Female Auditors Research Articles

Effect of Women’s Existence in Corporate Governance and Educational Background on Company Performance

This study aims to determine the influence of women in corporate governance and educational background on company performance. The data of this study include women (female commissioners, female directors, female audit committees), educational backgrounds (commissioners, directors, audit committees) to be independent variables, while the dependent variable is the performance of companies that use ROA. This study also uses control variables namely company size and leverage. This research data is in the form of secondary data obtained from the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Determination of the sample using the purpose sampling method and obtained as many as 2137 samples. The hypothesis in this study was multiple regression analysis. The results of this study include the first, female commissioners have negative value on the company's performance. Second, positive career women towards company performance. Third, the women's audit committee is experienced in the company's performance. Fourth, educational background Positive commitment to company performance. Fifth, the educational background is called negative towards company performance. Sixth, the background of the audit committee education does not affect the company's performance

Female Auditor and Audit Quality Based on Internal Audit Capability Model (IACM) in the Public Sector

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of competence, Independence and Pressure of Obedience to Audit Quality based on Internal Audit Capability Model (IACM). This research contributes the theoretical and practical benefits as the form of adoption of agency theory and attribution theory and suggestions to improve the expertise of female auditors by taking into account the competence, independence, and pressure of obedience to produce quality inspection in the field of supervision. This study uses a quantitative approach. The analysis technique used in this research is Partial Least Square (PLS) with the help of warpPLS software. The subject of this study is the Inspectorate of East Java Province with a sample of female auditors in the Inspectorate of East Java Province which amounted to 30 female auditors. The results of this study indicate that competence affects the Audit Quality based on Internal Audit Capability Model (IACM), while the independence and pressure of obedience do not effect the Audit Quality based on Internal Audit Capability Model (IACM).

Audit partner gender and the COVID-19 pandemic: the impact on audit fees and key audit matters

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on audit fees and the reporting of key audit matters (KAMs). Additionally, this study also looks into potential differences in the behavior of male and female audit partners during this period, adding to the existing research on gender's effect on different elements of the audit process. Design/methodology/approach This study used a sample of all FTSE 350 firms from before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the pandemic. It analyzed the data using Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis to test its hypotheses. Findings This paper provides early evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on audit fees and KAM disclosures in the UK. The results of this study show an increase in audit fees during the pandemic and greater detail in the reporting of KAMs, with no significant difference between male and female audit partners. These findings will be of interest to audit firms and regulators as they assess the performance of auditors during the pandemic and evaluate the expanded audit report's effectiveness in providing sufficient information to financial statement users. Originality/value This study provides first-of-its-kind empirical evidence on how auditors in the UK reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study will be of interest to audit firms, regulators, such as the Financial Reporting Council, and other stakeholders as they evaluate the performance of auditors during the crisis period. The results will help regulators assess the effectiveness of the expanded audit report in providing sufficient information during a time of heightened risk and scrutiny.

The simultaneously representation of women at the audit demand and supply sides and audit quality

PurposeEven though the gender literature has addressed the independent effects of female audit committee members and female audit partners on audit quality, this research primary analyses whether the association between the presence of a female audit partner and audit quality depends on (fe)male participation on the audit committee of the audited client-firm. It further examines whether the relationship between female participation on the company's audit committee and audit quality is contingent on having a (fe)male audit partner.Design/methodology/approachA large sample of firm-year observations from the Swedish Corporation has been analyzed for the period that covers the years 2010–2019. The research hypotheses have been analyzed using the year and the industry fixed effect estimations clustered at the firm level.FindingsIn accordance with “the similarity-attraction theory”, the research findings provide support for a positively (negatively) significant relationship between female audit committee female representation and both audit fees and the audit reporting lag (earnings management) in client-firms of female audit partners, albeit insignificant in client-firms of male audit partners. This underscores that the presence of a female audit partner leads the beneficial link between female audit committee directorship and audit quality. Regression results on whether the relationship between female audit committee directorship and audit fees is contingent on having a (fe)male audit partner indicate that female audit partners earn higher (lower) audit fees in companies with gender-diverse (all male) audit committees. This corroborates (in somewhat) the male-female disparities in compensation within the public-audit firms' leading ranks, regarded as a male-dominated workplace worldwide. In conjunction with the argument that (compared to their male rivals) female auditors face more difficulties to reach partnership positions in the public-audit firms and are, thereby, more cautious about the loss of these positions through (in almost cases) exerting more audit efforts, and preventing their audited client-firms from manipulating earnings, the authors reveal that female audit partners are associated with longer (lower) audit reporting lags (earnings management) in both companies with gender-diverse and companies with all-male audit committees. The authors therefore conjuncture that the beneficial female auditor effect on audit quality is not contingent (in somewhat) on (fe)male participation on the company's audit committee. Collectively, the baseline reported results seem sound as they dissipate for a host of alternative metrics for both the dependent and the independent variables. Collectively, the baseline reported results seem sound as they dissipate for a host of alternative metrics for both the dependent and the independent variables.Originality/valueThis study heeds the recent claim for examining the gender effect on the interpersonal interaction between the main participants in the company's auditing process.

