Gender, ethnicity and professional membership : the case of the UK accounting profession.

The thesis aims to explore the experiences of minority ethnic women
accountants in the UK through the use of the oral history method. It seeks to
give visibility to the experience(s) of professional women accountants from
minority ethnic communities who have to date remained largely invisible in
accountancy literature.
It is argued that part of the reason for this invisibility lies in the methods
employed in accounting research and the operation of statistics issued by the
accounting profession. The author argues that one way round this can be
achieved through the use of oral history.
Although recent studies in the field of accounting have focused upon issues
relating to gender, much of the literature remains silent with respect to
qualitative material which illuminates women's lived experiences of
accountancy. Furthermore, the experience(s) of women accountants from
minority ethnic communities is invisible in the accountancy literature. This is
because much of the literature ignores cultural diversity and treats women as a
homogenous group, that is white and middle-class. This invisibility is reinforced
further as women from minority ethnic communities are absent from the official
gender statistics which are (re)produced by the accounting profession.
Five oral histories are presented, explored and analyzed, together with the
author's own life history. It is suggested that an exploration of oral narratives
cannot take place without acknowledgment and making visible of the
researcher's own life history and presence in the construction and exploration of
oral narratives.
The empirical material in the form of oral narratives reveals the presence of
various invisible and visible forms of gender and ethnicity which appear to
operate through a variety of forms in the structured work and workplace of
accounting. Some possibilities for making issues of gender and ethnicity visible
in accountancy are further explored.

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