Description
Abstract
Accounting is a male dominated profession historically. Females underperform and are thus dissuaded from taking up this profession. It is hence the need of the hour to understand the educational psychology of female accounting students in higher education. The current study is an attempt to understand this phenomenon and to explore the academic performance of African females using qualitative data collected from the University of Zululand, South Africa. Of various factors, three stand alone causes of underperformance of female students are as follows: (1) poor command of English language, (2) poor command of Mathematics, and (3) lack of good female role models. The underperformance is also tested using the academic data of two cohorts of students in 2014 and 2015 using regression model. The study found that female students underperformed marginally compared to male counterparts. The university is advised to follow gender sensitive leadership and mentorship programs.
Keywords: Accounting, Educational Psychology, Gender, Leadership, Mentorship, Underperformance.