The female audit committee members expertise and experience: is there a trade-off between accrual-based and real earnings management?

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of female AC representation (ACFEMALE) following the adoption of gender quota legislation on the trade-off between accrual-based (AEM) and real earnings management (REM), taking into consideration their demographic attributes. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 89 companies listed in the SBF 120 during the period 2012–2018 has been employed. The authors have obtained the explanatory variables using the principal component analysis method. To provide empirical evidence for the testable hypotheses, the authors have estimated a least squares regression. A differences-in-differences analysis has been estimated to analyze the impact of the gender quota law imposition. Findings The regression results indicate that companies with a higher proportion of ACFEMALE have more tendency to use REM rather than AEM. The authors further denote that the ACFEMALE expertise negatively affects AEM. Moreover, the authors find that the ACFEMALE experience helps reduce both AEM and REM. Results from the DID analysis exhibit that the ACFEMALE effect on the trade-off between REM and AEM occurs for the period that follows the implementation of the French gender quota law. Furthermore, the authors denote that the negative link between the ACFEMALE experience and AEM and REM dissipates for both the pre- and the postgender quota law adoption. Originality/value This study extends the prior existing research by examining, for the first time, the relationship between female directors’ appointments and the trade-off between accrual-based and REM. As well as, the research provides primary evidence on the channels through which female directors may affect the managerial preference regarding the earnings management techniques AEM or REM.

Does corruption rule the auditor's soul? Examining the auditors' attitude toward accepting corruption behaviors

AbstractThis study investigates individual auditors' attitudes toward various corrupt behaviors in Palestine, an underexplored context. We examine the perception and determinants of auditors toward corruption and introduce the link between gender, job position, exposure to other cultures, age, and level of education as factors affecting attitudes toward corruption perception. Our findings reveal that auditors' perception of corruption differs across corrupt behaviors. In most surveyed behaviors, age is negatively associated with acceptance of corruption, and female auditors exhibit a higher attitude toward accepting corruption across various forms. Additionally, the auditor's position and outside education significantly impact their attitude toward accepting corruption. Our work fills an existing literature gap and provides valuable information for targeted regulators and professional bodies aiming to reduce corruption.

The association between audit firm attributes and key audit matters readability

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between the attributes of audit firms (Big 4, audit fees, busy season, audit firm tenure and audit partner gender) and the impact of these attributes on key audit matters (KAM) readability in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThe auditor's reports and financial data were analysed from a sample of FTSE 100 Malaysia-listed companies for the fiscal years 2017–2019, consisting of 258 observations. Panel regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the possible associations between audit firm attributes and KAM readability. The Flesch reading ease score and Coleman–Liau index were applied to measure KAM readability.FindingsThe findings show that female audit partners significantly impact KAM readability; further analysis also revealed that companies audited by Big 4 audit firms and higher audit fees tend to report a more readable KAM disclosure in the FTSE 100 in Malaysia.Originality/valueThe regression results provide empirical evidence of the influence of audit firm attributes on KAM readability. This study also examined important corporate governance players, such as external auditors and those charged with governance, who form the audit committee's qualities when analysing the determinants of KAM reporting variations in Malaysia.

