The Origins of Social Accounting and Reporting in Italy: The Role of Female Scholars

The role of women scholars and their contribution to initially promoting social and environmental accounting and reporting is a theme relatively new and not yet sufficiently investigated. Starting from this premise, the aim of the paper is to present a discussion about the women who acted as masters and pioneers of social accounting in Italy. The research question is: “What is the contribution of women academics to the pioneering process of social accounting development in Italy?” The research design develops through a deductive and inductive approach. The first one is based on a literature review concerning social and environmental accounting and gender accounting. The inductive approach is empirically constructed and focuses on the analysis of the scientific and academic career of two women scholars: Paola Miolo Vitali (University of Pisa) and Ondina Gabrovec Mei (University of Trieste). The comparative analysis of the afore mentioned cases helps to point out the role of women scholars in promoting social and environmental accounting in Italy and contributes to nurture the emerging research field of gender and accounting which still has to be improved and deepened.