Moving the gender agenda or stirring chicken's entrails? Where next for feminist methodologies in accounting?

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to critique recent research on gender and accounting to explore how feminist methodology can move on and radicalise the gender agenda in the accounting context.

Design/methodology/approach

After examining current research on gender and accounting, the paper explores the nature of feminist methodology and its relation to epistemology. It explores three inter‐related tenets of feminist methodology in detail: power and politics, subjectivity and reflexivity.

Findings

The paper suggests that much research in the accounting is concerned with gender‐as‐a‐variable, rather than being distinctly feminist, thus missing the opportunity to radicalise the agenda. It makes suggestions for how a feminist approach to methodology could be applied to the accounting context.

Originality/value

The paper calls for a wider application of a feminist approach to accounting research and gives suggestions as to where this might be applied.

Citation

Haynes, K. (2008), "Moving the gender agenda or stirring chicken's entrails? Where next for feminist methodologies in accounting?", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 539-555. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570810872914