Quick Takes

Published: March 2009

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Educational Achievement¹

Women Accountants

• Women are 61.1% of all accountants and auditors.²
• In 2004, women were 56% of all newly hired CPAs, 42% of all full-time CPAs, and 75% of all part-time CPAs. ³
• Women are 19% of all partners at firms, although they are 43% of all new partners. 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: ⁴
  • 18.6% at KPMG
  • 18.6% at Deloitte
  • 17.0% at Ernst & Young
  • 16.9% at PricewaterhouseCoopers
• 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: ⁴
  • 51.5% at PricewaterhouseCoopers
  • 49.1% at Ernst & Young
  • 47.8% at KPMG
  • 45.1% at Deloitte

Women of Color in Accounting

• Women of color earned 17.2% of all bachelor's degrees in accounting, 12.0% of all master's degrees in accounting, and 15.4% of all PhDs in accounting.⁵
• Women of color are 16.0% of all of those employed in the fields of accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services. ⁶

Women Accountants in Management and in the Pipeline

• Women were 7.3% of all Fortune 500 CFOs.⁸
• 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.⁹
• 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).³
• 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.³
  • 41% of women senior managers aspire to become partners;³
  • 65% of men senior managers aspire to become partners;³
  • 25% of women staff desire to become partners;³
  • 62% of men at staff level desire to become partners;³
  • 20-39% of women accountants are unsure about their desired career achievement;³
  • 12-22% of men are unsure about their desired career achievement.³

• 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." ³

 

Sources

¹ National Center for Education Statistics, "Table 265: Bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by sex of student and field of study: 2005-2006,"Digest of Education Statistics (2007).

² Current Population Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Table 11: Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity 2008" (2009).

³ AICPA, AICPA Work/Life and Women's Initiatives 2004 Research: A Decade of Changes in the Profession: Workforce Trends and Human Capital Practices (2004).

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

⁵ National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Dataset Cutting Tool (2008).

⁶ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,"2006 EEO-1 Aggregate Report: NACIS-5 Code 54121 - Accounting, Tax Prep, Bookkeeps, Pay Roll Services" (2008).

⁷ 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.

⁸ Catalyst, Unpublished data (2008).

⁹ BLS, "Accountants and Auditors," Occupational Outlook Handbook (2007).

UPDATED March 19, 2009