The cooperation received from the participating partners indicates the profession’s con-
cern about the lack of women in senior levels of management in accounting firms. The
results of this empirical study show that gender and dependent children interact to affect
the advancement of women accountants to partner level. Moreover, male accountants are
promoted more quickly than females overall. Mothers were the group that were most disad-
vantaged when it came to promotion. Not only did mothers take longer to attain the level of
promotion, but also they had more years of professional membership, suggesting that eco-
nomic considerations rather than professionalism influenced promotion (Kirkham, 1997).
In general, although women accountants with dependent children reach manager level, few
mothers are promoted above that level. What is more, no mothers attained the partner level
in this sample of accountants (see Table 4).