Is There No Sin Down South of the Equator? Brazilian Auditors’ Perception of the Gendered and Racialized Dynamics in Audit Firms

ABSTRACT

We aim to analyze the perception of Brazilian auditors regarding differences in career development for women and black people. Methodologically, we conducted a web survey totaling 329 answers from professionals with diverse profiles regarding the length of service, job position, age, sex, and race. The results show that even men perceive the career as being harder for women. An important finding is that the main difficulties are found in medium and small-sized auditing companies. We contribute to the literature on three fronts: (i) by expanding the theme to cover medium and small-sized companies; (ii) by bringing to the Brazilian scenario the discussion on the perception of differences in the careers of external auditing professionals; and (iii) by contrasting perceptions about the career and the environment for professionals from diverse groups in terms of sex and race. As a practical implication, we conclude that if there is an interest in turning audit into a more just and equitable profession, much has to be changed in auditing careers, even in companies situated to the South of the Equator, so that the sins from elsewhere would not be the same here, sins that were imposed by a colonial conceptualisation of gender and race.

KEYWORD:

• Gender
• race
• auditing career
• big four firms

1. Introduction

In the Brazilian scenario, women represent more than half of the students in undergraduate accounting courses (Nganga, Gouveia, and Casa Nova 2018) and almost half of all registered accounting professionals in Brazil, reaching 42,81% in June 2021 (CFC 2022). Despite the growing representation and inclusivity, women still face multiple barriers, remaining underrepresented in managerial roles in Brazilian society and worldwide (Cohen et al. 2020; Lima et al. 2021).

Traditionally dominated by white men, audit firms worldwide have been developing and adopting policies to become more inclusive workplaces. However, previous research shows that there are still large differences between the career paths for different social groups (see Anderson-Gough et al. 2022; Egan and Voss 2023; Lima et al. 2021). Considering Western countries, previous research questions whether audit firms are truly changing the inequality regime or just using it to constitute a business case (Egan and Voss 2023). Furthermore, there is evidence that some of the developed policies reinforce some gender barriers and stereotypes (Edgley, Sharma, and Anderson-Gough 2016; Kornberger, Carter, and Ross-Smith 2010), therefore reproducing the inequality regime instead of challenging it.

Overall, the existing literature points to the gender-based pay gap (Ittonen and Peni 2012), different types of violence suffered by women (Bitbol-Saba and Dambrin 2019; Tremblay, Gendron, and Malsch 2016), and the barriers to women’s career progression (Castro 2012; Kokot-Blamey 2021; Lupu 2012). A common trait of most of the research in this area is the focus on the Big Four firms due to their market representativity. In this sense, non-Big Four firms and their practices represent a research gap. Additionally, we highlight that this kind of mapping has not yet been conducted comprehensively in Brazil, a post-colonial context marked by multiple structural inequalities (Lima et al. 2022). Thus, we question whether there is no sin to the South of the Equator.

The presence of a significant number of registered auditing firms beyond the Big Four marks the Brazilian audit context. According to the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários), 341 registered auditing companies are allowed to audit publicly traded companies (CVM 2018). Therefore, we observe that many medium and small companies remain under-researched, representing an empirical and theoretical gap that we aim to address in this work.

In addition to the significant number of non-big Four companies, Brazil is an interesting case in which to analyze diversity policies because of its social and historical constitution. Since the colonisation, Brazil has been marked by sexism and racism established by Eurocentric thinking that divides people into two groups: people whose lives are worthy and are considered humans and those considered unworthy of living, seen as disqualified, indecent, non-human (Lima et al. 2022; Oliveira 2018). In this context, black and indigenous people were enslaved and exploited for centuries (Silva, Vasconcelos and Lira 2021) and remain marginalised until the current day.

Given this historical context, the Brazilian case proves interesting due to Latin American racism and its sophistication that keeps black and indigenous people in a subordinate condition (Gonzalez, 1984), in addition to the low representativeness of black people in socially privileged places – which refutes the widely accepted myth of racial democracy (Silva, Nova, and Carter 2016). We also highlight the Iberian heritage of a rigid hierarchy associated with a process of social classification that privileges men over women and whites over blacks (Gonzalez 2020). In this context, Brazilian society's constitution regarding the socio-sexual and racial division of labour (Hirata 2004, 2010; Saffioti 1976) – and, therefore, the women's role – differs from Western countries.¹

Regarding sexism, Brazil remains one of the most violent countries. Data shows that violence against women (called feminicide and characterised by Law) is high and keeps growing. It is perpetrated mainly by men who live or have lived with the victims (8 in every 10 cases) and estimates accounting that nearly 10% are reported. According to a report by the Public Security Forum, in the first half of 2022, 699 women were victims of femicide, i.e. an average of four women were killed every day. The report also points out that this figure is 3.2 percent higher than the total number of deaths recorded in the same period last year, when 677 women were murdered.

Alongside sexism and patriarchy, the country is still the heir of a colonial past where women's bodies were objects of exploitation. This is even reinforced in the case of black women who were enslaved. This is why Lelia Gonzalez, one of the most recognised Brazilian Black feminist theorists, said that were only three positions that a black woman could occupy in the Brazilian social imaginary: mucama, ama de leite and mulata (Gonzalez 1984), someone who has the body put at service, being in the domestic chores (mucama), in nurturing and caring for children (ama de leite) or for pleasure (mulata).

These intricacies and complexities of the identity avenues conformed by gender, race and social class, among other social markers, later were consolidated as the intersectionality as proposed by Crenshaw (2002). In the case of Brazil, the colonial past reinforces internally and externally an image of second-class humanity that still haunts us. Instead of being a paradise, created and exported as a racial democracy, it daily confirms that the sins below the Equator are even greater or more numerous. For Lélia Gonzalez (1984, p. 228),

Like any myth, that of racial democracy hides something beyond what it shows. At first glance, we realize that it exerts its symbolic violence, particularly on black women. Because the other side of the carnivalesque deification [mulata] occurs in this woman's daily life, when she is transformed into a domestic servant [mucama or ama de leite].

Our main argument is that this social construction is still present in the daily professional life of a woman in Brazil. Being an accountant or an auditor, a woman will face the challenge of being at the identity crossroads where she is positioned by the social markers for which her professional path will be predefined.

Considering the above, we aim to analyze the perception of Brazilian auditors regarding differences in career development for women and black people. We conducted a survey with Brazilian audit firms of different sizes. The research sample is based on 329 respondents, of which 196 work in Big Four firms and 133 in non-big four firms. Our results reinforce the findings of the existing literature conducted in Western countries, which may indicate that diversity policies designed and adopted by audit firms disregard local context and particularities. Regarding the respondents’ perceptions, we highlight that gender-based differences are so blatant that even men perceive the career as being harder for women. Lastly, our data indicate that medium and small audit firms are perceived as the firms with the main difficulties for non-hegemonic groups to construct their careers. We conclude that Big Four firms have the advantage of acting as globalised companies that (re)produce standardised diversity practices and policies, while medium and small firms have more difficulty developing and implementing diversity policies and actions.

