Accounting Women
Why hasn’t anything significantly changed for women in public accounting leadership roles?
Provided by the ICPAS Women’s Executive Committee
For seven years now, the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS), through its Women’s Executive Committee, has explored the role of women CPAs in Illinois public accounting firms. And perhaps frustratingly, its recently released seventh survey finds that little has changed over the years.
The survey was distributed to 90 Illinois firms with 15 or more professionals. Its goal is to track the percentage of women at three levels of leadership—partner/principal; senior manager/manager; and senior/staff—as well as the percentage of women holding firm-wide leadership positions. The survey also gauges the effectiveness of initiatives and programs specifically targeted to women, with findings based on responses from both individual women CPAs (all are ICPAS members) and their respective firms.
Assessing the success of these initiatives and programs provides an evaluation of best practices for retaining and promoting women CPAs.
The Numbers
While the percentage of women entering public accounting firms has decreased from 54 percent in 2003 to 49 percent in 2009, the number of women being retained at the senior manager/manager and partner/principal levels has slowly climbed from 40 percent to 43 percent and 15 percent to 18 percent, respectively, over this same time period. (See Figure 1 for 2009-2006 data.) Admittedly, this is a slow climb, but a climb nonetheless.
That said, although the number of men and women in the most senior positions both increased in this year’s survey, the number of men continues to far outweigh that of women in the partner/principal positions. (See Figure 2.)
Leadership Positions
There is a bright spot, however. The percentage of women in managing partner and executive management positions is a strong indicator of the growing acceptance of women CPAs in leadership roles among today’s firms. In this year’s survey, women represented 12 percent of firm/office managing partner positions, an increase of 2 percent from the previous year, which had been the high point of a steady 1-percent annual increase since the first survey was conducted in 2002.
The number of women in the most senior firm-wide leadership positions (namely, firm or office managing partners and executive management) rose to 19 percent, compared to 18 percent last year and a 10 to 13 percent range during the prior 5 years. For the second year in a row, this leadership percentage is actually higher than the percentage of Illinois women currently in partner/ principal roles. The increase over last year is due in large part to the rising number of women in the firm/office managing partner category. (See Figure 3.)
Although changes in management structure may cause some data inconsistencies from year to year, the increase in women holding executive management roles is a step in the right direction.
Women’s Initiatives
Firms were asked to indicate which of nine workplace initiatives are currently in place at their firms, and to rate their effectiveness. Separately, women ICPAS members at the same firms were asked to respond to identical questions and to identify which programs they would like to see implemented at their firms.
Eighty-two women and 52 of the 90 surveyed firms responded to these questions. Both groups rated the following four initiatives as the most effective in retaining and promoting women:
Of these four programs, flexible work arrangements and mentoring programs continue to be the most in demand among women working at firms that currently do not offer these initiatives. The discrepancy between the firms’ ratings of flexible work arrangements and the women CPAs’ ratings of the same initiative is particularly interesting, since it reveals a significant gap in perception between the two groups.
The following initiatives were in place at only 26-38 percent of the firms that took part in the survey: childcare assistance, womenspecific mentoring programs, and programs to develop women as partners on high-profile client assignments. Forty-three percent of the firms taking part in the survey had “part-time partner track” in place; this initiative continues to be the most sought-after among the women surveyed.
The retention and promotion of women within public accounting firms continues to have a huge impact on the industry, and it’s disappointing to see so little movement after seven years of surveys. The Women’s Executive Committee will focus its future efforts on identifying and spotlighting firms that are making real progress in retaining and promoting their women professionals. Perhaps their success can be a roadmap for other firms in Illinois.
More statistics from the 2009 Role of Women in CPA Firms survey. (PDF)
All charts, figures and statistics can be seen in print in the July issue of INSIGHT. We sincerely thank the firms and women that responded to our survey and willingly shared their information with us. This cooperation is appreciated and necessary as we strive to advance the role of women in public accounting firms.