Finding Our Voices – Exploring Diversity, Inclusion and Accounting by the Marginalised and Managed Diverse

ABSTRACT

This editorial examines diversity from the perspective of the marginalised diverse. Space is created here for diverse voices, encouraging submissions from emerging economies and from those who have otherwise felt the marginalisation of dominating norms. [Tanima, F., and S. George. 2024. When the personal is political: Sharing our lived experiences as women of colour in academia. Social Environmental and Accountability Journal 44, no. 2] draw from early personal journals to provide relatable reflections, through a rich narrative of career experiences, both as accounting academics and as women of colour. [Lima, J.P., C. Miranda, and S. Casa Nova. 2024. Is there no sin down south of the equator? Brazilian auditors’ perception of the gendered and racialized dynamics in audit firms. Social Environmental and Accountability Journal 44, no. 2] then discuss the oppressive, gendered and racialised dynamics found within the Brazilian context. [Pereira, D., M.J. d’Angelo, and B. Cola. 2024. Queer performance of gay and cis men accountants from the perspective of tokenism. Social Environmental and Accountability Journal 44, no. 2] mobilise queer insights and notions of symbolic tokenism, to analyse interview-based experiences of cisgendered gay men working in the accounting profession in Brazil, providing insights on how impeding social structures can persist, despite increasing legal protections. [Anderson-Gough, F., C. Edgley, K. Robson, and N. Sharma. 2024. Cultural circularities that limit diversity: Emancipating voices. Social Environmental and Accountability Journal 44, no. 2] complete the special issue, with a thoughtful and personal conceptualisation of a range of ‘loop’ types which limit the effectiveness of organisational attention to equity, diversity and inclusion. This special issue points to the nuanced challenges faced, whether social, cultural or legal, from one geographic context to another. We end by calling for further exploration of lived experiences and diverse voices by the marginalised and managed diverse.

This special issue of the Social and Environmental Accountability Journal has sought to create space for diverse voices, encouraging submissions from emerging economies, and from those who have otherwise felt the marginalisation of dominating ethnic, cisgender and hetero-patriarchal norms.

Building on the work of Egan (2021), who highlighted the many research opportunities presented through recent organisational claims to a stronger focus on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), the special issue sets out to interrogate the substance behind such claims. With a focus on hearing from a diversity of ‘marginalised and managed’ voices, the special issue investigates how EDI initiatives respond to the needs of marginalised staff. We consider whose voices are represented, and what these insights mean for the accounting profession.

As noted in our call for papers, EDI research within the accounting profession has considered the marginalising impact of client ‘privilege’ (Anderson-Gough, Grey and Robson 2000, 1172) and explored initiatives targeted to address high attrition levels of the managed diverse (Haynes 2017; Kornberger, Carter and Ross-Smith 2010). Much of this research has concentrated on issues relating to women, from the Global North (Ghio, Occhipinti and Verona 2023; Haynes 2017; Kornberger, Carter and Ross-Smith 2010), with little attention to developments within the accounting profession focused on gender diversity (particularly, transgender and intersex staff), ethnicity, sexuality, ability or age. The intersectional approaches to EDI research explored in this issue, go beyond race and culture, to include other compounding human characteristics of marginalisation, including religion, gender, sexuality and age. The special issue considers how combinations of intersectional issues contribute to a further compounding of marginalisation in accounting. In this manner, we seek to expand the increasingly siloed nature of much of the extant research in this field (Hammond 2018).

It was, therefore, a goal of this special issue, to create space for diverse SEA scholars to both share their personal experiences of marginalisation and disempowerment and to present insights from their empirical research projects, which offer insights into the experiences of other marginalised voices with whom they personally identify. Too many EDI studies in this field have been undertaken by the privileged, writing on behalf of diverse others. We are, therefore, excited to present a selection of papers to the SEA community where academics, from a diversity of ethnic, national, gendered and sexual backgrounds, can speak for themselves, and present insights into the experiences of others with whom they connect and empathise. The papers assembled here, offer insights into both personal experiences of pain and discrimination, as well as perspectives on the challenges and opportunities faced by others who experience marginalisation and disempowerment through accounting or within the accounting profession.

We start here with Tanima and George (2024), who contribute a thoughtful and heartfelt personal reflection from Australasia. In their paper, ‘When the Personal is Political: Sharing our Lived Experiences as Women of colour in Academia’, Tanima and George (2024) offer a number of relatable reflections, through a rich narrative about their career experiences, presented through a personal intersectional lens as female accounting academics from Bangladesh and Iraq. Sadly, the authors share a number of disturbing experiences of both racism and sexism, all of which point to the violence of the heterosexual matrix (Butler 1990), in which we all find ourselves ensnared. While (we hope) many of our readers do not share similar personal experiences, the honesty and vulnerability of the authors offer much for all of us to consider and actively find ways to address.

