Gender distributions in New Zealand universities: guilt in Brotopia

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explain gender imbalance by theorising how guilt arises as an externally imposed negative emotion that subsequently impairs women's performance in the accounting academia.Design/methodology/approachThe method involves an analysis of gender distributions at junior and senior levels in New Zealand universities in 2019 and 2024 and relevant case studies of junior academics using unstructured interviews.FindingsThis paper unpacks the nuances of gender imbalance in a “gender-neutral” subject and provides empirical evidence that many women academics may internalise a sense of externally imposed guilt for various reasons. Such feelings of guilt, where they are imposed by workplace expectations and social constructions, may make women more concessionary with regard to a greater teaching workload substituting for research expectations. The more prolonged-term effect on career prospects of such substitutions as practiced in New Zealand may account for the imbalance that exists and seemingly will continue to exist.Originality/valueThis paper sets out first to discover the gender balance in accounting in universities in New Zealand. It contributes to the literature on gender and accounting education in understanding how negative emotions are externally imposed and become career-negating obstacles for women in the accounting academic.