Afterlife of the Theatre of the Absurd: The Avant-Garde, Spectator-Ship and Psychoanalysis by Lara Cox (review)

Reviewed by: Afterlife of the Theatre of the Absurd: The Avant-Garde, Spectator-Ship and Psychoanalysis by Lara Cox Arka Chattopadhyay AFTERLIFE OF THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: THE AVANT-GARDE, SPECTATOR-SHIP AND PSYCHOANALYSIS. By Lara Cox. Dramaturgies Vol. 37. Brussels: Peter Lang, 2018, pp. 216. The avant-garde introduces a break in the history of established aesthetic traditions, but its interruption becomes a norm and gets subsumed within the same traditions with the passage of time. Does [End Page 110] this mean, the radical edge of the avant-garde is momentary? Can we think of its afterlife beyond temporal exhaustion? This is the central question that Lara Cox’s Afterlife of the Theatre of the Absurd addresses with European absurdist theatre as corpus and psychoanalytically inflected arguments on identity categories like gender, race, and ethnicity as methodology. The intention is to think through the lasting and renewable political impact of the absurdist avant-garde, and, to its credit, it doesn’t let go of the specificity of theatre as practice. Cox blends psychoanalytic theory with questions of spectatorship that lie at the core of the conceptualization of theatre as performance. Cox chooses to begin from a historical vantage with what is usually considered the first absurdist play: Eugene Ionesco’s The Bold Soprano (1950). Her reading revolves around a perverse idea of spectatorship that tilts the work from tragedy to farce, converting anxiety into pleasure through the pervert’s fetishistic logic of ‘disavowal.’ In Cox’s readings, here and elsewhere throughout the monograph, the existentialist universal of the human condition gets challenged by particulars like queer sexuality in this case. She shows how Ionesco parodies masculine and feminine stereotypes and critiques the heterosexual institution of marriage. Taking into account the production history of the play (including queer stagings and amateur high-school performances) enhances the point of evolving parody in performance. From gender, we come to nation and ethnicity in the chapter on Arthur Adamov’s critically neglected play Off Limits (1969) that engages with the politics of the Vietnam War. Cox argues that the play critiques the American military intervention by introducing a psychotic spectatorship (unlike perverse spectatorship, as studied in Ionesco) of anger and resistance through the logic of ‘foreclosure.’ Though the post 9/11 contextualization of the play as a satire of patriotism remains speculative for lack of current-day productions, Cox manages to offer a convincing reading of how the play can have continuing political significance in the 21st century. The third chapter undertakes an analysis of Samuel Beckett’s 1972 play Not I as a disruption of gender exceptionalism with a focus on race, while it continues with the thread on psychosis. In this context, gender exceptionalism refers to a discourse that women in the non-Islamic West are more liberated than the Muslim women in the non-Western countries. The reading anchors itself on the implied racial and religious alterity of the djellaba-clad Auditor vis-à-vis Mouth. Cox argues for a female Auditor to balance the representation and suggests that the play trashes gender exceptionalism as it evacuates the ideology in the Real via the extreme tempo that turns Mouth’s speech into blah-blah for the audience. There is a psychotic repudiation of language that consolidates the ideology of exceptionalism. But, she complains about the absence of the Auditor in recent productions and how the white performer playing Mouth risks cultural appropriation. The critical thread on subverting gendered racism becomes more radical in the interpretation of Jean Genet’s The Blacks (1958), read against the backdrop of the Algerian war of independence and French de-colonization. The spectatorial mode here is that of “supplementary enjoyment” halfway between pain and pleasure as the audience watches a theatrical portrayal of “black community’s emancipation from white hegemony” (Cox 123) and a deconstruction of white female victimhood. There is both fear and enthrallment in watching the play, as she shows by attending to the 2014 performance in Paris that evoked a strange bafflement. The idea of incomprehension plays into the supplementary enjoyment that doesn’t signify anything. The argumentative slant is towards the a-signifying Real. The high point of the chapter...

Credit rating agency response to appointment of female audit partners: Evidence from the UK

We study the impact of appointing women as audit partners from a credit rating agency perspective. We investigate whether credit rating agencies value the appointment of women to audit partner positions differently than when men are appointed. This study uses a United Kingdom (UK) balanced panel data of 2472 firm-year observations of public quoted companies from 2009 to 2016 and analyzes how credit rating agencies respond to such appointments. We find a more positive credit score reaction after appointment of a female audit partner than that following the appointment of a male audit partner. This finding suggests that, from a credit rating agency perspective, there seems to be a business case for a particular gender when it comes to appointing audit partners.

