The contemporary gender agenda of the US public accounting profession: embracing feminism or maintaining empire?

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we analyze the social relations operating within the contemporary gender agenda of the United States (US) public accounting profession, with the ultimate goal of revealing the role that that agenda plays in the expansion of empire. Competing narratives of globalization are used to support our characterization of the US as a contemporary empire, and to develop the role played by the US profession in that imperial project. A feminist account of the ideology of domesticity serves as a framework to critique the contemporary gender agenda of the US profession, and feminist critiques of globalization and development are used to interpret the gendered nature of the economic agenda that is currently being exported by the US profession and its multinational clients. The analysis leads to conclusions about the involvement of the US profession in facilitating empire and about complexities embedded in the roles held by women in the US public accounting profession.