The efforts of the Big Five are slowly paying off. Last year four of them made Working Mother's list of the Top 100 employers. The proportion of female partners in the largest U.S. accounting firms has moved to slightly under 12 per cent today from under 5 per cent a decade ago. Awareness of the challenge among law and accounting firms is high. How far the firms' gender-friendly policies are working is not yet clear as formal policies do not easily displace entrenched attitudes.
Cultures change slowly, often only as personnel change.
Open opposition to formal policies may be rare but the extent of commitment can be lukewarm. Professor Royston Greenwood and doctoral student Roy Suddaby are members of the Centre for Professional Service Firm Management in the faculty of business of University of Alberta.