Gender Roles in Transition: Career and Family Expectations of Accounting Students

Quantitative data from a study of gender differentiation among accounting students are analyzed to discover if male and female accounting students have different attitudes, orientations, and expectations for career and family. Although some changes towards a more gender‐equal population are found, the study results also indicate several potential conflicts which accounting students will have to face as they attempt to combine work and family roles. Both male and female accounting students have strong commitments to work roles, and both value family. However, both male and female accounting students expect females to play a more prominent role in the family and males a stronger role in the workplace. The orientation and plans of these accounting students do not anticipate symmetrical relationships in which both males and females share household and work responsibilities.