How do women accounting and finance professors develop and leverage their capitals for career advancement?

Abstract

This study examines women's career journeys to professorship in accounting and finance academia with a focus on the potential influence of various forms of capitals. Given the dearth of women at professorial level despite various institutional initiatives to reduce gender imbalances, it is critical that their careers be examined. We utilise the work of Bourdieu and studies on gender capital to interpret the influence and interplay of capitals within the career journeys of accounting and finance women professors from Australian universities. Our key findings show that women professors utilised various forms of social capital to advance their careers, including connecting with mentors who taught them the rules of the game and introduced them to powerful actors in the academic field. Interviewees leveraged economic capital through institutional and personal support and resources to progress their career and to enhance their social and cultural capital through valuable artefacts such as publications, and professional connections to world-renowned scholars. Turning to gender capital, we found that interviewees referred to the advantages flowing to them from both female capital and feminine capital. This study contributes to the literature on gender in the academic workplace and highlights the importance of gender capital to career progression.