Career sustainability: A super-skill for women in accounting

The Accounting and Financial Women's Alliance released its 2023 Accounting MOVE Project report on Friday, focusing on the concept of "career sustainability" as women navigate the shifting workplace in the accounting profession; it also issued lists of the Best Firms for Women and Best Firms for Equity Leadership.

"For women, career sustainability addresses the capacity to maintain motivation and energy at every step, all the while rebalancing the personal and professional with each new engagement," said the report. "For firms, career sustainability engenders a leadership culture, defining new capabilities, qualifications, and measurements for unmapped growth. For both women and firms, this super-skill becomes the ability to 'skate to where the puck is' on slanted ice through upended physics."

The report examines how both women accountants and accounting firms can maintain and increase their momentum, as well as the return on investment for these shifts and how to measure them.

"In today's increasingly challenging talent crunch, it is important for firms to create opportunities for women to advance in the way that makes the most sense for them," said Tricia Bencich, inclusion and social responsibility associate director at Seattle-based Top 100 Firm Moss Adams, in a statement. "We must work together to ensure clients get the attention they need, employees have the power to craft their ideal careers, and firms can continue to thrive."

In conjunction with the report, AFWA and the Accounting MOVE Project released their two lists of exemplary CPA firms, based on the Accounting MOVE Project results: the 2023 Best Firms for Women and the 2023 Best Firms for Equity Leadership. 

The Best CPA Firms for Women are (in alphabetical order):

• Abbott, Stringham & Lynch
• Armanino
• BeachFleischman
• BerryDunn
• Bland & Associates
• BPM
• Clark Nuber
• Councilor, Buchanan & Mitchell
• Eide Bailly
• James Moore & Co.
• Johanson & Yau
• Moss Adams
• Rehmann
• RoseRyan, a ZRG Company
• Schellman
• The Bonadio Group

The Best CPA Firms for Equity Leadership are (in descending order of percentage of women partners and principals):

• 73% — KWC CPAs
• 61% — Kerkering, Barberio & Co.
• 57% — BeachFleischman
• 57% — RoseRyan
• 53% — Abbott, Stringham & Lynch
• 50% — Clark Nuber
• 48% — James Moore & Co.
• 44% — Bland & Associates
• 44% — HBE
• 43% — The Bonadio Group
• 43% — MCM CPAs & Advisors
• 43% — Jones & Roth
• 42% — Johanson & Yau
• 40% — Councilor Buchanan & Mitchell
• 39% — BerryDunn
• 37% — Rehmann
• 35% — Frazier & Deeter
• 31% — Eide Bailly
• 31% — BPM