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In Major Accounting Firms, It’s Still A Man’s World

Caitlin Plummer |
February 13, 2015 | 11:03 a.m. PST

Staff Reporter

(Creative Commons/Flickr)
(Creative Commons/Flickr)
Jackie Edwards doesn’t do the same thing for long. Since entering the workplace in 1980, she has spent time in a wide variety of roles, gaining experience across fields from accounting to management to marketing and sales. PricewaterhouseCoopers hired Edwards 11 years ago to build and lead the company’s west regional revenue cycle practice within the healthcare advisory sector, promoting her to a partner in 2008.

But not all female professionals are so lucky. Though women make up 44 percent of the professional staff in accounting firms nationwide, not even one in five of the partners in these firms are women, according to a 2013 study by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). Though firms are making conscientious efforts to promote women, as seen in programs like PwC’s recent Female Board Mentoring Sponsorship, the overall absence of women in leadership is apparent.

Edwards said gender dynamics have changed since she entered the professional workplace 34 years ago, which she partly attributes to the fact that promoting diversity helps organizations recruit and retain good strong employees. “It’s really important for a professional services organization to… make sure that their ratios are clear and that it’s not just a number, that truly the women are there in a very viable role and in a leadership role if at all possible.”

Edwards graduated from Texas Lutheran University in 1981 with a degree in Accounting. After completing an internship in tax with Arthur Young, the firm hired her into their tax department. She spent three years at the firm in both its tax and audit departments to fulfill the experience requirement for her CPA certification. After receiving the certification, she moved into the banking industry by using her experience in audit to market herself to employers.

“Your experience leads you to opportunities that lead you to other opportunities, and it’s all about being open and listening to opportunities and trusting those who bring you opportunities,” Edwards said. “It may be something you don’t feel comfortable doing, but if they think you can do it and they think you’re going to be successful, then you have to trust them and then go for it.”

Edwards encountered such an opportunity when, after two years as an assistant controller for a credit union, one of her colleagues approached her about joining him in the healthcare company in which he was taking over the CFO position. “During [the first] nine years, I was kind of like – the term is a fire extinguisher. Whenever there was a problem, they would put me there to fix it,” Edwards said.

After nine years working as the company’s problem-solver, the CEO asked if Edwards would consider becoming the CFO for one of its subsidiary companies that was getting ready to go public with its holding company. “He said, ‘If we go public successfully, I’ll let you do whatever you want to do with my company,’” Edwards said.

Edwards spent the next two years as CFO, helping the company navigate the intricacies inherent in going public. The CEO made good on his promise and allowed Edwards to start her own company within the healthcare company, in which she earned the role of President from building the company up. Edwards filled nine different roles during her 11 years at the company, and when she left, it boasted annual revenue of $850 million, up from the annual revenue of $42 million when she first joined.

Her work didn’t go unnoticed, as Ernst & Young called her and asked her to work in their transformation practice, focusing on large transformations within healthcare revenue cycle. “I had a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things, and as a result, kind of developed a name for myself nationally that I didn’t even realize was happening over that 11 year period,” Edwards said.

After seven years at EY, Edwards accepted a position at PwC pioneering their west regional revenue cycle practice. PwC is the largest professional services firm in the world, offering assistance across the accounting, audit, tax, and advisory sectors; yet, women only make up around 17 percent of their partners according to a 2010 study published in Public Accounting Report.

“It’s one thing to have a female VP, or a female leader of some kind, but when you also think about the female’s role – what are they? Are they really in a doer role, support role, or are they in a leader role? I think that’s the biggest distinguishing factor for me,” Edwards said.

Peter Reilly, a CPA who has contributed to Forbes.com since June 2011, saw the irony in lack of leadership in his own accounting firm and released a series of articles on the plight of female accountants.

“If you go back to the 1970s, it was kind of like guys are CPAs, women are bookkeepers,” Reilly said. He decided to write the series when he and his female business partner realized women were playing a larger role in their firm underneath the surface. “We kind of noticed how it was really women making everything run and the guys don’t really know what’s going on,” he said.

However, some areas of accounting firms have more women in leadership than others. Alexa Povlitz, a sophomore at the University of Southern California studying international relations and global business, interned for PwC in San Francisco during the summer of 2014. Povlitz worked in an entirely female-dominated marketing department to build a social listening research project for the San Francisco market, interacting with partners from all sectors during her time at the firm.

“I guess I expected most of the partners, or anyone in leadership positions, to be men, but the dynamic was pretty balanced. The female partners I met with were equally as smart, strong, and hardworking as their male counterparts,” Povlitz said. “The women partners I met with were all spitfires, so to speak. They were quick to voice their opinions, and often dominated the room they were in – in a good way.”

Of course, not all companies are making adjustments yet, so it’s up to the women to spark a change. “There are still, unfortunately, so many companies out there that don’t really get it,” Edwards said. “I really just think it has to do with how much we as women want to make a difference and help mentor and sponsor others who want to make a difference. It’s strength in numbers that matters.”

Reach Staff Reporter Caitlin Plummer here. Follow her on Twitter here.



 

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