Mothering in accounting: Feminism, motherhood, and making partnership in accountancy in Germany and the UK

Abstract

Women remain significantly underrepresented at partnership level in accounting firms. The past three decades witnessed a steady increase in investment and research in gender equality in the profession, but there is a scholarly reluctance to focus specifically on motherhood despite the fact that four in five women will have children in their lifetime and experience inequality and discrimination as a result of their status as mothers. This article shares original empirical data of interviews with 60 female partners in Germany and the UK, focusing specifically on their experiences of motherhood and mothering. Theoretically, this article is framed by O’Reilly’s (2016a) matricentric feminism and Gatrell, Cooper and Kossek’s (2017) Douglasian thesis of the maternal body as a social pollutant at work. In Germany, the accounts frequently juxtaposed the maternal body with professionalism, with mothers expected to work part-time, but part-time working patterns deemed irreconcilable with partnership. Becoming a mother was often experienced as representing a burden to others at work. In the UK, the respondents were concerned with accessing maternity leave and returning to work, with some finding it challenging to make claims on the basis of their status as mothers. Half of the mothers were married to ‘househusbands’, often working like normative fathers, with some noting a lack of ‘choice’ in the matter despite their status and financial independence. In both countries, the unencumbered norm was mostly left unchallenged and the task of managing and hiding one’s care responsibilities left for individual women to work out in private, with the primary beneficiary of this concealment being the firm and its clients. The article demonstrates that we must make space for the study of mothering in accountancy if we want to be serious about tackling gender inequality within the profession.