EY and PwC set to miss 2025 partner targets for women
The UK wings of EY and PwC are reportedly off track when it comes to meeting their targets for the proportion of women in their respective partnerships. In contrast, Big Four rivals KPMG and Deloitte are on target for their own goals.
Diversity within the boardroom has become an increasingly important issue for businesses globally, both in terms of the business case, in terms of compliance, and, increasingly, in terms of wider social trends towards inclusive practices. Women in board roles can act as role models to encourage others to participate in the business world, and help firms to see where their weak points are in supporting more women into senior roles.
However, progress remains slow – and in some sectors of the UK economy, there is a real danger that businesses could be rowing back against their diversity efforts of the last decade. A recent report from the Financial Times suggests that two of the biggest players in the UK’s professional services sector are behind schedule, when it comes to hitting targets for new women entering their partnerships.
EY and PwC are on track to miss 2025 targets for female partner representation in the UK as the Big Four accounting firms struggle to sufficiently boost the proportion of women in their upper ranks.
According to the business newspaper, while EY’s UK arm set the most ambitious goal of the Big Four, aiming 40% women in its partnership by 2025, current data suggests it has hit only 28% so far. Meanwhile, PwC is still 3% shy of its more modest 30% target for 2025. Since 2021, PwC has only advanced to that target by between 1% and 2% per year, meaning it would need a larger leap than previously to deliver before it reports its new figures later in the year.
This not only puts the two firms behind their own schedule, but also behind the UK wings of rivals KPMG and Deloitte. KPMG was the first of the quartet to publish its gender gap data 10 years ago, passing a 25% interim target in 2022, and was past 29% by the following year. Meanwhile, Deloitte reported in 2024 that 30% of its partners were women – having set itself a 2025 deadline for that goal.
The news comes as EY gets life underway with Anna Anthony in its UK CEO role – making it the first of the Big Four to appoint a woman in the top job. But both EY and PwC have notably announced headcount reductions in their UK teams – something which may have contributed to the difficulties of hitting their gender gap targets, as the Big Four have previously argued that boosting the number of women in their partnerships takes time, owing to the need to build a pipeline of candidates with sufficient experience to be promoted.
When asked to comment on the story by the Financial Times, both EY and PwC declined.
