Another male principal said child-rearing resulted in significant disruption to the careers of female employees.

"(Women) cannot progress further with having many career breaks or part-time employment options in this field," he said.

A number of respondents to the study said female employees were paid less because family commitments meant they were unable to network with clients.

"We have high net worth clients and often out of business hours networking is a compulsory activity," a male respondent said. "Our female employees have children and family commitments after the normal working hours. Only our male employees are available to engage in these networking activities and they have to be paid more in the form of incentives for their efforts."

Researchers Dr Sujana Adapa, Professor Alison Sheridan and Dr Jennifer Rindfleish spoke to the owners or managers of accountancy firms in regional and metropolitan areas for their work, which has been published the Australasian Journal of Regional Studies.