Audit teams benefit from having more women

Audit teams with a greater number of women provide higher-quality audits at a lower cost, according to new research.

The study, which will be appearing in the Review of Accounting Studies, found that audit teams with more women — especially audit seniors (who serve as team supervisors, product managers and client service providers in addition to workpaper preparers) — consistently reported fewer financial misstatements and charged lower audit fees.

“Research in teamwork dynamics shows that increasing the presence of women on teams can improve performance,” said one of the study’s co-authors, Brandon Szerwo, an assistant professor of accounting and law in the University of Buffalo School of Management, in a statement. “And, evidence from psychology, economics and organizational behavior shows that many traits, behaviors and characteristics commonly associated with women, such as being more risk averse, cooperative and detailed in processing information, often lead to better results. We find consistent results in the audit industry.”

He and his fellow researchers, Joshua Khavis, an assistant professor of accounting and law in the University of Buffalo School of Management, and Amy Sheneman, an assistant professor of accounting and management information systems at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, analyzed the proportion of female auditors across 20 large U.S. public accounting firms serving more than 4,700 clients from 2010 to 2018. Offices with a bigger share of female auditors produced higher-quality audits, as shown by fewer financial misstatements, and performed these audits at a lower cost.

The study found that settings within and outside the workplace influence the relation between team gender composition and audit quality. The impact of women appears to be strongest in supportive communities but wanes when there are fewer female partners.

“Our study provides important insights to the role of gender composition on teams and the positive influence of women that is amplified in supportive environments — and noticeably weaker in workplaces with fewer female partners or poor work-life balance,” said Khavis in a statement.

The findings indicate that increasing female representation in the audit labor pipeline, particularly in senior staff roles, can strengthen audit practices — particularly when more women perform audits in supportive environments and cultures.