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EY and PwC are on track to miss 2025 targets for female partner representation in the UK as the Big Four accountancy firms struggle to sufficiently increase the proportion of women in their senior ranks.
EY’s UK arm will fall most dramatically short of its target, having set the most ambitious target. The firm is targeting a 40 percent female equity partnership by this year, with data from last year showing that only 28 percent of partners in the country were women.
Audit firms have increased the number of women in top positions in recent years, with EY recently appointing Janet Truncale as its new global president and appointing Anna Anthony as the UK firm’s new managing partner.
But raising the gender balance in the partnership towards parity has proven to be a slow process, a phenomenon that has echoed in sectors such as law and banking.
The Big Four have all set targets in recent years to increase the proportion of female partners, and in turn have helped reduce the gender pay gap, with women making up less than a fifth of the ranks in the UK at the end of 2014. in 2010.
According to the latest figures, PwC is three percentage points short of its 2025 target of 30 per cent women in UK partnerships. The figure has increased by one to two percentage points a year from 2021, meaning a bigger step forward would be needed to close the gap before PwC releases its new figures later this year.
KPMG and Deloitte have already met their targets in the UK. The former was the first of the Big Four to publish data on gender diversity just over a decade ago and exceeded the interim target of 25 per cent in 2022. It had 29 per cent women in UK partnerships in 2023.
And Deloitte reported last year that 30 percent of its partners were women, ahead of a 2025 deadline to reach that figure.
However, both firms are on track to miss global partnership goals — goals that PwC and EY do not.
The Big Four argued that increasing the number of female partners takes time, due to the need to build a pipeline of candidates with enough experience to advance.
Karl Edge, chief HR officer at KPMG UK, said the firm was “committed to creating an inclusive environment”, adding: “While progress may vary, we are focused on achieving better representation at all levels of our firm, challenging ourselves to go further and faster.”
KPMG International said it would “continue to build on the momentum” for gender equality, which remains a “strategic priority”.
Jackie Henry, managing people and purpose partner at Deloitte UK, said the firm was “proud” to meet its 2025 target a year early. “But . . . we will continue to hold ourselves accountable and strive for greater gender equality.”
EY and PwC declined to comment.
