Accounting for images of ‘equality’ in digital space: Towards an exploration of the Greek Accounting Professional Institute

Abstract

Abstract The paper draws upon the broad framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to relate the content of the Greek Accounting Professional Institute's [‘Σώμα Oρκωτών Eλɛγκτών Λογιστών’ (SOEL)] digital space to the broader structures and the gendered accounting discourses deployed by accountants. The processes of constructing and redesigning electronic space and the selection of the images appearing on it are analysed as essential mechanisms which not only reflect ‘realities’, but also contribute to the reproduction of diachronically established power relations, gender inequalities and gendered hierarchies. This exploratory study reveals a proliferation of images of (accounting) men which reflect the dominant male structures of the profession. The outcome of this is to exclude and marginalise women. The empirical evidence presented in this study, points towards a lack of images representing professional accounting women. Where women are represented, they are depicted in listening roles, support roles or in the role of ‘other’. These findings illustrate the exercise of gendered based exclusionary practices, which facilitate male (professional) elite dominance and assist in the reinforcing of gendered stereotypes. This study argues that an increase in the representation of (accounting) women in Greek digital space would signal a positive step towards the inclusion of women in the Greek profession.