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Concomitant with the trend towards specialisation in UK accountancy and the rise of relatively separate formal spheres of professional work along formal specialisms such as tax, audit and management consultancy, women entered the profession in unprecedented numbers, but not evenly distributed across those specialisms. This paper aims to draw on the sociology of accountancy and feminist studies of the professions to show that specialisms have emerged through and, in turn, have been shaped and recreated by gender as well as other processes.

The paper's research approach combines the sociology of professions with critical gender studies. It draws on interviews, brochures, web pages, and results from a questionnaire survey to investigate professional identities within UK accountancy.

Accountants' self-articulated notions of professionalism in the different specialisms are gendered and ordered hierarchically. Gender is an encompassing conceptual frame for ordering discursive attributes of the different specialisms. Working long and unpredictable hours was central to accountants' understandings of their professional life. Socialising with clients was seen as functional in bringing new opportunities to the firm. Socialising with peers also was deemed important, especially in solving internal frictions and in controlling new entrants' behaviour in firms. The more “public” the ideology of a specialism, the more masculine it was perceived to be.

This study challenges the uniform representations of professional identities offered by previous studies. It suggests that gender offers a discursive and ideological frame of reference for accountancy whose relevance extends beyond the working practices of men and women to the very constitution of the profession. It does so with reference to an original mix of qualitative and quantitative data.

Both work institutions and the family, capitalism and patriarchy must change if work and family are to be capable of integration by both men and women. Obviously needed changes are: greater work scheduling flexibility, more available part‐time work for men and women, more available and affordable child care, more generous maternity and paternity leave. In order for work to be truly compatible with parenting it needs to be less alienated, and parenting needs to be less individualistically structured and isolating. Both realms need to be more creative, egalitarian and social. With the majority of wives and mothers working outside the home the previous “myth of separated worlds” has become increasingly untenable, as women are asked to reconcile work and family. The literature is examined, emphasising its limitations in its failure to disaggregate working mothers according to occupation and its one‐sided focus on the impact of work relationships on family life. Sociological theories about family and work are examined. The nature of the family work nexus for non‐professional and professional women is explored. The professional/non‐professional comparison is analysed as well as the changing family/work nexus and its impact on men and women.

The purpose of the paper is to discover the impact of restrictions connected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the work and life of international professional women with children.

A qualitative, explorative research was conducted with 12 international professional women, who were professional women with children under 12; semi-structured online interviews were used.

The radical decrease in international travel combined with an increase in online work and the increased demand of parenting resulted in work overflow, temporary re-traditionalisation of gender relations and a radical decrease in international mobility with respect to future prospects.

The relatively small and non-representative sample needs to be complemented with further investigation into the social and economic consequences of restrictions connected with the COVID-19 pandemic.

A large-scale crisis like the pandemic-related lockdown has had a tremendous effect on societies, including with regard to gender relations. Reflection will be needed in the aftermath of the crises and the gender equality achieved before the lockdown needs to be rebuilt.

The exceptional case of the COVID-19 pandemic generated the need to understand the new situation, especially in the life of mobile professionals and women with small children.

The purpose of this paper is to open up the Anglo‐centred argument in gender and accounting by exploring the relationship of women and accounting in a different social and cultural context.

The paper draws on in‐depth ethnographical studies to explore the real‐ life experiences of 66 Japanese women (9 percent of all women CPAs) who have entered the accounting profession from a range of backgrounds and generations.

The paper finds that some women accounting professionals in Japan have brought about changes in accounting practice there by applying a uniquely feminine approach in their day‐to‐day work. Their strict approach is attuned to the ongoing globalization in the field of accountancy, and this has helped to widen the opportunities for women.

This paper demonstrates that, in order to understand the issues surrounding gender and accounting, it is important to consider the prevailing social context and its underpinnings. In the Japanese “interdependent” social context, gender is intertwined in the process of accounting to establish its “independent” status.

It has been argued that the unique social and cultural context in Japan will make it difficult for the country to converge its accounting and auditing with global standards. By incorporating a gender perspective, the paper aims to clarify the social assumptions under which accounting and auditing operate in Japan.

By making a close analysis of the process by which Japanese women have entered the accounting profession, the paper reveals the connection between the growing significance of auditing and the changing role and position of women.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the situation of women working as information technology (IT) professionals in different regions of India within multi-national enterprises (MNEs). The research is part of a cross-national study that compared gendered relations in the UK and Indian IT sectors. The complex roles that region, class and caste and gendered values and norms have in shaping women’s work and lives in India are discussed.

The cross-national research assumed common themes as part of a programme of in-depth interviewing and observations during site visits. The “safari method” was adopted with research conducted by a sole fieldworker with intimate knowledge of the languages and cultures of both India and the UK. The research considered intersectionality and difference and aimed to understand material structures and cultural meanings evident from the research process.

There are significant differences in organisational culture even within MNEs sharing common legislative and policy environments. The IT sector in India offers opportunities for middle- and upper-class women professionals and the cultural – including identity – barriers to working in technical areas often experienced in western countries are not replicated in India. Nevertheless, this has not meant any significant improvements in gendered relations at work and in the Indian society. There are also particular influences of regional, class and caste differences manifested in IT workplaces, contributing to inequality.

This paper adds to the understanding of the situation of women in IT sector including within MNEs giving insights into the workings of global capitalist enterprises. The research offers appreciation of the complexity of social differences and whether opening up opportunities for women professionals in India can contribute to the inclusive growth or will maintain the current patterns of inequality.

The present study aims to understand how Moroccan women working in information technology (IT) perceive the roles they fulfill in both their private and professional lives and assess their Work–life balance (WLB).

