As part of our commitment to expanded coverage and learning more about the markets we cover, we are providing the results of our latest Women in Tax Leaders Survey. We invited all the currently ranked Women in Tax Leaders to take part in the survey and provide feedback on their experiences working as a woman in the tax industry. This poll takes in views from jurisdicitions all over the planet and helps to build a picture of the current situation women working in tax.
Hidden Voices
As part of our Women in Tax Leaders Survey, we asked participants to provide anonymous feedback on some of the specific challenges they faced as a woman working in the tax industry. The responses came in from all over the world and show there are both shared experiences in every jurisdiction and unique challenges in many different places. Below is a selection of the different messages we received.
While progress has been made in increasing female representation within the tax profession, gender equality has not yet been fully embedded in day-to-day practice.
From my experience, structural barriers remain, particularly in leadership progression, recognition of technical expertise, and the ability to sustain long-term careers. Moving from intention to measurable, accountable action remains the industry’s key challenge.
Beginning a career in a hostile environment for women often means having to earn credibility repeatedly. Through resilience and consistent results—without raising the voice, but by letting the work speak—leadership can be built. Equality is not about placing women in men’s roles, but about ensuring equal opportunities, challenges, and rewards for all. This perspective becomes even more critical when leading in both tax and technology within male-dominated environments, where creating space for everyone truly matters.
The more of our women leaders in tax are visible, the more talent we can attract and keep in our tax practice. I am confident that it will only get better and better with time, with consistent efforts from us, women in tax.
I strongly believe that the tax industry -and the consultancy industry in general- still expect that women devote the same amount of time and efforts to their jobs as their men colleagues, as at the same time, society continues to expect that women devote more time to their families and children. Flexible work policies have improved the general environment in which women who are moms develop in this industry, but firms tend to be equally demanding with men and with women, with our acknowledging the natural challenges women in face as the main caregivers in most families and societies around the world. I have personally faced the challenge of having the same goals and expectations from my men colleagues while becoming a mom, having a maternity leave, and raising two young children. It is impossible for a woman in these conditions to have the same billable hours or the same level of dedication to the office. This has to change.
As a woman working in the tax industry, one of the biggest challenges I have faced is navigating environments where leadership and decision-making remain largely male-dominated. There is often an unspoken expectation that women must consistently prove their technical competence and commitment in ways that are not equally demanded of male peers.
Balancing career progression with personal life choices (particularly around starting a family) remains a structural disadvantage, as long hours and inflexible models are still treated as a proxy for commitment. In some cases, concerns raised around workload, culture, or equity are acknowledged superficially but not meaningfully addressed, which can be discouraging and isolating.
While progress has been made, there is still a need for genuine accountability, inclusive leadership, and employment practices that recognize performance and expertise.
Many business relationships are still built during informal settings such as lunches or cocktail events. For women, navigating these spaces and building the same bridges with clients or colleagues can be more challenging, as similar interactions are sometimes viewed or judged differently.
In 28 years working in tax, I have seen women consistently need to prove themselves more than their male peers. Being interrupted, having ideas credited to others, or being overlooked for challenging assignments.
Balancing career and family remains a critical issue. The unspoken message persists: choose between advancing professionally or having a personal life.
I actively participate in women's tax associations and mentorship programs. These networks are a powerful force for change. Solidarity among female practitioners is essential. When we support each other, we change the culture from within and open doors for the next generation.
One of the main challenges women face in accessing senior leadership positions is the persistence of informal power dynamics that tend to favor male peers. In the development and management of new clients, there is often reluctance to share opportunities with women, while the same opportunities are more readily accepted and valued when exchanged among men. In addition, when women reach more senior roles, their professional competence and the merit behind their advancement are frequently and continuously questioned, with a disproportionate focus on shortcomings rather than achievements. These challenges are further compounded when women start a family, as balancing professional and personal responsibilities remains more complex due to ongoing expectations that women assume a greater share of day-to-day family responsibilities.
In the tax industry, many of the challenges faced by women are structural rather than explicit. While women are well represented in technical roles, expectations around leadership, availability, and career progression remain unequal.
Key moments such as starting a family often highlight the lack of flexible and sustainable career models, with flexibility still perceived as reduced commitment. Although awareness has improved, gender equality is not yet consistently treated as a strategic priority, limiting meaningful progress.
Achieving a work-life balance is more difficult for women because staying in the tax industry demands a lot of effort and dedication compared to other sectors.
I believe much remains to be done in advancing female leadership and in recognizing the distinct perspectives men and women bring to problem-solving.
