Fifty years ago, it was rare to see a woman on top of a financial empire. The financial industry often sidelined fifty percent of the population. The general population then saw money as something of a man’s world. Fortunately, movements like the #MeToo movement have propelled women to regain the power they deserve.
Seattle Certified Public Accountants
One of the most notable struggles women face is the gender pay gap. The pay gap is a prejudice towards women when it comes to setting wage rates. The empowerment of women, however, has allowed women to voice out against this prejudice. This movement pushed the finance industry to take steps in closing this gap.
Yasmine El-Ramly discussed some of these steps in her article “Steps toward closing the gender pay gap.” The article was published in the Journal of Accountancy last September 2019.
Steps Toward Closing The Gender Pay Gap
Early in her career, Melissa Hooley, CPA, CGMA, and her husband at the time, also a CPA, worked for the same organization. Every year they each received a letter detailing their raises — and every time her husband got a higher increase than she did, even though they were at the same level and had nearly identical backgrounds, performance reviews, and expertise.
“Each year I had to go in and discuss the issue,” said Hooley, who has since changed firms and is now partner-in-charge of employee benefit plan services at ACM LLP in Denver. “Every year I had a conversation with my mentor (a male partner at the organization), and he always ensured adjustments were made.” Click here to read more…
At the forefront of the push for equality is the #MeToo movement. Locally and internationally famous individuals led the #MeToo movement as an awareness campaign against sexual harassment and sexual abuse.
The campaign created expectations in the financial industry on making a safer work environment for women. Some of these expectations were explained in this article Sarah Ovaska-Few published in the Journal of Accountancy last October 2019.
#MeToo Brings New Expectations
Have you examined how the #MeToo movement changes the way sexual misconduct claims are handled at your organization, in your firm, or for those you advise? If you haven’t, well, #TimesUp.
These two social media hashtags, made viral after the 2017 downfall of top Hollywood movie executive Harvey Weinstein, led to a national reckoning over sexual misconduct in the workplace. October marks two years since the #MeToo movement started, and the movement’s demands for the protection of women have had implications in all aspects of our communities, businesses, and entertainment industries. Click here to read more…
Governing bodies in the accounting industry also heard the call to help empower women. Thus, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants implemented programs to help women build careers in finance. Cheryl Meyer published an article on the Journal of Accountancy to shed more light on this pilot program.
Women’s Initiatives: How The Pilot Programs Worked
Three years ago, the AICPA Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee (WIEC) launched a pilot program and chose three midsize public accounting firms to participate. The mission? To kick off a step-by-step plan to create internal women’s programs from scratch or to rejuvenate such programs already in the works. These initiatives aim to not only improve the careers of women CPAs, but also in turn help firms retain female employees and recruit new ones.
“We had actually tried two separate times to start a program internally,” stated Jonyce Bullock, CPA, CGMA, the CEO at Squire & Company in Orem, Utah. “The first time it completely failed, and the second time we were just getting going and were worried of it failing again. So, we jumped at the opportunity.” Bullock, with the help of the AICPA, led her firm’s pilot program. Click here to read more…
For the financial industry to grow, the last thing we want is to disregard the other half of the population. Women contribute to finance just as much as men do. Hence, it is time for them to be recognized and given the same treatment as any professional deserves. Fortunately, many financial institutions, like the AICPA, are already taking the lead in the movement.