Jennifer Warawa
Today we celebrate International Women’s Day, a moment to reflect on the strides that women have made professionally and culturally. Women have changed the face of business over the past 50 years, and the accounting profession is no exception. While accounting—and finance more broadly—has traditionally been considered a male-dominated field, we are now finally seeing steps toward gender parity. In fact, over half (61 percent) of all accountants in the United States are women. Not bad!
But the need for progress is not over. While women are largely represented at the staff level, they make up only 24 percent of firm partners and principals. And the pay gap remains a major issue in the field. Female accountants and auditors earned a weekly median salary of $1,018, compared to the weekly median salary of $1,441 earned by men in the same fields in 2016. That’s a difference of over $20,000 each year. Clearly, we have room for improvement.
Despite these challenges, women today should be optimistic about their opportunities in accounting, a profession that is dynamic and ripe for continued female empowerment. In honor of International Women’s Day, I’ve outlined my advice for succeeding as a female accountant and ensuring that we continue to carve out equality for the future.
1. Reach for more
In 2019, we need to not just passively hope for gender parity in our firms and organizations, but rather intentionally push for it. For example, be vocal about opportunities you care about—from promotions to big projects. Make sure your managers and teams know that you are an advocate for yourself, and a key asset to the firm.
Beyond speaking up, be sure to prioritize forging connections with people at work—including leaders, peers, and subordinates. Being an active participant and a strong presence at your firm is important and will help elevate your personal brand. Relationship building—with both men and women—is the perfect complement to doing good work when looking to grow. The more we speak up and get to know people, the more we’re poised for equality and leadership within the profession.
2. Join the cycle of empowerment
Success does not happen in a vacuum, regardless of gender. I’ve been fortunate enough to find wonderful mentors throughout my career. They have empowered me to reach for the next level and helped me identify my talents and blind spots along the way.
It’s proven that mentorship has a huge impact for women, specifically. A study from the University of California Haas School of Business found that women gain more social capital from affiliation with a status mentor than their male counterparts. Don’t just wait for mentorship to fall in your lap. Seek it out. Think about the goals you have for your career, the type of personalities you work best with, and the areas of expertise you’re hoping to learn more about. From there, you can figure out the kinds of people you’d like to learn from and begin conversations within - and even outside - your firm to make connections with the right people. At first, prioritize making connections and starting a dialogue with new people, and as your network expands and you get to know people, you’ll start to find people who you admire or from whom you can learn. These relationships build to mentoring. Just get out there.
3. Become a champion for diversity
For decades, the image and role of an accountant remained largely stagnant. Today, the profession couldn’t be more different. Not only are there new faces, but new technologies. Meanwhile, evolving client needs have fundamentally changed the nature of the job, forcing accountants to take on the role of a strategic, financial advisor.
Despite massive change, the faces at the upper echelon of firm leadership look quite similar to those who were in charge 30 years ago. In 2019, advocating for diverse leadership is a huge priority. As a woman in accounting, remind the leaders of your firm why diversity matters, both for culture and business success. In fact, a recent study by McKinsey found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21 percent more likely to outperform on profitability.
I firmly believe that there has never been a better time to be a part of the accounting profession. From new technologies to evolving culture, the world of accounting is incredibly dynamic and has an exciting future. This International Women’s Day, I call on the entire accounting profession to continue to level the playing field, embrace all talents and ideas, and set the example of what it means to empower women and men within firms and teams from day one.