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Women in Accounting

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Published: April 2010

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Educational Achievement, 20081

 

Women Accountants
  • Women are 61.8% of all accountants and auditors.2
  • In 2009, women were 55% of newly hired accounting graduates, and 41% of all CPAs.3
  • Women are 23% of all partners at firms, although they are 49% of all employees at accounting firms.3
  • A 2008 study examined the number of women partners at the Big Four accounting firms. By firm, the percentage of partners that were women were:
    • 18.6% at KPMG4
    • 18.1% at Deloitte4
    • 17.0% at Ernst & Young4
    • 16.9% at PricewaterhouseCoopers4
  • The same study examined the overall number of women employees at the largest accounting firms. By firm, the percentage of employees that were women were:
    • 51.5% at PricewaterhouseCoopers4
    • 49.1% at Ernst & Young4
    • 47.8% at KPMG4
    • 45.1% at Deloitte.4
Women of Color in Accounting
  • Women of color earned 15.2% of all bachelor’s degrees in accounting, 12.2% of all master’s degrees in accounting, and 7.3% of all PhDs in accounting.5
  • Women of color are 17.0% of all of those employed in industries of accounting, tax prep, bookkeeping, and payroll services.6
Women Accountants in Management and in the Pipeline
  • In 2009, women were 9.1% of all CFOs.7
  • There are a variety of positions that an accountant may occupy as they climb the corporate ladder to management positions. While they may start as cost accountants, junior internal auditors, or trainees, they will rise into positions such as accounting manager, chief cost accountant, budget director, manager of internal auditing, controller, treasurer, financial vice presidents, chief financial officers, or corporation presidents.8
  • Women are progressing faster in smaller firms as opposed to larger firms. Across firms of all sizes, women occupy between 11% and 31% of all senior leadership positions (which include policy-level partners, official managing partners, and directors of tax/audit/consulting/industry specialties).9, 10
  • Women and men have different career goals. This may be due to the fact that women often cannot commit financially or take the time to focus on a partnership track due to work-life balance issues, stereotyping in the workplace, or face challenges such as networking difficulties or lack of female role models.10
    • 41% of women senior managers aspire to become partners; 10
    • 65% of men senior managers aspire to become partners; 10
    • 25% of women staff desire to become partners; 10
    • 62% of men at staff level desire to become partners; 10
    • 20-39% of women accountants are unsure about their desired career achievement; 10
    • 12-22% of men are unsure about their desired career achievement. 10
  • 21% of all firms offered non-partnership career tracks, while 9% of firms offered alternative partnership arrangements. Alternative partnership arrangements include "variations on the traditional equity owner working full-time and include part-time partners, non-equity owners or graduated benefits."10

  • Of firms that offer alternative partnerships,
    • 36% of all women partners have used alterative partnerships;10
    • 17% of men partners have used alternative partnerships. 10
SOURCES

1 National Center for Education Statistics, "Table 275: Bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by sex of student and discipline division: 2007-08" (2009). 

2 Current Population Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Table 11: Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity 2009," Annual Averages 2009 (2010). 

3 AICPA, 2009 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits (2009). 

4 "Women Continue to Post Steady Gains in Partnership Percentage," Public Accounting Report (December 15, 2008).

5 National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS (2010).

6 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, "2008 EEO-1 Aggregate Report: NAICS-5 Code 54121 – Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services" (2009). 

7 Catalyst, Unpublished data (2008).

8 BLS, "Accountants and Auditors," Occupational Outlook Handbook (2007). 

9 Variation of number is due to firm size; lower uncertainty is among professionals at larger firms. For more details, please refer to AICPA Work/Life and Women's Initiatives 2004 Research: A Decade of Changes in the Profession: Workforce Trends and Human Capital Practices.

10 AICPA, AICPA Work/Life and Women's Initiatives 2004 Research: A Decade of Changes in the Profession: Workforce Trends and Human Capital Practices (2004). 

UPDATED April 12, 2010

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