The competitive advantage.

Isn't it fascinating, and informative, that only 15 years ago an of us--including women--believed that women couldn't do math--and today, more than half those entering the CPA profession are women. I believe accounting is one of the most difficult fields for women because it is so time intensive. But I also believe it is one of the fields with the greatest potential for change, change that will level the playing field for women.

Unlike a large corporation, an accounting firm is small and circumscribed. The career path is well defined and internal communication can be clear and direct because all the professionals are similarly well educated. Billable hours are an objective--if not accurate--productivity measure.

In corporations it may take many years to make it from entry-level manager to senior management, but it takes only 8 to 12 years to make it to partner in CPA firms. Today, women are crowding the gates to partnership. The fact that half the professionals entering the field are women demands a response--their massive presence cannot be ignored.

Change seems possible and the bottom-line case for change is powerful. As Deloitte & Touche chairman and chief executive officer J. Michael Cook has said, "If I have 500 partners and only 100 are women, 150 of them are relatively underqualified."

THE REALITIES

It's simple to know which firms value women. One has only to calculate the percentage of female partners. Why are fewer women than men making partner? Here are eight reasons:

1. It is a culture designed by men for men.

2. There are prevailing stereotypes about women; the most important is that they are more committed to family than to career.

3. Men tend to promote individuals in their own image.

4. Women are handicapped as rain-makers because they don't inherit clients, they want and need to get home to their children in the evenings, they choose tennis over the largely male sport of golf in order to save time and they're not comfortable with some of the traditional forms of entertainment.

5. Women's confidence in their own behavior is undermined. They're damned if they're aggressive, damned if they're not.

6. The further women walk down the corridor of power, the faster the doors are shut.

7. Their image is tarnished by the disproportionate number of women who leave.

8. Women choose--and are forced--to conform. Confronted with the choice of being judged by the same norms as men or by new criteria, women opt overwhelmingly to be judged by the male value system. They identify strongly with the culture of the corporation or firm.

Why is the attrition of women higher than that of men?

1. Women face obstacles that men don't: lack of role models and mentors, male stereotypes and preconceptions about women, sexual harassment and exclusion from the "old boys' network."

2. Women suffer burnout even more than men do. Most have two jobs--at home and in the workplace--and none have wives at home running the household, rearing their children and supporting their careers.

3. They tend to be given less-desirable clients and assignments.

4. Many who believed they could balance family and work find they can't.

5. Maternity leaves are too short.

6. Telecommuting and reduced work schedules are discouraged.

7. Women tend to be discounted as soon as they have children (often when they've been managers for four or five years and their value to the firm is high).

THE POSSIBILITIES

But there are factors that can further the advancement of women. They are important because they are forces for change, forces that warrant greater recognition.

Firms put a premium on practice development. The rainmaker is king. Women are at a disadvantage because of the time factor and the traditionally male nature of some business entertainment, which can include male--only clubs and nightclubs where women would not feel comfortable. But there's an alternative route to rainmaking: networking with women in corporate controllers' offices--where the choice of accounting firms is made and where many women go when they leave the pressured firm environment. Women in public accounting can gain new clients by making connections with these counterparts.

Another important factor is that accounting firms work for the most part on fixed fees. That means that efficiency--working smart--is rewarded. It's possible to serve clients needs--and earn money for the firm--without always having to spend long hours doing it. That's an advantage for women because it could enable them to be judged by the quality of their work and not the quantity of time they put in at the office.

By the same token, in public accounting, so much time is spent in the field with clients that "face-to-face" loses much of its significance. As a result, the individual has much greater flexibility to work when and where she--or he chooses.

One change in the workplace can also help women. Many people dislike the facelessness of hoteling--in which firm members have no set offices--because of the absence of a personal space and the lack of privacy. But it's important to recognize that hoteling greatly facilitates reduced schedules. The managing partner of the best large corporate law firm for women in the country told me that when a professional works on, for example, an 80% schedule, the firm loses the pure profitability of that 20% beyond the already amortized overhead. Hoteling overcomes that penalty. Most significant, about a decade ago, a study by Catalyst determined that the best women tended to leave and the best men tended to stay. If they're losing some of their best resources, then businesses must recognize the need to keep these women.

WHAT WOMEN SHOULD REMEMBER

In order to succeed, women must keep a realistic perspective on their own value and on the choices they make. Here are some guidelines: Recognize your worth. The bottom-line contribution you can make in the workplace as educated, thoughtful individuals and as women who have the power not only to enhance your employer's competitive position but to humanize the workplace. And recognize that you are the most valuable underused resource we have, one that no other country can match.

Go for the gold ring if you want it. But do it your own way. Some of you will be comfortable with the rules that men have set out and follow them because you choose that path. Some of you will reject those rules, create your own and, if you're a star, challenge your employers to give you rein or let you go. But whatever route you take, when you succeed, the men at the top will be aware of it and learn from what you have done.

