Driving Change Committing to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Action.

• Author: Jiles, Loreal
• Position: DE&I

less talk, more action. These four words rang loudly in the ears of participants in a video call in the summer or 2020. A handful of CalCPA and Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) staff members, including both CEOs, shared observations about the lack of diversity among senior leadership in the accounting and finance profession and embarked on a journey to do something about it.

Being accountants, we knew we needed data. And we knew we'd have to bring others on board to effect the change we wanted. Now, after more than 8,000 survey respondents, 100 interviews, hundreds of emails and dozens of discussions, we stand at the culmination of a five-series research project examining diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the global accounting profession. We have assembled dozens of organizations, including nearly three dozen U.S. state CPA societies, and are moving toward collective action.

What We Learned

The first study. Diversifying U.S. Accounting Talent: A Critical Imperative to Achieve Transformational Outcomes, revealed a diversity gap in the U.S. accounting profession greater diversity broadly across the profession than in senior leadership roles. It also highlighted a diversity gap across the profession for specific racial and ethnic groups Black and Hispanic or Latinx, in particular.

When the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) joined IMA to replicate the U.S. study in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Mediterranean, and the Middle East and North Africa, data exposed a similar lack of diversity among senior leadership and confirmed that, globally, diverse talent isn't advancing because of inequity and exclusion.

The capstone research report. Diversifying Global Accounting Talent: Actionable Solutions for Progress, released April 2022, uncovered a few hard truths about the profession (see chart):

* Fewer than 60 percent of respondents view the accounting and finance profession as equitable or inclusive. Respondents in the U.S. are least likely than any other regions explored to share this view (see Table 1).

* More than 40 percent of female respondents in each region, and as many as 73 percent of women in the U.S., cite bias affecting recruitment, assignments, peer-to-peer interactions, promotions, compensation, mentoring and sponsorship, and retention.

* On average, 42 percent of female respondents left a company due to a perceived lack of equitable treatment or inclusion; 12 percent of women reported a lack or DE&I...