Workshop Addresses Lack of Women CPAs in Leadership

The AICPA Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee held a workshop in Chicago in September to promote the retention and advancement of women within the accounting profession. Women comprise 50% of the CPA talent pool. However, they make up only 20% of accounting firm partners and shareholders.

Discussions and panels during the workshop, “Retaining and Developing Women Leaders,” focused on creating a firm’s strategy to reverse this trend and make their firm’s senior level management more diverse and allow them to serve a more varied client base.

Participants included 34 CPAs from 16 firms. They discussed their firms’ statistics, including turnover rates, and promotion and hiring trends.

“Firm leaders left the workshop with everything they need to kick off an initiative including a business case document and action plan customized to their firm,” Mary Bennett, lead instructor, course developer and partner at Crowe Horwath LLP in Atlanta, said in a news release.