Question

You are the director of a radiology department. During a routine individual meeting with one of your male staff, the employee tells you that a female employee has been making suggestive remarks to him, and occasionally grabbed and fondled him in a sexual manner. He said he asked her several times to stop this behavior as he was married and did not appreciate the behavior, particularly in a work setting. The behavior continued anyway. The male employee asks you not to report this further because he did not want to get the female employee in trouble and he brought it up only for ideas how to make her stop it.

What are your ethical obligations?

What ethical theories apply to your situation, and why?

Does the work of Carol Gilligan change how we should respond in this scenario? Why or why not?

Answer 1

The ethical obligations in this case is that we should report the incident to the management or the committee as this is a serious offence and in order to stop sexual harassment in the office, it is necessary that such incidents are reported, regardless of the gender, age or position of the employee.

The ethical theories theories that come to play here are utilitarianism which means thinking of both the involved party and finding the middle ground where none are affected. and Kant’s theory which states that it is the obligation of an individual to fulfil their duty because it is the right thing to do so.

Yes, the work of Carol Gilligan does change the way we approach the situation, this is due to the fact that her study describes that men and women think of ethical dilemma differently. While men think about ethical obligations in a more formal and abstract sense, women think of ethics as a more narrative and contextual sense. This is relevant in understanding why the situation had occurred, what was perceived as ethical by the person and how their state of mind results in the problem in the first place.

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