Are women more ethical than men? Findings from three independent studies

Re‐analyses of data from Canadian samples of management undergraduates in three independent studies of ethical dilemmas, as presented in vignettes, were conducted to test the hypothesis that women are more ethical than men. Several statistically significant gender differences were found when t‐tests for mean differences were used; however, the effect sizes were all small as measured by Cohen’s d. Three existing frameworks were used to explain these gender differences: gender socialization, underlying ethical frameworks, and situational specificity. When the Bonferroni adjustment was applied to control for Type I error rate, only three of the 76 t‐tests for gender differences across the three studies were significant. It is suggested that these findings of very few gender differences in ethical beliefs, when conservative statistical tests are used, reflect the effects of changing gender socialization and sex roles in contemporary Canadian society among other factors that de‐emphasize gender differences