Abstract
The present study investigated the views of 22 women who were working as accountants in six SMEs to reveal the barriers they faced as they tried to maintain a work-life balance, especially as all of them were wives and mothers and have chosen to enter a male-dominated field. The current study revealed that female accountants faced numerous sex-related barriers and received little support as few women have senior roles in accounting even nowadays. It concludes that SMEs should provide opportunities for coaching and mentoring to help women enhance their leadership skills and overall profile, especially during major crises. While several studies have reported on diversity management issues in SMEs, this study focuses on both the enablers and the obstacles female accountants faced in Greece, especially during Covid-19, to provide a more balanced picture and offer recommendations which may support women in male-dominated fields, i.e., finance, promoting Social Justice and Sustainable Development for all employees irrespective of their background and personal characteristics.
TopBackground
In the last years, interest among researchers as regards making visible the organisational and social factors that may hinder the advancement of women in the accountancy profession has grown exponentially. Feminist accounting research has so far been concerned with issues of the recruitment, retention and progression of female accountants (Adapa et al., 2016; Haynes, 2017; Single et al., 2018) and their high turnover rate (Ribeiro et al., 2016). The focus of such research has mainly been on White middle-class women and their problems and experiences. How the experiences of women might differ because of the interplay of gender, race/ethnicity, class, and culture has so far not been sufficiently addressed in the literature (Wang, 2019). Research into gender and ethnicity, for example, is still comparatively scarce in the accounting literature. Much of the work that has been done has focused upon the experiences of accountancy of African Americans (Lim et al., 2015; Mithu Dey, 2019). Despite the recent emergence of interest in accounting and indigenous culture (Hopper et al., 2019), there is a particular paucity of research concerned to explain the career experiences of women in small countries like Greece and the disciplines and organisation of accounting in their continued marginalisation (Annisette, 2000).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Accounting: The measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non-financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations.
Gender Diversity: An umbrella term that is used to describe gender identities that demonstrate a diversity of expression beyond the binary framework.
Small Medium Enterprises: Businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation “SME” is used by international organizations such as the World Bank, the European Union, the United Nations, and the World Trade.