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.
