Gender and motives for accountancy

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether some motives for the choice of an accounting career, disproportionately stronger among women than among men, explain disproportionately more women (60 percent) than men (40 percent) in the accounting profession.Design/methodology/approach– The ordered probit model is used to analyze online survey data of approximately 580 responses collected from members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.Findings– This study finds three reasons why more women (than men) enter the accounting profession: locational freedom, social status, and income stability. Women who choose accounting as a career value these three offered by accounting more than do men who choose accounting as a career. These findings represent mainly those of older CPAs (who are older than 50). The finding related to social status is reversed in the case of younger CPAs.Research limitations/implications– The paper's findings may be limited to some extent because the authors investigate only three motives for the choice of an accounting career. Also, the online survey data may not be generalized to the entire CPA population.Originality/value– The hypothesis that relates motives for the choice of an accounting career to more women in the accounting profession is carefully derived using Bayes’ theorem. This hypothesis is tested by the ordered probit method.