AFWA is a proud sponsor of the Accounting MOVE Project, an annual survey of leading Financial and Accounting Firms which provides:
- An Annual list of Best Accounting Firms for Women
- A review of the state of women in the accounting industry
- Tips for advancing your own career through the leadership pipeline
- Resources to establish women’s initiatives in your firm
2021 MOVE Project: Permanent Progress from Pandemic Pivots
2020 MOVE Project: New Practices and New Possibilities
2020 Accounting MOVE Project outlines new career paths for women opened by Firms’ expansions into new practices.
- 48% of firms conduct internal pay equity surveys that include base pay and bonuses
- 90% of firms, up from 71% in 2014, have partners and principals review the results of internal pay equity surveys
- 59% of firms, up from 48% in 2019, prepare managers for pay equity discussions
- 52% of firms rotate emerging women leaders into client-facing roles, an all-time high
- 38% of firms offer rotations onto executive task forces, an all-time high
- 34% of firms offer rotations into operating positions, an all-time high
“Firms are growing in multiple directions. Women lead much of that growth with unexpected combinations of experience, skills and aptitude”
Download 2020 MOVE Project Press Release
Click Here to View 2020 Accounting MOVE Project report
2019 MOVE Project: Promotions, Plateaus and Possibilities
2019 Best Public Accounting Firms for Women and Best Firms for Leadership Equity >> VIEW NOW
The 2019 Accounting MOVE Project delves into the perceptions and misperceptions that women and firms have about how and why women pursue partnership and other senior leadership positions. The report also outlines tactics that women, advocates for women, and firm leaders can take to ensure that all women CPAs can fully achieve their aspirations for their careers and drive firm growth in the process.
Highlights from the MOVE Report:
- Peer Power: Women’s peer networks are both horizontal and tend to be powerful retention factors. By comparison, men’s peer networks tend to be vertical and transactional. Leading MOVE firms shape women’s initiatives to make the most of how women organically cultivate networks.
- Piecing the Future: Women plot their expectations based on what they observe and experience. Firms that show women the benefits of partnership and that build confidence and results with early business development wins seed ambition for partnership.
- Intervention Builds Retention: Women don’t want to choose between coasting and quitting. Firms strengthen retention by cultivating multiple paths to senior positions, and by working with women before they reach the point of no return.
Download the 2019 Accounting MOVE Report
Promotions, Plateaus and Possibilities: New Ways Forward for Women in Accounting
Download the Executive Summary published in the May 2019 Public Accounting Report
MOVE Project Library
The annual list of Best Accounting Firms for Women ranks public accounting firms by their women’s initiatives, female leadership, and driving results.
Want to know how your firm can be recognized on this list? Contact Joanne Cleaver with Wilson-Taylor Associates.
Expanded Vision. Rising Results.
Expectations have never been higher for women’s advancement in the workplace. The 2018 Accounting MOVE Project showcases innovations that propel women to success and that inform firm leaders about related strategies for overall diversity initiatives. Approaches outlined in the report ensure that the profession’s much-needed emphasis on diversity and inclusion also furthers momentum for women.
Download the full report
Insights from the 2018 report include:
- A philosophy of aligning wins for women with wins for leaders and for firms overall creates common ground for shared wins.
- Firm aspirations are set by top leaders but middle managers actually convert to culture change.
- Men add invaluable insight as women’s initiatives sharpen their focus on barriers unique to women.
- When men ask that programs designed for women be opened to them, too, firms have a chance to reinforce the unique value of women’s programs and to explore what the women’s programs are doing that overall training programs are not.
- Women’s initiatives inform umbrella diversity and inclusion initiatives with proven logistical models and by illustrating the lasting importance of personal stories that inspire and inform rising women.
Pipeline to Finish Line: A Challenge to the Industry
It’s time to move beyond the business case. The same old strategies aren’t turning into solutions. The Accounting MOVE Project has catalyzed fresh conversations; created common ground where firms can share what is working (and what isn’t); and has convened frank discussions about the underlying barrier to women’s advancement in the profession. With this report, the Accounting MOVE Project challenges the profession to commit to measurable action.
