Conflicting Accounts of Inclusiveness in Accounting Firm Recruitment Website Photographs

In response to this special issue’s focus on new directions in auditing research, specifically its call for more analysis on the ‘real’ impact of inclusion discourses within the accounting profession, this paper critically interprets representations of gender and ethnic diversity in accounting firms’ recruitment photographs using a critical visual methodology. We analyze photographs from the recruitment websites of public accounting firms for depictions of gender and ethnic inclusiveness using a Barthesian approach. We analyze and interpret the denotative and connotative content of 1493 photographs and connotatively interpret the text and photographs in two particularly salient recruitment documents using critical semiotics. We find women (non-white individuals) make up approximately half (one quarter) of the people depicted, roughly matching trends in the population. However, women and non-white individuals are frequently depicted in subordinate roles. While they are denotatively ‘present’ in recruitment photographs, they are constructed connotatively as ‘other’ in public accounting, consistent with hegemony. Women and non-white individuals are generally constructed as outsiders, despite their numerical presence in the photographs. Accounting firms should be aware of various possible connotative interpretations of their photographs, as these interpretations may conflict with the accounts with respect to diversity and inclusion conveyed in photographs’ denotative content.