IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i4p2019-d498982.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Journey to Gender-Responsive Budgeting: Lessons Learned from Higher Education

Author

Listed:
  • Chiara Oppi

    (Center for Socio-Economic Dynamics and Co-operation, University of Bergamo, 24127 Bergamo, Italy)

  • Caterina Cavicchi

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy)

  • Emidia Vagnoni

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy)

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda includes gender equality as one of its 17 goals and emphasizes the importance of supporting women’s empowerment to meet the SDGs. Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) can help achieve gender equality in organizations, but there continue to be limitations on exploiting its full potential. Further research is needed, especially in the public sector and at higher education institutions. This paper investigates the development of the GRB process and the related reporting practices, as well as the potential to fully integrate it into the university’s strategic policies at the University of Ferrara. The paper is based on a qualitative content analysis of annual GRB reports from 2011 to 2018. The results show that, during this period, GRB at the university changed from playing an accountability role to having a performance measurement role. Although GRB has become more relevant inside the organization, the extent of the integration with the university strategy and the budgeting cycle remains limited, which hampers the strategic relevance of GRB.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiara Oppi & Caterina Cavicchi & Emidia Vagnoni, 2021. "The Journey to Gender-Responsive Budgeting: Lessons Learned from Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:2019-:d:498982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/2019/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/2019/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haynes, Kathryn, 2008. "(Re)figuring accounting and maternal bodies: The gendered embodiment of accounting professionals," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 328-348.
    2. Mojtaba Vaismoradi & Hannele Turunen & Terese Bondas, 2013. "Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 398-405, September.
    3. Salzmann, Oliver & Ionescu-somers, Aileen & Steger, Ulrich, 2005. "The Business Case for Corporate Sustainability:: Literature Review and Research Options," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 27-36, February.
    4. Naoko Komori, 2008. "Towards the feminization of accounting practice," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(4), pages 507-538, May.
    5. 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.
    6. Helena Desivilya Syna & Carmen-Eugenia Costea, 2015. "Gender Effects in Top Management," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Helena Desivilya Syna & Carmen-Eugenia Costea (ed.), Women’s Voices in Management, chapter 1, pages 3-11, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Carla Del Gesso, 2019. "Gender Budgeting Implementation in Italian Regional Governments: Institutional Behavior for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(12), pages 110-110, November.
    8. Ulrike Marx, 2019. "Accounting for equality: Gender budgeting and moderate feminism," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1176-1190, August.
    9. Jane Broadbent & Linda Kirkham, 2008. "Glass ceilings, glass cliffs or new worlds?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(4), pages 465-473, May.
    10. Lee D. Parker, 2008. "Strategic management and accounting processes: acknowledging gender," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(4), pages 611-631, May.
    11. María del Mar Alonso‐Almeida & Josep Llach & Frederic Marimon, 2014. "A Closer Look at the ‘Global Reporting Initiative’ Sustainability Reporting as a Tool to Implement Environmental and Social Policies: A Worldwide Sector Analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(6), pages 318-335, November.
    12. Rhonda Sharp & Ray Broomhill, 2002. "Budgeting for Equality: The Australian Experience," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 25-47.
    13. Ronnie Downes & Lisa von Trapp & Scherie Nicol, 2017. "Gender budgeting in OECD countries," OECD Journal on Budgeting, OECD Publishing, vol. 16(3), pages 71-107.
    14. Emmanuel Botlhale, 2011. "Gender-responsive budgeting: The case for Botswana," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 61-74.
    15. Giovanna Galizzi & Gaia Viviana Bassani & Cristiana Cattaneo, 2018. "Adoption of Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) by an Italian Municipality," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-13, November.
    16. Stephen P. Walker, 2008. "Accounting histories of women: beyond recovery?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(4), pages 580-610, May.
    17. Ileana Steccolini, 2019. "New development: Gender (responsive) budgeting—a reflection on critical issues and future challenges," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(5), pages 379-383, July.
    18. Claire Dambrin & Caroline Lambert, 2012. "Who is she and who are we? A reflexive journey in research into the rarity of women in the highest ranks of accountancy," Post-Print hal-00687845, HAL.
    19. Kim Ceulemans & Rodrigo Lozano & María Del Mar Alonso-Almeida, 2015. "Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: Interconnecting the Reporting Process and Organisational Change Management for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-23, July.
    20. Mr. Feridoun Sarraf, 2003. "Gender-Responsive Government Budgeting," IMF Working Papers 2003/083, International Monetary Fund.
    21. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim & Kamla, Rania, 2011. "The accountancy profession and the ambiguities of globalisation in a post-colonial, Middle Eastern and Islamic context: Perceptions of accountants in Syria," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 376-395.
    22. 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.
    23. Tindara Addabbo & Gulay Gunluk-Senesen & Angela O'Hagan, 2015. "Gender Budgeting: Insights from Current Methodologies and Experiences in Europe," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 125-134.
    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. 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.
    2. Lehman, Cheryl R., 2019. "Reflecting on now more than ever: Feminism in accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. 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.
    4. 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).
    5. Kamla, Rania, 2012. "Syrian women accountants’ attitudes and experiences at work in the context of globalization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 188-205.
    6. Mara Del Baldo & Adriana Tiron-Tudor & Widad Atena Faragalla, 2018. "Women’s Role in the Accounting Profession: A Comparative Study between Italy and Romania," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, December.
    7. 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.
    8. Khalifa, Rihab & Scarparo, Simona, 2021. "Gender Responsive Budgeting: A tool for gender equality," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Sheerin, Corina & Garavan, Thomas, 2022. "Female leaders as ‘Superwomen’: Post-global financial crisis media framing of women and leadership in investment banking in UK print media 2014–2016," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Kuasirikun, Nooch, 2011. "The portrayal of gender in annual reports in Thailand," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 53-78.
    11. Dillard, Jesse & Reynolds, MaryAnn, 2011. "Re-stor(y)ing social change," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 492-499.
    12. Sian, S., 2023. "Off-ramps and on-ramps: Career continuity and discontinuity in professional accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Carla Del Gesso, 2019. "Gender Budgeting Implementation in Italian Regional Governments: Institutional Behavior for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(12), pages 110-110, November.
    14. 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).
    15. Amondarain, Josune & Aldazabal, M. Edurne & Espinosa-Pike, Marcela, 2023. "Gender differences in the auditing stereotype and their influence on the intention to enter the profession," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    16. 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.
    17. Jane Broadbent & Linda Kirkham, 2008. "Glass ceilings, glass cliffs or new worlds?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(4), pages 465-473, May.
    18. Andrzej Piosik & Marzena Strojek-Filus & Aleksandra Sulik-Górecka & Aleksandra Szewieczek, 2019. "Gender and Age as Determinants of Job Satisfaction in the Accounting Profession: Evidence from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, May.
    19. 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).
    20. Ogharanduku, Bridget Efeoghene & Jackson, William J. & Paterson, Audrey S., 2021. "Beautiful SWAN, or ugly duckling? The attempt to reduce gender inequality by the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:2019-:d:498982. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.