An exploratory study of women in Ghana's accountancy profession

Abstract

Study was carried out on the research recommendations of an earlier study carried out by Hinson et al (2005) on successful women in marketing in Ghana in which a recommendation was made for other gender studies to be carried out among female professionals in Ghana; which studies will focus on middle-level managers and female junior staff; to begin to understand the nuances of the challenges they might be facing in their quest to climb up the corporate ladder. Key findings of this study included 57% of the respondents quite agreed that the accountancy profession in Ghana was a male-dominated one and advanced a multiplicity of reasons for this phenomenon. Out of the 14 respondents, 93% (13 respondents) had practiced as qualified accountants for between 1-9 years whilst only 7% (1 respondent) has practiced accountancy for between 10-19 years. This initial finding gave the indication that whilst the accountancy profession in Ghana itself was over 50 years old, the increase in numbers of female accountants could only be described as a recent phenomenon. On the issue of internality, 93% of the women accountants surveyed indicated that they were in total agreement with the fact that they had control over their own careers. This finding is consistent with Hinson et al (2005) who conducted a similar study of successful women in marketing in Ghana. Key recommendations for improving the lot of female accountants included more experienced accountants sharing their experiences with younger female accountants and female accountants should really strive to compete their accountancy courses and qualify as professional accountants before they get married. In spite of the fact that the more experienced accountants seemed to be balancing work with family quite well, they were of the opinion that if you became a professional accountant before marriage, the chances of your managing the professional/family balance become remarkably improved.

Keywords: women, accountancy, Ghana

Gender and Behaviour Vol. 4(1) 2006: 589-609