Guest Editors’ Introduction:Gender, Business Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Assessing and Refocusing a Conversation

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 behavior (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.

Constructing gender identity through masculinity in CSR reports: The South Korean case

“…In a similar vein, these concerns have recently emerged in research on CSR and gender. The CSR and gender literature is also largely Western dominated in ways that crucially shape the form and content of what counts as knowledge (Grosser, Moon, & Nelson, ; Karam & Jamali, ; Karam et al, ). Consequently, when authors engage with the global South, they adopt a methodology based on North‐South gender binaries (Gugler & Shi, ; Schleifer, ).…”

Disrupting the Gender Institution: Consciousness-Raising in the Cocoa Value Chain

“…Organisational approaches to gender inequality tend to focus on the global North by addressing such issues as 'women on boards' (Grosser, Moon & Nelson, 2017), and on structural solutions to inequality (Calás et al, 2014;Waylen, 2014). Yet, whilst policies and programmes proliferate, and more women move into decision-making roles, evidence suggests that the stereotypes and "descriptive beliefs" (Ridgeway & Correll, 2004, p.527) about men and women's 'nature' remain relatively unchanged (Lueptow, Garovich-Szabo & Lueptow, 2001).…”

“There is no time for rest”: Gendered CSR, sustainable development and the unpaid care work governance gap

“…Within CSR literature, there has been until recently a paucity of studies on gender and CSR in the global South (Grosser, Moon, & Nelson, ), and even less use of feminist theory (Grosser & Moon, ). Turning to the gender and development literature, my focus on “gendered CSR” programmes is a departure from the majority of studies in this area, exploring the role of private‐sector regulation: corporate, industry, or broader multi‐stakeholder codes of conduct, and initiatives; and their possibilities and constraints regarding gender equality (Barrientos & Asenso‐Owyere, 2003; Hale & Opondo, ; Tallontire, Dolan, Smith, & Barrientos, ).…”