Gender Differences in the Scholarly Activities of Accounting Academics: An Empirical Investigation.

Abstract This study investigates the relationship of gender to the career entry experiences, scholarly activities, and academic progress of accounting faculty. The sample included 139 accounting faculty members all of whom received doctoral degrees in 1981. With regard to career entry experiences, analysis revealed that men and women were equally likely to attend research-oriented doctoral programs, publish prior to receiving doctorates, and accept first employment at research-oriented institutions. Regarding scholarly activity, women participants had significantly fewer total post-doctoral publications and significantly fewer post-doctoral publications in academic journals than their male colleagues. Even after controlling for number of coauthors, women had significantly fewer post-doctoral publications in academic journals than their male colleagues. Women and men received virtually equivalent numbers of total citations; this finding suggests that although women produce fewer papers than men, the total impact of women's papers is as great as the total impact of men's papers. With respect to academic progress, gender was modestly associated with attained rank in 1990 even after controlling for the effects of publications and citations. Overall, the study identifies some gender differences in performance that are not explained by early career experiences and some gender differences in progress that are not explained by performance differences.