Rodette asked:

Do male and female managers think different ethically?

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Well, female and male managers might think differently, and this might be an ethical difference, but it
depends on your idea of the nature of ethics. I think ethics is about human relations and so that if
there is a difference between female and male managers it would be an ethical difference.

If you take ethics to be about following principles, then I don't see why there should be a difference in
the behaviour of men and women. There isn't known to be a difference in the ability to follow
principles between men and women. If you take a utilitarian stance about maximising benefits for as
many people as possible, again there would be no known difference.

Rather than looking at ethical theory the answer to your question means we have to look at accepted
gender differences. Males in positions of responsibility are supposed to be patriarchal and
authoritative and females are supposed to be more nurturing. I receive a leadership newsletter and
the latest issue makes a distinction between a boss and a leader. The boss is said to have male
authoritative qualities and the leader nurturing female ones. It seems there is a drive to make those in
charge more female. According to this newsletter, the boss inspires fear while the leader inspires
enthusiasm. The boss says 'I', and the leader says 'we'. The boss 'commands' and the leader 'asks'.
On this view the leader/ female is more ethical in her concern for human relations.

Personally I don't believe in accepted gender distinctions. We are all individuals. My husband is
probably a boss in terms of being authoritative but he also nurturing and sent his secretary on an
assertive course when he found she wasn't easily able to cope with his authoritative ways. Though
whether this is 'developing her' as a leader/female would do or 'using her' as a boss/ male would do is
unclear.

If the ethical attitude is to treat someone as a unique individual we shouldn't be thinking that
categorising people has anything to do with ethics.

Rachel Browne