Gender Equity in Public Accounting

The importance of understanding drivers of gender inequity in public accounting has taken on heightened importance during the COVID 19 pandemic and “great resignation.”  A new study from Portland State University suggests that one important factor to consider is the diversion of women to “director” positions rather than the partnership.

Accounting Professor Elizabeth Almer and colleagues published the study “Gender Equity in Public Accounting: Evidence from Single Audit Partner and Director Engagement Leaders” in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy.  Using public data which names the individual who signs audit reports for non-profit organizations, the researchers found that females were much more likely to hold the lower prestige director positions and males were more likely to hold the higher prestige partner positions. This study provides another example of gender disparities that persist at the highest levels of public accounting firms.

“Public accounting has hired women in equal numbers as men for over thirty years, yet women are still not achieving the partnership at the same rate as men. The intent of our study is to demonstrate that the diversion of women into ‘director’ positions is contributing to gender inequity at the partnership level,” says Almer.

According to Almer, this research is important because it shows that female directors are disproportionately doing partner-level work without holding the prestigious partner position. Directors may be highly compensated but differ from partners in prestige, voting rights, compensation and job security.  Although the non-profit audit setting is unique, it demonstrates how firms staff the leadership of one service line, which may provide insights into gender inequities in staffing private company audits, system and organization control (SOC) reports, reviews, and compilations. 

Across our society, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted women and altered well-established networking and business development practices that prior research cites as to why women are derailed into director positions. Almer emphasizes that we are at a critical juncture for firms to step up and provide women with opportunities for the full spectrum of skills development needed to achieve the partnership.

This study was coauthored with Professor Kathleen Harris of Washington State University, and Professors Julia Higgs and Joseph Rakestraw of Florida Atlantic University.