We hope this research contributes to the literature on three fronts: (i) by expanding the theme to cover medium and small-sized companies; (ii) by bringing to the Brazilian scenario the discussion on the perception of differences in the careers of external auditing professionals; and (iii) by contrasting perceptions about the career and the environment for professionals from diverse groups in terms of sex and race/ethnicity. As a practical implication, we conclude that if there is an interest in turning audit into a more just and equitable profession, much has to be changed in auditing careers, even in companies situated to the South of the Equator, so that the sins from elsewhere would not be the same here, sins that were imposed by a conceptualization of races and difference, built based on the colonialism.

2. Literature Review

The sexual and racial division of labour is a key discussion when addressing gendered and racialized dynamics. Previous research claims that the difference between men and women exists due to the physical (biological) differences, while other researchers discard that deterministic, biologistic view and affirm that this division has been historically and socially constructed (Lehman 1992). Based on the different social roles, men and women exercise different tasks and occupy different social places (Haynes 2017; Lehman 1992). In this paper, we adopt the understanding of ‘gender’ as something not determined in biology but rather in a structure of arbitrary designation of positions in a relational field’ (Segato 2018, 24). In sum, the socially constructed differences between men and women relate to the understanding of what it means ‘to be a man/woman’ (Haynes 2017) and is the founding belief of sexism, that is, the social structure that argues men are superior to women and should be responsible for making decisions (hooks 2018).

From a racial perspective, the labour division ‘is a fundamental category for analysing structural racism in the labour market’ (Alves 2022, 213). In this paper, we consider that race ‘refers to a group of people socially defined on the basis of physical characteristics. Race is ‘made’ through a socially creative process’ (Annisette 2020, 532). In sum, race and gender are social constructions that deeply influence our social lives, positioning what is expected from people based on them.

Importantly, both race and gender influence ‘conditions of access and permanence in the job market’ (Kerner and Tavolari 2012, 57). In this sense, workplaces may lead women to feel that their femininity is inferior to masculinity, mainly due to the privileges that men hold over them (Carmona and Ezzamel 2016). In terms of race, Ahmed (2012, 4) argues that organisations, in general, (re)produce whiteness and racism in their everyday practices, making non-white people recognise themselves as strangers and diversity tokens. ‘Whiteness can be a situation we have or are in; when we can name that situation (and even make jokes about it) we recognise each other as strangers to the institution […] We also want there to be more than one; we want not to be the one. Becoming the race person means you are the one who is turned to when race turns up. The very fact of your existence can allow others not to turn up’.

Importantly, racism and sexism have their individual effects but also intersect, producing a matrix of domination (Cho, Crenshaw, and McCall 2013) and providing different accounts challenging ‘woman’ as a universal analytical category. To provide an intersectional look into diversity in the auditing profession, we must recognise ‘the ways in which racism, sexism, and other inequalities work in tandem to corrode everyone’ (Silva 2016, 41). This is especially true for the Brazilian scenario, given the historical and social constitution (Gonzalez 2020). Adopting a feminist theoretical perspective, we argue that audit firms, despite developing and adopting diversity policies, still (re)produce gendered and racialized workplace dynamics, raising the need to adopt an intersectional approach for a deeper understanding of the issue.

2.1. Entrance of Women into the Accounting Professional Market

The accounting profession is considered gendered not only because it is a male-dominated field but also because of its values, practices, and beliefs (Haynes 2017). To analyze the accounting – and auditing – profession as gendered is necessary to understand its history as ‘to conceive the issue of gender [and race] is one of the most complex tasks, and to think about it historically’ (Segato 2018, 20). Accordingly, in this section, we present some historical facts that illustrate some of the accounting profession's gendered practices and values that are sometimes presented subtly.

Lehman (1992) accounts for the ‘herstory’ of women entering the accounting profession. The historical account demonstrates how subtle sexism can sometimes be – when, for example, the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA) declared that it supported the entrance of women into the accounting profession but denied them the possibility of achieving adequate professional qualifications. Moreover, there is evidence of how different social labels impacted this process. In 1911, the associations that collectively represented the accounting class in the United Kingdom discussed the matter. In this first debate, gender was considered alongside class – therefore, from an intersectional perspective – and the argument was made that the entrance into regulated professions should only happen for the middle class and that since middle-class women did not need to work to secure the family's livelihood, the women who would enter would-be lower-class women, which was even less desired. After being put to vote, the motion was rejected by most members (Lehman 1992).

In the period between 1920 and 1980, Lehman (1992) highlights the resistance of businessmen in hiring women, the difficulty of obtaining certifications due to the lack of experience, and the impossibility of working outside of offices as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). In the period between 1940 and 1960, the low representation of women in accounting jobs and the wage gaps were the main challenges to be overcome by women. We highlight, furthermore, that women were still occupying lower positions and that even when they had higher qualifications, they still received lower wages and faced various stereotypes that hindered their entrance into the career.

The historical account provided by Lehman (1992) helps us understand the current scenario of Western countries. In the USA, the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA, 2017) reports that only 23% of the associates in accounting companies are women. Regarding ethnicity, the report states that 95% of the associates are white, 2% are Asian, 2% are Latinos, 0.3% are black, and 0.7% belong to other ethnicities. These data illustrate the everlasting effects of racism and sexism in the accounting profession. In sum, the existing gendered and racialized accounting profession is the result of a historical and social construction.

2.2. The Audit Professional Path: Symbols, Practices, and Dynamics

The auditing profession presents a striking discourse on professional ascension being based purely on meritocracy and sells the idea of a ‘clear path to the top of the career’ with the possibility of becoming not only a manager but also a partner and leader in the company (Empson 2007; Lupu 2012). However, previous research indicates that this discourse is a way of disguising a male worldview, or as proposed by Lima, Casa Nova, and Vendramin (2023): a me(n)ritocraci worldview. In this sense, there is extensive literature (see Egan and Voss 2023) signalling the barriers constructed in the audit firms to prevent professionals pertaining to non-hegemonic groups – like women, black people, and LGBTQIA + individuals – from reaching partnership and managerial positions.

A way of maintaining the ‘male, pale, stale’ image of the audit profession (Egan and Voss 2023) is using symbols to legitimize a specific profile as ‘the true auditor’. Carmona and Ezzamel (2016) affirm that the construction of symbols and images representing certain professions may reinforce or deconstruct some gender barriers. As an example, the authors use the images of accountants on the Internet and assert that men are providers and rational decision-makers, while women are seen as their supporters. Similarly, Duff (2011) analysed the pictures used by UK audit firms in their reports. The findings show that of the 654 pictures analysed, 81% showed a single white person, 6% showed a black person, 11% showed a mixture of black and white people, and 3% did not allow for the identification of the ethnicity of the people shown. In detailing these percentiles, Duff (2011) shows that most pictures of black people are pictures in which white people are also present, while pictures of white people are mainly pictures of lone individuals or pictures of a group of white individuals. Lastly, most pictures of black professionals showed them dressed in more casual outfits and less professional environments. The findings of Duff (2011) and Carmona and Ezzamel (2016) illustrate how audit firms have been working symbolically to maintain the gendered and racialized dynamics of the audit profession.

