The pursuit of the bottom line is the goal of many businesses of a variety of sizes. The ability to buy cheaply, sell dearly and minimize costs across the board gives businesses an edge that allows them to create vast amounts of wealth for those with a stake in the business or corporation, but at what cost? Multinational corporations create great deals wealth but they propagate social and cultural inequality, poverty and environmental damage at rates to rival their gains. Multinational Corporations wield incredible amounts of political and economic clout, clout that allows them to manipulate a region without fear of recourse on the part of the localities in which they reside. The gains of corporations with respect to political and economic status are often accompanied by the withering of political and economic status on the part of indigenous populations and local labor forces. Specifically, the appearance of multinational corporations has served to aggravate the erosion of political and economic status at the familial level. The wielding of this economic and political power on the part of corporations is often characterized by violence on the part of its agents. One aspect that allows multinational corporations to survive in the business world is their lack of responsibility to the localities in which they do business. Albert J. Dunlap, a former CEO of multiple corporations had this to say about corporations : “ The company belongs to people who invest in it- not to its employees, suppliers, nor the locality in which it is situated”. Even the market itself encourages corporations to be amoral and to turn a blind eye towards the needs of its employees and the regions. According to Richard Robbins “the fact is that environmenta... ... middle of paper ... ...rized by the gendered conflict endured on the part of women worldwide. Female workers are appealing to multinational corporations because they are less likely to object to substandard working conditions(less likely to riot) and because corporations are able to pay women far less than what a man would make performing similar work. Women suffer physical and sexual abuse at the workplace in developing countries, trapped because they need the small wage they earn to support their families. The choice between starvation and abuse is a grim reality that many around the world suffer. Corporations have the power to pay women equally, and to pay all workers at a level that they can survive on, without threatening their profit margins by more than a few percent. Yet consider once again the Dunlap and Robbins quotes near the start of the paper, there is no motivation to do so.
As reported by the White House, women, on average, earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Writer and activist, Rebecca Solnit addresses such issues of gender inequality, as well as violence against women, in her 2014 essay, “The Longest War.” Solnit’s purpose is to shed a light onto the inequitable and detrimental treatment of women and to emphasize the need for change. She utilizes a compelling, matter-of-fact tone to optimize the effect her words will have on her readers, both male and female. “The Longest War” by Rebecca Solnit employs the rhetorical strategies of substance and delivery to highlight gender issues worldwide, evoke the audience’s rational and emotional sides, and inspire people to act toward equality.
She does this by drawing on the three points made earlier in the essay: stereotypes, discrimination, and gender pay. However, there is room for biased in this article. A lot of her factual information comes from a survey, and as we talked about in class surveys are not always reliable. They allow for error and in this case the values given could be higher or lower than what they actually are. Also, this article does not take into account of race, ethnicity, changing demographics, global economic restructuring or shifting of cultural patterns (Prokos
Following the globalization, many companies in developed countries move factories to developing nations. As a multinational company, there is at least one facility in one country other than its home country. Those companies have offices and factories in different countries and usually have a centralized head office in their home country. Advocates of multinationals say they create jobs and wealth. And multinationals can improve technology in developing countries, which are in need of this. On the other hand, critics say multinational companies often barely pay employees enough to live on in developing countries, and it is unethical to pay cheap wages.
Imagine being employee number 101 out of 1001. Now imagine working on an assembly line in a hot room filled with 1000 other women frantically assembling products for first world countries to use for ten seconds before discarding for a newer version. This job pays enough for you to get by but living in a third world country with low pay isn’t easy. What many people don’t understand is that the cost of production in a third world country is more inexpensive than it is in America. Hiring women to work in horrid conditions decreases employee loss because they are not rambunctious like men. “Life on the Global Assembly Line” by Barbara Ehrenreich and Annette Fuentes clearly illustrates the hardships women go through for U.S. corporation production. Corporate powers have resorted to building production plants in third world countries to save money. U.S. corporate powers take advantage of third world
Women now hold their place in the workforce and we have our eight hour day. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the people who strongly believed that women needed opportunities for labor, and women have gotten those rights. On the contrary, women still get paid less than men. According to CNN Money, “men still make more than women in most professions -- considerably more in some occupations than others, according to a new study by the job search site Glassdoor”. Although we like to comfort ourselves with the idea that we have gotten our rightfully earned rights, we had not been given bathroom breaks until 1998. Furthermore, employees are still afraid to have a voice in the workforce. Employers establish rules that basically let laborers know that they are inferior. In Ehrenreich 's case, she witnessed being told that her bag was subject to being looked through at any time, and she saw how degrading drug tests were. Ehrenreich argues that“the drug tests, the constant surveillance, being ‘reamed out’ by managers- are part of what keeps wages low”(Ehrenreich 211) which is agreeable seeing as the low wage workers decline to fight for better conditions due to fear. Additionally, Barbara figures out that minimum jobs do not equal minimum labor, which has always been the case. I agree with that fact due to
must understand the social issues that may have a negative impact on their company. They have a social responsibility regardless of the country that they are in. According to our textbook, Executive Concepts in Business Strategy (2011), “Social responsibility is the obligation an organization (profit-seeking or nonprofit) has to be ethical, responsible, and responsive to the needs of the members in the organization as well as the larger society.” (p. 545) Remember that your period goes after the in-text citation. To support this, Friedman’s doctrine (1970) bout “social responsibilities of business” is that “A corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but “business” as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities, even in this vague sense….the social responsibility of business is to ask precisely what it implies for whom.” (p. 2). All direct quotes >40 words need to be placed in a block quotation. XYZ should have a positive impact on the country by using environmentally safe materials along with not violating any laws by applying for permits and licenses in a timely
Naomi Klein’s No Logo states that corporations have been championing globalization using the reasons that globalization allows U.S. consumers to benefit from cheaper products produced abroad, while developing nations benefit from the economic growth stimulated by foreign investments. The generally accepted belief is that governmental policies should be established in favor of the corporations to facilitate the trickling down of corporate profits to the end consumers and workers abroad. Klein, however, contends that globalization rarely benefit the workers in the developing countries.
