Women accountants are more critical, less trusting

Research has revealed that female accountants are far more critical of responses around the world to the global economic crisis than their male counterparts. They are also likely to be more negative and less trusting of the financial crisis than their male counterparts, and more critical of government handling of financial services firms in terms of regulation, bailouts and other support, according to Nadine Kater, head of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) SA.

The world’s largest global accounting body, with 147 000 members and 424 000 students in 170 countries worldwide, recently released a two-year research study entitled: “Female perspectives on the global economy.”

The research compared the views of male and female ACCA members to confidence and recovery indices in ACCA’s quarterly Global Economic Conditions (GECs) survey, which began in February 2009.

The study covers three critical stages of the global crisis: the “green shoots period of optimism,” a brief one-year period in which the global recovery appeared to be underway, and the beginning of the fiscal crisis in Europe.

According to research published by Catalyst, in June 2011, women constitute 60.1% of all accountants and auditors, globally.

“In South Africa, women occupy 56% of all positions in the Finance, Accounting, Management Consulting and Other Financial Services (Fasset) sector. While they are not as well-represented in accounting and auditing positions as their female counterparts in developed countries, I firmly believe that if women accountants were surveyed in South Africa, or Africa as a whole, the findings would be very similar.

“Fortunately, South Africa did not feel the full brunt of the global recession, thanks to its stringent banking- and credit regulations, and legislation such as the National Credit Act (NCA).

“Women and children are, however, always the most vulnerable, at times of economic downturns. For this reason, I suspect that female members of ACCA in South Africa would express a very similar view, to their counterparts in developed countries,” Kater said.

The research also revealed:

• That women surveyed expect that government spending will be more excessive and wasteful than their male counterparts believe will be the case; and
• That women are less likely to mention poor access to finance as a problem for their organisation or their clients.

Rosana Mirkovic, author of the report and senior policy advisor at ACCA attributes this to the fact that female accountants are less involved in accessing finance for their organisation, when compared to their male counterparts.

“This may cloud their perceptions. One should not lose sight of the fact that women are generally better represented in management accounting functions and may, therefore, be more attuned to rising operating costs and tightening budgets,” Kater said.

She says the most important finding may be the fact that we know very little about women’s perspectives on the state of the global economy.

The report can be downloaded from the ACCA global website.