Does Quality of Audit Committee Enhance Audit Quality?

Purpose: This study investigates whether quality of audit committee affects audit quality of Korean listed firms using panel data during the period 2008 to 2018.
 
 Theoretical framework: Recent studies show that characteristics of audit committees such as size, activity, and expertise have a significant impact on the monitoring of the financial reporting process (He and Yang, 2014; Asiriuwa et al. 2018). Therefore, it is necessary to carry out systematic empirical studies to understand the effectiveness of the audit committee from various perspectives.
 
 Design/methodology/approach: The quality of audit committee is classified into four categories: 1) activity, 2) independence, 3) expertise, and 4) the presence of female audit committee member. Audit quality is measured by auditor size and accruals quality.
 
 Findings: This study finds that activity and expertise of audit committee enhance audit quality whereas independence of audit committee does not affect audit quality. The female audit committee member partially enhances audit quality.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: This study suggests that the high quality of the audit committee enhances the audit quality and increases the accounting transparency of the firm.
 
 Originality/value: The empirical results of this study suggest that firm should concentrate the optimal composition of the audit committee, not simply the establishment of the audit committee.

THE IMPACT OF AUDITOR CHARACTERISTICS ON PROFESSIONAL SKEPTICISM: THE CASE OF LEBANON

When deciding to purchase an entity's stock or debt instruments, economic factors must have access to reliable information. Without reliable and up-to-date financial information, provided by the firm in the form of financial statements, these choices are unlikely to be successful. It is the responsibility of the auditor, as an independent party to the financial statements, to detect fraud on the financial statements; auditors are tasked with ensuring that the financial statements are true, fair, presented honestly in accordance with the actual situation of the company, and free from material misstatements caused by fraud or error in order to obtain reliable financial statements. The research implemented a quantitative methodology for data collection. The survey was based on the variables of this research and distributed using Google forms for data collection. The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical tool to test hypotheses. The research covered the workforce engaged in accounting and auditing practices in Lebanese accounting firms. The population of the research includes around 1,000 employees. When setting the research constraints, which include a 95% confidence interval, a 5 % margin of error, and a 50% population proportion, after making the desired calculations the approximate number of respondents that should be addressed through the means of a survey is 201 respondents.
 These research findings suggest that male and female auditors share a high degree of ethical awareness, suggesting that auditors of all sexes should be cautious in their approach to every audit. Researchers found that female auditors were less likely than their male peers to do a compulsory joint audit that included an examination of partner and earnings management. Auditors tend to have an inflated sense of their own talents, and it's often held that female engagement partners are less certain than their male counterparts. Female auditors may be more skeptical in their work lives than their male counterparts because of their tendency toward overconfidence and risk-taking

The Role of Gender Diversity in Corporate Governance for Quality Assurance of Financial Reports with Audit Fees as Moderating Variables

This study used audit fees as a moderating variable to examine how gender diversity on the board of directors, board of commissioners, and audit committee affects the quality of financial statements. In this study, financial statements for a sample of LQ 45 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2021 were employed to collect the data, which were then analyzed using Eviews 9. Gender diversity of the board of commissioners, board of directors, committee board audit, employed the percentage of the number of the board of directors, board of commissioners, female audit committee compared to the total number, audit fee to logarithmic audit fee, and quality of financial statements to proxy for Discretionary Accrual modified by Jones model. The findings demonstrate that gender and women play a key role in the Corporate Governance process, particularly on the board of directors, board of commissioners, and audit committee. The role of women in supervision, such as the board of commissioners and audit committee, was able to enhance the quality of the company's financial statements, despite the inability of the board of directors' to increase the quality of financial statements when examined. The role of women in supervision, such as the board of commissioners and audit committee, was able to improve the quality of the company's financial statements, despite the board of directors' ability to increase the quality of financial statements in their function not being examined. The role of audit fees also appeared to be pivotal in overseeing the quality of the presentation of the financial statements of the company. Service fees are procured for carrying out financial statement audit services and detecting the possibility of fraud committed by the board of directors. If the audit fee is compensated highly, it tends to be more professional, therefore minimizing Discretional Accrual and strengthening the supervision carried out by the board of commissioners and female audit committee. Similarly, it can enhance the quality of financial reports. The findings of this study will: (1) give investors, professionals, and stakeholders’ information about the factors that affect gender diversity; (2) give capital market authorities guidelines for taking into account gender diversity on corporate boards of directors, commissions, and audit committees while taking into account the effect on the quality of financial reports; and (3) help accountants in developing countries like Indonesia develop more suitable accounting guidelines. This study contributes to the gender diversity literature. Additionally, this study adds to and broadens the literature by presenting empirical data from a single emerging market, such as Indonesia, on the impact of audit fees and gender diversity between gender diversity and financial reporting quality, as this relationship has not previously been studied.