Tanima and George (2024) frame their narrative, by arguing that they came to their accounting majors as naïve young undergraduates, assuming then that accounting was simply a technical and dispassionate endeavour, which might cocoon them from dominating gendered and cultural norms and prejudices. Tanima and George (2024) soon learnt through experience, however, of the multiple and sometimes insidious impacts, both of accounting and of the professional pathways that gravitate around it. Many readers would also have undertaken accounting majors within their undergraduate programmes, and so it is interesting to speculate on how many of us might also have been originally attracted to these career choices for similar reasons. Perhaps more importantly, how many of us might continue to be closely or exclusively aligned to those simple technical perspectives! We enjoyed, in particular, the actual quotes offered by Tanima and George (2024) from early personal journals they have retained. To us, these demonstrate the genuine attention the authors have maintained from the outset of their undergraduate degrees to questioning what they were doing and why. Genuinely thoughtful academics from whose reflections we can all benefit!

In their paper, ‘Is there no sin down South of the Equator? Brazilian Auditors’ Perception of the Gendered and Racialized Dynamics in Audit firms’, Lima, Miranda and Casa Nova (2024) provide an insightful contribution to the oppressive gendered and racialised dynamics peculiar to the Brazilian context. The authors present important insights into how Brazilian auditors’ perceive differences in career development for women and (as described) black people, and the challenges they face. This is especially notable given the lack of research into these perceptions in the Brazilian audit context, along with Brazil’s social and historical constitution, and its post-colonial context, mired in multiple on-going structural inequalities. The study is also insightful for its extension beyond an exploration within the Big Four firms, to include medium- and small-sized firms.

Lima, Miranda and Casa Nova (2024) argue that social constructions of gender and race are still very much present in the professional lives of auditors in Brazil, negatively impacting professional development and career progression. Through a web survey conducted with Brazilian audit professionals, the authors offer a diversity of contrasting perceptions relating to career and environment, from individuals of diverse sexual, gender and ethnic identities. These findings highlight the existence of differentiations, particularly for women auditors, where it was found that higher positions remained predominantly occupied by men, and that career progression was both gendered and racialised. The marginalisation of professional development and advancement for black women was profound, which was compounded by perceptions of wage gaps. Notably, these perceptions of tougher and limited career paths for women within Brazilian audit firms were commented on by both men and women. This much-needed research highlights the oppressive dynamics at play in the Brazilian context and represents a crucial step in addressing and overcoming these issues. We thank the authors for bringing these important issues to light – it is work such as this that will assist in working towards a more equitable profession for all.

Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024) contribute with their paper, ‘Queer performance of gay and cis men accountants from the perspective of tokenism’ by mobilising queer insights and notions of symbolic tokenism inspired by the speeches of Martin Luther King. The authors offer interview-based insights into the experiences of cisgendered gay men working in the accounting profession in Brazil. Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024) identify a tokenistic approach to diversity, focused on superficial actions taken to give the appearance of progress towards equity, without addressing fundamental root causes which might enable meaningful change. Sexuality in accounting is scrutinised and investigated considering the influences of sexism and cis-heteronormativies. These influences limited the logics of how these men operated and functioned within this restricted domain (including the local context). Interviewees spoke of three ways of navigating these spaces: (i) polarising of their sexual identity while interacting with heterosexual others; (ii) conforming to limited clothing and modes of expression and (iii) dissociating from themselves within the workplace. The authors also suggest these impeding social structures can persist, despite increasing legal protections. For example, some interviewees felt unable to disclose personal details including their partners and/or family members to co-workers and human resources teams. These constraints were so impactful that interviewees felt powerless to act in any way against these pervasive norms.

Another disturbing insight from Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024), was a compulsion to conform to perceptions of heteronormativity, through seeking to perform and present as ‘masculine’ bodies and to be seen as less ‘gay’. How can we conceive of happiness here, when so much work is constantly needed, focused on denying the self (Egan and Voss 2023a)? These instances suggest that gay men sense their unique social limitations, just as cis-gendered females also experience social limitations within the workplace, but in other peculiar ways. This study exemplifies again the importance of intersectional studies which in this case, demonstrate how a sense of imposing, sometimes rigid social constraints can fundamentally influence the presentation of sexuality for professional identities. Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024) help us better understand ways of seeing, thinking and feeling sexuality at work, thereby offering an important contribution to Foucauldian insights, that tell us that marginalised sexual identities come with a diversity of oppressions, imposed not only by groups and cultures but most importantly, by the self (Foucault 1990).

