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Hearts of glass?

A recent ICAS-backed report revealed that female chartered accountants still experience a 'glass ceiling' as they strive to become partners, mainly because of a macho culture of long hours and informal male networks within accountancy firms. Elizabeth Gammie outlines how women can shatter this glass ceiling

Dismal statistics reveal that despite increasing numbers of women training with ICAS, in 2006 only 13 per cent of ICAS partners in professional practice were women. There is also evidence that this percentage is even smaller in the larger firms; only 9 per cent of partners in the Accountancy Age Top 50 2006 survey were female.

These statistics can no longer be explained by temporal issues. Women who have trained as chartered accountants will have reached a stage in their careers at which they should have reached partnership, assuming they had the ability. These statistics suggest that the glass ceiling is still firmly intact.

However, progress will only be made if all stakeholders proactively manage this change - and that includes you.

Professional accountancy firms are finally waking up to the fact that there is a dramatic business need to recruit, retain and promote women, and there is also recognition that women bring different, but equally valuable, talents to the partnership table. But has any progress been made?

While the progress has been slow, changes have taken place. When I completed my training in the mid-1980s and was starting to consider my career options there were only two female partners in my firm in the whole of the UK. These women were not who I aspired to be and were not role models for me.

My perception as a young, single, ambitious CA in her mid 20s was that these were 'men in skirts', they appeared to be married to the job, had a work/life balance scale heavily weighted towards work, and had sacrificed their personal lives in their quest to reach the partnership table. However, the female partners we interviewed most certainly did not meet this mould. All the female partners were either married or in long-term relationships, they had children, born both before and after their promotion to partner level, and none of the female partners had house husbands. There was no evidence that they had put their lives on hold to reach their partnership goal.

The female partners were sharp, feminine, focused, articulate, entertaining and classic role models for younger women within the profession. Try to seek these women out. Organise a staff development or social event and invite them to come to speak to you. In many respects these more 'modern' women have paved the way for future progress. Listen to their experiences, learn from their mistakes and aspire to be like them.

These women demonstrate that it is possible to reach the top, although they will all stress that they have to work hard at all aspects of their lives to ensure that their family lives run smoothly, with assertions such as: "I am the social organiser, the school liaison officer, and I also make the household tick" (female partner, Big 4 firm). Women, irrespective of their status at work, unfortunately do appear to bear the brunt of organising family and domestic issues, as evidenced by comments such as: "Our male counterparts don't juggle all that, they run their business life and their car and their other gadgets, and everything else is sorted out for them" (female partner, Big 4 firm). Another quote: "I wouldn't say that he is a superb house husband who cooks and that sort of thing, but he does empty the dishwasher and put the bin out, small but important tasks. He will go out and buy milk or bread if it is desperate but he won't do a full shop and he won't buy the things that I do" (female partner, large firm).

With the risk of sounding flippant, choose your man carefully and educate him from the start. If you are both working, then why should there not be equal sharing of domestic responsibilities?

Don't feel guilty or blame yourself for his inadequacy within the home; we all started somewhere, so take step back and let him learn. The following was a very typical comment from one of the female partners: "As far as the cooking is concerned, my husband can boil an egg, but that is about it… [but] he is very good at tidying up. But if you are waiting on him to wash clothes it would never happen. I do the shopping, which is probably my fault. I mean he will [ask me] to write a list for him but I think it is more hassle to sit there and write a list than do the shopping" (female partner large firm).

Unequal responsibility within the home makes it extremely difficult to achieve an acceptable work/life balance, which is exacerbated by the fact that the accountancy profession appears to demand long hours. The larger the size of firm and the higher up the promotion ladder you progress, the greater the hours you appear to have to work. Most women in our survey were working in excess of 40 hours a week, and there was a general perception that it was necessary to work long hours to succeed. However, the Big 4 were keen to demonstrate that many flexible working practices are available, and there was a feeling that organisational culture needed to change. "It is a case of working smarter, not longer. There is now a strong business case for creating space within your life for other commitments. There is now a greater acknowledgement by the firms that an appropriate balance needs to be achieved between work-life and family life" (male partner, Big 4 firm).

In our survey, nearly half of female chartered accountants working in professional offices were employed part-time. However, there was also evidence that this type of working had a negative effect on career progression, evidenced by the following statements: "If you are looking for a part-time job, probably what you get is not of the same calibre as you would have had if your own earlier job had been taken down to part-time hours" (female partner, large firm). And: "I don't think people at senior and partner level could work part-time" (female partner, Big 4 firm), a view supported by half of the female chartered accountants who responded to our questionnaire.

However, part-time partners do exist. Indeed, one of the Big 4 firms has two female partners who are both part-time. Thus, you should not allow yourself to be marginalised into a post with no career progression simply because you wish to work in a less traditional manner. Try to find people in your organisation who have carved out a progressive career while utilising flexible working arrangements, and seek their advice on how they achieved this arrangement.

The importance of mentoring was highlighted by the partners as suggested by the following quotes: "I had an informal male mentor who was instrumental in my career development" (male partner, Big 4 firm); "Two male senior partners. One followed, tracked and was interested in my career from early days. This was a huge support for me. The other was more behind the scenes, working for me, rooting for me and creating opportunities in a very inadvertent way" (female partner, Big 4 firm).

Despite the obvious benefits of a mentoring arrangement to career progression, 57 per cent of the female respondents to the questionnaire had received no mentoring. Why? As these mentoring arrangements tend to be informal, the onus is often on the individual to be proactive in identifying and approaching someone that would be of support. So, if you have not been assigned a mentor, then find one - otherwise you may feel excluded, as suggested by another partner: "There were three guys at the same stage as me in the firm and they were informally mentored by partners, whereas I was not. I felt this disadvantaged me which made me malcontent" (female partner, large firm).

The necessity for this proactive approach, however, raises two further issues. The first, as one partner succinctly identified, is in relation to the "development or interpretation of personal relationships which could be misconstrued" (male, partner Big 4 firm), which exposes individuals to "tittle tattle in the office about relationships" (male partner, Big 4 firm).

Don't let this put you off; while mixed gender relationships within a work context can sometimes generate some issues, rise above it, be professional, and you should be given the respect that you deserve.

The other issue is in relation to the apparent inability of women to believe in themselves and their ability to achieve the top. You have already demonstrated that you are ambitious and career-orientated by embarking on the arduous training to become a qualified accountant. Don't lose that drive. The female accountants in our survey described themselves commendably in terms of their dedication, loyalty and hard work, yet described their male colleagues in terms of their confidence, ambition and career orientation. Where had the drive gone? Without ambition you have no hope of breaking through that barrier.

While we urged partners and firms to challenge and change their organisational culture in our study, it is you as individuals who must push for change and retain your drive and ambition. A combined effort by all stakeholders should result in more women breaking through the barrier. Remember: if you want it, go get it!

Elizabeth Gammie is professor of accountancy and head of the accounting, finance and economics department of the Aberdeen Business School at the Robert Gordon University. She also sits on the Qualification Board of ICAS