (Center for

Womens Resources, 2003). There are systemic

linkages between the global expansion of production

and trade and the increase of female-dominated

sectors such as export production, but also sex work,and domestic service that can be called gendered

production networks (Pyle and Ward, 2003).

Subcontracting and informalisation of employment

relations in the global supply chain reflects and

reinforces social inequalities such as poverty gender,

age, ethnicity and migration (Balakrishnan, 2002;

Hale and Wills, 2005).

The women organisation Women Working

Worldwide (WWW) looked at the supply chains in

an action-research project, which had the main

objective of facilitating local organisation and edu-cation of women workers in issues of supply chains

(WWW, 2003). The main study describes pyramid

networks of all the actors involved in supply chain

and the implications of these networks for the

workers in subcontracting conditions. A number of

risks have been transferred down to workers

including: the informalisation of the workforce;

underpayment of wages and social welfare; more

hours of work; health and safety issues; harassment;

weakening of trade unions and the right to organise

(ibid). Of relevance to women workers are the issues

of widespread sexual harassment, frequentlyaccompanied by the threat of dismissal, and excessive

overtime, which means they may have to walk

home or use unsafe transport. Furthermore, analysis

of the structure of the supply chain shows that

home-based workers, most of whom are women, are

firmly located at the bottom.

In another study looking at the global supply

chain, Collins (2003) uses a multi-site ethnography

in four locations: two firms in USA and their



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suppliers in Mexico. Her study locates women

workers in the centre of global industry by paying

attention to:

how power is distributed in new transnationalarrangements, to examine who gains and who loses,

and to ask who has a voice. These are not new

questions; they are older dilemmas of social justice

returning in new forms (Collins, 2003, p. xii).

Collins argues that the labour market is intercon-

nected with workers in different parts of the world

competing to perform the same operations for the

same firms (Collins, 2003, pp. 45). Thus, the fear of

being fired is replaced by the fears of capital flight,

plant closure, transfer of operations and plant disin-

vestments and workers become against each otherbecause of the tyranny of capital (Buroway, in

Collins, 2003, p. 10). One study of an international

cross-border solidarity campaign explains how the

factory producing shirts for Phillips-Van Huesen in

Guatemala shut down after an international solidarity

campaign and production moved to lower-wage ma-

quilas in the same city (Traub-Werner and Cravey,

2002). In this context, some recent research has fo-

cused on the impact of capital flight by asking what

happens when women workers lose their jobs and

whether they have a fallback position. Research in Fiji

(Harrington, 2004) shows how the possibilities of

other employment are very limited if women lose

their jobs in their factories and the workers better off

are those with assets, support from the state and

NGOs, and use of social support systems.

In a research project with their partner organisations

across various countries, the NGO Oxfam (Raworth,

2004) examines the impact on women workers in

supply chain for farms and factories in the context of the

actual model of globalisation and the business model

that has emerged. The report argues that:

the benefits of flexibility for companies at the top of

global supply chains have come at the cost of precar-

ious employment for those at the bottom. If this is to

be the future of export-oriented employment, trade

will fall far short of its potential for poverty reduction

and gender equality (2004, p. 5).

Oxfam argues that companies and governments

rights are protected by the World Trade Organisa-

tion (WTO) and other agreements, while workers

rights are going in the opposite direction. The report

cites the finding that 75% of women in the agri-

cultural sector in Chile have temporary contracts,

while less than 50% of women in the textiles

industry in Bangladesh have permanent contracts(ibid.). The impact of these inequalities do not stop at

the workplace, as the research highlights the costs to

womens health and to their families future: a

long-term liability to society (ibid., p. 26).

