According to CPR's Annual Survey of Women In Public Accounting, which included 19 of the 25 largest accounting firms, women account for 11.7 percent of partners at large firms, up from 10.6 percent last year -- a gain that translates into women holding 10.4 percent more of big firms' partnerships this year.

Women accounted for about 18 percent, or 241, of 1,326 partners named at large firms this year, CPR reported. They also make up a major portion of the group from which tomorrow's partners will be picked, CPR said. Of 19,439 senior managers at the firms surveyed, 5,358, or 28 percent, are women, while women comprise 46 percent of total staff at those firms.

Southfield, Mich.-based Plante & Moran led the firms surveyed with the most women partners at 14.1 percent (22 women among 156 total partners). Moss Adams in Seattle rated a close second with 14 percent (20 of 143 partners), followed by Deloitte & Touche, with 13.9 percent (376 of 2,706 partners). At fourth-ranked KPMG, women account for 12.1 percent of the total partnership, CPR reported. Trailing the pack was Eide Bailly in Fargo, N.D., with just two women among 55 partners (3.6 percent).

At the Big Five firms, the number of women partners moved up by at least one percentage point for the second straight year, CPR said. For instance, the ranks of female equity partners at D&T jumped to 278 from 181 in the past year, a 53.6 percent gain, while the number of total equity partners rose 23.6 percent to 2,303 from 1,862. Arthur Andersen's total partnership rose 5.4 percent to 1,491 from 1,415 last year, but its ranks of female partners leaped 25.6 percent to 157 from 125, according to the survey.

-- SmartPros News Staff

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