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Accounting and lived experience in the gendered workplace

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  • Carmona, Salvador
  • Ezzamel, Mahmoud

Abstract

Research addressing how gendered space is experienced in the workplace, how accounting operates as a gendered and gendering technology and how it impacts identity formation and gender performance is sparse. This paper examines the relationship between accounting and lived experience in the gendered workplace. We articulate a theoretical framing that examines gender producing processes and how accounting functions as a gendering gaze at work. We then offer an overview of some key studies that have examined accounting and gender in the workplace. We argue that the construction of gendered identity in the workplace is about how individuals perform gender in an imaginatively produced space for the purposes of control and domination. We identify three main themes that deserve the attention of future researchers: a) how the human gaze produces gender divisions at work; b) how accounting functions as a gaze and produces gender divisions in the workplace while noting the scope for resistance; and c) how gendered accounting technologies reaffirm existing gender divisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Carmona, Salvador & Ezzamel, Mahmoud, 2016. "Accounting and lived experience in the gendered workplace," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-8.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:49:y:2016:i:c:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2015.11.004
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    3. Gendron, Yves, 2018. "Beyond conventional boundaries: Corporate governance as inspiration for critical accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-11.
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    7. Elizabeth D. Almer & M. Kathleen Harris & Julia L. Higgs & Joseph R. Rakestraw, 2021. "Partner Gender Differences in Prestige of Clients Served at the Largest U.S. Audit Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 401-421, October.
    8. Guo, Ken H., 2018. "The odyssey of becoming: Professional identity and insecurity in the Canadian accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 20-45.
    9. Sian, S., 2023. "Off-ramps and on-ramps: Career continuity and discontinuity in professional accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Huikku, Jari & Myllymäki, Emma-Riikka & Ojala, Hannu, 2022. "Gender differences in the first course in accounting: An achievement goal approach," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3).
    11. Andrew, Jane & Cahill, Damien, 2017. "Rationalising and resisting neoliberalism: The uneven geography of costs," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 12-28.
    12. Faragalla Widad Atena & Adriana Tiron-Tudor, 2019. "Gender as a Dimension of Inequality in Accounting Organizations and Developmental HR Strategies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, December.
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