Gender inequality and the professionalisation of accountancy in the UK from 1870 to the interwar years

Abstract

Drawing on historical data largely relating to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), this article examines the early professionalisation of accountancy as a gendered process. Mobilising Acker’s (1990) theory of the ideal worker, this article highlights articulations of an ideal professional accountant, coded as male and masculine in the gendering of professional skills and knowledge, image management, networking and social class. Additionally, social changes such as WW1 reshaped the masculine nature of the ideal professional accountant in PwC, emphasising a militaristic masculinity, to support the war effort. While women were temporarily employed in accountancy clerical jobs in wartime, this does not appear to have re-gendered PwC as an organisation inclusive of femininity and women. However, it is noted that some middle-class women challenged exclusionary professional practices within accountancy. The implications of the gendered aspects of the professionalisation of accountancy are discussed throughout the article.

Keywords:

• Gender
• gender inequality
• men
• women
• masculinity
• professions
• professionalisation
• accountancy
• interwar period

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claire Evans

Claire Evans is Senior Lecturer in Accounting at the Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales. Working as an auditor, she qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (eventually part of PwC) before moving into industry and working in a variety of financial and commercial roles. Claire’s research interests include gender inequalities in accounting firms. She has undertaken a research project for Oxfam Cymru, titled ‘In-work poverty and the search for decent work for women in Wales’, and participated in a National Assembly for Wales Cross Party Group on Poverty.

Nick Rumens

Nick Rumens is Professor in Business and Management at Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, UK. His principal research interests include sexualities and organisations, in particular the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) sexualities (and genders). Additionally, Nick is interested in queer theory in organisation studies and cognate areas such as accounting and construction management. He has published widely on both topics in journals such as Organisation Studies, Human Relations, British Journal of Management and Critical Perspectives on Accounting, and in books, the most recent of which is a single-authored text titled Queer Business: Queering Organisation Sexualities (2018, Routledge).