Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 83:5–17
DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9650-7
Women Workers, Industrialization,
Global Supply Chains and Corporate
Codes of Conduct
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
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codes of conduct (Prieto, 2006, unpublished).

Springer 2008
Marina Prieto-Carrón
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 CSR’s 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
6 Marina Prieto-Carrón
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 (mainly
textile 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-
er’s 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 and
the way it reflects gender divisions in the home is a
very important part of women’s 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
earner’s wage rests partly on the assumption that
women workers’ income is ‘‘secondary’’. These
women 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
women’s 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 and
dismissal 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
 Women Workers, and Global Supply Chains
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 factory
may 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 (Fernández-Kelly, 1997;
Ong, 1987; Rosa, 1994). In addition to research on
women 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 women’s
agency on the other hand, operate under conditions
of global capitalism.
Paid work also offers opportunities for women
to renegotiate power within the household. Kabeer
and 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 also
supported 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 women’s paid employment as
offering them a source of power. When women
challenge male economic domination by entering
the labour force, the maquiladoras women workers
7
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 respond
with hostility (Bickham Mendez and Köpke, 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-
men’s 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 of
information 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 common
issues 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 on
gender, 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
8 Marina Prieto-Carrón
the analysis of women workers’ issues within the
global supply chains of multinational companies.
Women workers in global supply chains: beyond
the 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 a
single 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
Women’s 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, frequently
accompanied 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
 Women Workers, and Global Supply Chains
suppliers in Mexico. Her study locates women
workers in the centre of global industry by paying
attention to:
how power is distributed in new transnational
arrangements, 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. 4–5). 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 other
because 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’
9
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
women’s 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 to
think how women workers’ labour ‘‘is contributing
to rising global prosperity and to the profits of some
of the world’s 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 for
economic 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
10 Marina Prieto-Carrón
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 women’s 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 textile
and 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. The
study 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 big
workshops 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 union
office. 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 women’s
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 women’s 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 children
are 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.
 Women Workers, and Global Supply Chains
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 Central
America 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 Women’s 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 Bickham
Mendez and Köpke (2001) conducted research in
Nicaragua in close collaboration with the women’s
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 society’s 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
women’s 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 women’s projects
were subject to the authorisation of male leadership
(Bickham Mendez and Köpke, 2001).
They highlight many examples of strategies of
organising work: the network of promotoras inside
the factories; the original use of a human rights
11
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 is
valuable 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 Köpke, 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 from
research conducted by NGOs and women’s 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.
12 Marina Prieto-Carrón
Codes, initiatives and gender
The main argument of this literature is that Codes of
Conduct have so far neglected gender issues. This
neglect exists despite the fact that codes apply in
sectors that are female intensive (i.e. sectors with a
large number of female employees doing a specific
task). Codes do not reflect gender specific forms of
discrimination (Seyfang, 1999). Aspects of discrimi-
nation including sexual harassment, maternity leave,
childcare need to be unpacked (Prieto et al., 2004).
Of the 20 codes examined by Pearson and Seyf-
ang (2001), they find that only a third of the codes
cover sexual harassment, only a tenth cover repro-
ductive health, and the codes are poorly inspected
and monitored. Women workers are also excluded
from the process of establishing the codes and have
little knowledge about them (CAWN and WWW,
1999; WWW, 1999, 2002; Pearson and Seyfang
2002). One exception is the ‘‘Women’s Code of
Ethics’’, the Nicaraguan code (Pearson and Seyfang,
2002; Prieto et al., 2002). However, once women
workers learn about the codes, they have much to
say about them (Prieto and Bendell, 2002). Workers
in Nicaragua argued that ‘‘monitoring and verifica-
tion could be done through worker surveys, research
and announced visits to the factory’’ and workers
expressed their desire to learn about the indicators
for monitoring (CAWN and WWW, 1999, p. 13).
Further codes mainly apply to formal workers, and
do not cover home-based workers or piece rate
workers, the majority of whom are women (Brill,
2002; Seyfang, 1999).
Hale and Shaw assert that ‘‘the specific position of
women workers within the industry should be the
starting point for entire codes, rather than simply a
generic anti-discrimination clause’’ (2001, p. 524).
Codes have to be gender sensitive in their design
and implementation with women’s participation
throughout the entire process (Barrientos et al.,
2001). Moreover, the reach of Codes of Conduct is
very limited. Women are protected only if there is a
brand name company to protect from campaigns or
if the producer is involved in one of the initiatives
designed to protect workers (Seyfang, 1999). Pear-
son and Seyfang (2001) similarly suggest that codes
cannot substitute for social policy provision because
they are contingent (i.e. only apply to a particular
employment situation) and only affect employment
practices (certain employees, less likely vulnerable
women), i.e. as such any changes are not available to
the rest of the population.
