We are pleased to celebrate International Women’s Day this week. Our newly qualified accountant Loren Forbes joined many women from around Oxfordshire at an inspirational ‘Women in Business’ event run by Michelle Niziol, the Empowering Entrepreneur.
Michelle is a Princes Trust Ambassador, entrepreneur, CEO of seven businesses and featured on The Apprentice in 2016. She brought together three speakers at the event, as Loren explains:
“There was a great atmosphere, the room was full of business owners and inspirational women. We had three interesting and interactive presentations on breathing (it turns out I’ve been doing it all wrong for years!); personal and company branding in recruitment; and securing financial freedom for women.
“We looked at pricing and the entrepreneurial gap, it was shocking to learn that female business owners charge 43% less than their male counterparts. Apparently, if we stay on the same path, it will take 272 years to see true gender equality in business.”
International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The theme of this year’s IWD is #BreakTheBias. Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead – action is needed to level the playing field.
At CRM, we are proud that women make up 50% of our qualified accountants and we hope that our female Director, Jessica Mason, will be the first of many. Like many businesses, we know there is still work to be done in recognising and challenging gender bias and we join with IWD 2022 to do our bit to accelerate gender parity.
It may come as a surprise to some that in a profession that is still considered to be dominated by men, women are now a driving force in accountancy. According to ACCA, our global trade body, around half of students and over 40% of members are female.
Although women’s progress in accountancy hasn’t been fast, it is expected that female accountants will outnumber male accountants globally in the next decade. Unfortunately, just 12.5% of board directors on FTSE 100 companies are women so there is some way to go before women are better represented at highest levels in accountancy.
To get in touch with the approachable, friendly team at CRM, call 01865 379272 or visit www.crmoxford.co.uk
