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The literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) seems to be focused on the strategic benefits of CSR, which is still an emerging trend. Articles on female leadership highlight that this instrumentalist vision of CSR can be attributed to the triumph of masculine culture in SMEs. We therefore examine a sample of thirteen female directors of high-growth SMEs (ranked in the Women Equity for Growth Index)2 with effective managerial processes to determine whether they see and enact CSR as a strategic panacea. In order to capture the respondents’ motivations, our study looks at their practices and their discourse. We find that they are cautious about formalizing and instrumentalizing their CSR practice. Their deployment of CSR is nurtured by an ethical discourse that is equally instrumental and normative, with their employees as their priority stakeholders. As they are convinced that CSR offers a powerful prospective launch pad, respondents are very skilled in their ability to preserve CSR’s “revelatory power” in their companies. Through their expressions of self-doubt and resistance, they reveal distinct points of view that are informed by strong reflection. Their hybrid ethical discourse is not the result of a compromise. Instead, it informs a very active sense-making process.