Research on women workers and codes has
concentrated on two levels of analysis: the micro
level and the macro one with most of the contrib-
utors covering both.
Codes, women workers and the micro level
This literature has many important insights as to how
codes are implemented and monitored at the
workplace level. The gender dimension of horti-
cultural employment in the South African grapefruit
export sector, and the link with codes and super-
markets in the UK, has been examined by Barrientos
et al. (1999b). This report examines codes as an
important area of concern when the ETI was formed
in 1997. The study examined how there is a gender
segregation of jobs and suggests that there are both
better and worse practices with regards to codes
being able to tackle this segregation. This finding
suggests that codes need to be sensitive to gender and
racial differences that are embedded in the practices
in traditional farming (Barrientos et al., 2001).
Working conditions can also be worse for women,
who have little awareness of codes and little
involvement in multi-stakeholder participation at
the local level, making improvements difficult (ibid.).
Some of the studies at the micro level include the
women workers’ voices on their working conditions
and in some cases, what women workers know and
think about Codes of Conduct studies (Bendell,
2001; CAWN and WWW, 1999; Prieto-Carrón,
2004; WWW, 1999, 2002).
At the micro level of analysis, the proposals for
actions from this kind of study are particular to the
needs of women workers (Auret and Barrientos,
2004; Barrientos et al., 1999a, b, 2001). Some rec-
ommendations include the need for records on the
gender balance ratio of supervisors; documentation
on the good practices of employers; taking into ac-
count all workers; pro-rata rights and equal rights;
and, affordable child care facilities. With regards to
monitoring, proposals relate to the inclusion of or-
ganisations representing women and the represen-
tation of all groups of workers including women in
monitoring and verification procedures and also
 Women Workers, and Global Supply Chains
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 gender
training 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’ own
awareness and organisational ability’’ (Hale and
Shaw, 2001, p. 525).
Codes have created an important space for wo-
men’s 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, women’s 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 in
Nicaragua, initiated by MEC, includes the rights of
pregnant women. These priorities reflect ‘‘their
position vis-à-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
13
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 of
Conduct 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-Carrón, 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, international
organisations 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 the
globalized 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 women
workers 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
14 Marina Prieto-Carrón
their rights at the workplace and home. Very
importantly, these studies bring the rich empirical
data, often with sound conceptual analysis, that is
needed in order to understand these complex issues.
In spite of the many limitations that codes have,
feminist academics and activists have engaged in
analysing Codes of Conduct in different ways. This
literature reveals the tensions between a feminist
analysis that raises issues ‘‘about the principle of self-
regulation given that so many firms rely upon cheap
female labour in order to maintain their competitive
advantage’’ while on the other hand, ‘‘codes are
viewed as a source of potential change, a tool that
workers could organise around in order to improve
their working conditions’’ (Elias, 2003, p. 301).
There is a split between the more structural analysis
that is ‘‘transformative’’ and the one that is more
‘‘reformative’’. However, most contributors attempt
to encompass both levels of analysis. Thus, it is not
clear yet that codes can be delivered for women
workers, especially because of structural issues in the
global economy, but codes might still have other
important roles in promoting awareness of labour
rights, mobilising women workers, promoting links
between the North and the South and opening new
spaces for dialogue in which women’s concerns can
be at the forefront.
This feminist literature has certain defining fea-
tures: it goes beyond codes when needed to
encompass a feminist analysis of the place of women
workers in the global economy analysing the micro
level with grassroots empirical work; the macro level
and global supply chains; it takes into account
material and cultural aspects of gender relations; and
importantly, puts women workers at the centre of
the analysis.
Therefore, a critical research agenda around ethical
business, corporate social responsibility and more spe-
cific on codes of conduct and their impact on women
workers around the globe is important and needed.
This agenda cannot exclude the rich insights of critical
empirical and conceptual work on women workers.
Notes
1
In this article I use the first person as feminist
researchers do, in order to make visible our positional-
ity.
2
The situation is similar in the banana sector where
the local producers have responsibility and only receive
technical assistance from MNC (Prieto-Carrón, 2006).
3
There is very little capacity to produce research in
the South often because of a lack of resources.
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Development Studies,
Birkbeck College,
University of London,
26 Russell Square,
London, WC1B 5DQ, U.K.
E-mail: m.prieto-carron@bbk.ac.uk