Stress and Departures from the Public Accounting Profession: A Study of Gender Differences.
研究调查了公共会计行业中，女性是否比男性因压力而更易离职，以及压力来源与离职关系的性别差异。
Abstract Women have been entering the public accounting profession in increasing numbers. A survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (1991) indicates that 59 percent of new graduates hired in 1990 by public accounting firms are female. Women, however, have not been very successful in advancing in public accounting and few have made it to the partnership level.¹ Recent efforts have been directed toward identifying reasons for this lack of advancement of female public accountants (Pillsbury et al. 1989; Lehman 1992; Ried et al. 1987; Trapp et al. 1989; Wescott and Seiler 1986). In 1984 the Future Issues Committee of the AICPA selected fourteen issues of concern for im- mediate consideration by the profession. Included in this list was concern for upward mobility of women in accounting (AICPA 1984). According to the Committee's report, many accountants believe that upward mobility in public accounting, especially admission to partnership, is more difficult for women than for men. In response to the Future Issues Committee's report, the AICPA established the Upward Mobility of Women Committee. The Committee was charged with identifying obstacles to advancement of women CPAs and recommending actions to be taken by AICPA members to eliminate these obstacles. In its report to the AICPA Board of Directors (AICPA 1988), the Committee discussed several factors its members believe impact the advancement of women CPAs. One of these factors is stress. The report suggested that the degree of stress experienced by women accountants may be greater than that experienced by their male colleagues. The accumulated effects of stress from both inside and outside the firm may encourage women in public accounting to leave the profession in pursuit of other employment. The Committee recommended that research be conducted to assess the effects of stress on female CPAs as it relates to career advancement. The study described in this paper was conducted in response to this call for research. The purpose of the study is to investigate (a) whether stress is associated with higher levels of departures from the public accounting profession for females than for males, and (b) whether there are gender-related differences in the relationships between environmental sources of stress and departures from the profession. The study results indicate that the Upward Mobility of Women Committee was correct in anticipating that female accountants experience more stress than male accountants, and that this stress is associated with higher levels of departure from the profession.