According to the Financial and Accounting Women’s Alliance, women represent 50% of all full time staff at CPA firms, but make up just 27% of partners and principals. Even though more and more women are entering the tax and accounting professions, women in finance are still vastly underrepresented in management and leadership roles. What will it take to buck that trend?

There are many women in finance these days, but there’s still a huge gap in the amount of women in leadership roles.

In today’s episode of the Taxgirl podcast, Kelly is joined by Kathryn Kaminsky to discuss the gap of women in tax and accounting leadership. Kathryn is Vice-Chair and Trust Solutions Co-Leader at PwC. In this role, she leads the combined Tax and Assurance business. She is a partner with over 25 years of experience serving the financial services industry. Kathryn was recognized in Crain’s 2019 list of Notable Women in Accounting and Consulting. In that role, she focuses on the advancement of female and diverse professionals in the firm, and she regularly speaks at universities, conferences, and PwC functions regarding career development and women in leadership.

Listen to Kelly and Kathryn talk about women in finance in leadership roles:

The power of opening up to colleagues about your life and how doing so can form stronger bonds.
Building strong relationships in business requires empathy and compassion.
Many women feel like they’re unable to ask for help in their work environment.
The importance of providing yourself “a moment to breathe” outside of being everyone’s counselor.
Balancing work and family time can look different for everyone; there shouldn’t be any judgment.
What advice would Kathryn give to younger women about finding a mentor in their workplace?
Nurturing relationships with your allies and mentors at work.
Kathryn’s experience taking tax and accounting classes after graduating with a History degree during undergrad.
The joy of truly loving the work and client relationships in tax and accounting.
Did Kathryn feel any pushback as a woman in leadership?
Whether women and POC in leadership roles feel like they have to be the “voice” of their entire demographic.
How are Diversity and Inclusion initiatives progressing and evolving?
Tax and accounting firms have traditionally been resistant to change; does that create additional hurdles for Diversity and Inclusion programming?
Kathryn’s hope for PwC and women in finance and accounting in the future?
The impact of sharing support and experiences with family.
Normalizing letting the next generations see that there are many paths to success.

More about Kelly:

Kelly Phillips Erb created and hosts the Taxgirl podcast, your home for tax news, tax info, and tax policy. In each episode, she shares conversations about taxes, money, and the choices we make. Kelly is a tax attorney who works with taxpayers and tax practitioners like you every day. She helps folks out of tax jams, and hopefully, keeps others from getting into them.

You can find out more about Kelly here and you can follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin.

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