Despite what you may have taken away from the TV show Mad Men, men and women are equally committed to following the ethical code of the workplace. However, women more frequently find themselves at risk when it comes to the ethics of ethical business behavior. 

A study from the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, a nonprofit that supports workplace ethics, reports that "in terms of ethics and compliance, female workers are at much greater risk than their male counterparts. That enhanced risk applies to female leaders as well as lower-level female employees." 

The study cites three major risk areas for women leaders:  

• Women in senior leadership positions are more likely than men at the same level to feel pressure to compromise company ethics standards and/or the law; 

• Women are more likely to experience retaliation for reporting misconduct; 

• Women are more likely to doubt their leaders' commitment to workplace integrity.  

The survey team interviewed employees about their beliefs regarding their leaders' commitment to workplace ethics.  

"Based on personal interactions with their bosses, employees said that male and female leaders generally shared the same priorities: (a) maintaining integrity in the company, (b) meeting business goals even at the expense of ethics standards and (c) treating all employees fairly and with dignity. While the willingness to sacrifice ethics in order to meet business goals is alarming, the tendency was shared by leaders of both genders." 

When it came to the trust factor, employee responses to questions about male versus female leader ethics revealed another gender gap. 

"The survey found that women are much more likely than men to give their leaders low ratings on key attributes of ethical leadership. For example, 67 percent of male employees said their senior leaders could be trusted, but just 57 percent of women shared that confidence," ECI said. "Women also feel less positive about their companies. Approximately two-thirds of men said employees could question management without fear, but just 56 percent of women agreed. There was a similar 10 percentage point gap (72 percent to 62 percent) between the genders when asked if they would recommend their company as a place to work." 

Yet another gender gap emerged when employees were asked to evaluate male and female bosses based upon their primary corporate mission. 
 
"Employees said female leaders were more likely to use the company for creating positive change in the outside world. Male leaders, on the other hand, were seen as caring more about beating competitors." 

ECI said it's up to those at the helm to correct this gender inequity at the top. 

"We are convinced that strong ethical leadership can change these disparities between men and women's experiences in the workplace. Our prior research has shown that workplace misconduct declines when leaders are effective in communicating values, and that ethics violations and ethics risk fall in companies whose leaders focus on equality."