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The
Right to Practice Without the Right to Vote
Reflections on the Legacy of the First Women
CPAs
By Dale L. Flesher, Gary John Previts, and Andrew
D. Sharp
JULY 2008
- The practice of accounting enjoys a remarkable heritage and
continues to serve a vital role in society. Through the years,
many dedicated professionals have advanced this prestigious profession.
Because accounting is the language of business, the nation’s
economy depends heavily on accountants’ work.
As a social
science, accounting encompasses history, culture, norms, values,
and society.
Pioneers
Surmounting Obstacles
Social research
in accounting includes the earliest women CPAs—trailblazers
like Christine Ross, Ellen Eastman, Jennie Palen, and Myrtle Cerf.
They served the profession at a high level and were indeed pioneers
in their chosen field. They deserve special attention and recognition
for their contributions, courage, and efforts because they succeeded
in an era when women faced a number of obstacles to entering the
profession. They paved the way for other aspiring women accountants
to prosper.
New York
holds the honor of being the first state to pass a CPA licensing
law, doing so on April 17, 1896. When New York gave its inaugural
CPA exam in December 1896, it is possible that the examiners never
considered that a woman might seek such certification. Ross became
the first woman CPA in the United States, receiving certificate
number 143, dated December 27, 1899.
Eastman holds
the honor as the first woman CPA in Maine, receiving certificate
number 37 in 1918. Additionally, she was the first woman to establish
a public accounting practice in New England. Eastman was outspoken
and eloquent regarding a woman’s ability to succeed in the
accounting profession. In her article “Speaking of ‘Figgers’”
(The Certified Public Accountant, May 1929), she listed
the desired qualities of a CPA: “trustworthiness, fearlessness,
energy, steadfastness, a studious and inquiring turn of mind,
ability to seek the truth and to judge fairly and without prejudice
or personality.”
Palen received
CPA certificate number 1322 from the state of New York, dated
July 9, 1923. From 1918 to 1949, she worked for Haskins &
Sells in that firm’s report department. In her article “Women
in Accountancy: 1933–1953” (The Accounting Forum,
May 1953), Palen vigorously expressed her feelings regarding women
entering the accounting profession: “The woman accountant
as a staff employee was an exception, truly, but only because
the accountant’s office was about as hard for her to get
into as Fort Knox.” She penned additional publications promoting
women in accounting, was editor of The Woman CPA, and
served for more than 50 years as an active member of the American
Woman’s Society of CPAs (AWSCPA), chartered on June 21,
1933. She also was its president from 1946 to 1947.
Certified
in 1915, Cerf became the first woman CPA in California and one
of five women in the state to be issued CPA licenses before they
were granted the constitutional right to vote. Think about it:
These women earned the right to practice as CPAs in a learned
profession of public trust and confidence at a time when they
lacked the fundamental right to vote for their political representatives.
The term
“suffrage,” derived from the Latin word suffragium,
meaning “vote,” refers to one’s civil right
to vote. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women
the right to vote, stating: “The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of sex.”
Congress
proposed the amendment on June 4, 1919, and three states—Illinois
(the AWSCPA’s birthplace), Michigan, and Wisconsin—were
the first to ratify it, on June 10 of that year. On June 16, 1919,
New York (the state that gave Ross and Palen their CPAs) ratified
the proposal. Like Cerf and the other women CPAs from California,
Ross had the right to practice as a CPA before gaining the right
to vote. California ratified the 19th Amendment on November 1,
1919. Maine, Eastman’s state of certification, ratified
the amendment on November 5 of that same year—meaning she
also earned the right to practice public accounting before she
received the right to vote. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee finally
ratified the 19th Amendment, making it the 36th and final state
to do so. U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the
ratification on August 26, 1920.
Serving
with Honor
Over the
last century, women have made great strides in the accounting
profession and in the equal-rights arena.. An analogy to their
early plight may be drawn from the current situation where members
of the U.S. military can serve and defend their country at age
18, risking their lives, but are not legally allowed to purchase
or consume alcohol.
Dale
L. Flesher, PhD, CPA, is the Arthur Andersen Alumni Professor
of Accountancy and associate dean of the Patterson School of Accountancy
at the University of Mississippi, University, Miss. His article,
coauthored with Jeffrey S. Zanzig, “GAAP Requirements for
Nonpublic Companies: New Views on Big GAAP Versus Little GAAP”
(The CPA Journal, May 2006), won the Max Block Award for 2006 in
the category of Informed Comment.
Gary John Previts, PhD, CPA, is the E. Mandell de Windt
Professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead
School of Management, Cleveland, Ohio. Previts is president of the
American Accounting Association and editor of the journal Research
in Accounting Regulation.
Andrew D. Sharp, PhD, CPA, is professor of accounting
and the Thomas E. Caestecker Endowed Chair in the Liberal Arts at
Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala.
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