Becoming a partner is tough, often requiring long working hours and a lack of worklife balance, but the lack of gender equality at the top echelons of accounting firms becoming an issue for accounting firms as client companies look for move diversity, says Rachel Willcox
Anyone who claims that gender equality is a non-issue in accountancy need look no further than the appointment last month of Sacha Romanovitch as CEO of Grant Thornton, the first woman to head up a top 10 UK firm.
While ‘Man appointed to senior role’ is a headline hardly likely to raise eyebrows, the dearth of women at the most senior levels of the accountancy sector has made Romanovitch’s promotion both a breath of fresh air and, rather depressingly, the exception that proves the rule.
The industry has been criticised for being ‘stale, male and pale’ by the chairman and senior partner of KPMG, Simon Collins, but while accounting firms may pay lip service to the need to appeal to women and have strong female representation at senior levels, unconscious bias in the system is rife – how many men are described as high-maintenance, manipulative, bossy or domineering? And when it comes to leading by example, few firms it would appear are actually practising what they preach.
UK
