Abstract
This article reviews a conversation between business ethicists and feminist scholars begun in the early 1990s and traces the development of that conversation in relation to feminist theory. A bibliographic analysis of the business ethics (BE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures over a twenty-five-year period elucidates the degree to which gender has been a salient concern, the methodologies adopted, and the ways in which gender has been analyzed (by geography, issue type, and theoretical perspective). Identifying significant limitations to the incorporation of feminist theory in these literatures, we discuss how feminist scholarship relating to behaviour (through psychology and related fields), organizations (through feminist organization studies), and economics (through feminist economics) could be integrated. We suggest that a better integration of feminist theory would strengthen BE/CSR research, and point to new research directions and agendas arising from our approach.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ABDC (Australian Business Deans Council). 2016. ABDC releases new journal quality list. September 6. http://www.abdc.edu.au/news.php/100/abdc-releases-new-journal-quality-list
Acker, J. 1990. Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender and Society, 4(2): 139–158.
———. 2004. Gender, capitalism and globalization. Critical Sociology, 30(1): 17–41.
Appelbaum, E., & R. Batt 2014. Private equity at work: When Wall Street manages main street. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Arnold, D. G. 2016. Three models of impactful business ethics scholarship. Business Ethics Quarterly, 26(4): ix–xii.
Barrientos, S., C. Dolan, & A. Tallontire. 2003. A gendered value chain approach to codes of conduct in African horticulture. World Development, 31(9): 1511–1526.
Bear, S., N. Rahman & C. Post. 2010. The impact of board diversity and gender composition on corporate social responsibility and firm reputation. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(2): 207–221.
Borgerson, J. L. 2007. On the harmony of feminist ethics and business ethics. Business and Society Review, 112(4): 477–509.
Bowen, H. R. 1953. Social responsibilities of the businessman. New York: Harper & Row.
Bowles, S. 2016. The moral economy: Why good incentives are no substitute for good citizens. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bratton, W. W. 2011. At the conjunction of love and money: Comment on Julie A. Nelson, Does profit-seeking rule out love? Evidence (or not) from economics and law. Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 35: 109–115.
Burton, B., & C. Dunn. 1996. Feminist ethics as moral grounding for stakeholder theory. Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(2): 133–148.
Butler, J. 2004. Undoing gender. London: Routledge.
CABS (Chartered Association of Business Schools). 2015. Academic journal guide 2015. https://charteredabs.org/academic-journal-guide-2015/.
Calás, M. B., & L. Smircich. 1997. ¿Predicando la moral en calzoncillos? Feminist inquiries into business ethics. In A. Larson & R. E. Freeman (Eds.), Women’s studies and business ethics: Toward a new conversation: 50–79. New York: Oxford University Press.
———. 2006. From the “Woman’s Point of View” ten years later: Towards a feminist organization studies. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, W. Nord, & T. Lawrence (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (2nd ed.): 284–346. London: Sage.
Carroll, A. B. 1979. A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. Academy of Management Review, 4(4): 497–505.
Collinson, D. & J. Hearn. 1994. Naming men as men: Implications for work, organization and management. Gender, Work and Organization, 1(1): 2–22.
Davis, K. 1960. Can business afford to ignore social responsibilities? California Management Review, 2(3): 70–77.
———. 1973. The case for and against business assumption of social responsibilities. Academy of Management Journal, 16(2): 312–322.
Derry, R. 1996. Toward a feminist firm: Comments on John Dobson and Judith White. Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(1): 101–109.
Dobson, J. & J. White. 1995. Toward the feminine firm: An extension to Thomas White. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(3): 463–478.
Dolan, C., M. Johnstone-Louis & L. Scott. 2012. Shampoo, saris and SIM cards: Seeking entrepreneurial futures at the bottom of the pyramid. Gender and Development, 20(1): 33–47.
Donaldson, T. & T. W Dunfee. 1994. Toward a unified conception of business ethics: Integrative social contracts theory. Academy of Management Review, 19(2): 252–284.
———. 1995. Integrative social contracts theory: A communitarian conception of economic ethics, Economics and Philosophy, 11(1): 85–112.
Donaldson, T. & L. E. Preston. 1995. The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20(1): 65–91.
Fehr, E. & A. Falk. 2002. Psychological foundations of incentives. European Economic Review, 46(4–5): 687–724.
