Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the European Accounting Association
“DEI Challenges and Opportunities: A Focus on Gender across Disciplines”
Wednesday 26th March 2025
On Wednesday 26th March 2025, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the European Accounting Association hosted the Workshop “DEI Challenges and Opportunities: A Focus on Gender across Disciplines”. The event featured presentations from three distinguished speakers – Prof. Bryony Hoskins, Ass. Prof. Meredith Tharapos, Prof. Natalia Vershinina – and was chaired by Dr Irma Malafronte, Roehampton University and DEIC member.
The event was insightful and offered key learning points for the EAA DEI committee and the association. We encourage members to watch the video and to read the summary we offer below, to gain some insights into the event.
First, we start with the definition of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offered by Natalia Vershinina ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) refers to the efforts and policies designed to promote the representation and participation of diverse groups of individuals, including those of different genders, races, ethnicities, abilities, sexual orientations, and socio-economic backgrounds. Diversity focuses on ensuring a variety of perspectives and experiences are present. Equity involves fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people, while striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented full participation. Inclusion is about creating environments in which any individual or group can feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate’.
The speakers and the summary of their speeches during the event are below:
Bryony Hoskins holds a Chair in Comparative Social Science at the University of Roehampton. She is a world leading expert on citizenship education specialising in inequalities and political socialisation across Europe and the Middle East. Prof. Bryony Hoskins has an excellent track record of funded research, with more than one million pounds of funding awarded over the last year, and has an exceptional record on KE and impact, working in collaboration with international organisations (such as UNICEF, the World Bank, the Council of Europe and UNESCO).
During the event, Bryony presented the findings from the EU-funded G-EPIC project, Gender Empowerment through Politics in the Classroom, which aims to empower disadvantaged girls to engage more confidently in formal politics. Drawing on research involving 1,000 students across European countries, Bryony emphasized the confidence gaps between boys and girls regarding political engagement. Drawing from the research, Bryony provided insights into the strategies to empower girls and women in a wider educational and non-educational context.
Meredith Tharapos is Associate Professor and Head of the Accounting Department at RMIT University. Meredith’s research focuses on behavioural issues within the field of accounting, and includes educational, cultural and accountability aspects. Meredith is the Australian Chair of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) Accounting Education Special Interest Group and serves as editor on several accounting journals.
During the event, Meredith presented the findings from a study exploring how women professors in accounting and finance develop and leverage capitals for career advancement. Based on interviews with 25 female professors, the study examined how women build and leverage social, cultural, economic, and gender capital in career progression. The presentation provided insights into the way forward to overcome the challenges, in terms of mentoring and sponsorship, policy reform, work-life balance, and bias training.
Natalia Vershinina is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Deputy Director for Research at Audencia Business School, Nantes, France. Her research focuses on diverse but complementary areas of entrepreneurship, gender, ethnicity, social class and family business. She has held several leadership positions in academia. Natalia is a Co-Editor in Chief of Gender, Work & Organisation journal and continues to service as associate editor in a number of entrepreneurship journals. She is also an elected member of the Executive Board for ECSB (European Council for Small Business).
During the event, Natalia offered insights into navigating gender in DEI in accounting and beyond. The presentation featured an overview of several studies across disciplines, evidencing gendered landscape of accounting, challenges in entrepreneurship and organizations, opportunities for transformative change. It encourages to embrace the challenge by rethinking recruitment, mentorship and culture, embracing intersectional practices, committing to actions, and co-create spaces where all individuals can thrive.