A key issue discussed in the existing literature is maternity’s impact on women’s professional development and career progression. Haynes (2008a, 344) argues that:

When women accountants are pregnant or in early motherhood, they stand outside the system of legitimation, outside the accounting habitus, as a different socio-political category. The two embodied identities and subjectivities of professional accountant and mother have the potential to clash. Pregnancy can be characterized as an unwelcome intrusion of the fertile body into the professional environment. The female body itself has been seen as the ‘other’ […] Pregnancy marks the cultural and physical undoing of the socialized identity of the accountant and the gender transformation into the identity of mother. Women may be subjected to subtle practices of power questioning their commitment, belonging, and immersion in the accounting context.

The context presented by Haynes (2008a) is found in multiple studies on diversity and audit firms (Dambrin and Lambert 2008; Kokot 2014, 2015; Kokot-Blamey 2021). Overall, the existing literature indicates organisations use motherhood as an excuse not to promote women (Dambrin and Lambert 2008; Haynes 2008a, 2008b), arguing that it has a deep and lasting effect on women’s professional performance and commitment. In this sense, performance review becomes a gendering dynamic as it shifts the ‘clear path to the top of the career’ into a labyrinth for women (Kokot 2014; Lupu 2012).

The construction of maternal bodies as abject and unwelcomed is part of a greater social structure (re)produced by audit firms: sexism. The existing sexism in audit firms shapes the careers and experiences of everyone involved in the profession. It differentiates maternity from paternity (Kokot 2015), establishes an ‘ideal worker’ figure (Castro 2012), and makes auditors from non-hegemonic groups aim for greater performances as a way of compensating for being unwelcomed, strange, and unfit to the male, pale stale image of the profession (Egan and Voss 2023; Lima et al. 2021)

Another strand of research that helps explain women's scarcity in audit firms is understanding the violent and hostile workplace (Lima et al. 2021). Bitbol-Saba and Dambrin (2019) illustrate how the audit-client relationship relies on the sexualization and instrumentalization of women’s bodies, reinforcing stereotypes, masculinity, and sexism. Based on their findings, the authors propose that the relationship between auditor and client should also be under the scope of sexual harassment as a way of holding these social actors accountable for their contribution to the sexist culture of the audit profession.

Considering this scenario, audit firms have been developing and adopting diversity policies. However, previous research questions whether these firms are truly adopting diversity policies or simply capitalising on their rhetoric. Kornberger, Carter, and Ross-Smith (2010) show that even though the practices of flexibilization of work hours aim to overcome the barriers found in women's paths to parenthood, they, in truth, reinforce those barriers because the women who adopted the flexibilization of work hours were seen as not committed enough to their jobs.

Edgley, Sharma, and Anderson-Gough (2016) concluded that despite these companies divulging their diversity practices, they break very little with the power structures because these practices are seen as financial strategies, therefore being tied to the commercial aspect. The authors highlight the importance of the Big Four adopting diversity practices because these companies have enough representativity to shape and change the image and the profile that is expected of auditing professionals, mainly via the companies’ selection processes. Finally, the authors highlight that these companies have historically preferred homogeneity in their professionals’ profiles, with factors such as the ability to ‘fit in’, to work many hours, and ethical commitment to their clients being determinant factors for success.

In sum, based on Kornberger, Carter, and Ross-Smith (2010) and Edgley, Sharma, and Anderson-Gough (2016) studies, we sustain that companies are using diversity policies as business cases instruments and not challenging the social injustice that (re)produces the gendered and racialized dynamics. Aligned with this argument, previous research indicates that firms with more women among their personnel receive higher fees (Ittonen and Peni 2012) and provide audit services with higher quality (Cameran, Ditillo, and Pettinicchio 2018), providing meaningful justifications for audit firms to use diversity policies as business cases. Therefore, policies of inclusion seem to pertain more to economic and commercial interests than to social interests or the promotion of organisational justice and equity of opportunities (Edgley, Sharma, and Anderson-Gough 2016; Kornberger, Carter, and Ross-Smith 2010). In this manner, ‘accounting firms have therefore embraced diversity agenda but still presents challenges in implementation’ (Paisey et al. 2020, 70).

2.3. The Brazilian Scenario

The historical account Lehman (1992) provided illustrates the gendered accounting professional constitution for Western countries. Despite the Brazilian scenario not having an extensive historical mapping similar to Lehman (1992), there is some evidence regarding the gendered/sexist practices (Casa Nova 2022; Lima, Casa Nova, and Vendramin 2023).

According to the Federal Council of Accounting ([Conselho Federal de Contabilidade²] CFC, 2022), there are 527,404 accounting professionals registered in the CFC, of which 42.8% are women and 57.2% are men. There is no information on the distribution of professionals according to race/ethnicity. Data from the Brazilian Auditors Institute (Ibracon 2017) accounts for 1441 associates, 931 of which are auditors. The report also registers 117 auditing firms associated with the Institute. The report has no information on the distribution of associates by gender or race/ethnicity.

Specifically, in the audit context, data from PwC shows that in 2015, only 10% of the partners were female, while 54% of the associates were women. Compared to data from 2020, there are some advances regarding women’s presence at the top of the audit career (directors and partners), but it is clear that there is a gender pipeline. The data relative to the participation of women in the hierarchical levels of PwC Brazil are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Participation of women in the hierarchical levels of PwC Brasil.

Hierarchical level	2015	2020
Partner	10%	17%
Director	21%	33%
Senior Manager	36%	45%
Manager	48%	43%
Senior Associate	49%	54%
Associate	54%	55%

Source: PwC Brasil.

In terms of race, black people in Brazil remain underrepresented despite being the numerical majority in the Brazilian population (Silva, Nova, and Carter 2016). In Brazilian accounting, Silva (2016) asserts that the accounting discourse denies black women their professional identity as licensed professionals through three kinds of discrimination: for being women, for being black and, in numerous cases, for being a black woman; in other words, for the intersection of prejudices relative to gender, race, and social stratum. Regarding the audit accounting and audit context, the silence about racism and racialized practices/exclusion still persists (Annisette 2003): there is no official data neither from the audit firms or the accounting regulatory bodies.

Lopes and Lima (2022) use the per capita income to materialise and account for the intersectional differences in the Brazilian context. The data used by the authors demonstrate that the difference between the incomes of the white and black populations is about 45%. Comparing the income of men and women, the difference is about 7.40%. Lastly, observing the intersectional difference between white men and black women is about 103.2%. In conclusion, the Brazilian context provides a meaningful site to discuss diversity and inclusion policies because of its structural oppressions.

