Abstract
Corporations, as institutions that participate in the creation and perpetuation of gender-based injustices, have been neglected by feminist political philosophers and egalitarians in general. However, since gender-based inequalities within the family, the market, and in democratic participation are interconnected, critically scrutinizing institutions such as corporate organizations appears to be essential in order to achieve gender justice. This is our goal in this paper. In the first part, we look at the (surprising) domination of the ethics of care in the feminist literature on corporations. Since it focuses essentially on the goal of developing virtuous managers, we conclude that this ethics of care is misleading when it comes to thinking about the kinds of relations that characterize corporations and their much needed organizational transformation. In the second part, we attempt to highlight and articulate more explicitly the need for a critical analysis of corporations from the point of view of gender justice. Finally, having shown how purely “distributive” approaches of gender justice are unsatisfactory, we finish by outlining a multidimensional approach to gender (in)justice within and by corporate organizations. We do so by drawing on the insights of distributive, participatory, and relational accounts of equality.
About the authors
Naïma Hamrouni is Associate Professor of ethics and political philosophy at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and adjunct professor at the Department of Political Science, Université Laval. Her current research is at the intersection of theories of social justice, feminist theories and the ethics of care. It seeks to formulate a multidimensional theoretical framework in order to address the structural reproduction of the injustices pertaining to gendered and racial divisions of labor. She recently co-edited the volume Le sujet du féminisme est-il blanc? (Remue-ménage, 2015) with Chantal Maillé, and the special issue “Travail, genre et justice sociale” for the Journal Politique et sociétés (2016), with Sophie Bourgault. Her work has appeared in Vulnerability, Autonomy, and Applied Ethics (2016, Routledge), Théories de la justice (2016, Presses Universitaires de Louvain), Le care, éthique féministe actuelle (2015, Remue-ménage), and in the journals Politique et sociétés, Philosophiques, Recherches féministes, and the Review of Economic Philosophy.
Pierre-Yves Néron is Associate Professor of social and political philosophy at the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL), Université Catholique de Lille. Previously, he undertook postdoctoral research under Joseph Heath’s direction at the Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto, where he also taught in the Department of Philosophy. His current research focuses on contemporary egalitarianism and economic institutions such as firms and markets, and aims to articulate the foundations of a theory of “economic democracy.” His research has been published in, among others, Res Publica: A Journal of Moral, Legal and Social Philosophy, Journal of Business Ethics, Raison publique, Business Ethics Quarterly.
References
Anderson, Elizabeth (1999) “What Is the Point of Equality,” Ethics, 109(2):287–337.10.1086/233897Search in Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth (2008) “Expanding the Egalitarian Toolbox: Equality and Bureaucracy,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 82(1):140–161.Search in Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth (2010) The Imperative of Integration. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400836826Search in Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. (1985) “Human Capital, Effort, and the Sexual Division of Labor,” Journal of Labor Economics, 3(1) part 2:S33–S38.10.1086/298075Search in Google Scholar
Bergmann, Barbara R. (1986) The Economic Emergence of Women. New York: Macmillan Palgrave.Search in Google Scholar
Blanc, Sandrine and Ismael Al-Amoudi (2013) “Corporate Institutions in a Weakened Welfare State: A Rawlsian Perspective,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(4):497–525.10.5840/beq201323438Search in Google Scholar
Boatright, John R. (1999) “Does Business Ethics Rest on a Mistake?” Business Ethics Quarterly, 9(4):583–591.10.2307/3857936Search in Google Scholar