Mies, Maria. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. New York: Zed Books, 1998.
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
Feminists are constantly trying to decrease the wage gap through activism. Women are more educated now than they have ever been, but even women who are university graduates are earning less than men. Frenette and Coulombe reached the conclusion that this was often due to their degrees being in gendered fields of study, such as the arts and humanities (as cited in Gaszo, 2010, p. 224). Women also tend to work in fields associated with lower pay, which includes service and sales work (Gaszo, 2010). In the garment industry, women, especially immigrants and women who work at home, are routinely taken advantage of by companies such as Wal-Mart and paid far too little (Ng, 2006).
There has been increased the outcry by international labor organizations accusing multinational companies of foul play when dealing with their workers. Many multinational companies, in a bid, to reduce operation costs and costs of production, end up suppressing their clueless workers. Some multinational companies have gone to the extent on having their central productions being done in low-income earning companies where they would not have many responsibilities to bear for the workers. Coca-Cola, however, has received widespread criticism for its mistreatment of workers and the way it has...
As the world trends towards a more globalized marketplace, the need for a universal definition of suitable ethical standards and corporate social responsibility is imperative due to the recent upsurge in global welfare issues. If successful, every facet of the business and supply chain would concentrate on not only the maximization of wealth, but the well-being of all stakeholders. However, many multinational corporations (MNCs) are encountering human rights issues resulting from unethical actions from overseas suppliers that conflict with their own code of conduct. These adverse engagements have been shown to cause significant damage and guilt by association to MNCs even though they are not directly overseeing
...action with others… especially men. This supplies final substantiation of the authors' argument, that women continue to be oppressed by their male-dominated societies. It is a bold undertaking for women to ally and promote a world movement to abandon sexist traditions. Although I have never lived in a third world or non-Westernized country, I have studied the conditions women suffer as "inferior" to men. In National Geographic and various courses I have taken, these terrible conditions are depicted in full color. Gender inequality is a terrible trait of our global society, and unfortunately, a trait that might not be ready to change. In America we see gender bias towards women in voters' unwillingness to elect more females into high office, and while this is not nearly as severe as the rest of the world, it indicates the lingering practice of gender inequality.
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.
Women’s subordination within the labour market is seen by Marxist feminists as suiting the needs of capitalism as women are considered a ‘reserve army of labour’ as they are a more disposable part of the workforce. According to Beechey (1986) women are a cheap ‘reserve army of labour’ that are brought in during economic booms but then thrown out during slumps. Women are often not members of trade unions and are prepared to work for less money as their wage could be a second income. This benefits capitalism as a group of unemployed people looking for work creates competition and exploitation. Employers are given an advantage which allows them to reduce wages and increase the rate of exploitation. Benston (1972) supports this as women are used to benefitting the operation of the capitalist economy by carrying out unprepared work in the home. This proves that patriarchy dominates women which leads to women’s subordination. Hartmann (1981) believes that patriarchy and the economy both play a crucial role in explaining and understanding gender inequality. Historically, men have controlled women especially by control of labour power. This can come through legislation that operates economically to the benefit of men, for example Maternity and Paternity Rights. This proves that patriarchy and economics together explains gender inequality. However, Walby (1986) argues that women staying at home can actually harm capitalism because if women were to compete for jobs with men this would lower wages and increase profits. Women who earn also have superior spending power which would boost the economy and benefit