Behind many great pieces of accounting technology stands a woman - in fact, many women. But women are exiting the tech industry.
As the number of women entering the accounting profession rises higher each year, the number of women entering technology dips. Even the diminishing salary gap is not drawing women into this predominantly male-run industry. But the ones who stay and are promoted to senior roles are a symbol that all is not lost for females seeking a profitable and rewarding career in business technology.
Dice Inc., a provider of online recruiting services for technology, engineering and security-cleared professionals, found in its 2004 and 2005 annual salary survey that the salary disparity between men and women had narrowed to 11 percent. In fact, 2004 marked the first time since the survey's inception, in 2000, that the salary gap had tightened.
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However, the Information Technology Association of America, a national association of commercial IT products and services firms in Arlington, Va., showed that the number of female workers in technology-related jobs dropped from a high of 41 percent in 1996, to 32.4 percent in 2004.
The ITAA attributed the decrease to a loss of administrative positions - the category in which one in every three women workers in technology were classified. Women made no progress in senior roles from 2002, according to the survey, with only 25.4 percent of senior roles going to women.
Hiring women into leadership roles, however, can only prove profitable, as concluded by a four-year study from Catalyst, a not-for-profit research and advisory organization for women's issues headquartered in New York. The study, conducted from 1996 through 2000, showed that those technology companies with a high representation of women in leadership roles had a 35.1 percent higher return on equity and a 34 percent higher return to shareholders than companies with no or few women in senior roles.
The women who are promoted to these senior roles often serve as a source of inspiration and motivation to women thinking of entering the field and for those trying to advance up the corporate ladder.
Below is a roster of some notable women involved in the development, production, education and marketing of business technology, and who continue to encourage and further the advancement of women in accounting technology.
Susan Bradley
CPA, CITP and partner, Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn & Braun
Fresno, Calif.
A self-proclaimed geek and avid blogger, Bradley is also a CPA and Certified Information Technology Professional who holds the GSEC security credential. Bradley frequently speaks as a Microsoft MVP on MS Small Business Server and security issues.
Having joined Fresno, Calif.-based CPA firm Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn & Braun in 1984, she was promoted to partner six years later. She has served as the chair of the Technology Committee of the California Society of CPAs, co-authored a book on Small Business Server, and currently volunteers for the Center for Internet Security, a Hershey, Pa.-based nonprofit member-organization that assists companies in setting up adequate technical security.