Ferber, M. A., & J. A. Nelson (Eds.). 1993. Beyond economic man: Feminist theory and economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 2003. Feminist economics today. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ferguson, K. E. 1997. Postmodernism, feminism, and organizational ethics: Letting difference be. In A. Larson & R. E. Freeman (Eds.), Women’s studies and business ethics: Toward a new conversation: 80–91. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fine, C. 2010. Delusions of gender: How our minds, society, and neurosexism create difference. New York: W. W. Norton.
Freeman, R. E., A. C. Wicks & B. Parmar. 2004. Stakeholder theory and “The Corporate Objective Revisited.” Organization Science, 15(3): 364–369.
Friedman, M. 1970. The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine: Sept 13.
Garriga, E. & D. Melé. 2004. Corporate social responsibility theories: Mapping the territory. Journal of Business Ethics, 53: 51–71.
Gherardi, S. 2010. Feminist theory and organization theory: A dialogue on new bases. In H. Tsoukas & C. Knudsen (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organization theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ghoshal, S. 2005. Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(1): 75–91.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. 1996. The end of capitalism (as we knew it): A feminist critique of political economy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Gilligan, C. 1982. ln a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Grosser, K. 2009. Corporate social responsibility and gender equality: Women as stakeholders and the European Union sustainability strategy. Business Ethics: A European Review, 18(3): 290–307.
———. 2016. Corporate social responsibility and multi-stakeholder governance: Pluralism, feminist perspectives and women’s NGOs. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(1): 65–81.
Grosser, K. & J. Moon. 2005. Gender mainstreaming and corporate social responsibility: Reporting workplace issues. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(4): 327–340.
———. 2017. CSR and feminist organization studies: Towards an integrated theorization for the analysis of gender issues. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3510-x.
Harding, S. 1986. The science question in feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Hyde, J. S. 2005. The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6): 581–592.
Jaffee, S. & J. S. Hyde. 2000. Gender differences in moral orientation: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 126(5): 703–726.
Jagger, A. 1992. Feminist ethics. In L. Becker & C. Becker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Ethics: 363–364. New York: Garland Press.
Jensen, M. C., & W. H. Meckling. 1976. The theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4): 305–360.
Johnstone-Louis, M. 2017. Corporate social responsibility and women’s entrepreneurship: Towards a more adequate theory of “work.” Business Ethics Quarterly, 27.
Keenan, J., D. Kemp & R. Ramsay. 2014. Company–community agreements, gender and development. Journal of Business Ethics, 135(4): 607–615.
Kelan, E. K. 2008. The discursive construction of gender in contemporary management literature. Journal of Business Ethics, 81: 427–445.
Keller, E. F. 1985. Reflections on gender and science. New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press.
Kim, C. H. & J. Moon. 2015. Dynamics of corporate social responsibility in Asia: Knowledge and norms. Asian Business & Management, 14(5): 349–382.
Knudsen, J. S. & J. Moon. 2017. Visible hands: National government and international CSR. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kuhn, T. S. 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Larrieta-Rubín de Celis, I., E. Velasco-Balmaseda., S. Fernández de Bobadilla & M. del Mar Alonso-Almeida, 2015. Does having women managers lead to increased gender equality practices in corporate social responsibility? Business Ethics: A European Review, 24(1): 91–110.
Larson, A. & R. E. Freeman. 1997. Introduction. In A. Larson & R. E. Freeman (Eds.), Women’s studies and business ethics: Toward a new conversation: 3–8. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lauwo, S. 2016. Challenging masculinity in CSR disclosures: Silencing of women’s voices in Tanzania’s mining industry. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3047-4.
Liedtka, J. M. 1996. Feminist morality and competitive reality: A role for an ethic of care? Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(2): 179–200.
Lockett, A., Moon, J. & Visser, W. 2006. Corporate social responsibility in management research: Focus, nature, salience and sources of influence. Journal of Management Studies, 43(1): 115–136.
Martin, J. & K. Knopoff. 1997. The gendered implications of apparently gender-neutral theory: Rereading Max Weber. In A. Larson & R. E. Freeman (Eds.), Women’s studies and business ethics: Toward a new conversation: 30–49. New York: Oxford University Press.
Matten, D. & A. Crane. 2005. Corporate citizenship: Toward an extended theoretical conceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 30(1): 166–179.
Matten, D. & J. Moon. 2008. “Implicit” and “explicit” CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative understanding of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 33(2): 404–424.
McCarthy, L. 2017. Empowering women through corporate social responsibility: A feminist Foucauldian critique. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27.
