Following on from International Women’s Day on the 8^th March 106 Comms is in conversation with Dr Antonia Sudkaemper, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, ICAEW.

Antonia is an accomplished Diversity and Inclusion professional with global experience developing evidence-based strategies and implementing impactful interventions, both in-house and as a consultant. Antonia’s mission is to create inclusive organisational cultures that enable all employees to thrive.

Please tell me a bit about your role at ICAEW and what you enjoy the most about it?

At ICAEW, I focus on equal access opportunities to the accountancy profession, and on supporting our minority group students throughout their early career years.

What I enjoy most is collaborating on inclusion initiatives with our students and members; there are many of them who are deeply committed to making accountancy an inclusive profession, and it’s a real joy being able to support them in doing so. I also enjoy creating resources and tools for our member firms to help them navigate their D&I journey. Over the past years, I have hosted several webinars for our member firms, and I often advise member firms on D&I related topics. I appreciate the immense impact on the professional services landscape that I can have by being positioned so centrally in the industry and by being well-connected.

What does it mean for an organisation like ICAEW to be celebrating International Women’s Day?

Accounting is still a male-dominated field, and while there has certainly been progress over the past decades, we are not at gender parity yet – at the student level, our gender split is around 40-60. Furthermore, a 2022 report by McKinsey – Women in the Workplace – showed that women are leaving companies in unprecedented numbers.

As a professional membership body for accountants, we are very much at the centre of the profession. We collaborate with and influence our employers in their D&I journeys, and we have a direct influence on the experience of our members.

That’s why it’s important for us to show that we welcome and celebrate our female students and members and let a new generation of potential accountants know that the profession is open to everyone.

A trend I noticed during this year’s International Women’s Day is that a lot of women seemed to be reluctant to merely ‘celebrate’ it, but have been very intentional in making this day about demanding equality and better treatment in their workplaces and generally. So, I think for any organisation, it is important for women’s day or women’s history month to find the right balance between showing appreciation for their female staff members but also backing this up with tangible actions and support.

The theme for this year’s IWD is  “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”- What more can the Professional Services industry be doing to support greater equity in Innovation and Tech for women? 

ICAEW offers a lot of career resources that help young people who are starting out in their careers. These resources are not specific to accounting, and are free for anyone to access, so I would encourage women who are interested in tech to access them as well.

If you don’t mind, I will flip this question around, as my interpretation of this theme has been to ask what can innovation and tech do for women’s equality and workplace progression? I have been a UN Women UK delegate at this year’s UN Commission on the Status of Women, which focused on the role tech plays in the life of women, and hence have been reflecting a lot on this topic recently.

Firstly, technology has offered all of us more work flexibility, but women might be benefiting from this even more than men, as women often still bear most of the caring responsibilities and flexibility around WFH location makes it easier to combine the two. At ICAEW, we have offered virtual work experience and internships in the last two years. These allow people to gain valuable work experience while staying at home. Similarly, since the pandemic, there is now an option to take our exams remotely, which again allows for more flexibility.

Secondly, technology facilitates more access to role models, mentors and coaches. Online platforms make it possible to reach out and learn from a broad range of people. At ICAEW, we have just launched a mentoring programme that allows our students to connect with senior accountants from other companies and from all over the UK, many of the meetings will take place virtually. Our Women in Finance community operates via an online platform as well – another opportunity to connect with women you wouldn’t otherwise be able to meet.

And a final thought on this is that technology also enables new ways of education. Some of our members (e.g., Abigail Foster and Preesha Chhaya) regularly produce valuable content on accounting and personal finances via social media platforms. These allow young women to educate themselves on finances and the accounting profession without having to engage in conversations they might not feel comfortable to have yet.

Of course, there is much to improve on still as well, including:

• Women’s voices are not picked up by microphones as well as men’s which can lead to their contribution being missed.
• Algorithms might be biased towards showing men as professionals.
• Women experience more abuse online – so better safeguarding policies are required.

What has ICAEW done well to support the breaking down of gender stereotypes around careers in Professional Services and Technology?

Our President, Julia Penny, is very dedicated to promoting inclusion in the profession and has hosted several events for members. Julia’s and ICAEW’s commitment to career progression and health for women is clear when you look at the wide range of resources available to women coming into and already in the profession for example:

• A Women in Leadership programme that supports our female members in senior management, partner or board roles. The programme has a strong personal development focus and seeks to refine and craft individual leadership styles.
• A Women in Finance Community which was set up to provide networking and personal development opportunities to enable women working in finance to achieve their full potential.
• A Career Breaker Community for members who are returning to work after a break, such as after taking parental leave.

Something I have seen some of our member firms do is run allyship programmes, it’s essential to note that this is not seen as just a women’s issue and only focus on the support we need to give women. We need to move men into the conversation.

I have also seen organisations embed D&I goals into annual objectives for all leaders within the organisation, providing an additional incentive for all managers to care and really embed inclusion within the culture of the organisation.

There is also support for women experiencing menopause. For many women, menopause happens at a vital point in their careers when they may be ready for board-level consideration or positions. Not losing women at this key stage because of menopause-related health issues is being taken increasingly seriously among our member firms. Supportive workplaces are critical to ensure we don’t lose women from the workplace in this key part of their lives and careers.

Thank you to Antonia for her valuable time and insights.