Accounting Organizations and Society, Vol. 12, No. I, pp. 7 l-88, 1987. 0361-3682187 53.00+.

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Printed in Great Britain Pergamon Journals Ltd.

THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS IN GENDER AND CLASS CONTRADICTIONS

AT GENERAL MOTORS: 19 17-1976*

TONY TINKER and MARILYN NEIMARK

Barucb College, City University of New York

Abstract

This paper argues that studies offemale exploitation frequently pay too little attention to the broader social
context; particularly alienation and crises in the development of late capitalism. This criticism applies with
equal force to the domestic laborhousework studies and labor process studies where male domination is
often advanced as the primary explanatory variable in accounting for female oppression. Even where labor
process researchers have emphasized mediating affects on partiarchial intluences (technology and control
processes for instance; cf. Milkman, Politics and Society, pp. 159-203, 1983). we argue that the broader
context of alienated capitalist social relations is frequently understated.
Female subordination under capitalism is traced to two primary sources in this study: First, that part of
the labor process where the existence of female labor facilitates surplus value appropriation by playing the
part of an “industrial reserve army” (sometimes “latent”, at other times “floating”). Second, in times ofover-
production and underconsumption, capital has invented a consumerist ideology about women to help re-
solve its crisis of realizing surplus value. Only by seeing these different instances of female oppression as
part of a larger, mutually reinforcing conBguration of “instances” - emanating from capitalist social rela-
tions - are we likely to begin to adequately comprehend the resilience of social ideology concerning
women and develop effective politicial and social counter-strategies.
In this research, the above considerations are explored using evidence from a longitudinal study of Gen-
eral Motors where the annual reports are used to monitor the evolution of managerial ideology vis-a-vis
women over some sixty years. We see in this study how the manner ofwomen’s exploitation changes with
changes in the crises facing capitalism.
The implications of the study are severalfold: First, we see how a socially “unreflective” view of “manage-
ment” and “management control systems” may lead to practices that are oppressive and exploitative. Sec-
ond, we find “the labor process” to be an important but insufftcient conceptual terrain for understanding
women’s oppression; instead we propose that the starting point of any analysis should be capitalist aliena-
tion. Third, this work has implications for the various controversies about class essentialism and the pri-
macy of class. (Wright, New Left Review, pp. 1 l-36, 1983; Giddens, Central Problems in Social Tbeoty
Action, Structureand Contradiction in SociaIAnaQsis, 1979; Miliband,NewLeftReview~ pp. 57-68, 1983;
Tinker,Joumal of Accounting and Public Policy, pp. I-20, 1984). as well as the relation between male
domination and class oppression (Fox-Genovese, New LeftReview, pp. 5-29, 1982, Goldelier, NewLeftRe-
fjieu! pp. 3-I 7, 1981) in that it examines the interplay between class and other forms ofdomination. Lastly,
we see how annual reports may contribute to a general “world view” that aids social appropriation and
domination.

In recent years, a new body of literature has Tinker, 1978; Tinker, 1980; Cooper & Sherer,
emerged in accounting, called a political 1984). The political economy approach is con-
economy of accounting (PEA) (Hoogvelt & cerned with exploring and assessing the ways

* The authors are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

71
72 TONY TINKER and MARlLYN NEIMARK

various social protagonists use accounting infor- point for devising a coherent perpective of
mation and corporate reporting to mediate, sup- female subordination within particular epochs.
press, mystify and transform social conflict. The Specific historical crises and contradictions -
approach places class relations at the forefront of their emergence, displacement, transformation
the analysis and is, accordingly, concerned with and reemergence - represent the “big picture”
the effects of accounting information and corpo- for making sense of the direction and trends in
rate reporting on the distribution of income, female repression. Neglect of this larger picture,
wealth, and power. Accounting is “no longer leads - we argue - to underestimating the
seen as a mere assembly of calculative routines, mutual reinforcement between the different
it now functions as a cohesive and influential spheres of female activity (in the family, in edu-
mechanism for economic and social manage- cation, at the workplace, as consumers, etc.) and
ment” (Burchell et al., 1980, p. 6). a concomitant failure to apprehend the reasons
Although a political economy of accounting for the resiliance of persistent discrimination in
has been advocated by several studies cited particular spheres. Only when female repression
above, there have been relatively few attempts is situated in a long-term analysis of the evolu-
to apply it to concrete research issues. (For ex- tion of capitalism can we begin to identify the
amples of studies that attempt to do so, see reasons for the resilience of the ideology sup-
Hoogvelt & Tinker, 1978;Tinker, 1980; Neimark porting sex-typing (a frequently commented
& Tinker, 1984a, b; Tinker & Neimark, 1984; upon but largely unexplained phenomenon in
Hopper et al., 1984; Burchell et al., forthcom- much of the literature), as well as the causes of
ing. ) major switches in women’s social roles. An un-
This study uses the political economy of ac- derstanding of these issues, we argue, may be
counting approach to examine the issue of found by articulating the evolving crises and
female oppression and the relationship between contradictions of capitalism and showing how
the nature of women’s role in society at particu- these developments telescope into activity
lar historical periods, and the cyclical develop- spheres inhabited by, as well as those that are off-
ment of business enterprises in market limits to, women.
economies. We show that corporate reports are Two manifestations of capitalism’s crises are
not passive describers of an “objective reality,” identified as the genesis of female exploitation:
but play a part in forming the world-view or so- the coercive appropriation of surplus value in
cial ideology that fashions and legitimizes the labor process that may be assisted by the pre-
women’s place in society, whether at home, at sence of women, either as “cheap” labor, or as an
work, or in the marketplace for consumer goods. industrial reserve army: and the realization crisis
Social ideologies concerning women are seen to where social ideology about women has been in-
be more than reflections of a patriarchal order; vented as part of a larger “myth of consump-
they are also intimately connected to the cycli- tion”. With these considerations in mind, we
cal pattern of capital accumulation that charac- then report on a longitudinal study that
terizes capitalism. We illustrate this connection examines General Motors’ (GM) relationships
in the case of General Motors, and show how the with women, and the policies and strategies the
company’s annual reports were deployed as company has adopted to transform these rela-
ideological weapons aimed at influencing the tionships to resolve periodic threats to its pro-
distribution of income and wealth, in order to fitability and growth. Indeed, we argue that GM’s
ensure the company’s continued profitabilit) profits over the past 70 years have been
and growth. contingent upon the changing character of the
We begin by examining the literature on company’s relationships with women and other
female exploitation. We contend that the con- repressed groups, both as a reserve labor force
tradictions and antinomies arising from alien- and as a means for increasing social consump-
ated social relations of capitalism are the starting tion.
 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 73

