Margaret A. Wood

Ita M. Rahilly The Trusted Professional Marilyn A. Pendergast Jo Ann Golden, Sharon Sabba Fierstein Margaret A. Wood Gail M. McIntyre Why did you choose accounting as your career? 

I didn’t start out in accounting. I didn’t known much about the accounting field at the time I went to college—my dad was not an accountant. One of his responsibilities was to prepare the budgets for his department, and I’d help him complete spreadsheets. But once I got older and learned more about the profession, I wanted to switch my major. I wasn’t encouraged to do so. My parents wanted me to continue with the teaching degree. So I did. After graduation,  I taught for six months, then became a flight attendant. I worked until I could take consistent days off, at which point I went back to school on a part-time basis and got my master’s in accounting. 

What was your first accounting job like?

When I came into public accounting—I was hired by Touche Ross [which eventually merged with Deloitte] right out of my graduate program—I went to training, both local and national. My local training class was different. A number of us were older and had held  jobs, and were not  starting out of school at 22 with a bachelor’s degree. We were also the first class that had a majority of women. 

Some individuals informed us we were a great experiment and indicated they were concerned that we were all going to quit and have families within three years. (Some of the seniors, supervisors and managers  were also unsure about how it might be working with first-year staff who had had six to eight years’ work experience and were older than they were.) At national training, an individual noticed all the women at the table and asked why they were hiring women. And the response was: “We had two choices: lower our standards or hire women.”

That was in 1982.

As more women have entered the profession and become partners, did you notice that the tone has changed in CPA firms? Did you notice it affecting the culture of firms? And if so, how? 

Yes, I think it really has. Women are being given more opportunities to join programs that can enrich their career, and overall, firms became more willing to invest and develop their female professionals. I was asked to join a program where I could get my master’s degree as I worked. I already had one and so declined, but it was nice to be asked when I was a senior [accountant]. 

I’ve also seen changes in overall attitudes, or at least in what people say. When I was a senior, there were only two women managers and no women partners in my office.  As a manager, I was one of four women on a committee where women could come to us about [issues] within the firm, where someone had said or done something inappropriate, where the matter could be identified and some sort of measures could be taken. So the message from on top was there, leadership supported the idea, but this was a time of transition, and so we were still dealing with a lot of double standards. For example, if you took a sick day, someone might say something stupid like, “Oh, it must be that time of the month,” while the flu is running around the entire office! Or, “Oh, it must be your children,” and in my case, it was always interesting because I have no kids. 

As you rose in your career, how important was networking and support from other women? 

There weren’t a lot of women at the time; that was part of the issue. So I was mentored by men. As I stated earlier, there were only two women managers in the office. At one point, one of them was assigned as my coach, but we were a mismatch. She was a health care specialist, and at the time, I was working on public companies in retail and leasing, and government and defense-contracting clients. She told me that I should really get into not-for-profits so that I can have a family, which was a big thing to her at the time because she was starting a family herself. That was right for her, but not for me. 

So how were you able to find male mentors you could trust? 

I was very lucky. My first mentor was the partner who interviewed me at Touche Ross. His wife was thinking about going back to graduate school, and we hit it off when he asked  about my suggestions for her, and the pitfalls. He headed the retail group. I had another mentor, who was very influential in the real estate group and took me under his wing after my first job working for him.

Where has there been the most improvement in terms of women in the accounting profession from when you first started out? 

Well, first off, the tone has changed: Women aren’t being told they’re an experiment! Women are at all levels of the firms and companies, from staff to partner, firm and company senior leadership, including CEO and boards. Having a family is no longer viewed as the end of your career. Now there’s maternity and paternity leave, full-time and part-time possibilities. It’s a matter of what you want and what area of practice you want to be in. Now, will you be able to be involved in public companies that are constantly filing registration statements [if] you’re basically only available Tuesdays and Wednesdays? Probably not. But there are now other paths available to people, even paths to leadership, for both men and women. That’s a big change from when I started.