Women students and staff in accountancy: The Canterbury tales

Abstract

The growing body of literature about women’s experience of the working environment indicates that women have different experiences to men. Some of this literature narrows the focus to women in the professions, including in the accounting profession, and women as academics. There is scant literature about the experiences of women as students of accounting. This study provides experiences of women accounting academics and students as an accounting department became a much less male-dominated domain. Female students’ decisions to attend university were influenced primarily by family and friends, many of them women. Student—staff and staff—staff relationships varied depending on the personalities involved, with some gender discrimination being perceived by earlier graduates and the first women staff members. The commerce degree opened up job opportunities, particularly for women who graduated in the middle of the twentieth century. Many graduates perceived gender discrimination when they entered the business world, and female academic staff at appointment and on applying for promotion.