The True And Fair Sex

Does your accountant wear nylons?

The answer some forty years ago might have been: 'whatever he does behind closed doors is his own business, I guess' but not today.

Nowadays it's more likely that women populate your accountant's office more than men, so the leading question (rather than just being there to get your attention) is entirely relevant.

In the twenty-first centaury there are some very obvious (and just as welcome) cracks, gaping holes even, in the infamous 'glass ceiling' that was once thought to be preventing the career progress of women around the world.

How times have changed since the 1960's. Four decades ago Tim Horton was a Stanley Cup winning hockey player - not a coffee store phenomena, the latest consumer craze was the black and white television - not a personal digital assistant, and female students took 'domestic economics', rather than pure or applied economics. You would NEVER have found a female partner in your local CA firm.

Between 1960 and 1980, instead of staying home and making apple pie for hubby, more women entered the accounting profession and discovered that they could compete for positions on a quickly levelling playing field.

The statistics back this up 100%. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario's own data reveals an interesting trend.

Their membership demographics, as of February 2002, reveal the following:

The interesting thing to note here is that there is a huge leap in the number of female members between the 'fifty to sixty-five' age group (7%) and the 'forty to forty-nine' group (29%). Does this have any statistical merit?

I believe it does, in as much that those between age 40 and 49 (in February 2002) would have qualified (assuming an average age of 25 when attaining their CA) between roughly 1978 and 1987. (Born between 1953 and 1962, qualifying at age 25.)

So the generation that was born into the 'swinging sixties', went through adolescence maybe as a 'hippie' and matured into an adult during 'punk' would also have grown up on a TV diet of 'Charlie's Angels', 'The Bionic Woman' and 'Wonder Woman'.

Little wonder then, at the change in attitude that saw the previous generation provide only 7% of the Institute's members, develop into a bludgeoning 29%.

They say that nothing feeds success like success.

So, following on the heels (no pun intended) of the previous age group, the 30 to 39 age bracket represents 42% of the membership. This, in turn, inspired the 'under 30' age group and 48% of the Institute's members.

Interesting stuff, eh?

But it doesn't end there.

The accounting profession is likely to be female dominated by the year 2010.

Why do I say this? Just look at the Institute's student numbers and their breakdown by gender:

While the split is a 51%-49% split in favour of male students, of the NEW students entering the profession, 53% are female.

If the previous years' incremental percentage increases in female entrants to the profession are followed to their logical conclusion, we might see 60% of accountants being female by the year 2010.

What else do I have that points to this?

The Certified General Accountants of Canada reveal on their web site that their own membership today is split 61% male and 39% female, BUT (and it's a big but) their student numbers are quite different - 58% of CGA students are female and only 42% male.

Students do not make up 100% of our membership, but they do make up 100% of our future.

In my own work, I have as many female clients in public accounting as I do male, and I certainly see more female candidates than male.

Over the years there have been a number of great initiatives that have helped the female accountant develop her career: The equality initiative of the last 20 years or so has to take a huge amount of credit for this, but so too do two other factors:

1. The labour shortages in our country that gave rise to more creative recruiting and staffing policies

2. The number of CA firms and CGA firms and corporations employing trainee CGAs and CMAs who spotted a huge untapped labour supply in women and return-to-work Moms.

As the 1990's progressed we also saw a move towards part-time and 'flexi-hours' positions that allowed employers to utilize human capital and female brainpower that had previously gone under-utilized.

The times, they are a-changing…In the 1960's the Mini was both a sporty new car and an equally sporty skirt and Dragnet was the new hit TV series. (Hmmm maybe they don't change that much after all?)