You Are One Of The Top Women In Accounting! #IWD2019

Clarity Street received some pretty exciting and humbling news this morning, perfectly timed to celebrate International Women’s Day 2019 #IWD2019. Amy Holdsworth (me!) the CEO + Founder of Clarity Street, has been named among the 'Top 50 Women in Accounting' for 2018, submissions curated globally via Practice Ignition.

Thank you to Practice Ignition for being at the forefront in recognising the impact that women have in this industry and celebrating our efforts, it’s so appreciated!

Having been nominated by our colleagues and friends, the work we do within our company and community has also been recognised as outstanding by the extraordinary judging panel. It’s an absolute honour to stand amongst these Top 50 Women in Accounting, please join me in celebrating these remarkable ladies.

The constant desire to make Accounting firms & SME’s more efficient and profitable, is how Clarity Street was conceived. With all the apps out there in the market place, the industry tells them "WHY" an app is great, but not "HOW" it fits together in practice. It is my sole purpose and that of Clarity Street, to assist clients understand "HOW" to actually connect their wonderful apps to streamline their internal workflows and processes so they can spend less time dealing with disjointed software, get more work completed, provide more value allowing for happier clients and increase capacity to translate to profits.

I’m pretty passionate about this industry and one of the questions we were asked in the submission is what can the industry do to support and encourage young females to be the next industry leaders? Here’s what I think needs to happen...

Change needs to come from the top. The industry, in particular the industry bodies ie CPA, CA, IPA, generally need to recognise that females have equivalent value and skill sets and that just because you’re male, doesn’t equate to being more knowledgeable and therefore the trusted advisor.

​Globally we have a gender gap, but this isn’t about wages in my eyes, it’s about mentality and how women are perceived in business. It’s a two fold attack to bridge this gap, more opportunities to teach women how to value themselves equally and then develop skills to succinctly deliver this value and secondly, the industry needs to stamp out the “boys club” mentality and promote equality from a talent perspective. Point in case, I’m the CEO and director of Clarity Street and when my male counterparts join in on new client meetings, regardless of how open minded the client is or what information is being delivered, they will always migrate to my colleagues in preference of dealings.

Women in business are constantly judged, for being too forward, too opinionated, too moody, too quiet, too…anything apart from just being good at what they do in their role. And when we stand up for ourselves then we’re emotional and whiny. It’s tiresome. How about, we are seen as equals within the industry, based on our ability and the outcomes for the client and business in general.

In support of the above, it’s also time for new industry wide KPI's to be put in place that measure quality and output structured on deadlines and turnaround times to allow for more flexible working hours & environments for females in the industry. The mentality around being measured on dollar value performance or in relation to being visible during "standard" office hours needs changing. It’s outdated and archaic. We’re a formidable force and can multi task like no tomorrow, it’s time the industry recognised this and allowed us to deliver the outcomes required in a more flexible format.

​International Women’s Day 2019 #IWD2019 is a time to take stock and be thankful for every female before us who pushed the boundaries of society and conditioned thinking, to allow us the opportunities that we experience today. It’s also a time to celebrate being AWESOME!

Once again thank you to Practice Ignition for their recognition of not only myself, but all women in the accounting industry. While it is just a top 50, I believe this sort of recognition only serves to improve the image and stigma of women in the accounting industry - Keep on drinking wine ladies!

If you think that you need the services of Clarity Street, get in touch with us!