3. Methodological Trajectory

To analyze the perception of Brazilian auditors about their professional paths, we have adopted a quantitative approach, using a survey questionnaire as the research instrument for data collection. Paradigmatically, we position the paper into the critical accounting realm (Gendron 2018; Richardson 2015) as we deal with issues related to power dynamics – mainly gender and racial discrimination.

3.1. Research Strategy and Data Collection

Our methodological strategy was conducting a web survey. We chose this strategy because of its advantages and possibilities, mainly because it enables access to individual Brazilian auditors’ perceptions and guarantees their anonymity. Conducting web surveys does have some negative points, such as the self-selection bias of the respondents (Smith 2022). To mitigate that risk, we contacted the research participants via LinkedIn, therefore ensuring their professional role as auditors. We note that in Brazilian accounting research, previous studies have adopted a similar strategy (Marcos, Vogt, and Cunha 2017), highlighting the potential to increase the sample size. We manually searched LinkedIn using the audit firms’ names to map the possible respondents, that is, based on the person’s affiliation to an audit firm they were invited to engage with the questionnaire. During this phase, we targeted a large and diverse audience to guarantee perceptions from different profiles.

After this initial mapping, we utilised the LimeSurvey platform for data collection, sending an invitation to the research to the contacts collected from LinkedIn. To ensure respondents could only answer the survey once, we created exclusive access codes to each email sent. The data collection process followed the Total Design Method (Dillman 2007). Overall, 1,156 emails were sent, and 329 valid questionnaire answers were received, totaling a response rate of 28.46%.

3.2. Research Instrument and Analysis Procedures

The questionnaire used in this research was developed specifically for this study. The main source for developing this instrument was the existing literature, which was complemented by informal conversations with auditing professionals regarding the theme. To validate the instrument, the questionnaire was sent to auditors, both former and currently in service, so that they could analyze and comment on whether any new questions could be added and whether the questionnaire resonated with their experiences.

The questionnaire is structured into four sections. The first section includes questions about the respondent's personal, educational, and familial profiles. The second one deals with aspects of their career and professions. The third section contains questions related to the quality of life and turnover. The fourth section focuses on their perception of the auditing career (e.g. career planning, gendered dynamics, diversity policies, etc.). The third and fourth sections were composed of affirmations that must be answered with an indication of (dis)agreement on a Likert five-point scale. At the end of the questionnaire, there was an optional space for additional considerations by the respondents, some of which are presented in our analysis of the results aiming to complement the analysis of the quantitative data.

For the quantitative analysis, we conducted Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric statistical tests to compare a dependent variable, measured on at least an ordinal level, based on stratification for different groups. In this research, the groupings were related to gender, race, and hierarchical position at the individual level, and for the firms, we divided them into (i) Big Four companies (PwC, KPMG, EY, Deloitte); (ii) large and medium-sized auditing companies which are not Big Four (BDO, Grant Thornton, RSM, Baker Tilly, Mazars, Moore Stephens); and (iii) other companies, mainly small ones. For the qualitative analysis, we conducted a content analysis on all the comments written at the end of the questionnaire to complement the quantitative results.

3.3. Research Sample

Our sample consists of 329 valid questionnaires. We present our sample demographic characteristics in Table 2. The sample mainly consists of male professionals from the Southeast region. The number of females respondents being close to the males respondents is due to the researchers’ efforts to ensure expressive contact with women who work in the area.

Table 2. Respondents demographics.

Personal characteristic		Fi	Fi (%)	Cumulative Frequency
Age	20 years old and below	1	0.3%	0.3%
	21–30 years old	244	74.2%	74.5%
	31–40 years old	60	18.2%	92.7%
	41–50 years old	18	5.5%	98.2%
	51–60 years old	4	1.2%	99.4%
	Over 60 years old	2	0.6%	100.0%
Race	Asian	14	4.3%	4.3%
	White	237	72.0%	76.3%
	Indigenous	1	0.3%	76.6%
	Black	20	6.1%	82.7%
	Mixed-race of black and white descent	57	17.3%	100.0%
Sex	Male	175	53.2%	53.2%
	Female	154	46.8%	100.0%
Region	North and Midwest	12	3.6%	3.6%
	Northeast	22	6.7%	10.3%
	Southeast	254	77.2%	87.5%
	South	41	12.5%	100.0%

Source: Research data.

Note: The answers refer to the respondent's self-designation in a binary system, which can limit other expressions and identities.

Noteworthy, according to the Census conducted by Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística [IBGE – Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute], the Brazilian population in 2022 was composed of 43,5% white, 45,3% Mixed-race of black and white descent, 10,2% black, 0.6% Asians, and 0.4% Indigenous. In this sense, our sample illustrates the whiteness of audit firms and their racialized bias.

We present the respondents’ education characteristics in Table 3. We notice a predominance of accounting as the major undergraduate degree (almost 85%), complemented by an MBA course (65,3%). The Brazilian regulatory context can explain the predominance of accounting undergraduates. The Conselho Federal de Contabilidade demands an undergraduate degree in accounting before applying for a professional license. For the MBA, a possible explanation is the CFC demands of continued education programmes.

Table 3. Academic training of respondents.

Academic Degree		Fi	Fi (%)	Cumulative Frequency
Undergraduate	Accounting	279	84.8%	84.8%
	Administration	33	10.0%	94.8%
	Economy	12	3.6%	98.5%
	Engineering (any)	0	0	98.5%
	IT	0	0	98.5%
	Others	5	1.5%	100.0%
MBA	Accounting and Auditing	129	39.2%	39.2%
	Controllership and Finances	52	15.8%	55.0%
	General administration and other specific areas	23	7.0%	62.0%
	Others	11	3.3%	65.3%
	None	114	34.7%	100.0%
Master's	None	326	99.09%	99.09%
	Accounting	1	0.30%	99.39%
	Other areas	2	0.61%	100.00%

Source: Research data.

Overall, the profile of the average respondents is male (53.2%), white (72%), between 21 and 30 years old (74.2%), holding an accounting undergraduate degree and an MBA related to either accounting or finance.

4. Empirical Findings

4.1. Hierarchical Profile: Who is at the Top of the Career?

As previously discussed, audit firms claim to have a ‘clear path to the top of the career’ that has been challenged by previous research (e.g. Lupu 2012). To analyze this matter in the Brazilian context, we asked our respondents to answer some questions to characterise their hierarchical level and experience. Initially, we asked how long the participants had been working as external auditors and what kind of company they currently worked for (Table 4).

Table 4. Professional experience and which kind of company they work for.