This report argues that factors explaining why

codes do not help to improve labour conditions

range from poor management to weak national leg-

islation, but often overlooked is the pressure on the

supply-chain with regards to purchasing practices of

companies. These practices clearly undermine the

labour standards that codes are supposed to protect.Examples of these pressures include price reductions,

exclusive relationships followed by withdrawn orders

and refusal to promise future orders even if

conditions improve. There is a double standard, for

example, when companies withdraw when there are

violations of labour rights but switch between sup-

pliers instead of working with suppliers to improve

standards. Some good practices are also highlighted in

the research by Oxfam, such as Premier Brands,

which gives priority to approved producers and

Chiquita, which works with international unions

(Raworth, 2004). This report concludes with a call tothink how women workers labour is contributing

to rising global prosperity and to the profits of some

of the worlds most powerful companies. But women

workers are systematically being denied their fair

share of the benefits from their labour (ibid., p. 102).

These labour rights conditions occur within a

rhetorical battle of neo-liberal global discourse.

Collins (2003) argues that this discourse makes a

number of claims including that bad working con-

ditions are tolerated because they will lead to

something better, or are considered necessary foreconomic trickle down, or the problem is rather of

too little globalisation while the anti-sweatshop

movement is hurting the people they are trying to

help. For example, Segerstrom (2003) argues that

trade liberalisation promotes economic growth and

reduces poverty and that sweatshop labour pays

above average wages. Although it is a powerful

argument if one compares wages with most of those

in the informal market, it still does not justify the bad



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working conditions and omits the reality that the

wages are still insufficient.

Thus, so far we have looked at the place of the

woman worker in both industrialization and in the

global supply chains. Both processes affect women.Moreover, there are also studies that focus on

resistance at various levels in the global supply chain.

The objective of the feminist interrogation of global

supply chains is to understand the broader forces that

shape womens lives in order to develop strategies to

counteract the negative impact stemming from the

risks and insecurities in subcontracted work. The

specific literature on women workers from Central

America in the textile and banana sector is examined

next.

Central America women workers in the textileand banana sector

Both of the sectors banana and textile are im-

mersed in global supply chains. However, few aca-

demics study the Central American region in terms

of labour rights and women workers with most of

the research being conducted by organisations (for

example, Flores and Kennedy, 1996; Kennedy and

Cardoza, 1995). As Bellman explains, in her study

on what motivates female export-processing zone(EPZ) workers to participate in labour organisation,

the available Central American literature, much of

it conducted by human-rights and labour organisa-

tions, documents working conditions in the EPZs

and explores their implications for regional devel-

opment (2004, p. 566). Academic Research in the

maquila has tended to focus on Mexico (ibid.).

Academic work in the banana sector in Central

America is still largely lacking. I discuss below in

detail a few academic studies on women workers in

both sectors that are particularly relevant.Research by Tinoco and Tinoco (2001) about the

maquila in Nicaragua is a good contribution to the

understanding of supply chains in the maquila. Thestudy makes a comparison between women workers

in the maquila and women who work at home

(home-based workers). It uses workers own testi-

monies and others such as those of employers and

representatives of the government. It shows the

differences between the workers who are legally

protected and those who are in subcontracted

workshops or work at home. The latter do not have

social benefits. There are four layers in the supply

chain: MNCs, maquilas, small, medium and bigworkshops and home-based workers (directly by

maquilas or intermediaries). The maquilas can sub-contract 45% of production, and this option is used

mainly by the American owned maquilas, while only

one maquila subcontracts the production to home-

based workers, the Dannish Italian shoemaker

ECCO. The women workers in the study describe

the price paid per operation, compulsory overtime

when orders arrive and other labour conditions re-

lated to the supply chain. The conditions are a bit

better in the maquilas when compared to workshops

and homework, but according to the women

interviewed, many problems still exist. These find-ings are interpreted by the study in the context of the

decentralisation of the activities of multinationals

where the risks are passed down the supply chain.2

The state is portrayed as a passive spectator that helps

to continue the flexibilisation of the market ( ibid.,

p. 47).

In the banana sector, Frank (2005) has made the

first attempt to write a book specifically about

women banana workers, who are leaders in Latin

American Network of Banana Trade Unions

(COLSIBA). Frank lived with the women, ate with

them, and visited their packing plans and unionoffice. Her work was carried out mainly in the

Honduras, but also includes Nicaragua and the other

countries that are part of COLSIBA.