General Motors offers several advantages as a tigators seeking the precise conditions under
subject for analysis in terms of the above discus- which male workers contribute to the repres-
sion. First, without wishing to understate the im- sion of women, and those circumstances when
portance of industrial and technologial differ- mutual support and solidarity between the sexes
ences, the growth of GM and its subsequent arises. Only with such an understanding, in-
scale provides us with an important prototype formed by the contingencies prevailing in de-
that typifies large sectors of American life, fined socio-historical situations, will it become
thereby enhancing the relevance and generaliza- possible to formulate effective strategies aimed
bility of our analysis. Second, the firm’s annual at female emancipation.
reports supply us with a continuous chronicle Despite the willingness of researchers to en-
on the crises and contradictions emerging in gage more complex constructions of the re-
various departments of American capitalism. search problematic, feminist studies still lack a
Equally important, fro-m our perspective as stu- comprehensive, coherent perspective of the var-
dents of accounting and management, the focus ious exigencies that need to be brought into ac-
on General Motors and their annual reports al- count in enumerating the make-up of female
lows us to examine the role ofcorporate strategy subordination in particular cases. Below we will
and corporate “informational” services in rep- argue that, all too frequently, researchers have
ressing women. Specifically, we consider annual inappropriately delimited the problematic by fo-
reports as ideological instruments for promoting cussing on only part of the activity realm (house-
policies, beliefs, attitudes, and practices that per- work, for instance), and failed to take sufftcient
petuate the inequality of women and other dis- account of important trends and movements in
advantaged groups. other spheres of activity relevant to the social
ideology surrounding womanhood. Most im-
portant, the literature to date gives dispropor-
STUDIES OF FEMALE EXPLOITATION tionate attention to exploitation through the
labor process; whether in the form of studies of
Studies of female subordination under woman at work, or various attempts to concep-
capitalism have assumed a distinctly contingent tualize housework as either an adjunct to the in-
character in recent years. Attempts to explain dustrial mode of production, or as an autonom-
female repression in uni-dimensional terms - ous or dependent family mode of production.
such as vulgar Marxist versions of class reduc-
tionism, or views that attribute female exploita- Patriarchy us class
tion to male domination (“patriarchy first”) - The adequacy of class analysis, as an explana-
are giving way to theoretical formulations that tion of female repression, has come under the
are sensitive to the historical and social greatest critical scrutiny in debates about
specificities of particular eras. Thus we find, for women’s role in the home (Seccombe, 1974,
example, that while capitalist exploitation may 1975; Coulson et al., 1975; Gardiner, 1975). An
still be regarded as a universal form of appropria- important strain of this literature singles out pat-
tion and domination, its processes and affects are riarchy - male domination -as a primary force
acknowledged to be mediated and transformed in the domination of women, either as a deriva-
in complex ways, depending on the prevailing tive of class oppression, or as a prior, indepen-
historical antecedents and social circumstances. dent force, on its own terms. One of the most in-
Similarly, the analysis of socio-historical speci- fluential examples of the “Patriarchy First” thesis
ficities has emerged as an important concern in is The Main Enemy, a pamphlet published by
assessing the part played by trade unions, the Christine Delphy in 1976, where she posits the
professions, various branches of the state, and existence of a partriarchal mode of production,
other male-dominated institutions, in perpetuat- defined by patriarchal/familial relations of pro-
ing female subordination. Here we find inves- duction, that is autonomous from the industrial
74 TONY TINKER and MARILYN NEIMARK

mode of production, defined by capitalist prop- the wage worker by providing use values for
erty relations and wage exploitation (his) subsistence. Harrison argues that the
(Molyneaux, 1979, pp. 5-8). The marriage con- domestic contract is essentially an unequal ex-
tract is the primary means by which male domi- change because the subsistence that the wife re-
nation is institutionalized, according to Delphy. ceives in compensation for her own labors, con-
Two theoretical and political conclusions are tains a lower labor time content than that which
derived by Delphy: first, that because the pat- she contributes in reproducing wage labor.
riarchal mode is autonomous from the capitalist Thus, an appropriation of the wife’s labor time
mode, the overthrow of capitalism will not lead occurs in the housework mode of production
to equality and emancipation for women. Sec- that is transferred to the capitalist sector
ond, because the two modes are distinct, women through the payment of a family wage that is
constitute a separate class, united by their com- below the value of labor power.
mon oppression by men, irrespective of their oc- Harrison concludes that, because women
cupation and/or their husbands’ class position. work outside the capitalist mode of production,
She concludes that women should organize in- they form a separate class, and thus women as
dependently to challenge all patriarchal repres- housewives and women as wage earners belong
sion. to different classes. The implication of this analy-
Delphy’s “Patriarchy First” hypothesis is a di- sis is that capitalism and the family are indepen-
rect attack on class reductionist or class essen- dent sources of oppression that must be combat-
tialist literature, where female exploitation is re- ted politically on both fronts.
legated to a subcategory of capitalist alienation. The interrelation between male domination
Yet, despite her opposition to propositions and class exploitation has also merited attention
emanating from early forms of (neo-Marxist) in feminist studies of the workplace (Benston,
feminist literature, Delphy makes extensive use 1969; Mitchell, 1971). Early attempts to account
of Marxist theoretical categories in developing for the problem of job segregation by sex have
her analysis (“mode of production”, “class”, centered on the connection between women’s
“exploitation”. “surplus value”, “relations of position in the family, and in the wage-labor
production”, “labor power”, “exchange value,” force. These studies suggest that job segregation
etc.) (Barrett & McIntosh, 1979). outside the home mirrors, indirectly, the organi-
Using essentially the same theoretical cate- zation of domestic life. In food and clothing in-
gories as Delphy, John Harrison, in The PoEitical dustries, women produce goods once manufac-
Economy of Housework, obtains conclusions tured by women at home; as secretaries,
that are directly counter to those of Delphy on teachers, waitresses, and health-care workers,
several important counts (Harrison, 1973). Har- they perform wifely and motherly tasks of car-
rison notes that a “mode of production” is an ing, schedule management and cleaning up
abstracted category and that “real” social sys- (Milkman, 1983).
tems (social formations) are composites of sev- This early work failed however to explain why
eral modes of production; some relics of the particular occupations were sex-typed as “male”
past, what he calls “vestigial” modes, and antici- and “female” and why, in certain circumstances,
pations of future conditions, which he calls such sex-typing changed. Housework encom-
“foetal” modes. He adds to these yet another passes such a potentially large variety of tasks as
kind of mode - “client” modes ofproduction- to be capable of embracing virtually an infinite
that are created or co-opted by the dominant number of occupations, and this flexibility in the
mode to carry out certain repressive and ap- notion of housework has led to major changes in
propriative fimctions. Housework and large what is conventionally accepted as “women’s
areas of state activity fall into this category. work” at different times (our evidence of the
The “housework mode of production” func- World War II period at General Motors illus-
tions primarily to reproduce the labor power of trates this).
 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 75

