Global Governance, Gains and Gender

Abstract

Abstract United Nations bodies and large private companies have recently entered into partnerships for women's empowerment in developing countries. Such public–private partnerships have not previously been the subject of feminist scrutiny. In this article I examine three partnerships, feeding into research exploring business influence on global governance gender policies. The article demonstrates how partnerships assert their legitimacy through a proposed mutually supporting relationship between women's empowerment and companies' economic gains, in contrast to a human rights-based approach to development. I show how UN–business partnerships for women's empowerment mobilize discourses, policies and governmental techniques to create alignments between business objectives and individual women's empowerment. Each woman is constituted as an ally of economic success by pursuing her education, increasing productivity and entrepreneurship. I argue that public–private partnerships for women's empowerment do not challenge the gendered structures of the global economy, though they may improve individual women's economic situation in the short term. The critical and emancipatory potential of empowerment is weakened by the imposed boundaries of neoliberal market criteria and their demands for economic effectiveness. Keywords: corporate social responsibilitygenderglobal governancepublic–private partnershipsUnited Nations Notes See http://www.unglobalcompact.org/participants/search (accessed 30 May 2011). See http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Issues/human_rights/equality_means_business.html (accessed 30 May 2011). This number is as of 7 April 2011. This is the description at the homepage of the Coalition; see http://www.coalitionforadolescentgirls.org/about (accessed 30 May 2011). As presented at the homepage of the Private Sector Leaders Forum; see http://pslforum.worldbankgroup.org/resources/empowerment.aspx (accessed 30 May 2011). See, for example, the compilation of critical voices at http://globalcompactcritics.blogspot.com/ (accessed 30 May 2011). This is the description at the homepage of the Coalition; see http://www.coalitionforadolescentgirls.org/why_girls (accessed 30 May 2011).