Frank portrays a struggle that places womens

human rights at the centre of global class politics.

These are the women who refuse to separate the

global struggle against transnational corporations

from the struggle at home for womens equality and

respect (Frank, 2005, p. 6). The study reports how

the conditions in which the bananas are grown are

dreadful: many women are single, so their childrenare raised by their families; women workers have to

walk very long distances every day; the water is

polluted; these women have health problems; work

long hours, with low wages; suffer age and other

kinds of discrimination; and, have few opportunities

and choices available (see also Bendell, 2001).

However, the women are resisting these conditions.

For example, the Honduran trade union, COLSI-

BA, has training for women, and is attempting to

create alternative opportunities for women.



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There is a considerable amount of research

conducted by organisations on the ground, dealing

with, for example, women workers labour condi-

tions, the structure of the industry, the impact of free

trade agreement such as the one between CentralAmerica and the United States (CAFTA) on women

workers. However, very often this research is only

available in Spanish, and is not always easily acces-

sible3 such as the surveys (2000, 2002) of the

Working and Unemployed Womens Movement

Maria Elena Cuadra (MEC) on labour conditions

of the maquila women. Another is the participatory

study by COLSIBA (2001) concerning women

banana workers conditions in Latin America.

Organisations like GMIES (Salvadorian Monitoring

Group) (Quinteros, 2005) and ASEPROLA (Asso-ciation of Promotion of Labour Issues) (1998)

conduct research on issues such as codes of conduct,

the impact of CAFTA and the relations between

trade unions and NGOs. These studies by organisa-

tions reveal the importance of the micro level in

terms of women workers as main participants in the

research exercises and the important macro economic

issues for labour rights conditions in the regions.

In addition to this research by organisations on the

ground, there is research by Northern-based

researchers working with organisations on the ground

of relevance to this inquiry. Academics BickhamMendez and Kopke (2001) conducted research in

Nicaragua in close collaboration with the womens

organisation MEC and other such organisations in the

region. Their work highlights many issues that are

important in understanding women workers organ-

isations strategies concerning civil societys involve-

ment in labour rights at a local level. They argue that

traditional labour organisations are gender blind in

contrast to the different approaches of autonomous

womens organisations. In their own words:

Suddenly the men closed the space which the women

had succeeded in opening. For example, the leadership

of a federation withdrew the funds from the projects

for women and designated them for mixed-sex pro-

jects. Moreover, in many cases the womens projects

were subject to the authorisation of male leadership

(Bickham Mendez and Kopke, 2001).

They highlight many examples of strategies of

organising work: the network of promotoras inside

the factories; the original use of a human rights

discourse; the national, regional and international

public awareness campaigns; and, the use of a Code

of Ethics that includes specific gender issues which

has been used by MEC to ensure the implementa-

tion of national laws. Their detailed research isvaluable in explaining the secrecy within which

production occurs in maquila factories Thus,

simply keeping track of what happens behind the

closed doors of the maquila factories represents a

crucial project for organisations interested in

improving working conditions (Bickham Mendez

and Kopke, 1998, p. 3).

More recently, Bickham Mendez (2005) has

published an ethnographic study of the women

organisation, MEC. The study shows how globali-

sation affects grassroots advocacy and opens oppor-tunities for new types of organising (creating

counter-hegemonies). In her own words, the book

examines: [how] transnational, national, and local

processes interact in complex ways to shape the local

actors and how local movements participate and

sometimes reconfigure aspects of globalisation

(2005, p. 3).

So far I have reviewed the literature on women in

the industrialization process, in the global supply

chains and the specific literature on Central Amer-

ican women workers. It is to this literature on wo-

men workers and Codes of Conduct of multinational companies to which I turn in the last

section of this article.

