There have been more women than men joining the accountancy sector in recent years but statistics show the 'glass ceiling' still prevents many females from reaching senior level.
It is therefore heartening to hear international accounting firm Mazars recently promoted three women - Annie Chan, Alexandra Hui and Catherine Tse - to partners.
But even with these recent promotions, the firm still has more men than women partners: 12 male against 5 female. This means about 29 per cent of partners are female.
The Big Four are in a similar situation. About 30 per cent of the partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers' Hong Kong office are female while at KPMG 34 per cent of partners are women. At Ernest & Young Hong Kong, females represent 29 per cent of all partners while at Deloitte Hong Kong, 28 per cent of partners are women.
Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants figures show that there are more young women accountants than men. Of 4,500 accountants aged 29 or below, 2,693 - or 59 per cent - are women.
Between 30 and 39, there are still more females than males - with a total of 6,164 female accountants compared with 4,377 male.
The gap in gender starts to narrow from age 40 to 44, with 3,364 female accountants compared with 3,121 males.