Female Audit Partners, COVID-19 Crisis, and Cost of Bank Debt

Female Audit Partners, COVID-19 Crisis, and Cost of Bank Debt

Homophily versus monitoring: Do all female board directors drive the gender assignment of audit partners?

By examining the extent to which the proportion of female board directors affects the gender assignment of engagement partners, this paper contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, we investigate the French mandatory joint audit setting, giving rise to a set of concerns with regard to the auditor pair composition. Second, we consider female directors according to their positions on the board in order to determine which of the homophily and monitoring arguments plays the greater part in the auditor selection process. Third, we address the moderating effect of the gender quota law on the link between female directorship and the choice of audit engagement partners. Using appropriate estimation methods, we find that female board members appointed to key monitoring positions (female independent directors and female audit committee members) choose gender-diverse engagement partners. However, counter to the gender similarity (homophily) argument, we find that female inside directors are negatively associated with the selection of gender-diverse engagement partners. The association between gender-diverse boards and gender-diverse audit partners is found to be more pronounced in the period following the enactment of the gender quota law, thereby providing some practical and policy implications with regard to capitalising on the benefits of gender diversity. Supplementary analyses support the preponderance of the monitoring argument over the homophily argument in the auditor selection process.

Do Environmental Performance, Feminism in Commissioner, Female Audit Committee, and Corporate Visibility Affect Corporate Environmental Disclosure?

The company should not separate developing business activities from society's external environment. Instead, the companies should protect the external environment, so many companies need to improve the sustainability of their companies to be better through corporate environmental disclosure. This study aims to examine and analyze the effect of environmental performance, feminism in commissioners, female audit committees, and corporate visibility towards corporate environmental disclosure, controlled by profitability and liquidity. One hundred samples were obtained from the mining companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2019 and analyzed using the multiple linear regression method. This study proved that female audit committee could positively influence corporate environmental disclosure. On the other hand, this study found that environmental performance, feminism in commissioners, and corporate visibility couldn't affect corporate environmental disclosure. This result of study can be used by the company's management to help companies provide more thorough supervision of decisions made by management related to social responsibility activities carried out by the female audit committee and monitor the quality of environmental disclosure more effectively. For investors, the results of this study are expected to provide information to investors about the importance of female audit committee members' existence in supporting the community's welfare.

Pengaruh Karakteristik Komite Audit terhadap Manajemen Laba

Earnings Management is a management action to maximize or minimize the accrual value in earnings. The population of this study is 774 companies listed on the IDX. The number of years for this study is 5 years so the total number of studies is 1,810 data. The number of observed data after eliminating outliers is 1,795 data. The independent variables were the age of the audit committee chairman, female audit committee chairman, expertise of the audit committee chairman, the chairman of the audit committee who held concurrent positions in other companies, board independence, number of board meetings, audit committee independence, number of audit committee meetings, ownership concentration had no significant effect on earnings management so that it can be concluded that the independent variable hypothesis is not proven. The variable size of the audit committee has a significant positive effect on earnings management, and the size of the board of commissioners has a significant negative effect on earnings management.

Capital Structure Policy in Property, Real Estate and Building Construction Sector Companies: Do Women Play a Role?