		Fi	Fi (%)
Professional experience	Up to a year	20	6.1%
	Over a year up to 3 years	88	26.7%
	Over 3 years up to 5 years	88	26.7%
	Over 5 years up to 10 years	85	25.8%
	Over 10 years up to 15 years	24	7.3%
	Over 15 years up to 20 years	9	2.7%
	Over 20 years	15	4.6%
Respondent firm	Big Four (PWC, KPMG, EY, Deloitte)	196	59.57%
	Large and medium-sized companies	104	31.61%
	Other companies	29	8.81%

Source: Research data.

As observed in Table 4, there is a predominance of auditors with up to 10 years of a career (85.4%). This fact is explained in the literature by the high staff turnover rate due to factors related mainly to the low quality of life experienced by auditing (Hermanson et al. 2016) and the ‘up or out’ culture (Lupu and Empson 2015). Regarding which kind of company, the respondents work for, almost 60% of them work for Big Four companies, which is explained by their high market representativity.

Regarding the analysis of the hierarchical configuration, we asked participants about their hierarchical position in the company. Despite being a very heterogeneous career path, each company adopts different names for the hierarchical positions. To ensure our questionnaire could adequately reflect the career planning for all the firms, we questioned the respondents about the distance, in hierarchical levels, between their current position and the partner (Graph 1).

Graph 1. Gendered hierarchical positionings. Source: Research data.

As presented in Graph 1, women represent most respondents in lower levels (4, 5, or more hierarchical levels below their partner), while men represent the majority of respondents who are or are close to being partners. To test the significance of these results, we adopted the Chi-square test, which had a level of significance of 1% (p-value <0.01). Accordingly, we can affirm that there are significant differences in the proportion of men and women in the different hierarchical levels of the career, corroborating the studies of Lupu (2012), Kokot (2015), and Cruz et al. (2018) and showing that women still do not occupy the higher positions in the hierarchy of auditing firms.

Some respondents – with different personal and professional backgrounds – provided personal accounts at the end of the questionnaire that shed some light on the matter and help us understand this reality. Overall, the comments highlight maternity as an important matter, reinforcing the existing literature (Haynes 2008a, 2008b; Kokot 2014, 2015) and the unequal impact of maternity and paternity.

The job market, in general, is more complicated for women because of maternity, and it would not be different in auditing. Many [female] colleagues chose to quit auditing due to the excessive work hours and badly planned trips. Because of this, we see more men in higher positions than women. (Female auditor, white, non-Big Four large company, 3–5 years of experience)

Auditing firms are still sexist and still believe that men are more practical and don't have any deterrents like marriage or children hindering their career development. (Female auditor, white, non-Big Four large company, more than 10 years of experience)

This different impact of maternity and paternity illustrates the sexual division of labour and how it is imposed mainly on women. Accounting plays an important role in providing performance review and management techniques and capturing the social reality into numbers and information (Hines, 1988) for decision-making. Given the ‘up or out’ (Lupu and Empson 2015) culture in audit firms, performance review, and management should be aware of caring responsibilities for all individuals, however, as it has been based on a me(n)ritocratic view (Lima, Casa Nova, and Vendramin 2023), caring is ignored, and carers are professionally penalised by it. Another respondent highlighted that sexism structurally pervades audit firms, not only relating to maternity and caring responsibilities but also differentiating masculine and feminine characteristics and stereotypes.

Professional growth in the Big Four is accelerated, and for that, there's also a high demand. Internally, it is said that what an employee of other companies takes three years to learn, a Big Four employee learns in one. It's no coincidence that we work from Sunday to Sunday with no start or finish times, and often there's no recognition of that and it ends up becoming an obligation. A week ago, I was fired, just returning from my maternity leave. In the Big Four, there's no space for social life. (Female auditor, white, Big Four, 5–10 years of experience).

Based on the quantitative and qualitative data, we notice that audit firms remain gendered organisations adopting gendering techniques that prevent women from reaching their full potential and career top. In this sense, it is clear how gender plays an important role in becoming an audit professional, ‘not by essence but by accumulated historical experience’ (Segato 2018, 15). To complement this view, we adopt an intersection approach and present in Table 5 the intersectional distribution for the hierarchical positions. We notice that the hierarchical distribution changes drastically when gender and race are jointly taken into account.

Based on Table 5, we notice that white and black men are represented in all career levels and only Asian men stopped 2 levels below the partner. For women, the scenario is the other way around: only Asian women are represented at the partner level, and black women rank the lowest in the hierarchical pyramid, reaching only 3 levels below the partner. In this sense, we sustain that the career progression in Brazilian audit firms is not only gendered but also racialized, having a deeper impact on black women’s professional development and advancement.

Table 5. Intersectional hierarchical position.

Hierarchical Position	White				Asian				Black
	Male		Female		Male		Female		Male		Female
	Fi (%)	n	Fi (%)	n	Fi (%)	n	Fi (%)	n	Fi (%)	n	Fi (%)	n
Partner	16%	20	0%	0	0%	0	20%	2	2%	1	0%	0
1 level below	13%	16	10%	11	0%	0	10%	1	8%	4	0%	0
2 levels below	16%	20	16%	18	25%	1	20%	2	27%	13	0%	0
3 levels below	23%	28	23%	26	50%	2	10%	1	20%	10	10%	3
4 levels below	14%	17	17%	19	25%	1	0%	0	16%	8	41%	12
5 levels below	17%	21	36%	41	0%	0	40%	4	27%	13	48%	41
Total	100%	122	100%	115	100%	4	100%	10	100%	49	100%	56

Source: Research data.

4.2. Is Auditing a Men’s World?

The second part of our questionnaire had questions regarding career plans, feeling valued, and the (dis)balance between family and professional life. With these questions, we aimed to analyze how respondents perceive their career planning and some dynamics related to the sexual division of labour.

Based on the data presented in Table 6, we notice that the affirmation with the highest degree of agreement is related to the pressures in the sense of constantly proving their professional value and competency. Previous literature (see Lima et al. 2021) argues that the pressure is felt deeper by non-hegemonic professionals as they are socially constructed as the other, always feeling they have to perform better than their peers as a way of being legitimised and included. The affirmations with the highest disagreement were the ones relating to current plans of changing careers due to maternity/paternity and those about conciliating personal and professional lives. This challenges the promise of a ‘clear path to the top’ advertised by audit firms (Empson 2007), especially when taking into account maternity/paternity.

Table 6. Frequency distribution of the questions.

Affirmation	Frequency
	5	4	3	2	1
I feel valued in the position I work in	16.11%	45.29%	12.16%	19.76%	6.69%
I intend to follow the career plan until I become partner/senior	19.45%	27.36%	18.54%	15.20%	19.45%
I think I will be able to follow my career plan within my planning	21.58%	42.25%	22.49%	7.60%	6.08%
I feel pressured by goals, deadlines, etc.	44.07%	38.30%	10.94%	5.47%	1.22%
I feel I constantly need to prove my value	56.23%	28.88%	9.42%	4.56%	0.91%
I feel that my colleagues of the opposite sex constantly need to prove their value and competency	23.10%	15.81%	25.23%	14.89%	20.97%
I am able to conciliate my professional and personal lives	6.08%	34.95%	14.89%	32.22%	11.85%
I believe that my colleagues of the opposite sex are able to conciliate their professional and personal lives	4.26%	23.71%	27.96%	28.27%	15.81%
Currently, I would change careers in order to be able to dedicate myself to maternity/paternity	8.51%	15.50%	23.40%	17.63%	34.95%
In the future, I would change careers in order to dedicate myself to maternity/paternity	30.40%	28.27%	14.29%	11.25%	15.81%

Source: Research data.

