Celebrating Women in Accounting: A Moment to Rest, Recharge, and Build Lasting Impact

Creating Space for Connection During Tax Season

As we heard from guests in attendance, women in the accounting profession are used to working hard. Before they were partners or CFOs, many came up in family businesses. They fed the farm animals before school, grew tobacco, and installed pool filters. Some have even watched their generational family business go bankrupt. So creating sustainable companies is a personal quest for many. But in 2025, women in the Accounting profession still face a lot of the same challenges they did years ago - juggling family and career, a pay gap, and a leaky pipeline to the partner track.

After nearly a decade advising leaders in the Fintech and Accounting ecosystem, I've rarely seen an event as impactful as this one. Designed to bring women leaders in accounting together (for just a few hours) at the height of tax season, our gathering at the Great Jones Day Spa in New York created a space for connection, reflection, and support. The conversations sparked about challenges, victories, and the future of the profession will have lasting ripple effects far beyond just one day.

We donned robes and drank champagne on a cool, sunny afternoon in New York City. We talked about how firms still demanded a ton from their leaders. We discussed the challenges of picking up the kids in time, hiding personal tasks on our calendars, chasing clients, getting rejected, perseverance, more rejection, and ultimately burnout.

Diverse Paths, Common Challenges

While we all sat there wearing the same white robes, it struck me how diverse the paths were that brought us together at this exact moment - navigating the demanding partnership track, living abroad, immigrating here from other countries, and winning fractional CFO clients. Some of us were investors, others had successfully built and sold companies. The only commonality among us seemed to be our enthusiasm for the delicious charcuterie board. But over the course of the afternoon, I realized that we had a lot more in common than I originally thought.

Before the event, we were given cards and asked to share a piece of advice with the group. "Do good work and take pride in it." said one woman. "Oftentimes, we become quiet when someone with a bigger title is speaking, but we bring as much value to the table. Don't let imposter syndrome, or that voice in your head, tell you that you're not enough. If you're at the table, then it's exactly where you're meant to be!"

And these women were living it - whether starting programs like Fintech is Femme or the Accounting and Financial Women's Alliance or even just parenting resource groups at their firms, we were increasingly coming together as a unified force to speak out and to advocate for ourselves.

Women Supporting Women: Building a Tribe

The numbers are encouraging. While 59% of Accounting professionals are women, in 2021, just 23% had made partner, but as of 2023, that number had jumped up to 39%. We still have a ways to go, but we're on the path. Juggling family and career is hard, selling and rejection is hard, and we work in a profession that is undergoing seismic change - retirement, M&A, uneven technology adoption. But for me, the event crystallized something - we're no longer navigating it alone. "Behind every successful woman", wrote another event participant, "is a tribe of other women who have her back".

Once all the treatments were complete, the group re-donned their normal business attire and headed to a nearby bar, Jac's on Bond, for a few final moments of reflection and conversation. Out of the spa environment, the tone felt a little more formal, a little more action-oriented. You could hear plans being made for follow-up phone calls and meetings. Not surprising for a group that understands the power of relationships. Emma Kallenbach, a member of the Partner Team at Rho, summed up the day perfectly: "Even amid tax season, it was inspiring to see these powerhouse women carve out time for the most intentional and productive 'rest' I've ever seen."