Codes of conduct and women workers

Until recently, debates around the effectiveness of

codes for workers have attracted little academic

attention (Hale and Shaw, 2001) and so far studies

regarding the impact of codes on women workers

within the garment industry have come mainly fromresearch conducted by NGOs and womens organ-

isations (for example, CAWN and WWW, 1999;

WWW, 1999, 2002). Research on codes and

workers in the African horticulture industry is also

available (for example, Barrientos et al., 2003; Smith

et al., 2004). Only the feminist literature by aca-

demics and activists will be analysed here. It is

necessary to point out that this literature is very

much linked to the global supply chain research in

the section above.



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information and education concerning codes in

workers own languages, taking into account low

literacy levels of women. Other advice is to include

women in auditing teams, to conduct separate

interviews with women, and to produce gendertraining for auditors. Auret (2002), an anthropologist

from Zimbabwe developed her own critique of so-

cial auditing, proposing a participatory approach

focused on important issues such as literacy levels of

women, the lack of communication channels for

women in seasonal jobs, and systems to tackle the

issue of sexual harassment. In general, this literature

argues that if codes are to work, representation by

workers and women workers groups is essential and

any attempt to improve labour conditions on a

long-term basis has to be based on workers ownawareness and organisational ability (Hale and

Shaw, 2001, p. 525).

Codes have created an important space for wo-

mens organisations to campaign for the inclusion of

gender issues within codes (Elias, 2003, p. 300).

Women organisations in Central America are in-

volved in monitoring initiatives around codes (Pri-

eto et al., 2002). As Pearson and Seyfang (2002)

explain, womens organisations have been able to

incorporate demands that are gender-specific, such

as protection from sexual harassment, childcare and

maternity leave. For instance, the Ethical Code inNicaragua, initiated by MEC, includes the rights of

pregnant women. These priorities reflect their

position vis-a-vis men, and their responsibilities

according to the gender division of labour (Pearson,

2003, p. 30) and also the fact that those demands were

not part of the trade unions agenda (Prieto and

Quinteros, 2004).

Codes, women workers and the macro level

The research on codes and women workers is also

located in the macro level of gendered global

political economy. Some time ago, Hale argued that

restructuring and new international trade agreements

posed a threat to labour conditions (Hale, 1996) The

problematic logic of industry and competitive sub-

contracting is related to whether codes and initiatives

can make a difference to women workers (Hale and

Shaw, 2001; Kanji, 2004). As already argued, there is

evidence that falling international prices and the

increasing power of international buyers have

negative implications for women workers. The study

by Oxfam (Raworth, 2004) argues that the power of

retailers and brand companies can push the cost and

risks down the supply chain and suggests Codes ofConduct and auditing are about documenting the

problems that exist, without asking why those

problems persist (2004, p. 7). The most significant

criticism of codes, therefore, is that they fail to deal

with deeply embedded structures of inequality, such

as low wages and the segmentation of women into

the lowest paid and more insecure jobs (Elias, 2003;

Prieto-Carron, 2006).

At the macro level, it is important to look beyond

these initiatives such as codes to the broader picture:

how the private sector, civil society, internationalorganisations relations and corporations are involved

in public policy formulations and how companies

are involved in driving down labour standards.

Conclusion

The broad feminist literature review in this article

has something important to contribute to business

ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility knowl-

edge literature, which as today is very uncritical

about the conditions of women workers in theglobalized economy.

The feminist academic literature on women and

industrialization gives us the needed insights into the

position of women workers in the industrialization

process, at the shop floor and how ideologies of

gender are so important in shaping the way industri-

alization takes place and the place of women workers.

This literature gives us the conceptual and theoretical

tools to understand these processes. The academic

literature on supply chains, move from the shop-floor

and is invaluable in offering knowledge on womenworkers in the global supply chains. The studies by

organisations on the ground in Central America and

Northern academics working closely with them

reveal the importance of the micro level in terms of

women workers and their organisational representa-

tives as main participants in the research exercises.

These studies on women workers show the

importance of the micro and macro economic issues

for labour rights conditions. They also showed how

women workers are exploited while struggling for



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