Nonkululeko Gobodo: Challenging gender and race inequalities as the first Black woman accountant in South Africa

Abstract

This study explores the career journey of the first Indigenous Black woman Chartered Accountant in South Africa, Nonkululeko Gobodo, who qualified in 1987, despite the racism and sexism in that country. We identify the impediments and facilitating factors that shaped her career. This career narrative is constructed using secondary data, followed by an online interaction with Nonkululeko Gobodo and analysis of her personal memoir. Our analysis uses a career crafting model to examine structural and organisational constraints, and the way people develop their careers. Nonkululeko Gobodo crafted a successful professional career despite historic and contemporary gender and race inequalities. A transition from pursuit of personal success to efforts to advance Black women’s careers is a feature of this career narrative. The study extends documentation of inequality in accounting through attention to the operation of sexism and racism in South Africa and Nonkululeko Gobodo’s strategic responses to professional and social closure in accounting.