The most valuable asset a tax firm can have isn't on the balance sheet—it’s the perspective of the women who have navigated the hurdles to be there.
Starting a successful career in tax at an early age may lead to postponing—or even foregoing—family life, including having children. This has been a common reality for middle-aged women, but not for newer generations, who are seeking balance rather than success alone. This creates a challenge in attracting and retaining talent capable of meeting the effort and performance standards expected by senior leadership. There are notable exceptions, but they are not the norm.
I am a woman fully dedicated to the business world, working as a tax advisor. My daily practice involves dealing primarily with men, as approximately 90% of the decision-makers among my clients—whether business owners or senior executives—are male.
I talk on the phone with them, have meetings with them, talk through mail, through WhatsApp...spending my days navigating predominantly male environments can be exhausting. At times, it is frustrating not to encounter more women in positions of decision-making and influence. The absence is noticeable, and it can generate a sense of anger—not because of difference, but because of imbalance. Sometimes, it simply becomes tiring to constantly have to prove your value beyond assumptions.
In many situations, I face the inherent disadvantage of not being part of the “old boys’ network.” Earning recognition beyond gender can be challenging; it often feels as though I must consistently go above and beyond to be valued for my expertise rather than being seen through the lens of gender.
Your tax department is not going to thank you for NOT taking a "long" maternity/paternity leave, or for deciding to not grow your family. They are running a business. You are doing more that and more!
The evolution of society and the market over the past two decades has already greatly contributed to raising awareness and improving the active participation of women in companies and law firms. It is undeniable, however, that the adoption and adaptation of practical measures are still necessary to enable women’s access to strategic positions.
Women professional careers are still affected by male bias when it comes to respect and accept that the success on our careers is the result of strong commitment and responsibility.
In Colombia, we had female relevant tax practitioners for the past 40 years. We had Female tax leaders, who have been appointed as presidents of the Colombian Tax Institute and also in our market there are tax boutique firms and even general practice firms led by female practitioners.
I have been fortunate to work in environments where gender has never been a barrier to my growth. While I know challenges exist for others, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive.
Working in Mumbai at tier one law firms, I have largely experienced a merit driven environment with equal access to opportunities and leadership. However, advising clients across geographies has revealed that some traditional mindsets persist, including discomfort with women in authority in certain organizations. Law firms, by hiring and empowering talent across the country, play a critical role in changing these mindsets, and over time the shift is clearly underway.
I stay in this industry because I love the complexity, the responsibility, and the impact of the work. I refuse to accept that passion for tax must come at the cost of my identity as a woman and a mother.
For women in tax industry, the challenge of being minority in leadership rooms is often amplified by a lack of structured sponsorship and visible pathways to advancement. This would lead to a sense of professional isolation. Creating a more proactive mentorship and active allyship from leaders who advocate for women's visibility and opportunities would establish a truly inclusive pipeline of talent.
I have not encountered any discrimination as a female tax practitioner. In work, I encounter more female tax lawyers and, in our firm, I believe we have an almost equal number of female-male tax lawyers. As a tax professor, I have an equal number of female-male students with females outnumber males in more semesters.
Being a senior female tax practitioner means having to navigate spaces that are usually predominantly male, if not all male. This frequently means a lack of access to common old boy networks (which may improve partnership prospects, referrals, speaking opportunities etc) but also an uphill struggle to establish legitimacy in negotiation or other situations. Unfortunately, I don’t think the situation has meaningfully improved in several decades now. You do have more young women in tax, but at the top, it remains the same.
The tax advisory industry in my country remains strongly male-dominated, and the legal tax advisory industry even more so. It is challenging coming up in an industry where there is no-one in senior positions who looks like you, or who leads the kind of life that you would like to lead (in terms of balancing work and family).
In my experience, the tax profession today is largely merit-based. Gender has not been a defining barrier, what matters most is the ability to demonstrate technical expertise, commercial understanding, and consistent performance. When you can clearly prove your value, respect and opportunities tend to follow.
Spending past decade in tax, I have seen a paradigm shift in how the industry and the clients view women tax practitioners - beginning from old rooted biases on competencies of women as tax practitioners, to gradual acceptance and an almost level playing field today, I feel I have seen a gradual transition towards acceptance and respect for women tax practitioners.
As a woman in the tax industry, I operate at the intersection of multifaceted roles—serving as a strategic leader and a dedicated family member. Achieving a synergy between high-level professional performance and personal life is a significant endeavour that requires immense resilience.
