Is it easier to become a partner if you’re a man or a woman?

Not so long ago the finance profession was predominantly a male one.

At the risk of showing my age, when I first entered the world of work the senior roles in the company I worked for were completely dominated by men.

Things are rightly changing though and in most countries around the world the younger generation that are now entering all business functions appear to be more evenly balanced between the two sexes.

This opening up of opportunities to both men and women can only be a good thing. Any form of discrimination whether it’s discriminating on the basis of race, gender or religion is not only morally wrong but can also result in valuable parts of the working population being overlooked for jobs.

KPMG is one of the top firms in the world and they appear to be getting their gender equality sorted out.

Despite being in the finance and consulting industry which in previous generations was dominated by men, their latest set of promotions indicate that woman are “fighting back”.

KPMG in the UK has just announced the appointment of 29 new partners and 88 new directors.

Prior to their announcement the proportion of female partners working for KPMG in the UK was 14%. Out of the new promotions though, 24% of the new partners and 30% of the new directors are women.

Richard Bennison, CEO of KPMG in the UK, said:

“We are also very pleased to be able to improve the gender balance amongst our partners. We are genuinely committed to enabling more women to reach senior positions.”

So, whilst the number of female partners is still in the minority the percentage is starting to get more balanced.

Congratulations therefore to KPMG on this and it does of course raise the question of how long will it be before the balance is completely reversed and 14% of the total partners are men and 86% are women?