Who Gets the Credit? Why Attribution Deserves a Closer Look

The Matilda Effect offers a lens for understanding how recognition shapes advancement in accounting firms.

By Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
Accounting MOVE Project

The accounting profession has spent years grappling with a persistent and uncomfortable reality: women enter the field in strong numbers, perform at a high level, and yet remain underrepresented in leadership.

That gap has been measured repeatedly through industry research, like the Accounting MOVE Project. The harder question is why it keeps showing up. The answer may lie in something more fundamental than policy or pipeline: how work is recognized, attributed, and ultimately rewarded,

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That’s where the Matilda Effect comes in.

The Matilda Effect is about attribution, not participation.
First defined by historian Margaret Rossiter in Social Studies of Science, the Matilda Effect describes the systematic tendency for women’s contributions to be overlooked — or credited to men.

When contributions are not accurately recognized, firms are not just creating internal inequities; they are undermining leadership development, pushing experienced professionals out the door, and losing people who can easily take their talent elsewhere.

It is not simply about exclusion from opportunity. It is about who gets recognized as the source of ideas, innovation, and results. Participation without recognition does not build careers, particularly in a profession where visibility drives opportunity.

History shows the pattern clearly.
Long before anyone had a name for it, the Matilda Effect was quietly reshaping the scientific record.

Posted on April 13, 2026

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk

About the Author

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (pronounced like rustic without the “t”) is the founder of BBR Companies LLC, where she provides CMO-level services for professional services firms, co-owner of Rally Rounds, where she facilitates mastermind groups for accounting growth professionals, and owner of the Accounting MOVE Project, where she provides the most comprehensive data and guidance on finding, retaining, developing and advancing women and people of color in the accounting profession.

She holds a Diversity & Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University and is taking additional coursework to expand her knowledge. This is in addition to the MBA with a marketing concentration she earned at Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Arts in journalism, public relations, and French from Troy State University in Alabama.

She contributed a chapter to Bridging the Gap: Strengthening the Connection Between Current and Emerging Leaders and is a regular contributor and quote source for industry-related publications and websites. She has been recognized as one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People three times, Volunteer of the Year by the Association for Accounting Marketing, and one of CPA Practice Advisor’s Most Powerful Women in Accounting.

Before starting BBR Companies in 2009, she wore many hats, including serving as a public relations director for Sportbrain, a health and fitness startup and precursor of FitBit in Silicon Valley, which allowed her to see the dotcom boom and bust firsthand; international marketing manager for Turner Broadcasting, where she helped launch TNT and Cartoon Network in Asia; and creative managerial roles with software and financial services firms, which started her on the path and laid the foundation for her passion and expertise for professional services marketing.

Never one to put aside her passion for marketing, small businesses and women’s issues when she closes the door at the end of the day, Bonnie also uses her acumen to help others simply because it matters. She is a founding member of the Atlanta Independent Women’s Network (AIWN), a former board member of the Association for Accounting Marketing, and a member of the CPA Consultants’ Alliance.

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