My objective is to provide unparalleled value to my clients while maintaining my commitments at home. Though the complexities of these dual roles can be demanding, my career trajectory in tax remains a steadfast priority. I believe that through a collaborative ecosystem of support from my peers, mentors, and family, I can redefine work-life balance and continue to contribute meaningfully to the global tax community.
Establishing oneself as a recognized female tax practitioner in the industry is challenging, as most competitors and decision-makers are male and the office structure remains patriarchal.
When I began my tax consulting career in 2009, all superiors and decision-makers were men, while women primarily held supporting roles in research and administration. As a result, management decisions regarding systems, personnel, and work procedures reflected a masculine perspective.
Most of our clients were represented by male tax staff, managers, and directors. As a result, clients often preferred to consult with my male colleagues. In meetings, I was frequently the only woman and often felt my input was acknowledged but not valued, as clients would seek confirmation from my male superiors, even when our responses were similar. This raises the question of why male perspectives are given greater weight.
I regularly work 12-hour days and often weekends. While my employer provides baseline benefits such as private health insurance, maternity coverage, and a lactation room, there is no childcare support, and annual leave is reduced by mandatory collective leave. In practice, the system assumes that women employees have someone else absorbing their domestic and caregiving responsibilities.
Career-defining opportunities, such as fully funded overseas master’s programs, come with post-return expectations of extreme time commitment and long-term dedication. Unsurprisingly, these opportunities are mostly taken by men or single employees. This creates a structural barrier where motherhood quietly becomes a career ceiling.
All partners in my organization are men. A small number of women have reached director level, typically after more than 15 years of tenure, while at senior manager level, women are more likely to be unmarried or without children. No one explicitly says this, but the expectations effectively filter out mothers from leadership pipelines.
There is also virtually no investment in employee wellbeing, no mental health initiatives, no family-oriented programs, and no meaningful support structures beyond core operational meetings. The culture rewards endurance, not balance. Motherhood is not explicitly penalized, but structurally it becomes a career limiter. The industry often frames these outcomes as personal choices, when in reality they are shaped by workplace systems that were not designed with working mothers in mind.
When a woman starts a family, her professional path becomes more complex. In contrast, men often continue their career trajectories without interruption. I have observed male colleagues who, after becoming fathers, actually see their promotions accelerate. While they certainly earn their success, the playing field is not always level.
As a wife and mother, I cannot simply focus on my ambition without considering my family's needs. My career required pauses for childbirth and adjustments for breastfeeding—pathways a father does not typically have to navigate.
Despite these hurdles, I have managed to overcome the toughest challenges in my office. Now, in 2026, as a mother of two, I have been promoted to Manager. I am incredibly proud of myself for navigating the high-pressure tax industry while remaining fully present for my family.
In the boardroom, at tax court, or when meeting with authorities, I’ve often felt my opinion carries less weight than that of my male counterparts—even when they are more junior or simply repeating exactly what I just said. The 'balancing act' required is exhausting. If I am firm with the tax authorities, it is often perceived as aggression and provokes a defensive, angry response from male staff. Yet, if I maintain a neutral, professional tone, I risk appearing 'submissive' in the eyes of the client. You are constantly navigating a narrow path where your expertise is secondary to how your gender is being perceived.
As a woman in the tax industry, I have built my career while managing significant family responsibilities as a mother of two, part of the sandwich generation, and living apart from my spouse for work reasons. I continued handling demanding workloads, including onsite hearings during pregnancy and high-intensity project periods with very long hours. The profession’s unpredictable schedule, combined with childcare and family health uncertainties, has been one of the main challenges, requiring constant adjustment and strong resilience.
The industry environment is still largely male-dominated and seniority-driven, especially in interactions with authorities and courts, so building confidence and credibility takes persistence and professionalism. For me, the challenge has been less about gender bias internally and more about navigating expectations around age, experience, and endurance in a high-pressure field.
What has made this sustainable is a supportive and flexible workplace. Trust-based flexibility, understanding leaders, and hybrid work arrangements have allowed me to stay fully accountable while managing family priorities. With that support system, I can continue growing professionally while fulfilling my responsibilities at home, and I see that balance as achievable with the right environment and discipline.
While female representation is increasing, a lot needs to be done to change an average business person’s outset.
Sharing knowledge in tax conferences normally happens in panels where majority of speakers are men and this normally leads to male driven discussions and environment during breaks. I felt once very uncomfortable in a circumstance where someone raised the issue of female quotas in leadership position. There was a general undermining consideration over the topic.
Starting my career, I used to be the only woman practicing tax law between a forest of lawyers, judges, accountants, CEOs, CFOs.
I was very young and female, so I had two disadvantages to copy with. I tried very hard to hide youth and femininity.
