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.
1. Finn, Lisa. "Female Discrimination in the Workplace." Editorial. Global Post-America's World News Site. N.p., 2005. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
As a result of this norm, more feminists who recognize the “systematic disadvantage” (Cahill 206) that women face daily in other countries is the reason why many feminists believe governments should oppose typical gender roles and gender stereotypes by protecting the rights of women. However, culture is always subject to change thus, leading developing countries who have neglected the rights of women to improve due to the global influence of other countries who have gender equality. This, in turn, leads countries to be “forced” to accept feminist agendas who “hold[ing] these patterns… to change them, and thus to change the realities that they produce” (Cahill 208). Not only does gender affect social issues but it also has progressed onto the economic sector for business as well, making gender a multifaceted topic for any
In terms of the media, men are both seen and heard much more than women are. Women’s biological events are typically not studied into vast detail. Furthermore, women of color are severely unnoticed in psychology research (30). An area in which women go especially unnoticed is domestic work. There are numerous women who immigrate from the Caribbean, Latin America, and other developing countries, to North America. Upon entering North America, these women work in areas where they provide domestic work, such as child care, until they can earn a green card. Matlin (2012) reports further, “They may be expected to work every day—with no time off and no health insurance—for a fraction of the minimum-wage salary. Many of the women report that their employers insult them, do not let them leave the house, and treat them much like modern-day slaves” (226). While this situation sounds like something that would occur in a third world country, it is occurring right in our own backyards. In addition to domestic work, numerous women and their families become involved with garment work. Many women go unnoticed working in sweatshops, where there are numerous labor laws regarding wages and working conditions violated daily. These sweatshops occur all over the world, from North America to Latin America. Matlin recalls a story from one of her students, saying, “Several months later, Ling’s mother began to work on a garment, without asking for the supervisor’s permission. The supervisor then punched Ling’s mother in the chest, and the family called the police to report the assault. The manager then fired the entire family” (226). It is shocking that women go unnoticed and unreported in these unethical and disturbing conditions. In addition to this, women often go unnoticed in health care. Throughout history, women have often been
Recently, multinational companies have lost their standing in the community and many view businesses as part of the problems plaguing the society. Nonetheless, the reduction in public sector resources and its power has put more pressure
Class this semester was widely based on the ideas and problematic events in which revolve around the idea of globalization. This term, idea, or concept poses many negativities to the gender of women. Despite the media and the common portrayal that the idea of globalization is a positive thing for the world, in many instances it is causing great negativity for people, specifically women. Globalization can be applied to many aspects of culture but many times it is applied in terms of economics. In the patriarchal world in which exists when speaking about economics it is typically a male centered conversation due to the males typically being in lead roles of the work force despite many women in this country and well across borders in other countries being very highly educated and capable of carrying out such jobs. Many of these women who seek to be educated and successful in the workforce do not achieve their goals and fall back into their gender roles which goes against their personal goals. This was demonstrated very well by the case study of “Clashing Dreams: Highly Educated Overseas Brides and Low-Wage U.S. Husbands” written by Hung Cam Thai. Not only are these brides in which are talked about in this essay failing at their personal goals they are also failing at the goals in which Estelle B. Freedman discusses in her book No Turning Back. In this work she speaks much about transnational feminism and the objectives in which much be met to obtain equality rights for women transnational. The link between Freedman’s work and the study of Vietnamese brides marrying transnational is undeniable not for positive outcomes but for negative. By linking these two works not only will it show what needs to be done for women to obtain equal ri...
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
Mira Wilkins defines a multinational enterprise (MNE) as a “firm that extends itself over borders to do business outside its headquarters country.” By 1870, a period denoted as industrial capitalism, MNCs started to evolve and the nature...
It is argued that societies who supports education for women are more prone to experience dramatic social progress. It is further explained that when women enters the workforce, they contribute to their countries' economic prospects, and this leads to their economic independence thus improve their stature both at home and in the community. According to the report, globalization is the 'antidote to the intolerant fundamentalism' that helps eliminate regressive taboos responsible for the promotion of gender discrimination. When discussing the impact of globalization on women, Subhalakshmi (2012) looked at women workers in India. She explained that globalization has opened up various employment opportunities for Indian women, hence increasing their purchasing power, self-confidence and independency. This, in turn, is seen as a potential way to increase equality between the sexes and afford women an equal stance in
...d women’s biological purpose has provided men a source of comparative advantage in work. It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participative and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market.
Just imagine waking up in squalor, a once prominent society, now a desolate wasteland. All because foreign interest has raped your land of its natural resources and you seen not a cent in profit. Although, globalization is unifying the worlds developed nations and is bringing commerce to nations that have struggle in past years. True, globalization has many positive effects but do the pros outweigh the cons. In this essay I will discuss Globalization ruining the integrity of many countries and also is forcing many undeveloped nations into a bind, and is causing economic distress on some developed nations. Also, due to economic globalization the nations of the world are diluting their culture, sovereignty, natural resources, safety and political system. My goal is not to change your way of thought, but only to enlighten you of the negatives of global economic expansion.
Modern society is dominated by multinational corporations. In the past 30 years there has been unprecedented development of transnational corporations (TNC), which is “any corporation that is registered and operates in more than one country at a time” (Transnational). Now, there are more than 63,000 TNCs, while there only 7,000 in 1970. That is more than a 900% growth in TNCs in only a few decades. Even more startling, 70% of all trade, includes at least one of these TNCs (Basic). So, if these multinational corporations have such strong influence, it is their responsibility to activate change in terms of sustainability. Sustainability is the number one problem our society faces today. Sustainability refers to social, environmental, and economic
Firstly, multinational corporations are not something new in this 21st century. There are more and more international corporation as people try to boost the process of globalization. The development of these multinational corporations depends on the management of the owners. Transnational strategy is needed in order to operate such a big system of companies. Every nation in this system has to be managed thoroughly in order to help running the corporation, as well as to keep the system as one consistent body of business. Managers also find it important to look for opportunitie...
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.
Brinkman, June E., and Richard L. Brinkman. "Corporate Power and the Globalization Process." International journal of social economics 29.9/10 (2002): 730-52. Print.
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...