This paper investigates the relationship between the experience of motherhood and employment
within the UK accounting profession, by examining the oral history narratives of a small group of
accountants who have recently become mothers and returned to work. Drawing from contemporary
theories on identity, it considers how individuals make sense of the different social identities of
accountant and mother, and to what extent social, institutional and cultural factors shape and restrict
the ways in which the self is experienced. It also explores the implications for both the self and the
accounting profession of interconnections and juxtapositions between the ostensibly private sphere
of the home and the public sphere of employment. It suggests that as the identities of mother and
accountant are entwined, they undertake a process of redefinition and transformation of the self.