ABSTRACT
Mary Elizabeth Murphy was ahead of her time in advocating for international accounting standards, and her contributions offer lessons for how certified public accountants can help achieve the goal of a single set of global standards. Murphy thought that the unwillingness of professionals to travel internationally represented a hurdle to the cause of global accounting standards. To overcome it, she urged the American Accounting Association to invite educators from institutions in Australia and New Zealand to lecture at colleges and universities in the United States. Murphy understood the cost-benefit equation behind harmonizing accounting standards. She recognized trends and the growing interdependencies of a world marketplace; moreover, Murphy viewed the end of World War II as a trigger for global capital investment. Two obstacles to international uniformity that she addressed were the inability to study the accounting practices of socialist countries and the parochial attitudes and viewpoints of the accounting profession.
