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

by Kathryn Moeller

How and why are U.S. transnational corporations investing in the lives, educations, and futures of poor, racialized girls and women in the Global South? Is it a solution to ending poverty? Or is it a pursuit of economic growth and corporate profit? Drawing on more than a decade of research in the United States and Brazil, this book focuses on how the philanthropic, social responsibility, and business practices of various corporations use a logic of development that positions girls and women as instruments of poverty alleviation and new frontiers for capitalist accumulation. Using the Girl Effect, the philanthropic brand of Nike, Inc., as a central case study, the book examines how these corporations seek to address the problems of gendered poverty and inequality, yet do so using an instrumental logic that shifts the burden of development onto girls and women without transforming the structural conditions that produce poverty. These practices, in turn, enable corporations to expand their legitimacy, authority, and reach while sidestepping contradictions in their business practices that often exacerbate conditions of vulnerability for girls and women. With a keen eye towards justice, author Kathryn Moeller concludes that these corporatized development practices de-politicize girls’ and women’s demands for fair labor practices and a just global economy.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Economics, Gender

316 pages, Paperback

Published February 16, 2018

Reviews

[Adora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Academic, with a fair amount of theory that may be off-putting to lay readers but pretty good for anyone interested in analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and development programs with a gender focus in the past decade, with a special focus in this book on the Girl Effect (a program of the Nike Foundation before it spun out as its own entity). Spivak's famous line on "white men saving brown women from brown men" comes to mind a lot here.

One bit from the book that sums up a lot: "Jeff, a white angel investor...explained he was investing in the Girl Effect to reduce fertility rates among Black and Brown girls in the Global South in order to limit the impact of population growth on animal life, deforestation, and climate change"

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

i had to read this book for a class and was super interested in a lot of the topics and ideas Moeller introduced. that being said, it is definitely an academic text in the it is VERY dense and deeply conceptual.

[Holly Golightly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for my sociology of global development class. And as I was finishing it! I realized it was in fact a book that I could put down for my goodreads. Reading is reading. Although I'm realizing I didn't read the second chapter as it wasn't assigned. So maybe I should go back and read that. But I'm still counting it. I read ALMOST all of it. I might finish that one chapter some day. Arrest me if you must!

Overall, interesting topic. Nike you are kinda sick and twisted. But what corporation isn't! I honestly do recommend reading part of it, or at least looking into the stuff surrounding Nike and The Girl Effect. Love my soc class fr

[Yoyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely reflexive and insightful, bold and critical in revealing the normalized yet deeply violent logic of the philanthrocapitalist branding of "empowering girls". Corporatized strategies, again and again, perpetuate and exploit the imagined representations of marginalized groups without acknowledging their material reality.

Yes - the book is grounded in various academic theories, but these solid theories are extremely important in offering the lenses to examine what is really happening in a world where liberal feminism is uncritically engaged.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT ethnography of Nike's Girl Effect campaign in Brazil

[Grace Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

educational but SO boring

[Sophie Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

not dense! unflinching and readable investigation and report.

[Mills College Library]

362.55765 M6936 2018