Driving gender equality in accounting
Driving gender equality in accounting
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is Accelerate Action. Here’s how AAT is helping to do just that.
International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025, on 8 March, calls to#AccelerateAction for gender equality in all areas of life.
According to the World Economic Forum, achieving full gender parity could take until 2158. In the United States, McKinsey & Company estimates equal pay will take nearly 50 years. This highlights the systemic barriers women face in both personal and professional spheres.
In spite of these continued negative headlines, here in the UK we’re seeing some early signs of positivity. When the FTSE Women Leaders Review started in 2011, 9.5% of FTSE 350 board members were women. Since then, British business has worked to increase this representation to 43.4% of board members among FTSE 350 companies, and 30.5% of board members in the 50 largest companies in the UK.
Additional barriers
But why are women still being paid less and advancing at a slower rate in their careers than men? The McKinsey report identifies foundational issues, in that women are less likely than men to be hired into entry-level roles. Underrepresented from the start, they are then far less likely than men to attain their first promotion to a manager role.
Added to this, the majority of women still carry the greater burden of home and care duties. On the positive side, one of the more positive changes from the pandemic has been increased flexibility in the workplace, which particularly benefits women or anyone with caring responsibilities to combine their careers with a more manageable work-life balance.
Companies struggling with the skills shortage should take note: the McKinsey report also found that companies that provided critical support for employees who are parents, caregivers, or managing health challenges, benefited from higher rates of employee retention.
Female leadership in finance
FTSE 100 companies are still lagging when it comes to women in leadership roles. Female board members have risen only a little from 42.6% in 2023 to 44.7% in January 2025. And only 10 of their CEOs are women and 24 CFOs, according to figures compiled by EY.
Smaller company boards are more equitable, according to government figures. The number of women Finance Directors in FTSE 350 companies has increased from 48 in 2023 to 57 in 2024 (22%).
Representation in accountancy
A recent Accountancy Age survey (published December 2024) found that the UK accounting profession has made signals toward gender diversity, with 83 firms reporting a dedicated diversity, equity and inclusion policy in place.
However, the number of firms with female leaders within the UK’s top 100 accounting firms has dropped 20% to 12. Forvis Mazars reported the highest proportion of female partners (29%), followed by RSM (28%). Among the Big Four, only PwC provided figures, reporting 27% of partners were female.
And although women constitute nearly half of all qualified accountants, none of the UK’s Big Four accounting firms—PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG—had a female senior partner or chair in 2023. However, in 2024 EY appointed Anna Anthony as its new UK managing partner.
What is being done
Steps are being taken to address and reduce the gender pay gap in finance. The Women in Finance Charter, established by HM Treasury, commits firms to supporting the progression of women into senior roles in the financial services sector by focusing on the executive pipeline and the mid-tier level.
AAT is a signatory to the charter, as are other finance and accounting firms including ICAEW, KPMG and Mazars, among many others.
Women are leading the charge at AAT
When AAT signed up to the Charter in November 2016, 30% of senior management was female. Now female leadership is evident at the very top of AAT, from CEO Sarah Beale to our Executive Leadership Team (66% female) and Senior Leadership Team (75% female).
Our AAT gender and ethnicity pay gap reports are available here. Having reported a negative (-0.2%) mean gender pay gap in 2022 (a pay gap in favour of women), in 2023 the mean gap increased to 3.1% and the median pay gap rose to 17.3%. Notably, since these reports were compiled, we’ve increased the number of women in our leadership teams.
Ethnicity pay gap reporting is not currently mandatory, but AAT hopes it will become so.
Clarissa Valiquette, Customer Experience Director at AAT, says, “One of the many things that attracted me to AAT when I joined in 2023 was the strong representation of female leadership. Throughout my career, the best managers I had were women who knew how to get the right performance out of me, while still being supportive, so I was keen to maintain that streak.
“Having such strong women in leadership positions also attracts complementary male leaders who are driven and well-balanced, a combination that creates an unbeatable, inclusive culture, right from the top. And happy employees make happy customers, so it’s win-win.”
Pay in accounting
AAT’s Salary Survey consistently shows that men in the accountancy industry report receiving pay rises more often than women.
In 2023, among members of AAT (FMAATs), male accountants earned an average salary of £38,500 with £1,500 in bonuses, while women only earned £35,000, with £1,350 in bonus payments.
Taken over a four-year period from 2019 to 2023, men’s gross salary has risen by 28%, while women’s salary has risen by 23%. Overall, though, the majority of FMAAT accountants felt satisfied with their job (75% for men and 76% for women.)
Hours and support
Ruth Stuart, AAT’s Strategy & Planning Director, says, “When I first saw the role advertised, I was excited about the opportunity, but knew I’d need a flexible working arrangement to enable me to care for my young son on Fridays.
Thankfully AAT accommodated this, enabling me to take on a challenging leadership role, while also fulfilling my caring commitments.
“From the start this gave me the confidence to know that there was a supportive culture for working parents at AAT, meaning I wouldn’t need to compromise my career development or family life. This spirit of inclusivity extends across the organisation, as AAT actively values different perspectives, thinking styles, and working arrangements which enables people to be their best”.
AAT’s role in promoting gender equality
With women comprising approximately two-thirds (63%) of our members, AAT has been a leading voice calling for the promotion of gender equality in business.
AAT’s flexible learning options mean that it is possible to fit study around work and family, which can be helpful for women who often have caring responsibilities. AAT apprenticeships can also help women as well as promote social mobility because they enable study while you earn a wage.
The government is also playing a part in aiding social mobility by removing the requirement to have an O Level or GCSE in both Maths and English, which – though not gender-specific action – helps remove barriers for people changing careers.
Improving parity
More generally, a combination of mentorship and sponsorship programs, flexible working arrangements, and gender diversity policies is helping to level the playing field.
For example, Accenture’s goal is to achieve a gender-balanced workforce by 2025, according to the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality. Also in the list of diversity champions are Fidelity, Aviva, Grant Thornton UK LLP, KPMG UK LLP, Network Rail, PWC, and Sage. Meanwhile, the FTSE Women Leaders Review has pushed major firms to appoint more women to board positions, helping to close the leadership gap.
These measures also make business sense. In 2018, Ten years of research by McKinsey and LeanIn.org demonstrated a clear correlation between organisational diversity and financial performance. The study found that companies with the greatest proportion of women on executive committees earned a 47% higher rate of return on equity than companies with no women executives.
This article is sourced from the following link:
https://www.aatcomment.org.uk/audience/members/driving-gender-equality-in-accounting/