Market segmentation theories offer some re- to Milkman ( 1983), to understand the origins of
medy to the above problems. They posit that the an organization’s pattern of employment by sex
sexual division of labor corresponds with a divi- (or by race or ethnicity), one must examine
sion between highpaying secure jobs (in such factors as the industry’s structure and the
oligopolistic firms) and poorly paid, high turn- organization’s place within it, the relative labor
over jobs (largely in the competitive sector). In intensity of its technology, the availability of
the interests of capital accumulation, corpora- labor and its ethnic, racial and gender charac-
tions oppress women and minorities by pursu- teristics, the prevailing mode(s) of control over
ing a policy of “divide and rule”. Indeed, this di- labor, and the actual or anticipated political and
visive policy of capital is regarded as the most social effects of the choice of labor force. More-
important implication of segmentation theories over, Milkman argues that once a pattern of
because it supposedly explains the docile and employment becomes established, it is ex-
compliant aspect of American labor (Edwards, tremely difficult to change.
1979; Gordon et al., 1982; Milkman, 1983). A third, and perhaps the most important, criti-
Market segmentation theories have been sub- cism of the market segmentation literature, is
jected to numerous criticisms. Three, in particu- that it fails to distinguish between the general in-
lar, interest us here. First, as Heidi Hartmann terests of capital, where long-term advantage
points out, these theories presuppose at the out- may lie in maintaining a sex typing ideology so as
set that male workers have an interest in class to preserve a permanent female reserve labor
solidarity; this being the corollary of the thesis army that acts as a brake on wage demands, and
that segmentation is in the class interest of capi- the interests of specific capitals (individual
tal (Hartmann, 1976). On the contary, Hartmann employers), whose short term advantage may lie
contends: substantial material benefits accrue to in abandoning segregation of occupations by sex
men - at work, as well as in the home - as a re- and substituting cheap female labor for more ex-
sult of the segregation of work by sex. Accord- pensive male labor (Humphries, 1983). To exp-
ingly, in Hartmann’s view, a sex segregated labor lain why the latter does not uniformly occur, we
market is not antithetical to, but quite compati- need to analyze the different historical, social,
ble with, the material interests of men. economic, and political conditions and con-
Hartmann further isolates the repression of straints that face employers (Milkman, 1983).
women from class struggle in her characteriza- Milkman (1983) and the CSE Sex and Class
tions of unions as organizations of male domina- Group (1982) have both argued at length that
tion: she considers the attainment of superior the case for male domination, as an exclusive
male wages as instrumental in maintaining domi- source of female repression, rests on a narrow
nance in the home. Male collective interests are view of male workers - reminiscent of the aris-
thereby seen as protected by excluding females tocrats of labor - that fails to relate to ex-
from well-paid jobs. clusionary behavior in general (the relation be-
Second, market segmentation theories have tween patriarchy, nationalism, racism, localism
been criticized for treating all sources of “cheap and sectionalism). Furthermore, the “Patriarch)
labor” in an undifferentiated way. These theories First” approach is unable to account for those in-
are incapable of articulating the specific oppor- stances of solidarity that have occurred involv-
tunities, customs, traditions, advantages and ing male and female workers. (Milkman [ 1983 J
vulnerabilities that culminate into the social dis- evidences this in her studies of the IJ.S. electrical
advantages facing a specific repressed group at a industry.) The issue is important because it af-
particular time in history. The constituencies fects the choice of feminist political strategies: if
that make-up an organization’s labor force and female subordination can be uncoupled from
its reserve army of labor (whether active or la- class oppression, then feminists need not con-
tent) depend upon historically spectic econ- cern themselves (qua feminists) with a class
omic, political, and social conditions. According struggle.
76 TONY TINKER and MARILYN NEIMARK

A second, and more important priority in this Feminist research has been unhelpful, because it
research, concerns What is regarded as a mis- loses sight of patterns-of-change in the broad
specification of the problematic found in much scheme of things. The “big picture” incorporates
of the existing literature. The CSE Sex and Class the evolution of capitalism, and the periodic
Group correctly observe that much of the crises and contradictions encountered by that
feminist literature fails to take adequate account social system in its development. Specifically,
of Lenin’s classic argument that political opposi- this larger vision reveals two major forces that
tion to capitalism had to be forged out of “all op- have contributed to the subordination of
positional classes” (ethnic, racial and other women and constitute the major focus of our
minorities) and that feminist studies tended to study. The first concerns the role of women as a
proceed in isolation from theorizing about op- reserve labor army, and how changes in the sup-
pressed groups in general. In this regard, the pre- ply and demand for male labor have, at various
sent literature pays insufflcient attention to les- times, interacted with the degree of alienation
sons from the broad terrain of social conflict; and experienced by women. We will see that GM’s
thus foregoes the allegiences that a reconcep- annual reports were one of the means by which
tualization of the subject might lead to. In a simi- this new imagery was propagated. The second
lar fashion, we argue here that feminist studies consideration concerns capitalism’s periodic
are frequently too localized (to the home, the crises of overproduction and how temporary re-
family, the workplace, etc.) with the result that solutions of such crises may involve reconstruct-
broad interrelationships and patterns are lost ing social ideology concerning women. This sec-
from view. A longitudinal study of the corporate ond issue relates to the emergence of a con-
policies of General Motors, spanning some sixty spicuous consumption norm in the post-World
years, not only provides a panorama of an array War II period, and the part that annual report im-
of roles assumed by women in different eras - agery about women played in articulating that
as wives, employees, trade unionists, as mothers new social imperative. In addition to these two
and as consumers - but it also reveals patterns primary research issues, we will touch on a num-
of reinforcement between those ostensibly sepa- ber of subsidiary issues, including the plausibil-
rate roles that cohere into a socially constituted ity of the patriarchy first thesis.
person; one who is molded and remolded to fit In exploring the above research issues, we
the needs of capitalism at different phases in its have undertaken a periodization analysis of the
development. history of General Motors between 1917 and
As accountants, we are especially interested in 1976 A periodization analysis requires the sep-
the part played by annual reports and financial aration of a firm’s history into a number of dis-
analysis in this socialization process. While we tinct eras or phases. The criterion for separating
do not intend to suggest that accountants are the the end of one era from the beginning of the next
“eminence grise” that reshapes society, we do is the occurrence of a new crisis, threat, or im-
suggest that they have been accessories to ap- pediment to continued capital accumulation
propriation more than is generally recognized. (profitability) that invites new control strategies
in order to preserve the social order (Hoogvelt
INTRODUCTION TO THE EMPIRICAL STUDY & Tinker, 1978; Tinker, 1980; Neimark,
1983a,b).
To help readers through our empirical analy- The periodization used in this study is based
sis, we begin by stating succinctly the two prim- on the so-called long waves of expansion and
ary research issues. We have argued previously contraction in the rate of capital accumulation
that the focus on specific activity realms in that have characterized the capitalist era.’ Al-

