Sustainability as a pathway to equality
Thomas Friedman suggests in his article, “The First Law of Petropolitics”, that freedom and women’s rights are directly tied to the price of oil in oil dominated states in the developing world. His basic premise being that as leaders are have more money from the sale of their resources they are less beholden to the people and the motivation to seek power is much greater.
If we follow this thought and take it one step further we see creating sustainable practices in business critical to bringing freedom and equality to the world. Moving away from resource dependence will likely increase the appearance of democracy in our world, it will place emphasis on innovation and therefore education, and it will open the door for gender equality as the physical labour intensive jobs associated with resources will become less prominent in society.
We see similar themes in the attempt to achieve sustainability as in the recent developments in the fight for gender equality. For instance Emma Watson in her address of the UN assembly on behalf of HeForShe sees changing societal norms for males equally as important in the movement for equality, inviting men to take up the mantle of feminism to support their own right to have feelings, be seen as important family figures, and express desires regardless of what they may be.
These themes of working cooperatively to find the solution and decrease our reliance on resources are a central feature to the sustainability movement. Perhaps, this gives us one more avenue to encourage sustainable business practices throughout the world. While some segments may not be interested in environment, they may care about equal rights or establishing stable democracies in the developing world. To bring it even closer to home the peace that would hopefully result as a happy consequence of higher education rates and democratic rule would prevent our soldiers from being killed.
To think, with the right positioning and supply chain management, you could accomplish all this while drinking your ethically sourced cup of coffee… If I wasn’t convinced that sustainable business was the right way to proceed I sure am now.
Thomas Friedman, “The First Law of Petropolitics,” Foreign Affairs 154 (May June 2006): pp. 28-36. (on line through UBC library)
I agree that the oil industry to a certain degree can contribute to sustaining systemic inequality. However the inequality I believe the oil industry specifically sustains has more of an effect on income and class equality, rather than gender equality. Gender discrimination is also prevalent in office environments; so a simple decrease in manual labor jobs does not equate a progression for gender equality. That being said income, class and gender inequality do not exist in isolation of one another. I do not deny there is an element of gender inequality present in manual labor jobs and in the oil industry. Overall I think Friedman’s analysis puts too much emphasis on oil, and our dependence on the resource, rather than on the problematic nature and structure of the industry. The oil industry embodies capitalism. I think it is the capitalistic fundamentals on which the industry was built that help to propagate inequality. I agree though that showing sustainability as a pathway to equality could motivate more people to be concerned about sustainability. However to convince people of this is a difficult task. If done incorrectly it could actually be detrimental to sustainability, by increasing distrust and discrediting the truth. All this makes it important to emphasize the most appropriate links, and adequately explain the logic behind such a connections. Which is why I think that the link between sustainability and income and class equality is more appropriate in this case, than the link between sustainability and gender equality.