To analyze if social groups feel these questions differently, we conducted the Chi-square test to the answers to the questions above. In addition to possible differences between the sexes, we also tested whether the pressures felt were related to career stages and race, as shown in Table 7.

Table 7. Career planning and advancement.

Affirmation	Chi-square
	Sex	Hierarchy	Race
I feel valued in the position I work in	0.147	0.0000***	0,395
I intend to follow the career plan until I become partner/senior	0.0000***	0.0000***	0,427
I think I will be able to follow my career plan within my planning	0.0070***	0.0070***	0,035**
I feel pressured by goals, deadlines, etc.	0.446	0.895	0,268
I feel I constantly need to prove my value	0.243	0.946	0,948
I feel that my colleagues of the opposite sex constantly need to prove their value and competency	0.311	0.878	0,053*
I am able to conciliate my professional and personal lives	0.366	0.0020***	0,021**
I believe that my colleagues of the opposite sex are able to conciliate their professional and personal lives	0.762	0.258	0,1
Currently, I would change careers in order to be able to dedicate myself to maternity/paternity	0.269	0.491	0,331
In the future, I would change careers in order to dedicate myself to maternity/paternity	0.0260**	0.0020***	0,851

Source: Research data.

Note: *** shows statistical significance at a level of 1%; ** shows statistical significance at a level of 5%; * shows statistical significance at a level of 10%.

Furthermore, we observed that the questions about career planning and the ones about changing careers to dedicate themselves to maternity/paternity presented statistically significant differences. This result corroborates that of Kokot (2015), in which women perceive that it is expected of them to choose between familial and professional life while men do not feel that pressure, reinforcing the idea that women are responsible for caring for the family while men's role is to provide for the family; in other words, a very traditional perception regarding the social roles of men and women. In this sense, Brazilian audit firms (re)produce the sexual division of labour.

Regarding the hierarchical level, we noticed that there is a statistically significant difference for most of the questions, showing that most of the factors listed, especially those related to the balance between personal and professional life, are related to the hierarchical position of the respondent. Lastly, regarding race, we observe significant differences in the questions about career planning and work-life balance. Furthermore, the difference may result from the socialisation process, naturalisation of the pressure, and ‘up or out’ culture (Lupu and Empson 2015).

The different perceptions between white and black people may be explained because of the low representation of black people in higher hierarchical positions. The issue of low representativity can be faced with a message or sign that black people do not reach such positions, thus influencing the perception of black people at other hierarchical levels. As a result of the underrepresentation of black people, thus, they may feel that they will not reach top positions since they’re not the ‘partner type/ideal worker’ (Reid, 2015), they are made strangers in the organisation (Ahmed 2012).

4.3. Harassment and Discrimination

To maintain the sexism and racism in place, the hegemonic group tends to use violence as a way to (re)produce these oppression systems (hooks 2018), especially to reproduce the conqueror ideal established by masculinity and whiteness (Segato 2018). Adding to the previous research that documented gendered-based violence in the audit profession (Bitbol-Saba and Dambrin 2019), the Brazilian setting is one of the most violent countries towards women and black people (Lima et al. 2022). For these reasons, we asked the participants about their experiences and their perceptions of harassment and discrimination.

Building on Bitbol-Saba and Dambrin’s (2019) result, we expand the view on harrassment to include auditor-client interactions. In this case, our data shows that only about a quarter (26%) of our respondents have suffered some case of harassment, while more than half of the respondents (57%) are aware of someone who has suffered either sexual or moral harassment from a client. Regarding the relationship with the supervisor, 34% of the respondents argue that they have suffered some case of harassment, and 59% of the respondents are aware of harassment cases. In this context, harassment may be related to the hierarchical/power structure within auditing companies. Lastly, less than half of the respondents have suffered or are aware of some harassment cases between colleagues, reinforcing the idea that harassment is used as a power strategy to maintain the hierarchy Table 8.

Table 8. Frequency distribution of the questions about harassment.

Affirmation	Frequency
	5	4	3	2	1
I have suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a client	10%	16%	11%	9%	54%
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a client	28%	29%	13%	7%	23%
I have suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a supervisor	15%	19%	9%	4%	53%
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a supervisor	34%	25%	9%	4%	29%
I have suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a colleague	12%	11%	12%	9%	55%
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from another colleague	24%	21%	13%	5%	37%

Source: Research data.

Note: The scale used ranges from ‘1 – Completely Disagree’ to ‘5 – Completely Agree’.

In agreement with Segato (2018), we maintain that harassment is more than violence. It is a communication device to reaffirm a social group's dominance, to communicate and teach society about their power, value, prestige, and territorialisation. In this sense, ‘violence is the cement that keeps the edifice of asymmetries standing, the atmosphere in which we have learned to live’ (Segato 2018, 61).

To look further into the differences in the questions about harassment, we applied the Chi-square test, separating answers by sex, type of company, hierarchical level and race, as shown in Table 9. Our findings show that when separating the respondents according to sex, all three questions about having suffered harassment present statistical significance, corroborating the idea that harassment is a gendered dynamic. On the type of firm, none of the questions showed statistical significance. Regarding the hierarchy, though, the question about suffering harassment from clients presented high statistical significance, which may be explained as a result of the sexualization processes of women’s bodies (Bitbol-Saba and Dambrin 2019). Considering that the lower women are placed in the hierarchy, the higher the danger of being harassed by clients is another factor in the sexist structure of audit firms and helps us to understand the construction of women scarcity (Dambrin and Lambert 2008).

Table 9. Harassment stratification.

Affirmation	Chi-square
	Sex	Company	Hierarchy	Race
I have suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a customer	0.066*	0.457	0.009***	0.297
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a customer	0.249	0.853	0.488	0.845
I have suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a supervisor	0.040**	0.382	0.779	0.303
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a supervisor	0.23	0.487	0.901	0.368
I have suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from a colleague	0.046**	0.265	0.562	0.766
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered harassment (moral/sexual) from another colleague	0.12	0.848	0.947	0.489

Source: Research data.

Furthermore, considering the racial democracy myth, Table 10 displays the perception of discrimination and the statistical testing to see whether there are significant differences based on the respondent’s race. Overall, we observe that most of the participants stated that they had not suffered any kind of discrimination, which resulted in no difference regarding race. However, it is possible that the participants may have suffered from discriminatory practices but are not aware of that since discrimination happens in subtle ways.

