Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Women outpacing men in accounting field!
For the Sisters out there.... :)
Michelle Cater Rash
Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area
Twenty years ago, when Laurie McDaniel started her accounting career, she was in the minority.
When she would go to continuing education seminars, she says, only about 25 percent of the people in attendance were female.
Today, she says, women make up at least half of the audience.
The increase in female accountants can also be seen at her Kernersville, N.C., firm, McDaniel & Co., where she is one of four female CPAs in the five-accountant firm.
Her husband, Tom McDaniel, is the only male accountant and the only male in the office.
"We didn't set out to be all women, but more women are entering the field," she says.
Growing in the ranks
Today, women represent nearly 61 percent of accountants and auditing professionals, up from about 39 percent in 1983, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey.
Jennifer Hall, an audit senior manager with KPMG's Greensboro, N.C., office, says she's noticed the change in her role as a campus recruiter for the firm.
"The first couple of years, it always seemed there were more men than women" interested in accounting careers, she says. "Now, I think at a lot of places, there are more women then men."
Likewise, Joanne McDonough, a director in the diversity office of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, says about half of its new hires for the last 12 to 15 years have been women.
While an increasing percentage in the industry, women are still behind when it comes to taking on management roles at firms.
According to the Journal of Accountancy, only 19 percent of partners in public accounting firms were women in 2004.
However, in a sign of recent progress, it reported that women had received 30 percent of the partnership promotions within the last three years.
Experts attribute the disparity in management to several reasons. One, with women only really entering the profession in substantial numbers within the last 10 to 15 years, there are fewer women with the experience to take on some of these senior roles.
And, until a few decades ago, many firms were not interested in female partners, says George Aldhizer, a professor of accounting in the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy at Wake Forest University.
"It (accounting) was definitely a good ol' boy male network for years," he says.
McDaniel also attributes some of that to the demanding schedule that accountants, especially tax accountants, face.
From January until mid-April, McDaniel says, it's not uncommon for her to work 80 hours a week, not always an easy task when she is also raising a 9-year-old son.
McDaniel says she and her husband spend a lot of time working out schedules so they can attend their son's soccer and baseball games and spend quality time with him, even during tax season. But, she says, many women choose an alternate route.
"Probably not a lot of women choose to do the juggling that I do," she says.
Becoming more women-friendly
Aldhizer agrees, saying he thinks a lot of women choose to leave public accounting for the less stressful, and more family-friendly, world of corporate accounting.
To be more welcoming to women entering the profession, and to encourage more women to take leadership roles, many accounting firms are taking steps to provide a more family friendly environment.
Hall, at KPMG, says many women at the firm are on part-time or flexible schedules, which allow them to better balance family or other outside interests.
Likewise, PricewaterhouseCoopers offers extended parental leave programs, lactation rooms and a nationwide mentoring program targeted at women.
"We know it's critical that we have to do some of these things and do them right," McDonough says.
Michelle Cater Rash
Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area
Twenty years ago, when Laurie McDaniel started her accounting career, she was in the minority.
When she would go to continuing education seminars, she says, only about 25 percent of the people in attendance were female.
Today, she says, women make up at least half of the audience.
The increase in female accountants can also be seen at her Kernersville, N.C., firm, McDaniel & Co., where she is one of four female CPAs in the five-accountant firm.
Her husband, Tom McDaniel, is the only male accountant and the only male in the office.
"We didn't set out to be all women, but more women are entering the field," she says.
Growing in the ranks
Today, women represent nearly 61 percent of accountants and auditing professionals, up from about 39 percent in 1983, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey.
Jennifer Hall, an audit senior manager with KPMG's Greensboro, N.C., office, says she's noticed the change in her role as a campus recruiter for the firm.
"The first couple of years, it always seemed there were more men than women" interested in accounting careers, she says. "Now, I think at a lot of places, there are more women then men."
Likewise, Joanne McDonough, a director in the diversity office of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, says about half of its new hires for the last 12 to 15 years have been women.
While an increasing percentage in the industry, women are still behind when it comes to taking on management roles at firms.
According to the Journal of Accountancy, only 19 percent of partners in public accounting firms were women in 2004.
However, in a sign of recent progress, it reported that women had received 30 percent of the partnership promotions within the last three years.
Experts attribute the disparity in management to several reasons. One, with women only really entering the profession in substantial numbers within the last 10 to 15 years, there are fewer women with the experience to take on some of these senior roles.
And, until a few decades ago, many firms were not interested in female partners, says George Aldhizer, a professor of accounting in the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy at Wake Forest University.
"It (accounting) was definitely a good ol' boy male network for years," he says.
McDaniel also attributes some of that to the demanding schedule that accountants, especially tax accountants, face.
From January until mid-April, McDaniel says, it's not uncommon for her to work 80 hours a week, not always an easy task when she is also raising a 9-year-old son.
McDaniel says she and her husband spend a lot of time working out schedules so they can attend their son's soccer and baseball games and spend quality time with him, even during tax season. But, she says, many women choose an alternate route.
"Probably not a lot of women choose to do the juggling that I do," she says.
Becoming more women-friendly
Aldhizer agrees, saying he thinks a lot of women choose to leave public accounting for the less stressful, and more family-friendly, world of corporate accounting.
To be more welcoming to women entering the profession, and to encourage more women to take leadership roles, many accounting firms are taking steps to provide a more family friendly environment.
Hall, at KPMG, says many women at the firm are on part-time or flexible schedules, which allow them to better balance family or other outside interests.
Likewise, PricewaterhouseCoopers offers extended parental leave programs, lactation rooms and a nationwide mentoring program targeted at women.
"We know it's critical that we have to do some of these things and do them right," McDonough says.