Upward Mobility and the African American Accountant: An Analysis of Perceived Discrimination, Perceived Career Advancement Curtailment, and Intent to Remain

Accounting studies related to minority issues have focused mainly on gender and public accountants. As a result, the purpose of this study is to investigate perceptions of discrimination and career advancement among African American accountants, the second largest minority group in accounting today, and reveal any differences between males and females. Although research on African American accountants exists, it does not empirically investigate male/female differences related to perceived discrimination (race and gender), perceived career curtailment, and intent to remain. To address this dearth of research focus, this study analyzes survey results from 553 African American accountants, primarily employed in nonpublic accounting organizations. The results suggest females perceive more race and gender discrimination in private industry and other sectors, than in public accounting, and males perceive race discrimination in all three industry types. Females are less likely to remain with their current employers in all three industry types, than their male counterparts, and only females employed in the other sectors (e.g., governmental and education) feel their career advancements have been curtailed.