Flexible Ethics

In one of my classes, we had a long discussion on ethics and flexible principles. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it, so I wanted to kind of air my thoughts online and ask for input.

The example used was a job posting. In addition to the usual job responsibilities, the description listed additional requirements: male, age 30-35, send photo. Our instructor then asked us if the listing was OK. I immediately said no. That should be a given.

Our instructor then explained that listings like the example on the board were commonplace in Hong Kong and that requiring such things was perfectly legal. Legal or not, I argued that it was unethical. The instructor then wrote another description on the board: college degree, 10-13 years of experience, must be available for interview. He argued that it required mostly the same thing, that the candidate be roughly 30-35 (college graduates are typically 21-22 years old) and that gender and appearance would be easily determined in an in-person interview.

This is the usually practice in the US, where we pride ourselves on our "superior" sense of ethics. Our instructor explained that, while we may think we have certain ethical standards, we need to be flexible in different situations (i.e. hiring in Hong Kong).

I'm not so sure that merely being in a different place justifies different ethical standards. I try not to argue for cultural universalism, but I'm having trouble differentiating my support of unchangeable ethical principles from any sort of universalist stance. I recognize that you have to change your behaviors in different circumstances to fit local practices, but how far does this extend?

In certain places it is perfectly legal to treat women as inferior, to force children to work in factories, or to bribe public officials. I consider all of these activities unethical (some immoral), but if it's locally acceptable does it mean I should do them anyway? I know I'm using some extreme examples, but if you bend your ethics once, what's to stop you from bending them again to suit your needs at a particular time?

Now that everyone knows the dilemma in my head, would someone care to weigh in on it?