Why isn’t the accounting profession more diverse? Research points to the real levers of change

For the past few decades, universities, employers and professional bodies globally have invested in mentoring programmes, scholarships and student support initiatives to diversify careers such as professional accounting.

The assumption has been that if talented students have help to overcome barriers, representation will improve.

For many socioeconomically marginalised people, going to university is seen as the key to a better life.

Accounting has been one of the professions that promises stable jobs, financial security and upward social mobility.

But while more students are getting through the university gates, building a successful career in accounting has proved much harder than simply earning a degree.

The most recent World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report (2025), which has tracked gender disparities since 2006, reports that, at the current rate of progress, full gender parity remains an estimated 123 years away.

The gap is clear when you compare educational attainment with career progression.

Although women now outperform men in tertiary education globally, they account for only 29.5% of senior managers with tertiary qualifications.

Similarly, women’s representation in top management increased only modestly, from 25.7% in 2015 to 28.1% in 2024.

The pace of progress has slowed since 2022.

In South Africa, too, where I am based as an accounting professor, changing gender and racial representation in the profession has been slower than expected.

Read more: Few of South Africa’s chartered accountants are black: hearing their stories suggests what to fix To understand why, researcher Joanne Sopt and I reviewed 81 studies examining how minority students globally have been supported over decades, from university entry to professional accounting practice.

We found that early initiatives focused on helping students overcome what were seen as individual shortcomings.

The solutions offered were tutoring, scholarships and mentoring.