Corporate social responsibility

Chapter 4 analyses corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a gender perspective, arguing that the systemic undervaluation of women’s social reproductive role explains the undervaluing of homeworkers productive role. Three case examples from India, Pakistan and Australia demonstrate various types of CSR responses to homework in the garment and footwear sectors that undervalue and ignore women in homework. The voluntary nature of CSR codes limits their capacity to address the position of women workers, specifically informal women homeworkers. Firms use ‘compartmentalisation’ to quarantine profit making from ethical responsibility to shield themselves from addressing systemic labour rights problems in the supply chain.