Table 10. Discrimination perceptions.

Affirmation	5	4	3	2	1	Race
I've suffered discrimination from some client	7.60%	15.81%	12.46%	9.12%	55.02%	0.307
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered discrimination from a client	17.33%	24.62%	12.16%	7.29%	38.60%	0.707
I've suffered discrimination from some supervisor	6.38%	12.46%	12.16%	7.90%	61.09%	0.546
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered of discrimination from a supervisor	18.54%	18.54%	11.55%	7.60%	43.77%	0.977
I've suffered discrimination from another colleague	6.69%	9.73%	13.68%	7.60%	62.31%	0.384
I'm aware of a colleague having suffered of discrimination from another colleague	13.07%	17.02%	13.68%	9.12%	47.11%	0.695

Source: Research data. Note: *** shows statistical significance at a level of 1%; ** shows statistical significance at a level of 5%; * shows statistical significance at a level of 10%.

Note: The scale used ranges from ‘1 – Completely Disagree’ to ‘5 – Completely Agree’.

4.4. Wage Gaps, Career Differences, and Retention Policies

The last section of our questionnaire focused on understanding the wage gap, the overall perception of the career, and the retention policies adopted by the firms.

Considering sexist violence as an enunciation act (Segato 2018), we sustain the wage gap as an economic gendered violence that communicates to women that they are not as valuable as men in the profession. In addition to the wage gap, we analyze an overall perception of the career: Is the auditing career harder for women? Specifically, the Likert scale was changed to seven points for these questions. The closer a respondent's answer is to 1, the more they believe that men have higher wages/the career is harder for men; close to 4, they believe there is no wage gap/the career is equally difficult for both sexes; and the closest to 7, they believe women have higher wages/the career is harder for women.

Based on Table 11, we note that over 90% of the men believe that there is no wage gap. Women believe a wage gap benefits men (30,2%), and only a small portion of men acknowledge the wage gap (8%). The average grade found for the wage gap issue was 3.6, leaning towards men having higher salaries. The average grade for the issue of difficulty in the career was 5.7, representing a perception of a higher difficulty for women. We found that the smaller the company, the greater the perception regarding wage gaps. The average grade decreased from 3.77 in Big Four companies to 3.21 in small auditing companies. Regarding hierarchy, the average for those in the higher career levels was 3.71, while for the lower career levels, it was 3.54. Lastly, similar to our results, Brighenti, Jacomossi, and da Silva (2015) demonstrate that, overall, although women have similar or higher levels of education than men, their average pay is still lower, indicating an endemic situation of wage gap.

Table 11. Wage gap and career perception by sex.

Is there a wage gap between men and women?	Sex of the respondent		Is the auditing career harder for women?	Sex of the respondent
	Male	Female		Male	Female
Men's salaries are higher	2.9%	15.6%	Career is harder for men	0.57%	0.65%
2	0.0%	5.2%	2	1.71%	0.00%
3	5.1%	9.7%	3	1.14%	0.65%
There is no wage gap	90.9%	68.2%	Equally hard to both	28.00%	12.34%
5	0.6%	1.3%	5	26.86%	9.09%
6	0.0%	0.0%	6	20.00%	17.53%
Women's salaries are higher	0.6%	0.0%	Career is harder for women	21.71%	59.74%
Average	3.89	3.34	Average	5.30	6.20
Sex	Mann-Whitney	0.000***	Sex	Mann-Whitney	0.000***
Type of company	Kruskal-Wallis	0.001***
Hierarchical position	Kruskal-Wallis	0.059*

Source: Research data.

Note: *** shows statistical significance at a level of 1%; ** shows statistical significance at a level of 5%; * shows statistical significance at a level of 10%.

From the statistical testing, we notice that this perception varies according to the respondent’s sex, the kind of company they work for, and their hierarchical level within that company. In this sense, we see that women are aware of that message and economic violence, while men are not – or are in denial. Regarding the difference between Big Four Firms and smaller-than-Big-Four-Firms, we argue that given the magnitude of the firms, the wage gap within Big Four Firms sometimes can be disguised among variable pay arrangements, while on the smaller firms, there is a higher proximity between the auditors that can find out each other’s payment and see the gap.

When questioned whether the auditing career is harder for women or men, regardless of gender, respondents recognised it as being harder for women. However, women showed a higher degree of agreement, resulting in a statistically significant difference. Lastly, adding all the discussion, the following statements help us to understand better the structural differences between men and women in audit firms.

There are no wage gaps, but men are more well-regarded in the auditing career. (Female auditor, white, non-Big Four large companies, over 10 years of experience)

I don't think there is a wage gap; what happens is that it's easier for a man to reach the position of a partner than it is for a woman. Auditing is a very sexist area, and because of that, the pressure on women ends up being higher because they need to adapt to a different treatment […] Anyway, there are many factors behind that issue of difference between men and women in the auditing area, and it begins up high, with the partner. (Female auditor, white, non-Big Four large company, 1–3 years of experience)

Based on both accounts, we notice that the sexist structure of the audit firms adds one violence to the other, creating a cycle of violence: the sexual division of the labor produces the ideal worker; the ideal worker gets promoted and reproduces its performance metrics that prevents women from reaching top and managerial positions; as women do not progress on their career the wage gap is deepened; adding all the violence most of the women decides to leave the career, and because of that, audit firms remain a men’s world. Accordingly, to have an effective change, the audit career needs to be restructured.

Questioned on the existence of policies to support women’s retention in the organisation, around 51% answered that these policies exist in the company where they work. However, it is important to note that 86.2% of the Big Four respondents indicated the existence of such policies, versus 9.6% of those from non-Big Four large companies and 17.2% of those from small auditing companies. In other words, these policies are largely restricted to Big Four companies. From these results, we analysed the perception of those who said the policy exists in their company regarding its effectiveness (Table 12), and the perception of the need for such a policy for those whose companies do not have any such policies (Table 13).

Table 12. Analysis of the effectiveness of retention policies.

Affirmation	Male respondents					Female respondents
	5	4	3	2	1	5	4	3	2	1
I believe those policies are efficient	3.49%	12.79%	22.09%	37.21%	24.42%	3.61%	37.35%	27.71%	22.89%	8.43%
I believe my colleagues of the same sex as mine believe that the policy's results are efficient	4.00%	13.00%	25.00%	42.00%	16.00%	5.95%	34.52%	28.57%	22.62%	8.33%
I believe that my colleagues of the opposite sex believe that the policy's results are efficient	4.00%	14.00%	26.00%	40.00%	16.00%	10.71%	34.52%	32.14%	16.67%	5.95%

Source: Research data.

Table 13. Analysis of the need for retention policies for companies which do not have any.