Burton, Brian K. and Craig P. Dunn (1996) “Feminist Ethics as Moral Grounding for Stakeholder Theory,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(2):133–147.10.2307/3857619Search in Google Scholar
Card, Claudia (1990) “Caring and Evil,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 5(1): 101–108.10.1111/j.1527-2001.1990.tb00393.xSearch in Google Scholar
Ciepley, David (2013) “Beyond Public and Private: Toward a Political Theory of the Corporation,” The American Political Science Review, 107(1):139–158.10.1017/S0003055412000536Search in Google Scholar
Cohen, Gerald A. (1997) “Where the Action Is: On the Site of Distributive Justice,” Philosophy & Public Affairs, 26(1):3–30.10.1111/j.1088-4963.1997.tb00048.xSearch in Google Scholar
Derry, Robbin (1996) “Toward a Feminist Firm: Comments on John Dobson and Judith White,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(1):101–109.10.2307/3857243Search in Google Scholar
Dobson, John and Judith White (1995) “Toward the Feminine Firm: An Extension to Thomas White,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(3):463–478.10.2307/3857394Search in Google Scholar
Engster, Daniel (2007) The Heart of Justice. Care Ethics and Political Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214358.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Ferguson, Kathy E. (1997) “Postmodernism, Feminism, and Organizational Ethics: Letting Difference Be.” In: (Andrea L. Larson and R. Edward Freeman, eds. (under the dir. of)) Women’s Studies and Business Ethics. Toward a New Conversation. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 80–91.10.5840/ruffinoup19976Search in Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson (2004) The Autonomy Myth. A Theory of Dependency. New York: The New York Press.Search in Google Scholar
Folbre, Nancy (1997) De la différence des sexes en économie politique [trad. d’Edith Ochs]. Paris: Éditions des femmes Antoinette Fouque.Search in Google Scholar
Folbre, Nancy (2010) Valuing Children. Rethinking the Economics of the Family. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.10.2307/j.ctvjnrt57Search in Google Scholar
Fourie, Carina (2012) “What is Social Equality? An Analysis of Social Equality as a Strongly Egalitarian Ideal,” Res Publica, 18(1):107–126.10.1007/s11158-011-9162-2Search in Google Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward and Daniel Gilbert (1992) “Business Ethics and Society: A Critical Agenda,” Business and Society, 31:9–17.10.1177/000765039203100102Search in Google Scholar
Friedman, Marilyn (1989) “Feminism and Modern Friendship: Dislocating the Community,” Ethics, 99(2):275–290.10.1086/293066Search in Google Scholar
Gheaus, Anca (2012) “Gender Justice,” Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, 6(1):1–24.10.26556/jesp.v6i1.60Search in Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol (2008 [1982]) Une voix différente: pour une éthique du care [trad. d’Annie Kwiatek, rev. Vanessa Nurock]. Paris: Flammarion.10.4000/books.editionsehess.11626Search in Google Scholar
Gourevitch, Peter A. and James Shinn (2005) Political Power and Corporate Control. The New Global Politics of Political Governance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Grossman, Joanna (2010) “Pregnancy, Work and the Promise of Equal Citizenship,” Georgetown Law Journal, 9(3):567–628.Search in Google Scholar
Halwani, Raja (2003) “Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 18(3):161–192.10.1111/j.1527-2001.2003.tb00826.xSearch in Google Scholar
Hamrouni, Naïma (2012) Le care invisible. Genre, vulnérabilité et domination. thèse de doctorat, Université de Louvain et Université de Montréal.Search in Google Scholar
Hamrouni, Naïma (2015) “Dépendance, services publics, care et discours familialiste: une critique du modèle d’égalité des sexes d’Eva F. Kittay,” Recherches Féministes, 28(1):61–77.10.7202/1030994arSearch in Google Scholar
Hamrouni, Naïma (2016) “4. Ordinary Vulnerability, Institutional Androgyny and Gender Justice.” In: (Christine Straehle, ed.) Vulnerability, Autonomy, and Applied Ethics. New York: Routledge. Coll.: Routledge Research in Applied Ethics, pp. 69–82.Search in Google Scholar
Hansmann, Henry and Reiner Kraakman (2001) “The End of History for Corporate Law,” Georgetown Law Journal, 89(2):439–468.Search in Google Scholar
