1.
PIONEERING
WOMEN
BUSINESS
LEADERS

2.
WOMEN WHO WORK IN ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
HAVE MANY INSPIRATIONAL STORIES TO TELL.
THEY FOUGHT A LONG BATTLE TO BE ALLOWED TO JOIN
PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING ORGANISATIONS, BUT THESE
DAYS WOMEN COMPRISE NEARLY HALF THE MEMBERSHIP
OF CPA AUSTRALIA AND ARE REPRESENTED IN THE
PARTNERS’ MEETINGS, BOARDROOMS AND THROUGHOUT
GOVERNMENT ORGANISATIONS.
MANY ARE KEEN TO SHARE THEIR STORIES TO PROVIDE
ENCOURAGEMENT TO YOUNGER WOMEN.
READ ON TO BE INSPIRED BY THESE FEMALE BUSINESS LEADERS.

3.
Determined, smart women fought a successful battle
to be recognised as accounting professionals.
Arguments against women working as accountants
included that they were taking the jobs of husbands,
fathers and brothers and should stay at home, and that
females were not mentally up to the work.
Today, about half of CPA Australia’s members are
women, but the profession deliberately excluded them
in its early years.
READ
MORE
THE LONG ROAD FOR AUSTRALIA’S
FEMALE ACCOUNTANTS

4.
The leadership track for women is still not as defined as it should
be, but the glass ceiling can be broken.
Women who have made partner have spoken openly
about the partnership track, but their experiences have been
anything but identical. While some say that certain qualities have
no doubt helped them rise to the top of their professions, they admit
that there’s no secret formula to being successful.
What is common among these women is having a good support
network, attributes such as perseverance and loyalty and perhaps
most importantly, a corporate environment that enables them to
balance leadership with family obligations.
READ
MORE
THE ROAD TO PARTNER,
FROM WOMEN WHO HAVE MADE IT.

5.
THE AUSTRALIAN WOMAN.
MEASURING FOR GOOGLE.
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MORE
Karen Stocks FCPA is at the top of her game.
She’s an Australian who is Google’s global
head of measurement, based in California.
“My role is to be a bridge between product
and sales teams, to make sure we get clear
feedback on what our customers need,
relay that back to product, work on product
prioritisation and then take that back to
sales,” Stocks explains.
“I get to be frontline with our business teams
in understanding what our customers need,
but then also have conversations with product
and engineering around what it is that we
need to build for the future.”

6.
CFO FINDS HER CALLING IN.
HELPING HOMELESS PEOPLE.
Emma Young ASA is the CFO of an innovative
start-up putting vans on the road equipped with
washing machines and driers to launder clothes
for some of Australia’s estimated 116,000 people
experiencing homelessness.
Young, who worked for News International as a
finance analyst, says she’s found her calling.
Walking the streets of London on a freezing night,
she was confronted by the sight of a homeless
person battling to survive the conditions.
“It really hit me that I was going home to a warm
bed and some people weren’t,” Young says. That
night, she began looking for ways to help people
down on their luck and started volunteering at a
winter shelter for the homeless.
READ
MORE

7.
THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE.
IN FINANCE AND INSURANCE.
READ
MORE
The finance and insurance industry has one
of the highest representations of women in
management. However, WGEA director Libby
Lyons says it still has a long way to go.
“The composition of women in the industry,
broadly, is 55.4 per cent. There are more
women working in the industry than men,
and still we have only 38.5 per cent of women
in management. There’s a fair bit of work to
do there.”
Lyons notes that 86 per cent of organisations
in the finance and insurance industry have a
flexible working policy in place.

8.
IN A LEAGUE OF HER OWN:
ANNA TANTAU CPA.
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MORE
When Anna Tantau CPA contemplates the platform for her
success in life and business, her mind always comes back to
her parents: a father who emigrated to Australia and owned
and operated a vineyard and a hard-working mother, who
always had an equal say on family and financial issues.
Tantau started out in administration and is now a senior
manager at accounting firm SEIVA.
“I must have had an affinity with numbers because I always
ended up in the ledger machining pool. I found it interesting
to see how the financial data was collected, verified and then
used for various financial reporting purposes,” she says.
“I don’t do anything unless I’m 100 per cent engaged. If it’s
something that’s not interesting to me, I just wouldn’t sit
through it – I’d resign or leave. If I’m involved, I’m going
to give my honest thoughts.”

9.
PENELOPE JAMES CPA.
DRIVEN BY A NEED FOR CHANGE.
READ
MORE
An urge to make a difference drew Penelope
James CPA to Africa, where her accounting skills
helped financial management and confidence.
Her growing passion for social justice and concern
for the environment has enabled her to give back
to a permaculture research project in Kenya.
“I knew it had to be Africa, which has historically
been pillaged by the Western world,” James says.
“It’s a place where a lot of work needs to be put
in to have a safer world and I feel we need a
more equitable distribution of resources. I’m an
accountant by trade and training, but if we don’t
look after our planet and environment, everything
else we do is moot.”

10.
To read more women in business stories,
go to https://www.intheblack.com/
Job positions were accurate at the times these articles were published in INTHEBLACK

11.
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