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The purpose of this paper is to provide an exploration of the involvement of women in the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants of throughout its 100 year history.

The paper draws on archival analysis of professional journal and yearbooks of the New Zealand Institute, as well as the minutes of the Institute, and those of its predecessors (the Accountants' and Auditors' Association and the Incorporated Institute of New Zealand.)

Social stereotyping appears to have influenced women's membership and participation in the accounting profession in New Zealand. Although the number of women in accounting has risen dramatically since the 1980s, and women now have a more prominent role in the profession, they have still not gained equality with their male colleagues.

Research on women in accounting, both in New Zealand and overseas, has tended to focus on women in public accounting (Trapp et al., 1989; Lehman, 1992; Gammie and Gammie, 1995; Whiting and Wright, 2001). This paper contributes new knowledge about the contributions that women have made to their professional associations and how those organizations responded to their women members.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between New Zealand universities and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (ICANZ), the main organization of the accounting profession in New Zealand.

The relationship is approached as an archival search, producing a descriptive analysis of the universities' involvement in the Institute's professional exams, from the creation of the Institute in 1908 until the turn of this century.

At first this connection was through the qualifying examination system of the Institute, with the universities providing the means for the Institute to educate prospective members. Differences in approach towards accounting education, identified in the ongoing issue of a degree prerequisite, and the development of accountancy departments in the universities, led to the Institute later in the twentieth century turning to other tertiary institutions to provide its accounting professional examinations. This paper shows that although the accountancy departments in the universities have benefited from contact with the Institute, the nature of the relationship has been determined to a large extent by the requirements of the New Zealand accounting profession.

The paper provides historical insights on the interaction between the universities and the Institute, explaining the reasons for the Institute's influence on accounting education in the universities.

This paper seeks to present an invited response to a paper describing the historical relationship between the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (and its predecessor body) and the universities in New Zealand.

The paper is conceptual and takes the form of a commentary/review of the findings of the principal paper.

The paper adds to the description in the principal paper and presents additional factors that are necessary in assessing the relationship between the professional body and the university sector.

The paper extends the discussion in the principal paper with some reflection on the nature of professionalism and argues that a broader appreciation of professionalism is necessary to judge the effectiveness of the relationship in question.