’ A theory oflongwaves first may have been articulated in an 1874 article by Hyde Clark that was subsequently cited by Jrvons
and then by Schumpeter (Mandel. 1978). Since the original article apparently had little intlucnce on subsequent long wave
 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 77

though there is some controversy surrounding period.” In an industrial era when, according to
the generating mechanism behind long wave be- Frederick W. Taylor, “The Gorilla types are no
havior (i.e. whether long waves result from an longer needed”, we find women occupying
underlying cyclical mechanism or from the under 3% ofthe automotive labor force, concen-
chance unfolding of the historical process itself), trated mainly in parts and in the “cut and sew”
there appears to be fairly wide agreement con- (upholstery departments) of body plants.
cerning the existence of long periods of expan- Charles Reitell notes in a 1924 essay, that with
sion and contraction. Numerous researchers the advent of continuous production methods,
(e.g. Kondratieff, Kuznets, Schumpeter, von “we have a greater demand for nervous and men-
Duijin) agree, for example, on the following tal activites such as watchfulness, quick judge-
periodizations for the 20th century: ment, dexterity, guidance, ability and lastly a
nervous endurance to carry through dull,
monotonous, fatiguing rhythmic operations”
(Reitell, 1924, p. 43, cited in Milkman, 1983, p.
169). These were exactly the qualities to which,
(Mensch, 1979; Graham & Senge, 1980).
In this study, the history of GM is divided into according to the prevailing idiom, women were
four periods: the pre-World War II period of re- especially well-suited. Hence, the persistence of
cession and depression (19161939); the beliefs about certain jobs being “female” and
period of recovery which includes World War II others being “male” requires explanation; espe-
through to 1949; the period of prosperity from cially when “natural” or biological rationaliza-
1950 through the mid- 1960s; and the period tions become increasingly untenable.
from the mid- 1960s until 1976. Milkman ( 1983) attempts to provide an expla-
With the history of General Motors periodized nation in her study contrasting employment
in this manner, we then proceed to examine patterns by sex in the early automobile and elec-
movements in a configuration of variables re- trical industries. Although the two industries
flecting the status of women in each of the were similar in many respects (e.g. the majority
periods. Annual reports were an important data of jobs were easily learned and were monoton-
source for this research, particularly for the ous; demand for labor was seasonal and sensitive
periods from 1940. They provide a window on to the business cycle; the industries were con-
management ideology regarding women, in- centrated early on; and both sold consumer pro-
cluding major switches in that ideology. ducts that had not been produced in pre-indust-
rial households), their employment of women
was very different. For example, in 19 10 (and for
THE PRE-WORLD WAR II PERIOD many years thereafter) women represented an
insignificant proportion of the workforce in
No more poignant example of the power of automobile manufacturing; in the electrical in-
sex typing exists than in the pre-World War II dustry they comprised about one-third of the

theorists, Mandel attributes the theory’s origin to 1896, and the Russian, Alexander Helphand (Parvus), who based his theory
on agricultural crises. The idea was subsequently elaborated by two Dutch economists, J. Van Gelderen (who wrote as J
Fedder) in 1913, and Sam de Wollf, in 1929. The best known discussions of long wave theory, however, are associated with
the works of Kondratieff ( 1935) Schumpeter ( 1939) Kuznets ( 1953) and more recently van Duijn ( 1977). Mandel ( 1978)
and Forrester (1977, 1978, 1980).

’ Our discussion of women in the automobile industry in the period through World War II is based extensively on Milkman’s
( 1983) comparative study of the automobile and electrical industries. The absence of any references to women in GM’s an-
nual reports prior to the war years is striking. It reflects, we believe, both the minor importance ofwomen’s employment in
the autombile industry prior to World War II, and although less directly, the prevailing belief in the “family wage” which, by
increasing the adverse effects of unemployment for men, served as a labor control device, in addition to its appeal to pat-
riarchal values. These issues will be discussed further in the paper.
78 TONY TINKER and MARILYN NEIMARK

employees. Despite the prevailing idiom - that male reserve army of labor in Detroit, was
women were engaged in light labor requiring supplemented and reinforced by an appeal to
manual dexterity -women in the electrical in- patriarchal traditions through the emphasis on
dustry were frequently employed in jobs that the “family wage.” Henry Ford was a major advo-
were not light and were often physically strenu- cate of the family wage [he disapproved of
ous. Men and women were often employed on women who worked outside the home because
“different” jobs that involved similar labor pro- “they did so in order to buy fancy clothes,” (Ford
cesses (e.g. “light” vs “heavy” coil and armature 1923)], and so too were the trade unions. In ad-
winding; “small” vs “heavy” drill presses). In dition to its appeal to patriarchal traditions, the
contrast, in the automobile industry, women family wage amplified the adverse consequences
were restricted to particular kinds of operations, of unemployment for the male worker and, in ad-
and jobs that could be characterized as involving dition, was one way of ensuring that low-paid
light labor, and that required manual dexterity, female labor would not threaten male employ-
were often restricted to men. In both industries ment.
women’s wages averaged two-thirds that of In the electrical industry female substitution
men’s, but in the electrical industry the same job posed a more immediate threat than it did in
classifications had separate male and female automobile manufacturing. The industry was de-
wage schedules. In the automobile industry centralized and females represented a more im-
wage and job discrimination tended to more mediately available alternative labor supply than
closely coincide. did males in many small communities. Milkman
Milkman contends that the differences in sex- contends that it was the difference in potency of
typing in the two industries was based on differ- the threat of female labor substitution, in par-
ences in the prevailing modes of labor control ticular, that explains the different attitudes and
and in their relative labor intensities. The behaviors of male workers and trade unions to-
technology in the electrical industry was far wards female employment, during and im-
more labor intensive than that in automobile mediately after the war.
manufacturing. Piecework and incentive pay
were the dominant forms of control in the elec-
trical industry, and the companies relied on THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO 1949
female labor and the threat of female substitu-
tion to keep wages low. The automobile industry The mutability of sex typing of jobs is dramat-
relied on a combination of machine paced pro- ically illustrated by changes brought on by the
duction, high wages, and the ever-present threat shortage of male labor due to the war. In the
posed by a reserve army of male labor which was automobile industry, women’s employment in-
attracted to Detroit through the companys’ re- creased from 6% of the production work force
cruiting efforts. The auto firms deliberately ad- in 1940, to a war time peak of 26%. For the first
vertised for more workers than they actually in- time, women appear in GM’s annual reports. In
tended to employ; thereby keeping the Detroit 1942, GM reported that “Employment of
labor market constantly flooded with an excess Women” doubled compared with the previous
of workers and allowing the firms to dismiss im- year: “Women have been employed in large
mediately any worker who showed signs of in- numbers in certain aircraft operations and in
subordination. In those production areas that some parts divisions where lighter type of work
employed women, the automobile manufactur- especially suitable for women is being done”
ers relied more on piecework and less on (Annual Report, hereafter AR, 1942, p. 32). By
machine pacing. 1943, 30.7% of GM’s hourly rate force were
In the automobile industry the combination of women; up from 9.5% at the end of 1941. The
labor control methods based on machine pacing, section on “Education and Training” in the 1943
high wages, and the availability of a substantial annual report notes that: “Women were
 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 79

