Getting women on board

The start of June certainly brought with it cheerful news for the select group of accountants made partners at Deloitte. It is not just these few individuals who should be toasting this announcement; females in the accountancy industry can celebrate that record numbers of women were promoted into the firm’s top rank. Of the 75 who made the grade, almost a third were female – up from 20% last year.

Our latest white paper on women in leadership, highlights that the UK has improved the position of women in business. But with our own data showing that female accountants earn around 81% of the salary of their male colleagues, there is still a long way to go. PwC has developed specific programmes to encourage women to progress and KPMG has created targets for the profile of its senior management. Other organisations will need to look at more fundamental issues, such as how to attract women in the first place.

Research suggests that diversity among board members and directors can be a significant boon for business. Women can bring a fresh perspective in the boardroom, and industry bodies have found that women actively reduce instances of bribery, corruption and other corporate governance-related problems.

More equal gender representation can go a long way to helping an organisation achieve its strategic objectives, with the University of British Columbia finding that for every female board member the cost of an acquisition of another company fell by 15.4%.

There is still some way to go for female accountants before we can talk about there being true equality. That said, Deloitte’s recent announcement still marks excellent progress for women in finance, and we hope the industry will continue to support their progress.