Beate Sjåfjell and Irene Lynch Fanon are to be commended for this ambitious collection of thought-provoking and timely writings by women about the role of gender in corporate cultures and the power of women to catalyse change in the business community. Starting from the premise that regulation is never neutral, Creating Corporate Sustainability: Gender as an Agent for Change presents a compelling case for bringing a gender perspective to regulatory reforms intended to promote sustainable business practices. The collection considers how women influence corporate sustainability and is instructive for readers interested in gender-based approaches to existing and emerging business and human rights issues.

The volume is organized in three parts: (I) Women as Influencers of Corporate Action, (II) Current Strategies for Corporate Sustainability and (III) Feminist Theories and Corporate Sustainability. The diverse contributors bring multi-disciplinary and feminist approaches to the study of corporate law with a focus on how gender dynamics influence corporate governance and culture. Each chapter situates the substance of its subject matter in the context of existing inequalities and power imbalance. Subjects as varied as stakeholder consultation, quotas, social enterprise and corporate reporting are covered.

The contributors share an expansive understanding of sustainability as ensuring economic, social and environmental resilience. The view of sustainability they set forth accepts that ecological limits and planetary boundaries will require the business community to confront the reality that resources are not unlimited or easily substituted. Accordingly, to be truly sustainable, corporations must consider social concerns, ethical management, fair labour standards, sustainable manufacturing and sustainable consumer activity.

Part I provides diverse case studies demonstrating how women are advocating for more sustainable business practices. Lorraine Talbot’s discussion of reclaiming the value of women’s work shows how Bangladeshi women workers in global garment chains are disrupting cultural barriers, and market and social norms. She argues that liberation is not the commodification of women’s work on better terms, but rather the creation of social systems enabling women to live as equally valued community members. Ragnhild Lunner examines women’s involvement in community consultations with extractive corporations in Papua New Guinea. She highlights obstacles to progress and opportunities for women’s meaningful participation. Building on communications theory, she shows that structural and social factors influence women’s agency and the efficacy of women’s advocacy.

Adaeze Okoye and Emmanuel Osuteye recount how Ghanaian women from communities affected by extractives’ environmental impacts organized to press their concerns and successfully created changes in company policy. They provide a rich account of social mobilization for sustainable solutions informed by gendered identities that experience adverse environmental impacts differently. When gold mining caused water pollution, women with household responsibility for cooking, washing, cleaning and caring for their families felt the burden of water inaccessibility most acutely. This motivated them to protest the company’s practices and blockade the business until an agreement to address the problem was reached. Departing from the usual debates over sustainability, which privilege top-down perspectives concerning legitimacy and social licence to operate, the authors centre the perspectives of rural African women who challenged pre-conceived and accepted social roles to force negotiations with a gold mining corporation.

While none of the chapters in Part I expressly refer to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), they are highly relevant to an inclusive appreciation of meaningful access to remedy and stakeholder engagement. The UNGPs promote dialogue to address and resolve grievances,Footnote ¹ and the case studies discussed in Part I illustrate how grievances are articulated more powerfully when those most affected express how business practices affect their lived experience occupying the gendered social position of a woman. The UNGPs also envisage stakeholder engagement to assess actual and potential risks to human rights,Footnote ² and these case studies evidence that meaningful consultation with women can provide a different vantage point which is incredibly valuable in crafting a more accurate assessment of businesses’ adverse human rights impacts.

Part II of this volume surveys strategies for improving corporate sustainability. Gill North’s contribution examines company reporting and gender, explaining how current reporting frameworks are limited and why report quality remains inconsistent, taking European gender equality policies as a case in point. Because barriers to access quality information on financial and non-financial sustainability issues remain, with serious implications for promoting changes, North offers an alternative policy rationale that better reflects broader societal expectations where current approaches are lacking. She concludes that reporting rules and robust monitoring and enforcement could increase the number of women in business leadership with real influence on sustainable business practices.

Irene Lynch Fannon addresses the question of quotas for women on boards in the European Union. She takes issue with ‘business case’ justifications for gender equality and rejects the idea that inclusion of women as participants in economic life must be justified solely by reference to ‘the shallow described needs of a corporation’, warning that liberal structuralism-driven reforms often mask larger issues. She introduces an alternative economic argument to support quotas – a return on investments made in social spending on education. Idoya Ferrero‑Ferreo also joins hands with Maria Ángeles Fernández-Izquierdo and Maria Jesús Muñoz-Torres to assess gender diversity initiatives on corporate boards evaluating the literature on the value of gender diversity in improving decision-making. Applying institutional theory to their empirical analysis of board composition, they find that policies alone do not necessarily improve boards’ gender composition. While the empirical data demonstrate encouraging progress, they warn that the presence of women on boards cannot be equated with meaningful participation.