employed not only for work to which they were cial seniority lists that emerged at the local level
customarily assigned in peacetime, but for tasks or local agreements that provided that no female
formerly considered to be the exclusive pro- could replace a male without the union’s agree-
vince of men That women have displayed a ment (Milkman, 1983).
fine attitude towards their work and have made By July 1945, the proportion of the automo-
an exceptional record in the tasks assigned is the tive workforce occupied by women had fallen to
unanimous testimony ofplant managers and per- 19% ; by the end of August, only 10% remained.
sonnel directors” (AR, 1943, p. 27). The 1943 With the pick-up of production and the re-hiring
Annual report reinforced the new view with a of laid-off workers, women on seniority lists
series of photographs of women, wearing over- were simply ignored. “Protective” state legisla-
alls, peering around six-blade aircraft propellers, tion, that effectively restricted the employment
and assembling and inspecting carburetors. of women and had been relaxed during the war
With women’s capacity to do men’s jobs now period, was reactivated to reclassify jobs as
apparent, the United Automobile Workers “male”.
Union (UAW), along with other unions in other Milkman attributes the reversals of the post-
industries, advocated the principal of equal pay war period, not to an ineluctable male interest in
for equal work. In 1942, the War Labor Board, in preserving their dominance as a gender, but to
a case brought against GM by the UAW and the circumstances and conditions in the automotive
United Electrical Workers (UE), established that industry that pitted males against females. Again
principle as national policy (Milkman, 1983). contrasting the electrical and automobile indus-
The post-war period heraIded a return to dis- tries, Milkman argues that fear of unemployment
crimination against women workers with a ven- motivated male workers in both industries. But
gence. It soon become clear that management in the electrical industry, men feared that
intended to purge women from large sectors of employers would continue to substitute low-
the workforce: there was selective enforcement wage female labor for men, a practice that, ac-
of plant rules; reassignment of women to new cording to Milkman, was particularly wide-
jobs and then denying them the customary spread in the industry during the war years.
break-in period for new jobs; and harassing These concerns led men in the electrical indus-
women, so they would quit voluntarily. try to see their own interests lying in the elimina-
A 1944 United Automobile Workers (UAW) tion of sex discrimination in wages. During the
survey found that 85% of female workers war, the UE campaigned not only for equal pay
wanted to continue working after the war. The for equal work, but to narrow the wage differen-
UAW undertook to defend women’s seniority tials between male and female jobs (i.e. for
rights in the face of management’s attempt to “equal pay for comparable work”). In 1945, the
purge them from the labor force. This, however, UE filed a case against GE and Westinghouse be-
was only a token action on the part of the union fore the War Labor Board. In its decision sup-
because most women had little seniority. In real- porting the union, the WLB concluded “that the
ity, the union entered into a number of com- jobs customarily performed by women are paid
promises with management that were highly de- less, on a comparative job content basis, than the
trimental to women’s interests. The UAW and jobs customarily performed by men” and “that
GM agreed that women who did “men’s” work this relative underpayment constitutes sex dis-
during the war accumulated only temporary crimination” (War Labor Reports 28, p. 668
seniority. If they were laid off during a recession, cited in Milkman, 1983, p. 182). The companies
GM would not apply their seniority in consider- involved, including GM’s electrical division, de-
ing them for new positions, unless they worked cided to ignore the WLB ruling. When the war
for GM before the war; and even then, war time ended shortly thereafter, the WLB lost its author-
seniority applied only to pre-war positions. In ity.
addition, the UAW did little to challenge the spe- In contrast with the electrical industry, the
80 TONY TINKER and MARILYN NEIMARK

automobile manufacturers had accepted the arises from problems of realization. Surplus
principle that most jobs in the industry were in- value, the unpaid labor time surrendered to the
trinsically men’s work and had never seriously capitalist in return for wages, is produced
tried to replace men with women other than through the production of commodities. But it is
under the exigencies created by wartime labor only realized when these commodities are sold
shortages. Fear of unemployment in the auto- on the market. The source of a realization crisis
mobile industry led workers to see the mainte- may lie in the “uneven development” of diffe-
nance of sex discrimination in seniority as the rent departments (industries) in an economy, a
way to preserve their monopoly over jobs. factor that Sweezy tends to discount, or it may be
An additional factor deserves consideration due to inadequate effective demand, too little
however. With the post-war labor surpluses, it credit, in a Keynesian sense.
was possible for industry to re-establish the pre- Sweezy’s work, together with that of Paul
war conditions of appropriation and domination Baran, provides an explanation both of the Great
by resuscitating the ideology of the family wage Depression of the 1930’s and the long post-war
(which had been merely shelved during the war, boom, where crises were staved off, but never
not eradicated), and by reverting to the discip- resolved, by state policies of Keynesian demand
line imposed by the recreation of a reserve in- management. Accompanying these state policies
dustrial labor army which, in the automobile in- were changes in social ideology that served to
dustry, was composed at the more immediate encourage consumption, and thereby displace
level by white and minority males, and at a latent the problem of realization. The new status of
level, by women. This proposition underscores women, as it is conceived in GM’s annual reports
both the malleability of social consciousness vis- of the early nineteen-fifties, is closely tied to this
a-vis sex typing, and the staying power of pat- emerging emphasis on consumption.
riarchal ideology. In the next section we explore Figure 1 traces the development of this ideol-
this question further by examining the part ogy of consumption through its appearance in
played by imagery about women in establishing GM’s annual reports. The figure is based on a
a social consumption norm in the post-war content analysis of the annual reports. It traces
period. the frequency of appearance of discussions and
photographs related to the building of a new
norm of consumption. In GM’s case, the norm
THE NINETEEN-FIFTIES TO THE was built by suggesting to consumers that the
MID-NINETEEN SIXTIES: RESOLVING THE ownership of GM products (automobiles and
CRISIS OF UNDERCONSUMPTION appliances) was essential to living the “Ameri-
can way of life”; by linking GM products with the
The underconsumption theory of crisis was individual’s leisure activities, social standing,
first developed in Paul Sweezy’s book, The and upward mobility; and by emphasizing “dy-
Theogj of Capitalist Development ( 1942). Ac- namic obsolescence,” and the necessity of trad-
cording to Sweezy, at the heart of the crises of ing-in and trading up to the latest features in de-
capitalism is a decline in the rate of profit below sign, styling, and “performance.”
its usual level, Such a decline may result from the The appearance of discussions and photo-
accumulation process itself, and the inability of graphs relating to these topics were measured
capital to raise the exploitation ratio to keep by the space devoted to them (i.e. by counting
pace with increases in the organic composition the number of characters in a line of text, or by
of capital, (Included in this cause - albeit im- counting the number of textual characters that
plicitly - are declines in the rate of prom in- would fit into the photographs that address the
duced by an increasingly socialized and or- subject). The number of characters were then
ganized labor force.) summed to a character count for the annual re-
A second cause of crisis, in Sweezy’s view, port. In addition, an index Wi&S constructed by
 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 81

