The relative success of East Asian countries in controlling the spread of COVID-19 at its onset was widely attributed to their capacity to learn from previous experience of…
Abstract
The relative success of East Asian countries in controlling the spread of COVID-19 at its onset was widely attributed to their capacity to learn from previous experience of epidemics, their preparedness to deal with new threats to health, and public acceptance of the need to comply unquestioningly with stringent measures to contain the virus. The conditions were very different when Europe was recognised as the epicentre of the pandemic in March 2020. In a climate of uncertainty, intensified by inconsistent scientific advice and intractable political dilemmas, European governments embarked on a steep learning curve. They experimented with packages of measures based on limited and often conflicting evidence about their effectiveness in preventing transmission of the disease and high excess death rates, amid growing concern about the collateral damage being caused to public health, and to social and economic life.
Drawing on a wide range of multi-disciplinary published materials and official statistics, research articles, reports, briefings and academic debates, as well as media headlines and commentary, this briefing assesses policy learning during the first wave of the pandemic in Europe and asks:
What lessons did European countries, individually and collectively, draw from their own experiences and from the policy responses of neighbouring countries when Europe was the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Were decision-takers better prepared to contain further waves of the disease and to improve outcomes?
Details
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Claire Dambrin and Caroline Lambert
Women in public accounting firms are still proportionally much fewer in number in the highest levels of the hierarchy than men, whereas recruitment at junior level tends to be…
Abstract
Purpose
Women in public accounting firms are still proportionally much fewer in number in the highest levels of the hierarchy than men, whereas recruitment at junior level tends to be increasingly gender‐balanced. This paper aims to analyse the relationships between the glass ceiling and motherhood. The mechanisms explaining the difficulties encountered by auditor mothers in their hierarchical progression within the Big Four in France are identified.
Design/methodology/approach
From 24 interviews with male and female auditors of various hierarchical levels, one seeks to reveal the specificity of the difficulties encountered by auditor mothers.
Findings
It is argued that, throughout their careers, they are confronted with a dilemma that often leads to their being excluded and excluding themselves from the group of “those who may become partners”. It is shown that public accounting firms place both implicit and explicit obstacles in their way, tied to a desire to neutralise the effects, deemed costly, of motherhood. Moreover, the expectations of the organisation and society as a whole conflict on many points and confront female auditors with a dilemma: how to be a good mother and have a bright career? It appears that women who want to better manage this dilemma shape working practices imposed on the whole team and implement tactics to adapt their work‐life balance (specialisation and lateral move to staff departments). This leads to individual trajectories that break out of the organisational model and account for the scarcity of women in the upper management levels in audit firms.
Originality/value
The paper gives voice to male auditors and shows that managing the professional life/private life dilemma is difficult for fathers as well as mothers, in the long term. Moreover, rather than thinking in terms of horizontal and vertical segregations, this paper invites one to question the concept of the glass ceiling and consider the construction of the scarcity of women in the accounting profession.