Gender equality: a tool for legitimacy in the fast fashion industry

Abstract

Gender equality is an extremely important issue for all businesses, nevertheless the fast fashion industry, which targets mainly the female population, faces major challenges related to women wellbeing and labor rights, employees professional and personal development. The objective of this paper is to analyse how three leading fast fashion companies include gender equality in their sustainability reports as part of their communication strategy and as a tool for legitimations. The main findings show that fast fashion industry focuses the communication based on gender equality issues explaining the improved working conditions and professional development opportunities for the female employees from all around the world along the entire Supply Chain Management.