Study: Male Accountants Threatened By Women

Nine out of 10 male accountants believe they have been adversely affected by attempts to create a more favorable working environment for women in Europe, new research reveals.

Recruitment specialists Careers in Audit found that many men working in the profession claimed that women were being promoted even if they do not deserve it. The resentment ran high despite 76 percent of male accountants backing the view that a "glass ceiling" still exists which prevents women from progressing.

The reason for the glass ceiling, the study said, is more to do with the need for women to achieve a work-life balance than discrimination in the workplace. Two-thirds of all those surveyed gave the impossibility of raising a family as the main reason so few women make it to a partner in accounting firms.

Max Williamson, Careers in Audit chief executive, said: "While our research reveals strong ambition amongst women, it raises important questions. Initiatives to give greater opportunities to women appear to be resented by men, while many women who want to get to the top appear to be short of confidence in their own leadership skills.

"There is a lot of work to be done within the profession to iron out the mistrust, misunderstandings and differences of perception that currently exist between the sexes

"Climbing the corporate ladder requires sacrifice, irrespective of one’s sex, but there is no reason why it should be incompatible with raising a family. Solutions can be found if both senior management and female employees are willing to bend."


Number of comments: 2

Print Friendly Mail a Friend Post Comment

---

Charles Taylor, Jr. , 18 February 2007 @ 07:22 AM  C.Taylor, VA I think the study maybe inaccurate, maybe young male acountants are threatened by young female accountants in the workplace or classroom environment. Only as a african-american I've notice the ratios my college life on campus that there were for every male accountant there were 5 females.

---

Lynn Petrovich , 16 February 2007 @ 13:25 PM  Good for a Laugh Thanks for the Friday morning laugh. Men in the accounting profession threatened by women? Good one. It is interesting to note that fault/blame/biases/what-ever-you-want-to-call-it is always first and foremost pointed at our gender. For the past 6 years, I've read thousands of stories about men wiping out entire company pension plans (while the women wrote memos questioning those actions), buying $50,000 shower curtains, filing fraudulent financial statements, leading nations into war, doling out taxpayer money in no-bid contracts to their male cronies (while women who tried to sound the alarm about such abuses where fired or demoted), name-calling anyone who disagrees with them, and so on. But I have not read one story that said this happened because - and only because - they were men. Funny, huh?