A GROWING NUMBER of women have been entering the accountancy profession over the past decade, tilting the gender ratio in this once male-dominated profession.
They are high academic achievers who are increasingly opting to study at tertiary level as a first step towards cultivating their careers.
Chinese University has reported that for the past three years the gender ratio of students admitted to its professional accountancy programme was about 45 per cent men to 55 per cent women, indicating a growing interest by women in the profession.
The University of Hong Kong has also revealed a much larger intake of women.
For the 2005/06 intake, 58.1 per cent of students were women, compared with 41.9 per cent men.
While the proportion of qualified male accountants still dominated the industry at about 55 per cent, the number of women had been increasing by an average of about 1.5 per cent each year, said Choi Sau-yuk, president of the Institute of Accountants in Management.
