Women In Accountancy. The Case Of Romania

This research investigates the gender issue related to the accountancy profession in Romania. The interest in the subject is motivated by the will to analyse the metamorphose of the profession in an evolving economical and social environment. The study enquired on the unfailing obstacles of women in the profession: from the initial difficulties in different cultures in entering the profession and actual difficulties of the female professionals to cover board chairs and key roles in accountancy. So, the paper inquires into the contrast between women’s predominance in the profession and women’s absence from senior roles in accountancy in Romania. The research was made using a combination of methods: in order to ensure the description of the argument in an international context, the study reviewed the relevant literature concomitant with a research based on semi-structured interviews with local accountants. The study is organized as follows: a short introduction is followed by the literature review, the description of the research methods and the presentation of the conclusions. The results revealed that even if during time women struggled to be admitted in the profession and couldn’t achieve career success within the discriminatory environment of the accounting firms that they were working for, it seems that in the recent years an increasing number of women are getting above limitations of the gender stereotyping by entering the autonomus liberal accountancy profession. In the local context, the women presence is actually at 85% and that gender is not an issue influencing the results of the professionals. In Romania women prefer accountancy as a profession as they can manifest their patient nature and can benefit of comfortable work conditions. The study concludes that even if nowadays there is enough place in the boards of the different accounting organizations for both men and women, females are not predominant as they are less reliable: their personal accomplishment is through the family and not career so they are less available to dedicate time to work.