McCarthy, L. & J. N. Muthuri. 2016. Engaging fringe stakeholders in business and society research: Applying visual participatory research methods. Business & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650316675610.
McGuire, J. W. 1963. Business and Society. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McWilliams, A. & D. Siegel. 2001. Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective. The Academy of Management Review, 26(1): 117–127.
Moon, J. 2002. Business social responsibility and new governance. Government and Opposition, 37(3): 385–408.
Moon, J., Murphy, L. & J-P. Gond. 2017. Historical perspectives on CSR. In A. Rasche, M. Morsing, & J. Moon (Eds.), Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategy, Communication and Governance: 31–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nelson, J. A. 2003. Separative and soluble firms: Androcentric bias in business ethics. In M. A. Ferber & J. A. Nelson (Eds.), Feminist economics today: Beyond economic man: 81–99. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 2006. Economics for humans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 2011. Does profit-seeking rule out love? Evidence (or not) from economics and law. Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 35(69): 69–107.
———. 2014. The power of stereotyping and confirmation bias to overwhelm accurate assessment: The case of economics, gender, and risk aversion. Journal of Economic Methodology, 21(3): 211–231.
———. 2015. Are women really more risk-averse than men? A re-analysis of the literature using expanded methods. Journal of Economic Surveys, 29(3): 566–585.
Pearson, R. 2007. Beyond women workers: Gendering CSR. Third World Quarterly, 28(4): 731–749.
Phillips, M. 2014. Re-writing organizational environmentalism: Ecofeminism, corporeality and the language of feeling. Gender, Work & Organization, 21(5): 443–458.
Preston, L. & J. E. Post. 1975. Private management and public policy: The principle of public responsibility. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Prieto-Carrón, M. 2008. Women workers, industrialization, global supply chains and corporate codes of conduct. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(1): 5–17.
Rasche, A., M. Morsing & J. Moon. 2017. The changing role of business in global society: CSR and beyond. In A. Rasche, M. Morsing, & J. Moon (Eds.) Corporate social responsibility: Strategy, communication and governance: 1–28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rhodes, C. & A. Pullen. 2017. Critical business ethics: From corporate self-interest to the glorification of the sovereign pater. International Journal of Management Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12142.
Roberts, A. 2015. The political economy of “transnational business feminism.” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17(2): 209–231.
Scherer, A. G. & G. Palazzo. 2011. The new political role of business in a globalized world: A review of a new perspective on CSR and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy. Journal of Management Studies, 48(4): 899–931.
Scherer, A. G., A. Rasche, G. Palazzo & A. Spicer. 2016. Managing for political corporate social responsibility: New challenges and directions for PCSR 2.0. Journal of Management Studies, 53(3): 273–298.
Smith, N. C., & D. Rönnegard. 2016. Shareholder primacy, corporate social responsibility, and the role of business schools. Journal of Business Ethics, 134(3): 463–478.
Stout, L. 2012. The Shareholder value myth: How putting shareholders first harms investors, corporations, and the public. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Terjesen, S., & R. Sealy. 2016. Board gender quotas: Exploring ethical tensions from a multi-theoretical perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, 26(1): 23–65.
Tong, R. 1993. Feminine and feminist ethics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Tornhill, S. 2016. The wins of corporate gender equality politics: Coca-Cola and female micro-entrepreneurship in South Africa. In K. Grosser, L. McCarthy, L. & M. A. Kilgour (Eds.), Gender equality and responsible business: Expanding CSR horizons: 185–202. Saltaire, UK: Greenleaf.
Walby, S. 2011. The future of feminism. Cambridge: Polity.
West, C. & H. Zimmerman. 1987. Doing gender. Gender & Society, 1(2): 125–151.
White, T. 1992. Business, ethics, and Carol Gilligan’s “two voices.” Business Ethics Quarterly, 2(1): 51–61.
Wicks, A. C. 1996. Reflections on the practical relevance of feminist thought to business. Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(4): 523–531.
Wicks, A. C., D. R. Gilbert, Jr. & R. E. Freeman. 1994. A feminist reinterpretation of the stakeholder concept. Business Ethics Quarterly, 4(4): 475–497.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Grosser, K., Moon, J., Nelson, J.A. (2023). Gender, Business Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Assessing and Refocusing a Conversation. In: Painter, M., Werhane, P.H. (eds) Leadership, Gender, and Organization. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 63. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24445-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24445-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-24444-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-24445-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)