The number of new women partners at the Big Four accountancy firms has plummeted by more than half in a massive setback for the firms' diversity drives. Only 17 out of this year's 128 internal promotions were women, compared to 40 out of 167 admissions last year, a fall from 24% to 13%. KPMG suffered the steepest fall, with just 10% of partner promotions being female. Sarah Bond, the firm's head of diversity said 2009 was 'a one-off' and KPMG was focused on the 'upwards' trend. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, only 15% of new partners were female, down from 29% last year. Ernst & Young, the only firm to admit more partners overall in 2009 than in 2008, saw its percentage of women drop from 22% to 15% while Deloitte's fell from 17% to 11%. Sarah Churchman, PwC's diversity director, said that there had been a 'dramatically reduced number of partner admissions' at the firm due to the economic climate, with only five new partners admitted in tax, an office-based service line that is traditionally attractive to women. 'You can't grow the partnership if the revenues aren't growing.' she said. Deloitte vice chairman Margaret Ewing said the number of women put forward to partnership this year was the 'same level, if not higher, than last year'. 'We went through the process and for zero reasons we ended up where we are.' Alison Duncan, E&Y's UK people leader, said the firm was focused on developing women leaders, but 'this is not about short-termism or numbers on a page'.