The good news is that over the last decade, more than 50 per cent of accounting graduates have been female. The bad news is that they are not moving into senior level position at the same rate as their male counterparts. Fewer are aiming for partnership as they try to balance family and careers.

Some firms are introducing special initiatives to address the problem, reports Liz Gold at webcpa.com but there is clearly a long way to go.

Deloitte & Touche for example have an Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women and Grant Thornton have a Women@Grant Thornton program and measures helping women network in and out of the firm.

With the skills shortage, this will continue to be an acute issue in the industry and will no doubt put pressure on accounting firms to develop policies that will keep and attract female talent. Significantly in the annual list of the top 100 firms for working mothers, three of the Big Four firms appear in the top 10. So there are signs it's changing.

In the next few years, expect to see accounting firms adopting measures including:

1.Realizing the value of part-time workers.

2. Job sharing.

3. Thinking in terms of a career lattice, not a career ladder. That means working with the employee to develop a career path that embraces flexibility in terms of the workload, schedule, responsibility and even the workplace. All that would depend on the individual's life circumstances.

4.Child care and creating kids rooms where employees' children can come in and get some care if they are not well.