Aikaterini Argyrou, Rosalien Diepeveen and Tineke Lambooy surveyed social enterprises in the Netherlands to determine ways these organizations involve women and adopt sustainability objectives. They conclude that social enterprises can serve as catalysts to promote the role of women in leadership. Victoria Schnure Baumfield discusses gender in the social enterprise movement more generally. Her study of the origins of benefit corporations, community interest companies, and B Lab certification shows how these forms of business organization may be consistent with a feminist ethic of care.

Again, chapters in Part II of this edited collection do not discuss the UNGPs. Yet, they could be read as highlighting the need for more discussion of how gender dimensions play out in the business and human rights context. The UNGPs reference ‘gender’ in the context of states providing guidance to businesses on considering effectively gender issues as part of their duty to enforce laws,Footnote ³ as well as the likely increased risk of gender-based and sexual violence in conflict affected areas, warranting that states assist businesses operating in these environments.Footnote ⁴ Gender also appears in the context of the business responsibility to respect rights such that gender disaggregated data should be used to track the efficacy of responses to rights risks identified.Footnote ⁵ Clearly there are more contexts in which gender is relevant to the realization of human rights. Approaching business and human rights issues through the ‘ethic of care’, Part II articulates strategies to improve sustainability, which could also enhance businesses’ human rights performance. Indeed, care is necessarily central to sustainability, and caring about future consequences of present choices and actions is necessary to promote respect for human rights and environmental protection. Corporate governance has yet to reward care. Given the growing popularity of regulation through human rights rankings, a gender equity assessment of how data are generated and gathered might yield helpful information to understand disparate impacts or particular people’s increased vulnerability based on gender difference. Taking care to appreciate women as sources of information on human rights impacts could strengthen existing strategies and inspire new ones.

Contributions applying feminist theories to corporate sustainability form Part III of the book. Yue Ang considers the legal construction of corporate groups, specifically the relationship between parents and subsidiaries. She offers a feminist theory of ‘spatial justice’ to understand parent–subsidiary relations that must negotiate autonomy and interdependence, and in so doing provides a nuanced account of the relationship between parental responsibility and proper stewardship as consistent with ethics of care. Rosanne Russell questions the ‘strict dichotomy’ between the market and the family. She provides a deep dive into the theoretical framework of transnational business feminism, considering ways hierarchies are reinforced. Catherine O’Sullivan scrutinizes the role of masculinities in shaping corporate culture and conduct. She rejects the trope of innate differences between women and men and warns against simplistic solutions of just adding women to an organization. O’Sullivan provides evidence that the performance of particular forms of masculinity in particular business cultures can incentivize unethical conduct and sometimes criminal business practices inconsistent with sustainability objectives. Under these conditions, women either embrace and advance masculine-coded behaviours within a business organization or elect to exit such organizations. Because performance of certain forms of socially constructed enforced masculinity predominates in many corporate environments, O’Sullivan recommends that attention be paid to the specific environments where behaviours are enacted in order to change the conditions that foster unethical and unsustainable behaviours. Carol Liao provides a succinct and useful summary of prevailing corporate governance theories. She identifies entrenched ideological beliefs in corporate law such as shareholder primacy and highlights gendered pre-dispositions imbued in prevailing beliefs. Her feminist-informed examination of power and gender in corporate law clarifies how power structures and internal power dynamics can cause unsustainable business practices.

Without expressly addressing human rights beyond noting how lack of women’s representation in corporate leadership has implications for equity, Part III invites readers to consider how environmental conditions and cultural expectations have excluded women. Similarly, business and human rights advocacy and academic research could benefit from a deeper appreciation of how power dynamics influence the way business organizations and political institutions function. To be sure, some sceptical readers may question the overall enterprise of advancing gender equity but the chapters in this volume present a compelling case for giving additional consideration to the interrelationship between sustainability and diversity. Consideration of sexual minorities and members of LGBTQ+ identifying individuals would be a welcome addition to discussions of sustainability as well as business and human rights.

This collection came into being because a network of women business scholars, The Daughters of Themis (inspired by the Greek goddess of justice), committed to producing thought-provoking and problem-solving scholarship, came together to discuss common areas of interest. It brings readers closer to a more complete understanding of the forces that keep corporations on an unsustainable trajectory and leaves readers with a deeper appreciation of the potential of women as agents for supporting sustainable business solutions. For sustainable business to become the norm rather than the exception, this book makes clear that an ecosystem approach to issues of gender equality and sustainability will be essential to addressing the challenges the world faces due to climate change. Readers will appreciate how it addresses gender difference and gender discrimination but avoids the pitfalls of gender essentialism. Several chapters suggest practical reforms for removing and reducing gender-based barriers for women to advance in business or to advocate for sustainability. Because gender roles and identities are relational and shifting, there are opportunities for corporate culture to change for the better. Readers interested in theory, corporate governance, sustainability and gender equality should enjoy this book.