Accounting, female and male gendering, and cultural imperialism
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 20 February 2017
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to complement and extend accounting studies on gender and post-colonialism by examining the interrelationship between accounting, gender and sexuality within an imperial context.
Design/methodology/approach
Archival materials enable the construction of an accounting knowledge of how ideas of masculinity and sexuality shaped both female and male participation in distant British colonies.
Findings
By exploring the manner in which accounting may be implicated in micro-practices through which gendered/sexualized relations are produced in societies the paper finds that empire’s colonial project on Indian indentured workers, the constitution of their identities, and the translation of abstract policies into practice were facilitated by accounting instruments for management and control.
Originality/value
Original research based on archival studies of British colonial documents.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Motivating and constructive comments and suggestions received from the two reviewers of this journal are gratefully acknowledged. Comments and suggestions from Tom McLean, members of the Gender, Professions and Society Research Group at Newcastle University, and from participants at the 8th Accounting History International Conference, held at Ballarat, Australia, in August 2015, were also very helpful. Newcastle University Business School provided financial assistance to collect archival data, for which the author is truly grateful.
Citation
Davie, S.S. (2017), "Accounting, female and male gendering, and cultural imperialism", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 247-269. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2012-01080
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited