Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm FCA has urged the financial and accountancy professions to do more to empower women through financial literacy on a panel discussion recorded for International Women’s Day - In Conversation with Robyn Denholm, Ainslie van Onselen, Orla Collins and Traci Houpapa - to be streamed on 1 March.

“My call to arms for the financial community is for financial literacy of women…across all verticals. Whether it is a person who is going into the arts or into science…or a start-up founder or a small business owner - financial literacy offers the keys to financial freedom.

“It is incumbent on the financial community to make sure all women have the keys in their hand to drive their own economic and financial future…things like how a P&L sheet works, managing cash flow…and I think that would be a huge step forward if the financial community took that on because I think there isn’t anyone better to impart that knowledge,” Denholm said.

CEO of Chartered Accountants ANZ Ainslie van Onselen also said that while accountancy professionals have an important role to play in providing certainty in capital markets and economic confidence, they also have the ability to use this knowledge to empower their individual clients.

“It’s what they do…it’s part of their DNA. On a micro level every chartered accountant has the knowledge and the tools they can share with their clients, with their community…and give back that way. Look for women in your networks you can support, be they small business owners or women in start-ups, who will be looking for that knowledge and information,” she said.

van Onselen also used the opportunity to reiterate calls the peak accounting body made at last year’s Jobs and Skills Summit aimed at removing barriers to reducing the superannuation gap between women and men.

“We’ve advocated for an elimination of the annual (superannuation contribution) cap and replacing it with a lifetime cap. When women return to work, after what can be up to six years, they see how much their partner has increased their super while they’ve been caring for the children.

“Women are seriously financially disadvantaged and disincentivized to catch up on their super and we really want to close that gap as much as possible,” van Onselen said.

Orla Collins FCCA, immediate past President of ACCA, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said businesses which ignore diversity will struggle to remain sustainable.

“There is a war for talent and it’s madness that we don’t extend our recruitment net as wide as possible. If you ignore half the workforce, you ignore half the talent. Apart from it being ethically wrong, it hands a gift to commercial rivals, which fish in a much deeper and wider pool of talent.

“It’s also a reputational issue. Investors are building diversity measures and ESG issues into their decision-making. Increasingly, they won’t invest in a business that can’t show a long-term commitment to sustainability and diversity, and the accountancy profession has a crucial role to play in driving those conversations and challenging businesses to focus on ESG.”

Newly appointed CA ANZ director Traci Houpapa also said that accountancy and financial professionals have an important role to play in determining what needs to be measured to bring meaningful change.

“I’m a proponent of targets in terms of gender representation and transparency and I think the sooner that boards and organisations tie gender equity and equality to the performance of leadership teams, we will see greater change.

“When it comes to those projections, being part of those designs, discussions and debates…it is important for our accounting and finance professionals to stand up. When we are reviewing and revising what we’re measuring in the commercial sector and across companies and organisations, having that sound and professional view from accountants is so important,” Houpapa said.

While discussions around International Women’s Day often centre on challenges and impediments to progress, the panellists were also optimistic.

“I do think we are making a significant amount of change. When I first started at my CA firm, there were no female partners in Australia, none, zero. The same when I became CFO for the first time. There were eight female CFOs of tech companies on the Nasdaq at that point in time and I knew them all. Today there are 100s of CFOs on the Nasdaq,” reflected Denholm.

“My high school teacher inspired me to take economics at university, and so the journey began from there; there are thousands of girls out there in the same situation. If they can see a person that’s done that or hundreds of people who have done that before them, then it will give them the role models to not just follow in my footsteps but create their own,’ Denholm said.

The panel discussion is free to both members and non-members so register now.