Down the pipeline : are women reaching senior positions in law and accounting firms?

Legislation in Australia since the 1980s has been designed to promote equal employment opportunity for women and thus remove barriers to women reaching senior and managerial positions in organisations. This paper examines the position of professional women in legal and accounting firms. The majority of graduates in these professions are women but, using information submitted to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workforce Agency, organisational statistics show little change in the numbers and proportion of women reaching partnership positions.