So far we have focused on the transforming negative masculinity to positive
masculinity. A lot of social responsibility is injecting feminine values into
traditionally masculine-based decision making through discernment. Social
responsibility is concerned with people, the environment, and profit that
broadens the scope of traditional financial thinking, characterized by a
single-minded obesession with profit. This is the result of women entering the
corporate and financial worlds while bringing feminine values with them, valuing
the devalued feminine in the economy, and increasing evidence that narrow
concern with profit is a threat to the ecosystem and society.
This type of feminist discernment involves restructuring
the values which motivate and orient one’s participation in the economy as a
worker, investor, and entrepreneur and the values upon which corporations are
based. This change occurs on the individual level (people choosing to invest
their own money and work in socially responsible industries and firms), on the
corporate level (share holders, owners, or board of directors deciding to
operate in a socially responsible manner), and on the societal level as
activists demand and pressure for change and firms, the government, and other
regulatory agencies respond.
Socially responsible investing is the choice to limit investing to investments in
firms that reflect socially responsible values. These include ecological
sustainability, good labor practices, diversity, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and
the production of goods and services that are not harmful to the consumer, the
community, or the earth. The choice to invest responsibly brings the sense of
caring and community, which tends to characterize home-life, into the financial
sector. In bringing elements of traditional femininity into the
masculine sphere, socially responsible investing does not erase the masculine or
the traditionally masculine concern with profit. Instead, it redefines a caring,
nurturing masculinity: profit balanced by caring for people and the earth.
Socially responsible investing is nothing new. The Society of Friends’ began screening investments based on issues of nonviolence as early as the 16th century. Beginning in the 18th century, churches and universities implemented “sin-screens,” refusing to invest in firms producing tobacco, alcohol, etc., or providing gambling services. In the 1960s, the Vietnam War led many protesting institutions and individuals to invest away from firms supporting or supplying the war. During the struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa, in a campaign led largely by US students, universities, and other investors withdrew their money from companies and industries supporting Apartheid.
6 Today, the Social Investment Forum (SIF) reports that “total investments using at least one social investment strategy have grown from $40 billion in 1984 to $639 billion in 1995, to over $2 trillion in [1999]… Social investments now account for about 13 percent of the estimated $16.3 trillion under professional management in the U.S….”
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Socially responsible mutual funds, corporate ethics indices, and socially responsible investment agencies are resources available to socially responsible investors.
In London, the
Ethical Investment Research Services (EIRIS) provides information about corporate board practices and codes of ethics, environmental issues, human rights and labor standards, and globalization to help investors make informed investing decisions.
The Social Investment Forum is a US based organization offering similar information to investors about US firms. The forum also offers membership to financial practitioners and investment agencies to encourage collaboration and is one of the major researchers and monitors of the growing socially responsible investment movement in the US.
In partnership with the Social Investment Forum,
Co-op America offers more practical advice to investors. Co-op America’s socially responsible investing page explains how responsible investing can be used as a type of activism. The site focuses largely on ecological concerns but is aware of other social responsibility issues.
Socially responsible firms are becoming increasingly common in part because of the emergence of socially responsible investment which privileges caring, community-conscious firms that incorporate traditionally feminine qualities into their profit-oriented goals.
This transformation of the bottom line to a triple bottom line, which includes
people and the environment in addition to profit, is the result of pressure from
stockholders, the changing values of the firm's employees, and the changing
values of the firms' executives. The activism of organizations and forums like
Corporate
Accountability International and
The Public Citizen
in partnership with concerned citizens, consumers, and investors, have played a
major role in mandating that firms make socially responsible decisions. Some firms come to social responsibility on their own, reflecting the values of
the people creating and running them.
The corporate responsibility officer or CRO is an increasingly common leadership position in many firms responding to a popular concern with social responsibility issues. Business Ethics Magazine is another manifestation of the firm’s redefinition of its traditionally masculine, individualistic and profit-driven role. The magazine, now a part of The CRO, a corporation that provides conferences and resources to CROs, defines new ethical standards for firms and represents a shifting away from profit-only to profit, community, and care oriented business.8 AccountAbility is an organization offering membership to socially responsible firms and corporate training in social responsibility. Membership allows corporations to publicly identify themselves as adhering to some form of social responsibility.
Another manifestation of the socially responsible firm is the socially responsible bank. Because banks facilitate the economy, a bank’s decision to only lend to socially responsible firms and organizations or to cater to the poor is indication of a significant change in the conception of the traditionally masculine sphere. The Triodos Bank in the Netherlands lends only to facilitate sustainable development projects. The Co-operative Bank in the UK will not lend to companies involved in the arms trade or that violates human rights.
