(Re)figuring accounting and maternal bodies: the gendered embodiment of accounting professionals

This paper examines the relationship between the body and the self for women accounting professionals. It explores how they come to embody the identity of accountant and what happens when forms of organisational and professional embodiment coincide with other forms of gendered embodied self, such as that experienced during pregnancy and in early motherhood. These forms of embodiment can be seen simultaneously both as a mechanism of social control, and as a form of self-expression and empowerment for women

Other lives in accounting: critical reflections on oral history methodology in action

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical and reflexive evaluation of the use of an oral history methodology in a research project investigating the lived experiences of women accountants. It discusses the nature and benefits of oral history as a research methodology, which allows the subjectivities of individuals to be central to the empirical data. It allows the voices of those who have arguably been ignored, marginalised or silenced within particular contexts to be heard. The paper draws on feminist approaches to research methodology, which stress reciprocity and the minimisation of hierarchies within research. It evaluates some of the ethical issues arising, such as the ownership of research, the use of friends and strangers as research participants, and emotion, within the research relationship. The paper concludes that, when approached critically and reflexively, oral history provides a sound epistemological and methodological base for understanding the meaning of events and experience to individuals

Intermediate convergents and a metric theorem of Khinchin

A landmark theorem in the metric theory of continued fractions begins this way: Select a non-negative real function $f$ defined on the positive integers and a real number $x$, and form the partial sums $s_n$ of $f$ evaluated at the partial quotients $a_1,..., a_n$ in the continued fraction expansion for $x$. Does the sequence $\{s_n/n\}$ have a limit as n\rar\infty? In 1935 A. Y. Khinchin proved that the answer is yes for almost every $x$, provided that the function $f$ does not grow too quickly. In this paper we are going to explore a natural reformulation of this problem in which the function $f$ is defined on the rationals and the partial sums in question are over the intermediate convergents to $x$ with denominators less than a prescribed amount. By using some of Khinchin's ideas together with more modern results we are able to provide a quantitative asymptotic theorem analogous to the classical one mentioned above

‘Real business’? : gendered identities in accounting and management academia

This paper explores the gendered identities of women academics in accounting and management academia. Drawing upon autoethnographical detail, we reflect upon the complexities of identities as they are constructed, developed, experienced and understood both by ourselves and others. By presenting several short autobiographical vignettes, we examine perceptions of the gendered identity of women in academia as caring, ‘motherly’ and nurturing, and we demonstrate attempts to exploit so-called ‘natural’ feminine, mothering traits as a means of fulfilling the pastoral and administrative components of universities. In considering such stereotypes, we address examples of their selffulfilment, whilst considering how academic structures and practices also impose such distinctions. We consider negative implications for the career success of women academics in the ‘real business’ of academia, typified by research, publications and academic networking, arguing that until these stereotypes are challenged, women academics will continue to be disadvantaged within academic institutions

‘Real business’? : gendered identities in accounting and management academia

This paper explores the gendered identities of women academics in accounting and management academia. Drawing upon autoethnographical detail, we reflect upon the complexities of identities as they are constructed, developed, experienced and understood both by ourselves and others. By presenting several short autobiographical vignettes, we examine perceptions of the gendered identity of women in academia as caring, ‘motherly’ and nurturing, and we demonstrate attempts to exploit so-called ‘natural’ feminine, mothering traits as a means of fulfilling the pastoral and administrative components of universities. In considering such stereotypes, we address examples of their selffulfilment, whilst considering how academic structures and practices also impose such distinctions. We consider negative implications for the career success of women academics in the ‘real business’ of academia, typified by research, publications and academic networking, arguing that until these stereotypes are challenged, women academics will continue to be disadvantaged within academic institutions