Your Firm will be challenged to:
- build transparent career paths that enable women to address work-life conflicts and find solutions.
- adopt best practices from firms that are leading the way toward gender equity in accounting leadership.
- implement firm wide measurements for advancing women in all practice areas in order to remain competitive.
Sponsorship is one of the most powerful and overlooked, dynamics for propelling women through the talent pipeline. The 2016 Accounting MOVE Project Report, ‘Sponsorship: Stepping Up Success’ not only defines Executive Sponsorship vs Mentorship, but offers a template for how firms and women can amplify the effect of sponsorship.
Women comprise 23% of the partners and principals at the 49 firms that participated in this year’s MOVE Project.
Documents
- Sponsorship: Stepping Up Success – Full report
- Public Accounting Report (May 2016) ‘Executive Sponsorship Accelerates Succession and Women’s Success’ – MOVE Report Summary
Advancing women is a complex issue that evolves along with firm growth, personal goals, economic conditions and business opportunities. That means that there are plenty of opportunities for lightbulb moments, for women and men. The 2015 MOVE Project Report provides a string of lightbulb moments from leaders at top firms across the country. Find out the impact of these lightbulb moments and how you can discover your own.
Documents
- Lightbulb Moments that Show the Way: Insight into Action – Full Report
- WEBINAR: Top 10 Comebacks to Objections for Women’s Initiatives in CPA Firms. Watch Now.
- Lightbulb Moment Worksheet: how to come up with your own lightbulb moment
- Public Accounting Report (May 2015) ‘Advancing Women Dominates Today’s Business News; Affects Clients and Firms.’ – MOVE Report Summary
- Women’s Development IS Business Development: The business case for advancing women in public accounting
- Architects for Advancement: The consultants and coaches who drive measurable change for women at Public Accounting firms
The 2014 MOVE Report focuses on the Return on Investment of women’s initiatives within Firms. The report shows how firms calculate return for investing in leadership-track women; return on internships; and return on influence of women partners and principals.
- Return on Investment – Full Report
- ROI Infographic
From the MOVE Project
2022 Move Project
Continuing with its 12-year tradition of leading the profession’s conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion, the Accounting MOVE Project will concentrate its 2022 report on the implications and realities of constantly shifting career paths and expectations for women, diverse talent and firm leadership.
New Practices, New Possibilities: Annual MOVE Survey Now Open
Firms of all sizes are invited and encouraged to participate the annual MOVE Project survey that measures the progress of women in the accounting industry.
2019 Best Public Accounting Firms for Women and Best Firms for Equity Leadership
Announcing the 2019 Accounting MOVE Project Best CPA Firms for Women and for Equity Leadership where women make up at least 33% of partners and principals.
Allies In the Workplace: Women Teaming Up for Gender and Racial Diversity
And when women of color are asked to play major roles in both employee groups for racial diversity and groups for women, the expectations and pressure on them increase exponentially.
MOVE in the Media
How New Accounting Grads Can Tune Up Their Diversity BS Detectors, Going Concern
Few Women Lead Audits of S&P 500 Companies: Survey, Bloomberg
Women Rarely Run the Biggest Audits at the Big Four Accounting Firms, Wall Street Journal
What Are the Top Firms for Women in 2018? AccountingWeb
About the MOVE Project
The Accounting MOVE Project is an annual survey of leading Financial and Accounting Firms to determine the state of women in the industry. The Accounting MOVE Project is based on the MOVE methodology, developed by research partner Wilson-Taylor Associates, Inc., which investigates the factors proven to be essential to women’s career success:
M – Money: fair pay practices;
O – Opportunity: advancement and leadership development;
V – Vital supports: work-life programs that remove barriers; and
E – Entrepreneurship: operating experience for managing or business ownership