Gender-based Role Representations in Annual Company Reports

This research had its genesis in the teaching of Financial Accounting to second year undergraduate students [1]. In the introduction to the subject the author distributed actual copies of annual company reports (ACRs) to expose them to students. In this course students learn various techniques. e.g. Group Accounts, and disclosure requirements. Class discussion evolved from a consideration of the relative merits of graphic presentation of financial data and actual financial accounts, to a consideration of the information content of the glossy pictures. Generally, there seemed to be a substantial number of pictures in the reports and more specifically, there seemed to be many photographs of people. It was this impression, combined with the author's commitment to equal employment opportunity (EEO) principles and to improving the status of women in society that lead the author to investigate gender-based role representatlons in ACRs.