Women in bookkeeping often face bias due to misconceptions about the work that they do and clients undervaluing bookkeeping in general. Here, Tanya Hilts of Cloud Business Services and Kelly Gonsalves of Totally Booked explain why bookkeeping as a brand needs to change in order to overcome bias.
Women in accounting and bookkeeping often don’t feel seen or heard due to bias in the workplace, but a new generation has emerged, and they’re eliminating antiquated views about the value of the work they do.
The first step toward changing the perception of bookkeeping is shifting opinions outside of the profession, said Tanya Hilts, CPB, founder of Cloud Business Services. She and Kelly Gonsalves, founder of Totally Booked, were part of a panel organized by Bookkeep on addressing bias in the bookkeeping profession. Bookkeep is an accounting automation platform that both Hilts and Gonsalves use in their businesses.
Gonsalves, who started Totally Booked seven years ago, said she has actually experienced the most prejudice from potential clients.
“They’ll say, ‘Oh, you’re just a bookkeeper.’ There’s an old-school view that bookkeeping is administrative work,” Gonsalves said.
Both women agreed that addressing and eliminating bias in the profession starts by educating clients and, sometimes, colleagues on what bookkeepers do and the value they offer.
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Let's face it, Women are under appreciated not just in the accounting area, but in business in general, STILL. Of course, you see women running some of the largest corporation in the world, like General Motors, IBM, and AMD, but that certainly is not enough. The Financial Service sector in my opinion is the worse. This is a great article.
T.L. Morson and Associates, PLLC www.tlmorson.com
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Let's face it, Women are under appreciated not just in the accounting area, but in business in general, STILL. Of course, you see women running some of the largest corporation in the world, like General Motors, IBM, and AMD, but that certainly is not enough. The Financial Service sector in my opinion is the worse. This is a great article.
T.L. Morson and Associates, PLLC
www.tlmorson.com
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