Topic

Women’s consumer power

Diane Ridgway-Cross’ TED talk “Conscious Consumerism” focuses on the topic of women’s consumer power. Within this topic, the speaker also explores issues related to corporate social responsibility and consumer activism.

Consumer power refers to people’s capacity to put pressure on businesses to deliver a certain type of product and have certain business practices, usually referring to demanding better quality products, better customer service, better production conditions, and better prices.

In the speech, consumer power is explored in relation to conscious consumerism, which Ridgway-Cross defines as “being very, very mindful about the kinds of products we buy, the kinds of brands we choose to buy, and the companies that we buy from.” (ll. 36-37).

The speech begins with the speaker exploring the general topic of activism, using the case story of her mother. Ridgway-Cross recounts various ways in which her mother fought for the causes she believed in, be they political, social, or economic: “She was out to stand up for what she believed in, out to make a difference, and out to have her voice be heard, and she taught my brothers and sisters and I to do the same thing.” (ll. 17-19).

Her story reveals that the mother would also use boycott as a form of protest, refusing to buy goods that were in conflict with the causes she supported: “…everybody has them in our town of two thousand, except for us, because they were made in sweatshops in China and so we couldn’t wear them.” (ll. 24-25); “…we couldn’t eat our favorite chocolate bars because of some issue with apartheid in South Africa halfway around the world.” (...