The existence of women in the top management of companies is an issue in corporate governance. This study examines the influence of female directors, female commissioners, and female audit committees on capital structure (DER). This research is a type of quantitative research. The population in this study are property companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and issuing annual reports for 2020. There are 73 research samples. The results of this study explain that female directors and female commissioners have a negative and insignificant effect on capital structure (DER). Meanwhile, the audit committee has a positive and insignificant effect on capital structure (DER). Due to the limitations of testing variables, company and year in this study, it is suggested that further researchers conduct tests with more varied variables, using more than one company and year so that the results obtained are more descriptive and accurate.

Does voluntary non-financial reporting matter for the evaluation of audit risk after a crisis period? Perceptions from Italian auditors

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of voluntary non-financial reporting on the evaluation of audit risk from the auditors’ viewpoint in a post-crisis period. Furthermore, this paper analyses whether auditors perceive that voluntary non-financial reporting impacts audit risk differently for old clients as compared with new clients. Design/methodology/approach This study is conducted on a sample of Italian audit firms through a paper-based questionnaire. Both Big4 and non-Big4 audit firms have been included in the sample. Findings Results show that integrated reporting is perceived to be the most relevant reporting method and intellectual capital statement the least relevant. Surprisingly, empirical findings over the sample period show that auditors do not perceive statistically significant differences between old and new clients. Practical implications Auditors can identify opportunities to adapt their assessment model to include voluntary non-financial report information. Moreover, they can use different assessment models regarding the research variables in the case of new and old clients. Originality/value Empirical findings highlight the growing role of voluntary non-financial reporting in the auditors’ perception of their client’s audit risk. All the observed voluntary non-financial reporting forms, except for intellectual capital, are considered as relevant by auditors in the evaluation of their client’s audit risk when compared to an indifference point. In addition, findings reveal that female auditors perceive a reduced gap in the relevance between integrated reports and intellectual capital reports compared to their counterparts.

Pengaruh dewan direksi wanita pada pelaporan tanggung jawab sosial perusahaan 2017 -2021

Corporate social responsibility is an effort made by the company in carrying out its responsibilities to stakeholders such as employees, the community, shareholders, consumers, and the surrounding environment. The percentage of women on the board of directors is also related to the results of corporate social responsibility and the strength of the analysis. This study aims to examine the effect of the female board of directors on corporate social responsibility reporting. This study uses quantitative methods and analysis with panel data regression. The population in this study were companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from the period 2017 to 2021. The sample selection technique used purposive sampling and obtained 304 companies, so the total sample obtained for 5 years was 1463 research samples. The results of this study prove the influence of female board of directors on corporate social responsibility. Overall, it shows that the number of female directors has a positive effect on social responsibility, the percentage of female directors hurts corporate social responsibility, the female dummy has no effect on social responsibility, and the female audit committee ratio has no effect on social responsibility and the female expert director ratio does not. affects corporate social responsibility and has a Prob value (F-statistic) showing a value of 0.000000 from <0.05 and the value of Adjusted R-squared shows a value of 0.549845 or 54.98%.

Female superiority in accruals quality: some evidence from the Scandinavian region

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, this study examines the relationship between the presence of a female (rather than a male) audit partner and the client firm’s accruals quality. Second, this study explores whether and how the female audit partners’ specific attributes influence the gendered auditor effect on the quality of the client firm’s accruals quality (if it exists). Design/methodology/approach Research hypotheses have been tested by conducting both univariate and multivariate empirical analyses based on a large sample of firm-year observations from the Swedish Corporation for the years 2010–2019. During the sample timeframe, the client firms have been audited by 56 female and 231 male audit partners. Findings The research findings first indicate that client firms of female audit partners are associated with downward earnings management, indicating a beneficial female auditor effect on client firm’s accruals quality. Results from the audit partner change analysis exhibit that the adverse female auditor effect on the client firm’s earnings management, and hence, the beneficial female auditor effect on the client firm’s accruals quality occurs from the first year of the assignment of a female audit partner to replace a male audit partner. When looking at how specific attributes of female audit partners influence accruals quality of their audited clients, this study reveals that the favorable female auditor effect on the client firm’s accruals quality holds constant for all the female audit partners’ specific attributes included in the researched models. This underscores that the mere presence of a female audit partner constrains earnings management and enhances, thereby, the client firm’s accruals quality. Originality/value This research supports regulators calling for the appointment of more women to the audit firms’ leading ranks (e.g. leadership).