1919 1925 1931 1937 1943 1949 1955 1961 I967 1973
I I I I I I I I I I
40%

Fig. 1. Social consumption norm.

annual report for the theme, social consumption tablished its credit arm, GMAC, “to assist dealers
norm, i.e. in financing their purchases of General Motors
products, and also to finance to some extent re-
Cl, tail sales” (AR, 1919, p. 13). By 1925, however,
- X 100 = index,
when GMAC was next mentioned in the annual
2 ci,
i= I,n, reports, 65% of retail sales of new cars were on
t= l,n,
an installment basis (Sloan, 1964 ).
where cif = character count for theme i in year Another innovation was the introduction of
t. The index adjusts for the changing lengths of the annual model change. Although, according
the annual reports over time and allows us to to Sloan, GM had been making annual model
examine changes in the relative importance of changes for some years previously, the cornpan)
the theme over the years. (Because the charac- first began to speak of such changes in a positive
ter count and the index are highly correlated, way in the annual reports in the mid- 1930s. By
only the index is shown in Fig. 1.) then, annual model changes had become the
As Fig. 1 shows, there was some discussion of norm in the industry, and GM, although no
what we have termed social consumption norm longer apologizing for them (as they did in de-
issues prior to 1948. But in that year, and for scribing product line changes in the 1923 AR),
virtually every year thereafter, the subject com- apparently felt it necessary to justify the changes
prises over 15% of each year’s annual report. To in terms of safety, economy of operation and
understand the full flowering of the social con- maintenance, the contribution of obsolescence
sumption norm in the post-World War II de- in making up-to-date transportation available to
cades, however. it will be helpful to briefly those who cannot afford new cars, and the TC-
examine its pre-war origins at GM. duction in costs obtained from the introduction
In the 1920s and 193Os, GM introduced a of ever-new production technology required b)
number of practices that were to become im- the new designs.
portant elements in the marketing of consumer Two other important marketing decisions
products. For example, in 19 19, the company es- were reached in the inter-war period. In 192 1,
82 TONY TINKER and MARILYN NEIMARK

GM adopted the policy of establishing “a com- sumption norm in the following excerpt from
plete line of motor cars from the lowest to the the 1937 annual report (although it is also
highest price that would justify quantity produc- clearly related to the high level of labor mili-
tion” (AR, 1923, p. 6); i.e. “A Car for Every Purse tancy in GM’s plants at the time).”
and Purpose” (AR, 1924, p. 8). And in the early The Corporation recognizes the importance of improv-
1930s the company reduced its production to ing the economic position of its workers from the
“three standard types of auto bodies,” while of- standpoint of both their progress and stability, hence ad-
fering “the greatest possible diversity” of models vancing their status in a fundamental way. Such a policy
is not only socially desirable but economically necessary.
(Rothschild, 1973, p. 39). White (1971, pp.
because of the vital necessity of developing every worker
300-301) credits these early marketing deci- into the broadest possible consumer (AR, 1937. p. 43).
sions with setting into place the marketing prac-
tice of upgrading consumer preferences (i.e. But the job of expanding consumption on a
convincing the customer to trade-in more fre- broad scale awaited the end of World War II, and
quently and to a more expensive model or make, did not begin in earnest until GM’s 1948 annual
such as from a Chevrolet to a Pontiac) that was report (the first to include a picture on its cover
to be so integral to the building of the post- as well as color photographs inside). According
World War II social consumption norm. to White (1971, pp. 11-13, 201) the auto-
Many of the characteristic “improvements” of mobile companies were able to sell any car they
the automobile in the post-World War II period could produce in the immediate post-war years,
also made their initial appearances in the 1930s. and it was not until 1949 that a combination of
In addition to annual model changes, these in- expanded production and a slight recession
cluded “The Sculptured Design, The Brightly brought demand and supply into balance. Then
Colored Body, The Large Engine, The Low Lean the Korean war brought with it government con-
Look,” (Rothschild, 1973, p. 39). In discussing trols on both prices and production, so it was ac-
the latter feature, known as “streamlining,” in its tually not until 1953 that the period of “active
annual reports in the mid-1930s GM showed a styling competition, rapid model changes, and a
reticence that is surprising to those familiar with proliferation of models” that characterized the
the enthusiasm displayed for such features in the automobile industry for the next two to three
post-World War II period. The company cau- decades was ushered in (White, 197 1, p. 20 1).
tions readers that while streamlining reflects a The new social consumption norm meant,
trend in design that is “quite in vogue,” in the however, a great deal more than multiple makes
case of motor cars, “it does not offer any import- and models and rapid styling changes. It meant a
ant economies in either fuel cost or operating new way of life and pattern of beliefs; the stratifi-
cost” (AR, 1933, p. 14). “Except for a negligible cation of social groups within the wage-earning
portion of motor car travel, the contribution of classes on the basis of their consumption pat-
streamlining is definitely limited to the question terns (Aglietta, 1979); an orientation to career,
of styling. There are no other advantages that can leisure, and consumption that promotes the ex-
be obtained otherwise” (AR, 1934, p. 17). pectation of suitable rewards within the system
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the em- (i.e. money, leisure and security) (Habermas,
phasis in GM’s annual reports was on riding com- 1976); the investment of a deep and distinct
fort, safety, engineering innovations and value. emotional meaning in the nuclear family
There is some hint of the coming social con- (Busacca & Ryan, 1982, p. 88); a new suburban