Now things are different.
The first challenge is that most men do not recognise or they deny the inequality. This is especially common among those men that themselves treat women equally.
In my work as a female tax practitioner, I am hardly conscious of the issue of gender unless I find myself in circumstances where it's staring me in the face that my gender is an issue - which is rarely the case. In my country, the first Executive Chairperson of the national tax authority was female, we have had three female Ministers of Finance, and we have female leaders across various industries and sectors. I appreciate the additional pressure we face as female practitioners especially in relation to work-life balance, but other than that it has never really been a challenge for me. Thank you.
The Tax Industry has invested heavily in supporting women whilst starting families and returning from maternity leave. There is better understanding of the pressures of working mums too. However, where do all the senior female leaders go as they hit their mid-40s and 50s? Having entered my 40s I have realised the pressures of perimenopause and menopause are still very much misunderstood and not talked about. We are not supporting our senior women during this phase of their lives and they are exiting the workforce - being forced to give up the decades of experience they have earnt as they are struggling physically & mentally as they enter a new chapter of their lives. We need to do more to support them.
To show gender diversity in the roles, leading firms also position internally of a plan to promote a certain percentage of women partners annually. It gets projected as if the person was promoted because of her gender and the merit of the person is undermined by peers. So, what is expected is only equal opportunity and not a priority or preference.
There is an unconscious bias that women may not be bring business when promoted as partners.
Working in tax, I have often felt that I am required to prove my technical competence repeatedly in ways that some of my male colleagues are not. There is an unspoken assumption that women, particularly younger women, are less suited to complex or high-pressure tax work, which affects the type of assignments we are given and how quickly we are trusted. While overt discrimination is rare, these subtle biases accumulate over time and have a real impact on confidence, visibility, and career progression.
Biggest challenge is perception management - also awareness that one recruits little "me"s if not paying attention - which will often lead to male hiring.
I have received great support from my male colleagues who promoted me to equity partner. There is no sexism at all. However, a fact that I cannot change is that I am also a mother and keeping a balance between my role as a mother and my role as a fulltime equity partner is challenging.
The tax industry and law firms are a very egalitarian industry at the beginning of one's professional career. I also believe that the problems arise not so much at the start, but rather as one reaches seniority. Furthermore, it seems that everything focuses on maternity/paternity, but I believe that, although that may be part of the problem, the real issue is that certain environments—which are important from a business development perspective—are a men's club.
As a female tax practitioner—particularly in tax controversy—I often observe that the opinions and submissions of male practitioners are more readily accepted unlike those of female practitioners.
I have noticed that many women in tax are concentrated in advisory roles rather than in dispute and controversy work, which is often perceived as more ‘masculine’ because it involves confrontation, litigation, and sometimes hostile engagement with tax authorities.
This perception has little to do with technical competence or capability and far more to do with stereotypes about the expected temperament and demeanour of female practitioners. There is also an unspoken expectation around ‘demeanour’ when dealing with the tax authority, and this expectation appears to be more strictly applied to female practitioners than to their male counterparts.
Generally, there remains a noticeable degree of unconscious bias against women in management, technical, and leadership roles within the industry. One of the most persistent challenges women face in the industry is navigating workplace structures with rigid expectations around availability, progression, and leadership, without adequate consideration of the unique pressures and realities women experience. While reports of overt sexual harassment are relatively rare, the peculiar and practical needs of women in the profession are still largely unrecognised or insufficiently addressed.
Despite these challenges, many women have built outstanding careers in tax through resilience, technical excellence, and adaptability—leading complex advisory work, shaping practice strategy, and mentoring the next generation of professionals.
Their success highlights both the strength of women in the profession and the continuing need for firms to evolve their cultures and systems to support sustainable, inclusive leadership.
Over the years working in taxation, I’ve learned that the biggest challenges women face do not stem from their competencies, but from their environment. Subtle - and sometimes completely overt - manifestations of sexism, questioning my authority simply because I am a woman, or the expectation that I should be ‘more available’ at the expense of my family life - these are experiences that occur far too often. The most difficult moments were those in which assertiveness was dismissed as an unwarranted display of emotion.
Despite this, I believe that every woman who decides to speak openly about the barriers we face truly changes this industry - and silent acceptance is the one thing we simply cannot afford.
As a female partner in tax, one of the greatest challenges has been earning credibility in rooms where I was often the only woman. The technical work was never the hurdle — it was navigating assumptions about my expertise. Over time, I’ve learned that consistent excellence is the strongest rebuttal, but the industry still has work to do to ensure women don’t have to prove themselves twice.
