A Work in Progress

In college I took a course in business law taught by a former corporate attorney, who later confided to us that she was the only woman in many of her law school classes in 1961.

To demonstrate the quantum differences in gender participation and attitudes between now and then, she revealed that on at least two occasions one of her male classmates actually remarked that she was occupying a seat that should have been reserved for a man.

Seriously. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Fast forward 50 years or so.

I read in one of the accounting publications of a significant boost in the proportion of women partners and principals at some 47 CPA firms participating in a survey from the Accounting Move Project – an organization that polls accounting and financial institutions to determine the status of women in the profession.

According to the poll results, woman partners and principals comprise 22 percent of the firms surveyed versus 17 percent five years ago.

Piggybacking on that finding, the Accounting and Financial Women’s Alliance and the American Woman’s Society of CPAs released a list of the 10 best public accounting firms for women.

The groups said those 10 firms exhibited three characteristics:

• Consistent, measurable progress in advancing women.
• Proven and continually evolving programs that retain and advance women.
• Evidence that the firm’s advancement of women is intrinsic to its growth and succession goals.

The 10 firms cited in the study were:

• Burr Pilger Mayer, San Francisco
• CohnReznick, New York
• Lurie, Besikoff & Lapidus, Minneapolis
• Mahoney, Ulbrich, Christiansen Russ, Minneapolis
• Moss Adams, Seattle
• OUM & Co. San Francisco
• Plante Moran, Southfield, Mich.
• Rehmann, Toy, Mich.
• The Bonadio Group, Pittsford, NY
• Yeo & Yeo Business Consultants, Saginaw, Mich.

While that’s certainly progress, issues such as pay equity and women’s initiatives within firms need to advance further than they have, said representatives of AFWA.

Apparently it’s still a work in progress.

Sadly, I read in a recent copy of my alumni bulletin that my former professor had passed away. No doubt this survey and follow up discussion would have struck very close to home. And I’m, sure she would have enjoyed the fact that none of the women employed at the above-mentioned firms were reprimanded about taking away a job that should have gone to a man.