Heath, Joseph, Jeffrey Moriarty and Wayne Norman (2010) “Business Ethics and (or as) Political Philosophy,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 20(3):427–452.10.5840/beq201020329Search in Google Scholar
Held, Virginia (2006) The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/0195180992.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Hsieh, Nien-Hê (2005) “Rawlsian Justice and Workplace Republicanism,” Social Theory and Practice: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal of Social Philosophy, 31(1): 115–142.10.5840/soctheorpract20053116Search in Google Scholar
Hsieh, Nien-Hê (2008) “Justice in Production,” Journal of Political Philosophy, 16(1):72–100.10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00290.xSearch in Google Scholar
Hsieh, Nien-Hê (2009) “Justice at Work: Arguing for Property-owning Democracy,” Journal of Social Philosophy, 40(3):397–411.10.1111/j.1467-9833.2009.01459.xSearch in Google Scholar
James, Aaron (2005) “Constructing Justice for Existing Practice: Rawls and the Status Quo,” Philosophy & Public Affairs, 33(3):281–316.10.1111/j.1088-4963.2005.00034.xSearch in Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder (1999) Love’s Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Liedtka, Jeanne M. (1996) “Feminist Morality and Competitive Reality: A Role for an Ethic of Care?” Business Ethics Quarterly, 6(2):179–200.10.2307/3857622Search in Google Scholar
Machold, Silke, Pervaiz K. Ahmed and Stuart S. Farquhar (2008) “Corporate Governance and Ethics: A Feminist Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, 81(3):665–678.10.1007/s10551-007-9539-5Search in Google Scholar
Mason, Mary Ann, Nicholas H. Wolfinger and Marc Goulden (2013) Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower. London: Rutgers University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Néron, Pierre-Yves (2010) “La moralité implicite du marché,” Les ateliers de l’éthique/The Ethics Forum, 5(1):4–22.10.7202/1044411arSearch in Google Scholar
Néron, Pierre-Yves (2013) “Toward a Political Theory of the Business Firm? A Comment on ‘Political CSR’,” Business Ethics Journal Review, 1(3):14–21.10.12747/bejr2013.01.03Search in Google Scholar
Néron, Pierre-Yves (2014) “Egalitarianism and Executive Compensation: A Relational Argument,” Journal of Business Ethics, 132(1):171–184.10.1007/s10551-014-2312-7Search in Google Scholar
Néron, Pierre-Yves (2015) “Rethinking the Very Idea of Egalitarian Markets and Corporations: Why Relationships Might Matter More than Distribution,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 25(1):93–124.10.1017/beq.2015.7Search in Google Scholar
Néron, Pierre-Yves (2016) “Social Equality and Economic Institutions: Arguing for Workplace Democracy.” In: (George Hull, ed. (under the dir. of)) The Equal Society. New York: Lexington Books, pp. 311–332.Search in Google Scholar
Noddings, Nel (1995) “Caring.” In: (Virginia Held, ed. (under the dir. of)) Justice and Care. Essential Readings in Feminist Ethics. Boulder: Westview Press, pp. 7–30.10.4324/9780429499463-3Search in Google Scholar
Noddings, Nel (2003 [1984]) Caring. A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Feminine Education. Berkeley: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller (1989) Justice, Gender and the Family. New York: Basic Books.Search in Google Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller (1994) “Political Liberalism, Justice, and Gender,” Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy, 105(1):23–43.10.1086/293677Search in Google Scholar
Olsen, Frances E. (1983) “The Family and the Market: A Study of Ideology and Legal Reform,” Harvard Law Review, 96(7):1497–1578.10.2307/1340916Search in Google Scholar
Olsen, Frances E. (1984–1985) “The Myth of State Intervention in the Family,” University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 18(4):835–864.Search in Google Scholar
O’Neill, Martin (2008) “What Should Egalitarians Believe?” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 36(2):119–156.10.1111/j.1088-4963.2008.00130.xSearch in Google Scholar
Ortiz, Daniel R. (1997) “Phallocorporatism.” In: (Andrea Larson and R. Edward Freeman, eds. (under the dir. of)) Women’s Studies and Business Ethics. Toward a New Conversation. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 127–135.10.5840/ruffinoup199711Search in Google Scholar