Existing research about WLB in Morocco focuses mainly on the public sector. As the present study is the first of its kind to deal with the private sector and more specifically IT, it is exploratory in nature while adopting a qualitative methodology. Twenty Moroccan women working in IT companies in the city of Casablanca were interviewed. Collected data were analyzed using a content analysis approach.

It emerged from the data analysis that adhering to the cultural assumption of being the pillar of the household and to the culture of respondents’ organizations seems to be a key factor in employee WLB. Three main recommendations stemmed from the current research, namely, increased maternity leave duration, workplace nurseries and telework, may help IT female employees improve their WLB and well-being.

First, the study participants were selected by one individual, which may create a “sampling bias”, where one specific profile of IT specialist could be selected. Second, only IT workers took part in the study and no IT employers were interviewed, which may yield having only “one side of the story”.

The results that emerged from the current study, particularly the three main recommendations made by the 20 interviewees (increase of maternity leave duration, workplace nurseries and telework) may be used by different IT companies in the hopes of improving female employees’ WLB and well-being. Overall, employers ought to put in place measures and accommodate employees to help them reconcile their work and personal life commitments.

It has been documented that lack of WLB can result in increased stress, deleterious effects on psychological and physical well-being and increased family and marital tensions (Burchell et al., 2001; Lewis and Cooper, 1999; Scase and Scales, 1998). Therefore, various stakeholders, in addition to employers, such as the government and IT employees’ families should work collaboratively to implement meaningful WLB arrangements and, in turn, prevent the negative effects of work–life imbalance through, among others, government policy interventions.

The present study is the first of its kind that looked into the perception of WLB among Moroccan women operating in the IT industry. It offers valuable insights about how to assist female Moroccan IT workers to reconcile their work and personal life commitments.

The purpose of this paper is to create a nuanced understanding of the barriers women high-tech professionals face in Bangladesh. The main aim is to identify the extent to which these barriers are common across different contexts and to explore the barriers that are unique and situated in the local socio-cultural context.

In-depth interviews with high-tech professionals were conducted to identify and explore the barriers.

Although some of the barriers are common across different contexts, most of the barriers women professionals face arise due to the interaction between situated socio-cultural practices and gender. The dynamics of socio-cultural and patriarchal norms reinforce gender biases and gendered practices that afford men with greater control over resources and systematically limit women’s access to opportunities.

The study recruited 35 participants using snowball sampling. From a methodological perspective, future research could benefit from recruiting a larger, more varied sample using random sampling.

Women experience barriers due to both internal organizational features and external contextual barriers. The findings suggest that some of these barriers can be removed through governmental and organizational policies and through appropriate intervention strategies delivered in partnership with governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The study makes a unique contribution by using a macro-social lens to analyze the meso-organizational practices and micro-individual phenomena thereby providing a holistic view of the barriers faced by women professionals in Bangladesh.

This paper develops a theoretical perspective on gender and information technology (IT) by examining socio‐cultural influences on women who are members of the information technology profession in Australia and New Zealand. In‐depth interviews with both practitioners and academics give evidence of a range of socio‐cultural influences on the professional development and working lives of women IT professionals. The paper rejects the essentialist view of women and their relationship to IT that has been put forth in the information systems literature arguing, instead, the primacy of societal and structural influences. The particular contribution of this paper is a theoretical perspective of individual differences which is presented to characterize the way individual women respond in a range of specific ways to the interplay between individual characteristics and environmental influences. This perspective contributes to a better understanding of women’s involvement in the IT sector and suggests areas for proactive policy response.

The purpose of this research is to qualitatively investigate, through a literature review of past studies and an in‐field case study, three different hypotheses regarding women working in the IT sector and their career and promotional aspirations.

An online survey was used for data collection from female employees with varying professional specializations across several IT departments within the company. Questions for the survey were designed from the findings of the literature review.

The results obtained have proven that married women who are intrinsically inspired to maintain their work‐family balance face higher stress and more conflicts than those who do not. In addition, the glass ceiling was still evident in today's corporations, but mainly affecting the older generation of women professionals. Also, the results slightly hinted at a ten‐year cut‐off period, after which promotional aspiration is lost.

Owing to the limitations of the research conducted, further qualitative studies can be done to compare careers and promotional patterns between men and women in the IT departments, as well as those between women in IT departments and women working in other departments.

Employers should strive to provide their female employees with practical solutions to allow for an easier balancing of work‐family responsibilities, such as flexi‐time and telecommuting. At the same time, the employers should place the female employees in more opportunity‐enhancing positions within the corporation so that they can exploit or utilize their talents and increase the probability of climbing up the corporate ladder.

With a generous response rate, this paper provides a realistic perspective of professional females working within the IT domain with regard to their career and promotional aspirations.

The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively investigate, through literature review of past studies and an in‐field case study, three different hypotheses regarding women working in the IT sector and their career and promotional aspirations.

An online survey was used for data collection from female employees with varying professional specializations across several IT departments within the company. Questions for the survey were designed from the findings of the literature review.

The results obtained prove that married women who are intrinsically inspired to maintain their work‐family balance face higher stress and more conflicts than those who do not. In addition, the glass ceiling is still evident in today's corporations, but mainly affecting the older generation of women professionals. Also, the results slightly hinted at a ten‐year cutoff period, after which promotional aspiration is lost.

Owing to the limitations of the research conducted, further qualitative studies can be done to compare careers and promotional patterns between men and women in the IT departments; as well as those between women in IT departments and women working in other departments.

Employers should strive to provide their female employees practical solutions to allow for an easier balancing of work‐family responsibilities, such as flex‐times and telecommuting. At the same time, employers should place female employees in more opportunity‐enhancing positions within the corporation such that they can exploit or utilize their talents and increase their probability of climbing up the corporate ladder.

With a generous response rate, this paper provides a realistic perspective of professional females working within the IT domain as to their career and promotional aspirations.