Law and Ethics: a Necessary Complementarity to Increase Women’s Presence in Business Managerial Positions

Abstract

Development of women’s leadership in the economic sphere involves the necessary inclusion of women in senior management positions. In line with this, we can argue that the better gender equality is implemented in companies, the more likely women will be allowed to occupy these positions. Therefore, we highlight two principal ways of achieving egalitarian companies that provide equal work opportunities for both women and men: law and ethics. The present paper is structured in three parts. Firstly, we approach concepts of law, ethics and morality by identifying their main features and differences. Secondly, we discuss the most important actions that the European Union and the Spanish State are undertaking to promote women’s presence in senior management positions. Thirdly, we focus on dialogue-based business ethics because it provides the basis for the equal promotion of women and men in companies. It also recognises companies as permeable organisations, which are responsible for dealing with social problems. Consequently, our main task is to reflect on the relationship between law and ethics to build more egalitarian companies. We argue that the law and its external penalties need to be complemented by an institution’s business ethics, initiated from within an institution to form positive behaviour that is part of companies’ ethos. Hence, the methodology we use is based on a gender perspective approach in the company from a philosophical viewpoint, and we focus on dialogue-based business ethics from the Discourse Ethics of Jürgen Habermas and Karl Otto Apel.