(Ir)responsabilidade Social Corporativa: Mulheres atingidas pela Ternium em Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro

Corporate Social (Ir)responsibility: Women affected by Ternium steel mill in Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The Ternium steel mill (former TKCSA), located in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz, West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, is responsible for several environmental impacts, such as chronic air contamination, acute episodes of contamination (silver rains) and flooding in adjacent residential areas. However, we understand that women are especially vulnerable with the arrival of the enterprise and, therefore, we read the impacts and strategies of the factory from a gender perspective. Since the beginning of its operations, the steel company has promoted several social actions for the benefit of the residents of its surroundings, understood as strategic spatial practices of the company. The aim of this article is to survey the actions currently promoted and to examine their spatial distribution. In addition, we will analyze the enunciative plots expressed on the website in relation to female representation and Ternium's social actions in light of the impacts that the company causes on feminized bodies. We conclude that the company uses a feminist grammar as a branding strategy, seeking to erase the violence generated by the company's production practices at different scales: from the neighborhood to the home and feminized bodies. Such strategies are insufficient to compensate the groups affected by the corporate social (ir)responsibility that the factory has built throughout all its administrative phases.