’ The connection between wage levels and consumption was recognized earlier by Henry Ford, who observed: “Our own
sales depend in a measure on the wages we pay. If we can distribute high wages, then that money is going to be spent and it
will serve to make storekeepers and distributors and manufacturers and workers in other lines more prosprrous and their
prosperity will be reflected in our sales” (quoted by Stavrianos, 1984, p. 63 ).
 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 83

order with the material correlates of the subur- nuclear-family centered leisure activities are de-
ban ideal (ibid); the belief in “upward mobility,” veloped and reinforced through annual report
that everyone was or would soon be middle class photographs and covers. In a series of photo-
(ibid); a system of formal rather than substantive graphs, that appeared in the 1962 annual report,
democracy (Wolin, 1982, p. 24); and a belief in GM cars are shown in front of houses. In each
“consumer sovereignty” (ibid). Integral to this case, the house and the people (their attire, ap-
new pattern of beliefs was the development of a pearance, activities) convey a social status that is
social ideology about women. appropriate to the automobile with which they
The photographs in GM’s annual reports in the are shown.
1950s and 1960s present numerous examples of In another series ofphotographs, from 1961’s
both the ways this new social consumption annual report, showing “GM Products in Use” -
norm was reflected in these reports, as well as going to dancing lessons, a day at the hunt club,
how it reinforced patterns of belief concerning driving the children to school, at a picnic, at-
women’s place. Throughout the 1950s women tending a club meeting, on a campus, at the
appear in the annual reports as adornments and florist, or going dining-the families that are de-
symbols of (presumably) male achievement. In picted are all young, attractive, Anglo-saxon and
1954, 1955 and 1956, for example, the annual prosperous. They are all involved in family-cen-
reports included a series of photographs of tered leisure activities that require the auto-
women alongside automobiles. In each case, the mobile. The small town lifestyle, to which all
female model’s appearance, how she is dressed, Americans are being taught to aspire, is depicted
her hairstyle and make-up, her posture, combine on GM’s annual report covers in this period as
to communicate a “style” that is appropriate for well. For example, in 1949 the cover is titled
the social level of the automobile with which she “Saturday Scene.” According to the accompany-
is presented; e.g. from the elegantly coiffed, ing text it
gowned, and bejewelled society woman stand-
ing by the top-of-the-line Cadillac, down has pictured the familiar bustle of a Saturday in the Town
Square - the sidewalk groups of neighbors paused for
through the Buick, the Oldsmobile, the Pontiac,
casual talk, the market doors a-swing with laden housc-
and finally to the Chevrolet, whose “neat” but
wives, the tireless youngsters, the dogs, the bikes, and -
not glamorous model is dressed in a simple two- of course - the cars.
piece suit. The cover of 1954’s annual report
provides another example. This cover depicts We are sure you will notice many other familiar details -
the cool white church spire, the farmers in town for the
the “climactic moment” at the conclusion of
week’s supplies, the television aerial atop a building of
GM’s annual “Motorama,” where the company
obviously venerable age, the spreading town elm and.
introduced their new cars to the public. At the sheltering all, the enduring hills, cradling liberty and
front of the stage, appearing as a frame for the human dignity in their protective folds.
events going on behind them, are seven women,
three in evening gowns and four ballerinas. As The social ideology of the nuclear family, and the
they stand there, “a car bursts through a mist woman’s (that is, mother’s) place within it
cloud high in the air before whirling gracefully (specifically at home, and in the kitchen and/or
downward on a flying turntable over stage and the laundry), appears in a series of photographs
lagoon” (AR, 1954). Male dominance is a con- promoting the Frigidaire line of appliances. As
stant message throughout the annual reports was the case in the prior photographs, the “mid-
examined in this study. For example, whenever dle class” home that is illustrated as typical, is
a woman and a man are in a car, it is the man who well beyond the financial resources of most
is doing the driving. workers.
Consumption patterns oriented around the The post-war social consumption norm de-
possession of a house in the suburbs, the owner- pended upon consumers who were motivated to
ship of new automobiles and appliances, and possess the latest in styling and technology, and
84 TONY TINKER and MARILYNNEIMARK

who were dissatisfied with their existing posses- Yes. WC‘think you’ll agree this picture describes better
sions, regardless of their functionality, if they than any words or figures that combination of a free in-
dustry and a free people which gives this country the abil-
were perceived as being out-of-date. Thus GM’s
ity to produce “more and better things for more people”
annual reports emphasized progress and change -and the strength to defend this fruitful heritage against
as universal virtues that were characteristic of the challenge of any alien creed or power.
the American people and American industry. For
example, the cover of the 1950 annual report, ti- We see in this text the extent to which the social
tled “3 p.m. - Anytown, U.S.A.,” shows children consumption norm and a social ideology con-
leaving a handsome brick schoolhouse at the cerning women’s place in the home were inter-
end of the school day. The accompanying text mingled in the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, the
explains that “Youth and the vigor that goes with position of women in this period, especially in
it are peculiarly the characteristics of America. contrast to the part they played during the war
reflected in our attitude towards new things, years, only makes sense when it is considered
new ideas; in our willingness to experiment and within the broader context of the period’s social
to risk in the hope of doing still better the things consumption norm.
we have been doing well.” A similar message is By the mid-1960s, new impediments to the
communicated in the 1953 report cover, depict- continued profitability and growth of ITS busi-
ing the travelling show called the “General ness enterprises were beginning to emerge -
Motors Parade of Progress”. In addition to enter- impediments whose origins lay in the very SUC-
taining, interesting, and enlightening its audi- cess of the post-war period’s social consumption
ence, the purpose of this show, the text states, is norm and the expectations that it nurtured.
to “strive to make clear the processes by which
American industry contributes to our national
well-being, security and progress. The basis of THE PERIOD FROM 1967 TO 1975
that contribution is the efforts and initiative of
individuals - perfecting new methods and pro- Keeping up with the social consumption
cesses, making new discoveries and inventions.” norm required an increasing level of wages, the
Our final example illustrates the interplay of a availability of low cost consumer and mortgage
number of the themes characteristic of the post- credit, and government outlays to subsidize
war social consumption norm. It is titled housing and suburban development. In addition,
“Changing Shifts” and it appeared as the cover of beginning in the mid-196Os, women and
1951’s annual report. The text accompanying minorities began to press to be integrated into
this cover is reproduced below. the system in ways that were both costly (e.g.
lawsuits and affirmative action programs) and
In no othc-r country could an artist find a scrnr like the
that threatened social harmony and political
typially American plant John Faltu has painted for our
stability. The public, in general, became in-
c‘ovc’rthis year. At tirst gl:mcc- - it’5 8s American as the
lollipop ofthe little boy snuggling against his dad’s jacket. creasingly aware of the adverse consequences of
Or the \milcs on the faws of the day shift hurrying to corporate growth - consequences that con-
mwt thdr f;mClics - the brisk ch~duln~ss of the wc-n- tradicted the promises of the social consump-
ing shift going back to work - rven the friudly wag of tion norm. They pressured both business and
the little dog’s tail.
government to make outlays to repair or prevent
damage to the physical environment, to ensure
the health and safety of consumers, employees,
and those who reside in the communities where
products are manufactured and wastes are
dumped, and to be responsible for the conse-
quences of technological unemployment and
plant closings.
 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 85