Affirmation	Male respondents					Female respondents
	5	4	3	2	1	5	4	3	2	1
I believe a policy should be created	26.7%	20.0%	28.0%	6.7%	18.7%	34.3%	22.9%	18.6%	7.1%	17.1%
I believe that my colleagues of the same sex as mine believe such a policy should be created	17.33%	9.33%	41.33%	21.33%	10.67%	30.00%	21.43%	32.86%	7.14%	8.57%
I believe my colleagues of the opposite sex believe such a policy should be created	13.33%	4.00%	32.00%	20.00%	30.67%	8.57%	12.86%	47.14%	10.00%	21.43%

Source: Research data.

As observed in Table 12, women perceive the effectivity of such policies as higher and believe that their colleagues also see the effectivity of these policies. Male respondents, however, in addition to not seeing these policies as effective, believe that their colleagues, both male and female, also do not see effectivity in these policies’ results. In the statistical analysis, we identified a statistically significant difference between the sexes for the second and third questions (p-value <0.10). To get a deeper understanding of this scenario, we present some statements from the respondents.

Even [though I am] aware that there is a sexist culture behind the career, on which is based the belief that the career is more adequate for men – which can be observed in how there are more male partners than female partners in the organization – I don't believe that women retention policies would be useful in changing this culture. In the organization where I work, I haven't seen any dismissals or promotions that were biased by the sex of the professional. During the time in which I was in the company, I only saw one case in which the professional was fired. Usually, the professionals themselves placed their resignation (Female auditor, white, non-Big Four large company, over 10 years of experience)

This statement is useful to illustrate how subtle the gendered dynamics are. At the same time the respondent accounts for ‘no dismissals or promotions that were biased by the sex of the professional’ she acknowledges the existence of a glass ceiling and a sexist culture. This invisibility and opacity of the gendered practices support its (re)production as

[t]he main strategy of power is opacity and concealment, and the codes and agreements between those who share its privileges lack transparency, cannot be seen, verified and much less ‘ethnographed’. The way in which power pacts and decides is inaccessible to those outside its narrow circle. (Segato 2018, 68)

One of the respondents highlighted the importance of acknowledging the firms’ individual cultures. In this sense, it is important to consider that the Big Four Firms, despite being treated as a homogenous group, have their differences that deeply influence the professional development of their auditors. Accordingly, future research can acknowledge and investigate the differences further.

It is very important to highlight that the internal culture of each company is different, so even among the Big Four, there are those that are more inclusive and even have programs aimed at encouraging women to take up leadership roles, and there are [firms] which aren't inclusive in the least. (Male auditor, Big Four, over 3 years of experience)

Lastly, considering the firms that do not have any retention policy, we questioned the respondents if they think these policies are important and effective. In Table 13, we present the data regarding respondents’ perception of the need for such a policy for those whose companies do not have any such policies.

Upon analyzing the perception of the professionals from companies which do not have such policies, as shown in Table 13, men are indifferent to the creation of such policies, while women believe them to be necessary but notice that their male colleagues are indifferent to the creation of these policies. Given the Chi-square test, we found statistically significant differences between the sexes, on a level of 5% (p-value < 0.05) for the first question and 1% (p-value < 0.01) for the second. Based on these results, we argue that men are not fully aware of the retention policies’ importance and effectiveness, yet they remain in managerial roles designing and applying the policies firms adopt. Consequently, the lack of women in managerial positions is a gendered and gendering issue.

5. Final Remarks

Given the importance of diversity for society, audit firms – whether based on social justice or business case – have been developing and adopting diversity policies to include non-hegemonic groups. Despite being a well-established topic of interest in Western countries, Latin-American experiences remain silenced. Furthermore, the existing literature tends to focus heavily on Big Four Firms. Based on this scenario, we analysed the perception of Brazilian auditors regarding differences in career development for women and black people.

Theoretically, we engaged with the previous literature to provide an account of the Brazilian case and drew upon feminist theory concepts – such as gender, race, and the sexual division of labor – to grasp an understanding of how gendered and racialized dynamics influence the Big Four Firms and non-Big Four Firms. Methodologically, we conducted a web survey with a sample of 329 respondents. The questionnaire was written based on literature and on informal conversations with auditing professionals about the subject. We left a space in the questionnaire for optional considerations by the respondents as a way of allowing for reflections and reports of personal experiences regarding the theme. The data analysed showed that in the perception of men and women regarding aspects of the career, salary, and harassment; and finally, the proportion of men and women in the various hierarchical levels of the career. The respondents show the existence of differentiations that were indicated by women and, oftentimes, confirmed by men themselves. It is important to note that there was a smaller perception of gender differences mainly in the Big Four.

Our results confirm the main argument that the Brazilian social construction is still present in the daily professional life of an auditor. Therefore, they face the challenge of being at the crossroads of identity, where they are positioned by the social markers for which their professional paths are predefined. Brazilian female auditors face the triple discrimination of being women and, even more so, of being black women, of being subjected to sexist and racist violence and of ultimately being expelled from a career that is doomed to reproduce itself. Much needs to be changed so that the sins of other places are not the same as those South of the Equator. Many of them leave the career so that they can conciliate their profession with their maternity and family roles. They are mulatas having their bodies subjected to harrasment and discrimination. But they end being amas de leite and mucamas, leaving the profession to dedicate themselves to their families.

We hope our findings can add to the literature in three ways: (i) by expanding the theme to cover medium and small-sized companies; (ii) by bringing to the Brazilian scenario the discussion on the perception of differences in the careers of external auditing professionals; and (iii) by contrasting perceptions about the career and the environment for professionals from diverse groups in terms of sex and race. We sustain that studies naming and illustrating oppressive dynamics are important because ‘[w]ithout naming gender and without naming race, we will not be able to talk about the forms of differentiated treatment that reproduce inequality, nor will we be able, for example, to put into practice ‘positive discrimination’ as an instrument for leveling and repairing negative discrimination’ (Segato 2018, 61).

As for the limitations of this research, we highlight the fact that the survey was a web survey, with the possibility of comprehension problems regarding the questions, as well as possible lack or excess of motivation for the respondents. On the other hand, given the intensity of the daily work rhythm of these professionals, we suspect that other data collection strategies would have a very high chance of failing and not reaching the response level that we obtained. As a suggestion for future studies, this research could also be applied to internal auditors to evaluate whether there are differences between the two jobs. The qualitative study of perceptions, perspectives, and possibilities may also bring meaning to the numbers obtained here. Another interesting possibility is collecting the professional experiences of retired auditors.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this paper, we understand Western countries in the same sense as Komori (2008, p. 508) in which she stated that “[h]owever, existing research deals almost exclusively with the situation in the UK, the USA and Australia, where the accounting professions are well-entrenched and powerful and in all of which there are well-established feminist movements”.

2 The Federal Accounting Council [CFC] is responsible for guiding, regulating, and supervising the exercise of the accounting profession. Its tasks include: deciding on possible penalties for irregular exercise of the profession; regulating accounting principles, the Sufficiency Examination, the technical qualification register, and continuing education programs; and issuing Brazilian Accounting Standards of a technical and professional nature.