IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ebg/heccah/0862.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Motherhood: The key to the glass ceiling ? the case of the big four in France

Author

Listed:
  • Dambrin, Claire
  • Lambert, Caroline

Abstract

Women in public accounting firms are still proportionally much fewer in the highest levels of the hierarchy than men, whereas the recruitement at a junior level tends to be more and more gender balanced. The aim of this paper is to propose ana analysis of the mechanisms that explain the barriers encountered by auditor mothers in their hierarchical progression within the Big Four in France.

Suggested Citation

  • Dambrin, Claire & Lambert, Caroline, 2007. "Motherhood: The key to the glass ceiling ? the case of the big four in France," HEC Research Papers Series 862, HEC Paris.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:0862
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hec.fr/var/fre/storage/original/application/68bceda275363ad7cf858f7aaea1639a.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hooks, Karen L., 1992. "Gender effects and labor supply in public accounting: An agenda of research issues," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 343-366.
    2. Anderson, John C. & Johnson, Eric N. & Reckers, Philip M. J., 1994. "Perceived effects of gender, family structure, and physical appearance on career progression in public accounting: A research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 483-491, August.
    3. Loft, Anne, 1992. "Accountancy and the gendered division of labour: A review essay," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 367-378.
    4. Jacob Mincer & Solomon Polachek, 1974. "Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women," NBER Chapters, in: Marriage, Family, Human Capital, and Fertility, pages 76-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Kirkham, Linda M. & Loft, Anne, 1993. "Gender and the construction of the professional accountant," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 507-558, August.
    6. Walker, Stephen P., 2003. "Professionalisation or incarceration? Household engineering, accounting and the domestic ideal," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(7-8), pages 743-772.
    7. Barker, Patricia C. & Monks, Kathy, 1998. "Irish women accountants and career progression: a research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(8), pages 813-823, November.
    8. Roberts, Jennifer & Coutts, J. Andrew, 1992. "Feminization and professionalization: A review of an emerging literature on the development of accounting in the United Kingdom," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 379-395.
    9. Hull, Rita P. & Umansky, Philip H., 1997. "An examination of gender stereotyping as an explanation for vertical job segregation in public accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 507-528, August.
    10. Adams, Carol A. & Harte, George, 1998. "The changing portrayal of the employment of women in British banks' and retail companies' corporate annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(8), pages 781-812, November.
    11. Kirkham, Linda M., 1992. "Integrating herstory and history in accountancy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 287-297.
    12. Crompton, Rosemary, 1987. "Gender and accountancy: A response to Tinker and Neimark," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 103-110, January.
    13. Maupin, Rebekah J. & Lehman, Cheryl R., 1994. "Talking heads: Stereotypes, status, sex-roles and satisfaction of female and male auditors," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(4-5), pages 427-437.
    14. Grey, C., 1998. "On being a professional in a "Big Six" firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 569-587.
    15. Lehman, Cheryl R., 1992. ""Herstory" in accounting: The first eighty years," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 261-285.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lambert, Caroline & Dambrin, Claire, 2006. "La question du genre en comptabilité : analyses théoriques et méthodologiques," HEC Research Papers Series 843, HEC Paris.
    2. Claire Dambrin & Caroline Virginie Lambert, 2006. "Le Plafond De Verre Dans Les Cabinets D'Audit Questions Theoriques Et Methodologiques," Post-Print halshs-00558352, HAL.
    3. Claire Dambrin & Caroline Virginie Lambert, 2006. "Le Plafond De Verre Dans Les Cabinets D'Audit – Questions Theoriques Et Methodologiques," Post-Print halshs-00548047, HAL.
    4. Dambrin, Claire & Lambert, Caroline, 2012. "Who is she and who are we? A reflexive journey in research into the rarity of women in the highest ranks of accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-16.
    5. Ioana Ioan, 2009. "Women in the French accountancy profession: the test of the labyrinth," Post-Print halshs-00475216, HAL.
    6. Lupu, Ioana, 2012. "Approved routes and alternative paths: The construction of women's careers in large accounting firms. Evidence from the French Big Four," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 351-369.
    7. Sian, S. & Agrizzi, D. & Wright, T. & Alsalloom, A., 2020. "Negotiating constraints in international audit firms in Saudi Arabia: Exploring the interaction of gender, politics and religion," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. Haynes, Kathryn, 2017. "Accounting as gendering and gendered: A review of 25 years of critical accounting research on gender," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 110-124.
    9. Anderson-Gough, Fiona & Grey, Christopher & Robson, Keith, 2005. ""Helping them to forget..": the organizational embedding of gender relations in public audit firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 469-490, July.
    10. Bitbol-Saba, Nathalie & Dambrin, Claire, 2019. "“It’s not often we get a visit from a beautiful woman!” The body in client-auditor interactions and the masculinity of accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. 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.
    12. Gammie, Elizabeth & Whiting, Rosalind, 2013. "Women accountants: Is the grass greener outside the profession?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 83-98.
    13. Claire Dambrin & Caroline Lambert, 2008. "Mothering or auditing? The case of two Big Four in France," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(4), pages 474-506, May.
    14. Maria-Victoria Uribe-Bohorquez & Juan-Camilo Rivera-Ordóñez & Isabel-María García-Sánchez, 2023. "Gender disparities in accounting academia: analysis from the lens of publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 3827-3865, July.
    15. Lehman, Cheryl R., 2019. "Reflecting on now more than ever: Feminism in accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Naoko Komori, 2008. "Towards the feminization of accounting practice," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(4), pages 507-538, May.
    17. Haynes, Kathryn, 2008. "Transforming identities: Accounting professionals and the transition to motherhood," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 620-642.
    18. Michèle Saboly & Rim Khemiri, 2011. "Les femmes experts-comptables en Tunisie : Perceptions et réalités," Post-Print hal-00650536, HAL.
    19. Almer, Elizabeth Dreike & Lightbody, Margaret G. & Single, Louise E., 2012. "Successful promotion or segregation from partnership? An examination of the “post-senior manager” position in public accounting and the implications for women's careers," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 122-133.
    20. Baker, Darren T & Brewis, Deborah N, 2020. "The melancholic subject: A study of self-blame as a gendered and neoliberal psychic response to loss of the ‘perfect worker’," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    case study; glass ceiling; gender; public accounting firms; motherhood.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:0862. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Antoine Haldemann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hecpafr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.