Women in accountancy: a personal reflection

With retirement from the partnership of PKF Francis Clark imminent, I’ve been looking back over my 40-year career in accountancy and reflecting on some of the changes for women in that time.

Last week, I completed dignity at work training. That concept didn’t exist back in the mid-1980s, when workplaces were male-dominated and could be challenging for young women. I remember being wolf-whistled by mechanics in workshops and the ubiquitous ‘girlie’ calendars that adorned office walls.

Then there was the financial controller who stood far too close behind my chair and put his hands on my shoulders. I reported it to my male manager, who instructed “the boys” on our audit team never to leave one of “the girls” alone at the client’s premises, which was somewhat reassuring, but no one spoke to the offender.

On one occasion, three warehousemen stood at the bottom of a ladder as I climbed up to the mezzanine floor to check stock items; I was wearing a skirt and high heels because trousers and flats were not acceptable for work. Now, trousers and flat shoes or trainers are absolutely fine.

“Audit was not geared up for part-time work, so many women either gave up work or moved into roles in industry or tax, which both seemed to be more flexible.”

The proportion of female to male leaders in accountancy is still out of balance, despite the trainee intake to the profession being broadly 50/50 over the last 40 years. I think that is partly a consequence of ‘leakage’ from the profession in previous decades.

Many of my cohort married as soon as they qualified, and started a family within the next couple of years. Audit was not geared up for part-time work, so many women either gave up work or moved into roles in industry or tax, which both seemed to be more flexible.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) set up its women in accountancy group in the early 1990s, with one debate covering the attitude to those working part-time. One delegate said: “Part-time traffic lights work perfectly well when they’re on, so why do they think part-time auditors can’t?”. Thankfully, there are plenty of “part-time auditors” in the profession today and no one questions their commitment or delivery – or holds them back if they want to progress.

Those who didn’t start a family early in their accounting careers could encounter challenges when they became more senior. When I became a partner in 1994, my then firm’s partnership agreement had no provision for maternity leave. I wasn’t the first female partner, but I was the first who hadn’t already had children. A maternity provision was added: three months’ leave on full profit share, with anything longer subject to negotiation. There was no paternity leave provision.

Today, PKF Francis Clark, like most firms, offers both maternity and paternity leave (although of very different durations) and we have female partners who, like me, have used those provisions more than once and returned to lead teams and offices.

“Expectations and opportunities at the highest level have changed significantly for the better.”

Attitudes to childcare have changed significantly too. I am not the only woman who has benefited from a supportive partner taking on some or all of the childcare burden. More flexibility over working hours, time out for parents’ evenings and school events have made for a better work/life balance for men as well.

The lack of female role models at the very top of the profession persisted for a long time. The first female president of the ICAEW, Dame Sheila Masters, was not elected until 1999. It took a further 16 years before Dr Hilary Lindsay became the second female president.

I was chair of the ICAEW corporate reporting faculty board for nine years, from 2012 to 2021, and for some of that period the chairs of both the tax and audit faculties were also women. We were especially proud of being women leaders in 2019/20, when Fiona Wilkinson became the third female ICAEW president, 100 years after Mary Harris Smith became the first female chartered accountant.

With Julia Penny following Fiona in 2022/23, the frequency of female presidents in the 2000s shows how expectations and opportunities at the highest level have changed significantly for the better. Let’s hope it stays that way.

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