Construction Of Gender Roles, Gender Mainstreaming And Corporate Social Responsibility In Chinese Flower Industry Chain

Gender studies were conducted in ornamental horticulture organizations in China. The goal of the study was to determine the extent to which gender equality has been mainstreamed into horticultural programs at the institutional level as well as policies and legislations. In addition, the extent to which ornamental horticulture companies has practiced corporate social responsibility in their operations.The objectives of the study included first, to gender audit the roles and level of participation of male and female labor in the ornamental horticulture value chain and to gender mainstream the industry. Secondly, to establish the traditional and legislative factors that influence the construction and deconstruction of gender roles in the industry and whether these factors would be mainstreamed as gender and organizations remain social constructs that are always changing. Also the findings would guide auditing policy on horticultural corporations so that they could fulfill their social obligations in operations. Furthermore the findings of the research could be used in addressing the inequalities in the industry through appropriate gender sensitive policy formulation. Gender equality is a prerequisite for sustained development and the most important Millennium Development goal that is required for the achievement of the other goals. Moreover, the adoption of the recommendations of the study would improve the organizational development of the horticulture organizations.The gender analysis approach method was used to study the gender participation and roles. An in-depth literature study was conducted on the aspects of gender roles construction theories, gender mainstreaming, national and international conventions and regulation adopted for high value agricultural chains and corporate social responsibility in China and worldwide. The literature guided the designing of the field data tools and the analysis of the data. The study used qualitative methods to collect primary data using structured questionnaires and interview schedule tools. The study started by non-participatory observations of the horticulture organizations. Statistical analyses were done using genstat and excel software packages to test the hypotheses and answer the research questions.The social role and convention theories and the social constructionist approach formed the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of the study. A simple linear model to measure the level of participation of females and males in the horticulture labor market was developed.The study found out that 60 and 95,76 and 82,95 and 88,88 and 87,84 and 95 percents of male and female respondents respectively held the perception that culture, Confucius ideology, China constitution, the China labor act and agricultural policy strongly influenced gender construction of roles in the horticulture industry while 57 and 71 percents of male and female respondents respectively strongly rejected that hypothesis for Buddhism and Taoism.The ornamental horticulture research showed more participation of females at the horizontal and more participation of males at the vertical levels. Much more females were involved in market research and males in policy and protection research. There was a distinct gender difference in areas of research interest. Cultural norms, the Labor Act and Confucius ideology could have influenced the gender research interest. Among the sample involved in the research, females were 80% students,43% researchers and 38% lecturers while males were 20% students,63% researchers and 57% lecturers.At the production node of the chain, men were largely,55% and 100% concentrated in tasks associated with flower maintenance and protection. Women dominated 90% and 85% in the value added tasks. The mean contributions of men and women in flower production were 5.1 and 4.9 respectively and were insignificantly different (P>0.05). However female domestic mean contribution was 7.5, thrice that of men at 2.5 and was significantly different (P<0.05). There were significant differences in the proportion of representation at the Management, Board of Trustees and worker committee levels for the companies. The proportion of males involved in planning, managing and making decisions was on average greater than 53% than that of the females. Companies provided largely wage and non wage related benefits to permanently employed workers and female labor was greater than male labor. The mean wage for male workers was slightly higher than that for female workers by 6.26 RMB daily but this is insignificantly different (P<0.05). The mean daily wage of a male and a female permanent worker was higher by 17.35 RMB and 14.60 RMB than a male and a female casual worker respectively and differed significantly.At the marketing node,61.5% of females sold between 0-10 bundles of flowers per day compared to 56.2% males, while 30.43% of males sold 11-50 bundles compared to 19.23% of females. The proportions that sold 50-100 bundles were almost the same for females and males. The majority,87% of male and 94% of female respondents knew that the flowers they sold were grown with chemicals though none knew the type of chemicals and were concerned about the health implications that could have on consumers.At the consumption chain node, females formed 46.1% and males formed 53.9% of the consumers of flower products. Consumers'agedl8-25 years formed the highest 41.1% of the group who bought flowers during the research period though they only earned a monthly income of 1000-4000 RMB. Valentine's Day and Mother's Day scored the highest rate of consumption when females (42.9% and 44.6%) and males (52.9% and 33.1%) respectively always bought flowers. Mid Autumn Day, Christmas and Chinese New year festivals scored the highest proportion 67%,52.4% and 33.9% for females and 72.1%,59.6%and 55.1% for males respectively who never bought flowers during these periods. Younger buyers aged 18-25 years mainly bought cut flowers while consumers aged 50 years and older bought pot flowers. The proportion of respondents who saw the consumption of flower products increasing in the future was 78% against 22% which is significantly different (P<0.001).Gender mainstreaming had not been practically implemented in the organizations studied because all administrators did not understand the concept. However, they consented that female and male needs should be included in the policies and 82% agreed that benefits should be shared equally between females and males. Twenty international codes of conducts had been adopted by the companies, but only 20% of the managers fully understood the requirements of the codes adopted. Five percent of the companies built schools,55% engaged in poverty alleviation projects and half of the companies engaged in tree planting projects as part of their corporate social responsibility. In conclusion, the study has innovated two conceptual models that are useful in the investigation and analysis of the levels of gender inequalities in flower organizations, the construction and deconstruction of gender roles and gender participation in the flower value chain. Also the study developed gender mainstreaming approaches to address gender inequalities. Recommendations are made for further research and the sustained organizational development of the horticulture industry.