Women are scaling new heights and have proven that they can be powerful leaders both locally and on the global stage. In fact, women leadership has become more prominent and their effective participation is crucial in achieving sustainable development for the future. This is evident in ISCA’s membership statistics, where women form 60% of the membership base and men, the remaining 40%.
The Jeju Group organised the “Women Leadership For A Sustainable Tomorrow” webinar on April 6, focusing on the role and value proposition of women leadership in the accountancy profession. The Jeju Group comprises ISCA, Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA) and Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants (KICPA).
Dr In-ki Joo, Chairman of the Jeju Group, gave the opening remarks to over 150 participants and said that the gender gap in Asia, as compared to Europe and North America, was concerning. As gender balance is no longer an option but a requirement, Dr Joo shared that the Jeju Group would continue to pursue gender balance as one of its key objectives. Following the opening remarks, Ms Sarah Speirs, from Chartered Accountants Worldwide’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce, spoke about the barriers to career progression for women chartered accountants (CAs), and the solutions to break down these barriers to ensure that they can progress fairly in the workplace.
As part of the panel discussion, representatives from ISCA, JICPA, KICPA and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) discussed about their experiences, challenges and advice relating to women leadership in the profession. They were joined by Ms Gladeys Jill A. Santos, who is a member of the IFAC PAO Development and Advisory Group and Chairperson of ISCA’s Philippines Chapter, who moderated the session.
Ms Jihee Suh, Vice President of KICPA and former Partner at KPMG, gave a first-hand account of how she had left the profession after four years at KPMG as their first female accountant. The reason? – it was difficult to balance work and parental duties. But she returned when the opportunity arose and eventually, she rose up the ranks to become the first female Partner at the firm. She agreed that women faced a larger opportunity cost at work compared to their male counterparts, as they had to hand over their parental duties to someone else. This, however, motivated her to work even harder and do her best at work. Ms Suh advised that an individual’s career is like a marathon, and we should move at our own pace instead of comparing ourselves with others.
Contrary to Ms Suh’s experience, Ms Vivienne Chiang, Founder and Managing Director of K Y Chiang LLP and Fellow Member of ISCA, was relieved that she had greater flexibility in juggling her work and family as she owns the business. She added that it was possible to manage both her work and family commitments with proper planning and some adjustments. When her children were younger, Ms Chiang scaled down her business operations; however, as they grew, she could dedicate more time to her business. She emphasised that having flexibility in the workplace would greatly help women to balance their roles at work and at home.
Apart from the sharing by Ms Suh and Ms Chiang, the panellists representing IFAC and JICPA touched on their respective Institute’s initiatives to empower women in the profession. Ms Hina Usmani, Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Technical Advisory of the IFAC SMP Advisory Group, shared that in Pakistan, there was low participation of women in the profession and a lack of peer support. To overcome these challenges, ICAP rolled out initiatives like CA nurturing and mentoring programmes for aspiring female CAs, establishing a CA women directory and implementing gender policies to empower women in the workplace. She was pleased that with these initiatives, a 220% increase in the annual intake of women was noted in the last five years, as compared to 75% for men.
Just like Pakistan, there are fewer female accountancy professionals in Japan as women make up only 16% of CPAs. Mr Daijiro Furutani, Executive Board Member of JICPA and an Audit Partner, said that JICPA has been focusing its efforts to support existing women CPA, including those who wished to return to the profession, by promoting e-learning courses on the latest accounting standards and publishing relevant job postings on its website. He also shared that additional support has been provided to women who are pursuing the CPA qualification and expressed JICPA’s hope to have 30% of women in the profession by 2048. While it could be challenging, he promised that JICPA is standing by this goal.
The panel discussion not only covered the inspiring experiences of women accountants in the workforce and how they overcame challenges, it also showcased the laudable initiatives in place to ensure the sustainable progression of women in the accountancy profession. Closing the session, ISCA CEO Ms Fann Kor affirmed that ISCA is fully on board regarding gender diversity and equality. She revealed that 51% of its Professional Accountants in Practice (PAIP) members are female; 49% male. She also concurred that it has not been easy for herself – as a parent and a female leader in the profession – but she was thankful to have the support of fellow women. She encouraged the audience to embrace gender diversity and inclusion as the profession will always have the backs of female accountants and leaders.
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