Plot, Frédérique (2005) “Éthique de la vertu et éthique du care: quelles connexions?” In: (Sandra Laugier and Patricia Paperman, eds. (under the dir. of)) Le souci des autres. Éthique et politique du care. Paris: Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, pp. 227–247.Search in Google Scholar
Radcliffe-Richards, Janet (1980) The Sceptical Feminist: A Philosophical Enquiry. London: Routledge and Paul Kegan.Search in Google Scholar
Rakowski, Eric (1991) Equal Justice. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674042605Search in Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1977) “The Basic Structure as Subject,” American Philosophical Quarterly, 14:159–165.10.1007/978-94-015-7634-5_4Search in Google Scholar
Rawls, John (2001) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Cambridge: Belknap Press.10.2307/j.ctv31xf5v0Search in Google Scholar
Robeyns, Ingrid (2007) “When Will Society be Gender Just.” In: (Jude Browne, ed. (under the dir. of)), The Future of Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 54–74.10.1017/CBO9780511619205.004Search in Google Scholar
Robinson, Fiona (2006) “Care, Gender and Global Social Justice: Rethinking ‘Ethical Globalization’” Journal of Global Ethics, 2(1):5–25.10.1080/17449620600677213Search in Google Scholar
Rosanvallon, Pierre (2011) La société des égaux. Paris: Points.Search in Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara (1989) Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace. Boston: Beacon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Sander-Staudt, Maureen (2006) “The Unhappy Marriage of Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 21(4):21–39.10.1111/j.1527-2001.2006.tb01126.xSearch in Google Scholar
Sander-Staudt, Maureen (2011) “Care as a Corporate Virtue.” In: (Maurice Hamington and Maureen Sander-Staudt, eds. (sous la dir. de)) Applying Care Ethics to Business. New York: Springer, pp. 259–277.10.1007/978-90-481-9307-3_14Search in Google Scholar
Scheffler, Samuel (2003) “What Is Egalitarianism?” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 31(1):5–39.10.1111/j.1088-4963.2003.00005.xSearch in Google Scholar
Sidanius, Jim and Felicia Pratto (2001) Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Slote, Michael (2007) The Ethics of Care and Empathy. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203945735Search in Google Scholar
The Family Friendly Business Initiative (2016) Family Friendly Business, (http://www.familyfriendlybusinessinitiative.com).Search in Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan (1993) Moral Boudaries. A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan (2012) “Partiality Based on Relational Responsibilities: Another Approach to Global Ethics,” Ethics and Social Welfare, 6(3):303–316.10.1080/17496535.2012.704058Search in Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan (2013) Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice. New York: New York University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Valian, Virginia (1998) Why so Slow? The Advancement of Women. Cambridge: The MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/7235.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Wicks, Andrew C., Daniel R. Gilbert and R. Edward Freeman (1994) “A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Stakeholder Concept,” Business Ethics Quarterly, 4(4):475–497.10.2307/3857345Search in Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard and Kate Pickett (2010) The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London: Penguin Books.Search in Google Scholar
Williams, Joan C. (2000) Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do about It. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Wolff, Jonathan (1998) “Fairness, Respect, and the Egalitarian Ethos,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 27(2):97–122.10.1111/j.1088-4963.1998.tb00063.xSearch in Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion (2006) “Taking the Basic Structure Seriously,” Perspectives on Politics, 4(1):91–97.10.1017/S1537592706060099Search in Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion (2011) Responsibility for Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392388.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
