INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2024

YOUNG WOMAN wearing orange hat and pink headphones around her neck

We support Invest in women: Accelerate progress. A campaign by UN Women. #InvestInWomen

Gender responsive financing and shifting to a green economy

Smiling woman with closely shaved hair dyed blonde.

An area of focus for UN Women is gender responsive financing and a transition to a green economy and care society. Accountants have a crucial part to play in this. By incorporating gender-responsive budgeting into economic packages we can help identify the gender impacts of policy and mitigate or rectify them for greater equity.

Today:

48% of ACCA members are female
59% of ACCA students are female
Young woman using smart phone on deep blue background
Woman in city with AI glasses

As an advocate of inclusion since our beginnings in 1904, we’re proud to again support International Women’s Day.

In 1909 we became the first accountancy body to admit a woman, Ethel Ayres Purdie.

Ethel Ayres Purdie
‘Ethel worked tirelessly to achieve equity in the world of accounting’

It’s over one hundred years since Ethel Ayres Purdie was elected as an associate to the London Association of Accountants, a founding organisation of ACCA, and became the first woman to be admitted to an accountancy body in the UK. She spent most of her working life pursuing women’s equality – where she saw gender inequality she resisted, campaigned and fought for the reform of public policy. 

Purdie became a leading provider of income tax advice to women and pursued a vigorous campaign against the unfair treatment of married women in the tax system. She argued that women winning the vote was a key step in redressing wider gender inequalities, and that economic, social and political emancipation was essential to the progress of women.

Purdie remains an inspirational figure to all who seek to forge gender balance and challenge bias.  

Excerpt Stephen Walker, Edinburgh University Business School

Read interviews with female members showcased in AB magazine.

Ayla Majid and Melanie Proffitt
ACCA's deputy president and vice president, talk about what it means to be a woman in the accountancy profession.

Encouraging women into accountancy
Female members share insights for women starting out in the profession.

Jazla Hamad FCCA
Audit and assurance partner, Deloitte Middle East. Jazla was the first Emirati woman partner in Deloitte Middle East’s 96 year history.

Lucky O'Loughlin FCCA
Finance director, UK and Benelux with Verve the Agency, a leader in experiential marketing.

Women's words of encouragement
An opportunity to hear advice from female ACCA members

Catherine Yu FCCA
Driving expansion with efficiency at healthcare business Humansa.

Emma Hinchey FCCA
Accomplished musician and entrepreneur, Emma, set up The CEO Centre to help businesses get things done.