Taken together, the studies by Lima, Miranda and Casa Nova (2024) and Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024), highlight the persistence of structural inequalities in the accounting and audit profession in the Brazilian context. Specifically, heteronormativity, sexism and racism represent multiple, intersecting forms of oppression experienced by Brazilian accountants and auditors, which cannot simply be wiped away through legislation. Whilst Lima, Miranda and Casa Nova (2024) discuss the impacts of this oppression on auditors’ perceptions of professional development and career progression, Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024) identify the constraints of cis-heteronormativity and explore how accountants feel compelled to conform to masculine tokenistic ideals, including through physical bodily expressions. These studies conclude by raising awareness and highlighting the need to make visible oppressive dynamics and multiple forms of violence so that we might begin to progress towards overcoming discrimination and work towards a more equitable accounting and audit profession in Brazil. Furthermore, these insights lead us to ask how other intersectional complexities taken from cultural and social conditions, might impact the lived experiences of accounting professionals within other apparently progressive countries like Brazil. A rich field for further empirical exploration.

Finally, Anderson-Gough, Edgley, Robson and Sharma (2024) from the UK, complete our special issue, with thoughtful insights into the spaces for personal identity and safety, within the complex and shifting noise of organisational attention to equity, diversity and inclusion. Relating very much to the other papers presented here, Anderson-Gough, Edgley, Robson and Sharma (2024) draw on the works of Bauman to explore the paradoxes for those with so-called ‘diversity’ characteristics, within dominating heterosexual matrices. The authors consider the pressures this creates, the voices that are being represented in diversity work, and those that are marginalised. The authors add to our understanding of the challenges in this space, through their novel conceptions of ‘loops’, arguing that organisational efforts to engage with EDI, can so often be seen to loop back in on themselves, by (often inadvertently) further stymieing, repressing and marginalising the voices of the diverse. The authors suggest four key loop types that operate and intersect within the workplace. Spatial loops impact within spaces devoted to diversity, because those spaces must also necessarily remain looped to fundamental organisational belief systems. Discursive loops can be seen to adopt the language of EDI, but continue to privilege conformity to overarching firm ideals. Accounting and metric-based loops might monitor EDI progress and reinforce anxieties about difference. Finally, insidious socialisation loops reproduce and reinforce the overarching importance of ‘fitting in’ to ‘get on’. These novel and useful conceptualisations suggest a rich opportunity now, for research which seeks to make sense of empirical insights through this lens.

We conclude this editorial by observing that the insights offered in this special issue suggest a significant range of opportunities for further research. Tanima and George (2024) offer two voices from academia emphasising repeated experiences of personal marginalisation. Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024) and Lima, Miranda and Casa Nova (2024) add to these personal insights, with empirical insights into the experiences of diverse intersectionality of marginalised Brazilian auditors. In this manner, our special issue presents insights both directly from marginalised voices, and empirical insights from authors who have a personal connection and empathy for the marginalised voices that their studies explore.

Our special issue shines a light onto the opportunities for us all to learn so much more about the inequalities and oppressions of accounting (Alawattage et al. 2021), and of life within the accounting profession (Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola 2024; Lima, Miranda and Casa Nova 2024), if we can encourage the many, many others who sense marginalisation, to also offer their insights. The Social and Environmental Accountability Journal seeks to be an active forum for the dissemination of these voices, and the ensuing debate and discussion that such expressions can provoke. Enough of the male, pale and stale voices dominating the profession (Egan and Voss 2023b)! Enough of their corporate pinkwashing. It is time to actively find our diverse voices, both through our personal experiences and through empirical insights of personal importance to us, to collectively collaborate at dismantling the social constructions of the glass and lavender ceilings, actively removing barriers for all minority, ‘marginalised and managed’ groups (Ghio, McGuigan and Powell 2023)! It is time for bold articulations of herstory and theirstory!

The papers assembled establish the nuanced and differing challenges faced, whether social, cultural or legal, from one geographic context to another. Therefore, as Lima, Miranda and Casa Nova (2024) and Pereira, d’Angelo and Cola (2024) do in the Brazilian context, we also call for further intersectional approaches to research that provide deep insights into the oppressive and marginalised experiences of diverse others, within the accounting profession across diverse geographical contexts. We highlight the value of further articulation of the experiences of accountants within countries that have suggested progress on EDI in recent years, but which are now showing signs of regression (including the USA and parts of Western Europe). What also, of the experiences of accountants in countries offering diverse others no more than limited, tokenistic promises of inclusion and safety? What of countries that remain positively aggressive toward diversity, including towards the LGBTIQ+ community? How can accounting technologies contribute to empowerment and emancipation, or instead disempower the managed diverse? What value is there in such accountings when assembled by hegemony, on behalf of the managed diverse? For too long, diverse voices in accounting have been silenced. The Social and Environmental Accountability Journal is a safe space to share the many, varied perspectives that have previously gone unheard!

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).