During the 196Os, the state became the prim- tunities Commission filed a suit against GM, al-
ary vehicle for levying claims on corporations on leging discriminatory employment practices in
behalf of minority and disadvantaged sectors of eight divisions. GM used the 1973 annual report
the community. The level of state expenditures both to express its surprise that the suit had been
that resulted from these pressures was modest filed, “in view of GM’s progress” under its pro-
when compared with the amount of state spend- grams to recruit and train women for manage-
ing that originated within the corporate sector rial, technical and professional positions, and to
itself - such as spending on the military, the vigorously deny any wrongdoing. This report in-
physical and human capital infrastructure (e.g. cluded photographs showing women fulfilling
transportation, communications, research and an array of new roles; including a woman in the
development), on safety nets for individual cor- design staffworking with a clay mock-up of a car,
porations and economic sectors (e.g. railroads, a woman chemist, a woman coach assembly line
agriculture, banking), and foreign aid and mili- worker, and a black woman assisting in an er-
tary adventures, such as the Vietnam War. But gonomics study. The report points out that “In
when combined, these expenditures contri- 1965, women accounted for 12.9% of GM’s
buted both to the government’s budget deficit workforce. By December, 1973, this percentage
and to the decline in overall productivity that had risen to 15.2% .” Of the approximately
has been described as the “fiscal crisis of the 97,000 women employed by GM, over 4,300
state” (O’Connor, 1973). This “Crisis of the were in managerial, professional and technical
State” was really a further crisis in capitalism’s categories. Despite the advances in female
development where the redistributive functions employment reported on in GM’s annual reports
of the state were becoming so substantial as to throughout the 197Os, the company’s seniority
pose a threat to profitability and capital accumu- provisions remained in place, with the support
lation. of the labor unions. As a result, the newly re-
By 1967’s annual report, we find extensive cruited women (and minorities) were among
evidence of GM’s responsiveness to the “social” the most affected by the lay-offs of the 1970s and
claims made on it. The report includes a section 1980s (e.g. U.S. automobile industry employ-
titled “GM Employment Policy: Nondiscriminat- ment fell 30% from 1979 to 1984, Wall Street
ory” where it is noted that, “General Motors has Journal, 5 November, 1984).
had a nondiscriminatory employment policy for The gains secured by women in recent years
many years. Job opportunities in our plants are in U.S. industry provide an excellent example of
open to all qualified applicants without regard to the interplay between social ideology and the
age, race, color, sex, creed, or national origin” economy, and between socio-political action
(AR, 1967, p. 23). By the early 1970’s, the re- and the material imperatives of growth and pro-
ports began showing photos of minority couples fitability.
driving cars (but with the man still driving! ) There is little doubt that the feminist move-
The 1972 report makes the first explicit men- ment mobilized state and grass roots support, to
tion of women employees since World War II, transform the place ofwomen in IJ.S. society. Ac-
where it is noted that, “General Motors is also cording to Business Week (29 October, 1984),
giving priority attention to increasing oppor- the number of employed women has increased
tunities for the employment and advancement of by about 80% in two decades (in contrast, the
women. A number of steps have been taken in number of men increased by 27(X) ); more than
this area, including recruiting at predominantly 50% of all married women are working; and in
women’s colleges, training women to become homes where the husband has a job, nearly two-
production supervisors or to qualify for other thirds of the women are employed. Further-
areas of management and surveying female more, women comprise more than half of all col-
employees for interest in advancement” (AR, lege students, earn 25% of all medical degrees,
1972, p. 17). In 1973, the Federal Equal Oppor- 30% of all law degrees, and represent more than
86 TONY TINKER and MARILYN NElhIARK

35% of all accountants, college teachers and of all female oppression. We do, however, attach
bank officials. But the earnings of college-edu- prime importance to understanding the devel-
cated women who work full-time are only 55% opment of capitalist alienation because (by de-
of those of men - a pattern which, according to finition) it is an invariant trait of capitalist soci-
a recent study by the Conference Board, is at ety. Other forms of alienation (male domination
least partly the result of “less than equal pay for for instance) are contingent and not inevitable
equal qualifications” (cited in Business Week, 29 forms of alienation. Assigning primacy to class in
October 1984). this manner is not intended to underplay the im-
The belief in the family wage, if not entirely portance of non-class forms of alienation; it does,
eliminated, has been greatly weakened, along however, underscore the importance of social
with other beliefs about women’s place and structural considerations in analyzing exploita-
capacities that supported it. But this does not tion and, in terms of feminist politics, favors al-
simply represent a victory for political and social liances with other disadvantaged groups whose
mobilization - it has a material basis in the cy- interests lie in challenging capitalism itself.
cles and crises of capitalism. We suggest that the An important “political” result of this study
increase in women’s participation in the work- concerns what we have learned about the part
force today represents a two-pronged attempt management and accounting strategies play in
by capital to resolve the economic downturn perpetuating inequality. We have seen, through
that began in the mid- 1960s. First, it allows busi- our interpretation of the annual reports, how the
ness to substitute less costly female labor for task of management is not concerned merely
more costly male labor. In so far as the high infla- with the administration of “resources” and
tion rates of the 1970s reflected the growing “things”, but is also concerned with mediating,
power of male labor, then this would support the suppressing, mystifying and transforming social
substitution effect. Second, by increasing family conflict. To dismiss a firm’s annual reports as
income, female labor force participation helps “mere public relations fluff’ would be to under-
maintain. if not also increase, consumption estimate the political power of these documents;
levels. As Busitzess Week reports, “60% of all in both an “actual” as well as a “potential” sense.
family income is now earned by households We have shown how these reports serve as coer-
where wives are working.” cive, ideological weapons in manipulating the
social imagination about women. To devalue, as
unimportant, the reports that we actually pro-
lMPLI<:ATlONS duce, is to downplay our personal responsibilit)
in constructing, teaching, researching, auditing
This paper has attempted to locate women’s and ratifying these annual reports. Equally im-
oppression within a series of speciIic, socio- portant is the potential for annual reports and
historical periods in the evolution of capitalism the political opportunities that they afford to
and to show. using annual reports, the part that further the accountability of large corporations.
accounting-related documents may play in per- When we trivialise the annual report, we are also
petuating this oppression. We do not mean to trivialising our own ability to use the documents
suggest that capitalist alienation is the root cause to enlightening and emancipatory elect.

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 THE ROLE OF ANNUAL REPORTS 87

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Bernstein, B., Hiring Problems in the Automobile Industry, WPA National Research Project on Re-
employment Opportunities and Recent Changes in Industrial Techniques. W. Ellison Chalmers
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