Advancement in Public Accounting: The Effect of Gender and Personality Traits

Abstract: This paper presents survey results which indicate that practicing accountants perceive a difference in how certain stereotypical personality traits influence men and women's advancement to upper-level positions in public accounting firms. Results also indicate that men and wo differentially rate the influence of certain traits. Additional testing was performed using factor analysis. The resulting factor patterns were highly similar for the men and women who responded to the survey with regard to the nature and number of factors and the traits which comprise each factor. Three factors (supportive behaviors, self-confident behaviors, and controlling behaviors) were identified for a man's advancement, and two factors (supportive behaviors and masculine behaviors) were identified for a woman's advancement. Masculine behaviors include both self-confident and controlling behaviors. This suggests that, for a man, there is a clear distinction between behaviors that are controlling in nature and those that are indicative of self-confidence; how ver, for a woman, the distinction between controlling and self-confident behaviors does not appear to exist. 3INTRODUCTION Public accounting firms have consistently increased the range of services provided to clients. This increas in specialized services has created a need for in-depth expertise in various areas. Consequently, personnel are no longer as interchangeable as they once were (Abernathy, 1990; AICPA, 1989; Biggs, 1986). This coupled wit