Gender Effect: Capitalism, Feminism, and the Corporate Politics of Development

US transnational corporations invest in the lives, educations, and futures of poor, racialized girls and women in the Global South through philanthropic, social responsibility, and business practices. These practices use a logic of development that positions girls and women as instruments of poverty alleviation and new frontiers for capitalist accumulation, yet do so without transforming the structural conditions that produce poverty. This enables corporations to expand their legitimacy, authority, and reach while de-politicizing girls and women's demands for fair labor practices and a just global economy.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 320 pages
\n Publication date: 16 February 2018
\n Publisher: University of California Press
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Transnational corporations (TNCs) in the United States are investing significantly in the lives, education, and futures of poor, racialized girls and women in the Global South. This investment is seen as a potential solution to ending poverty, or is it merely a pursuit of economic growth and corporate profit? This book, based on extensive research conducted in the United States and Brazil over a decade, delves into the ways in which these corporations employ a development logic that positions girls and women as tools for poverty alleviation and new avenues for capitalist accumulation. Using the Girl Effect, the philanthropic brand of Nike, Inc., as a central case study, the book examines how these corporations aim to address the issues of gendered poverty and inequality while employing an instrumental logic that shifts the burden of development onto girls and women without altering the structural factors that contribute to poverty. These practices, in turn, enable corporations to enhance their legitimacy, authority, and reach while avoiding contradictions in their business practices that often exacerbate conditions of vulnerability for girls and women. With a strong focus on justice, the author, Kathryn Moeller, concludes that these corporatized development practices de-politicize the demands of girls and women for fair labor practices and a just global economy.

\n Weight: 460g\n
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 21 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780520286399\n \n