Go as a facilitator to your boss. Don't approach as an adversary to demand your rights. Recognize that he or she will want to effect the change you suggest if it makes business sense.

Don't be observers (or worse, resentful victims). Be active participants in effecting the needed change.

Recognize that women and men are different and that women's experience is different. Women have babies; they face barriers men don't. But "different" is not "inferior." It is neither better nor worse. To gain a competitive advantage in the global economy, we need the complementary qualities and values of men and women.

Join a women's group; if one doesn't exist, start one. You'll recognize right away that many of the problems you face are not yours exclusively. Analyze these problems, calculate how much it will cost if your employer fails to address them and organize a representative group to discuss them at the highest levels. You'll be heard because you have established that your problems are costly to your employer.

Support other women. Female partners at the law firm Morrison & Foerster compiled a resource book of every female partner in the firm and her area of expertise so that they could refer work to one another.

Order your priorities and recognize that you must make trade-offs. The comedian Steven Wright says, "You can't have it all--where would you put it?"

At home, discuss who will raise your children and whether one career will take priority. Establish that you are just as eager to share the responsibility to support the family as you are to share parenting responsibilities.

Recognize the key to flexible scheduling is availability and a high level of commitment. If you are never going to be willing to work Fridays, for example, then you're really an employee, not a professional. In addition, you'd need the right technology, a very good secretary and full-time child care coverage.

Aggressively search out assignments that will develop and demonstrate your talents.

Enlist a high-level mentor. Make it a top priority.

Wake smart career choices. If you have multiple job offers, turn down employers or firms that do not have a significant percentage of female partners or executives. When asked what advice they would give to other women confronting the work-family dilemma, only 3% of 940 high-level women professionals responded: "Choose your employer carefully." And yet that's the most powerful tool you have to effect the change that is needed for women.

If firms or companies don't make themselves attractive to half of the workforce--half of the accounting graduates--then they will miss out on a great deal of talent. This will put them at a competitive disadvantage--and force them to reconsider the way they run their businesses.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

* A PROMINENT EXPERT ON GENDER roles and women in the workplace believes that accounting is one of the most difficult fields for women because it is so time intensive but adds that it also has the greatest potential for the changes necessary to level the playing field for women.

* THE REALITIES ARE THAT MEN tend to promote in their own image and believe that women may not be fully committed to their careers. Women also are handicapped as rainmakers and criticized if they're too aggressive--or too passive.

* AMBITIOUS WOMEN LACK ROLE MODELS and suffer greater burnout because of their domestic responsibilities. Options such as telecommuting and flexible hours often aren't available.

* BUT IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER the possibilities. Women can network with and find clients among the growing number of women who have left public accounting to work in industry. Practice changes such as hoteling offer new opportunities for reduced schedules.

* TO SUCCEED, WOMEN SHOULD recognize the value of the contributions they make and accept their differences from men. Forming a women's group, supporting other women and finding a mentor are other valuable steps.

FELICE N. SCHWARTZ is the founder and former president and chief executive officer of Catalyst, a national not-for-profit organization that works with business to effect change for women through research, communications and advisory services. This article was adapted from an article in the American Woman's Society of CPAs National News. The National News article was based on Felice N. Schwartz's keynote address to the AWSCPA leadership conference last year.

RELATED ARTICLE: What Employers Should Know

Here are some important points I would make to employers:

There is a central fact that has not yet been recognized: In the past when virtually all professionals were men and the sole support of their families, they had wives at home to support their careers so they could focus all their energies on moving up and earning as much as possible. It's not reasonable to have the same expectations of these professionals when both parents are in the workplace. The competitive advantage will go to those firms and companies that enable men and women to make their own choices, to focus more on their careers or more on their families or to balance career and family.

One way to do this is to encourage men to share in parenting. When men are pressured to work harder and longer and to travel more, fatigue creates inefficiency and increasing resentment at being denied family time. Moreover, more of the home responsibilities are shifted to wives, which undermines their productivity at work. By sharing parenting, both can make responsible, lifelong commitments to their employers as well as to their children.

Employers also should enable parents--at present, particularly women--to succeed. Women have displaced virtually half the male accounting graduates, so it's no longer possible to maintain the extraordinary quality of your professionals unless you recognize they are Parents too. Encourage your employees to spend time with their families. Our children will not grow up to be productive if we deprive them of their parents.

On the professional side, put more women on your management committee. They will broaden your perspective, enhance the quality of the team and help you to clear away obstacles to women's productivity and achievement. At the same time, encourage women to function in a manner that is natural for them; don't expect them to behave like men. Businesses need the values women bring to the workplace.

Conduct gender-awareness workshops. Much of male counterproductive behavior is unconscious. And open up lines of communication. Women don't want to discuss the problems they face because they don't want to be different from men. Employers won't discuss them because they're afraid of litigation.

Finally, consider the expense of turnover among professional women. A study by Douglas Phillips at Merck & Company showed the cost of replacing an experienced manager was 150% of a year's salary.