Notable Female Accountants

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Accounting has traditionally been a male-dominated industry, but as society has progressed, we are seeing more and more women in the field. Today, in honor of Women’s History Month, we’ll be highlighting some remarkable women in accounting throughout history. 

Mary Harris Smith 

Born in London in 1844,  Mary Harris Smith became interested in helping her banker father with bookkeeping work when she was a child. She went on to study mathematics and took some of the first bookkeeping courses run by the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (SPEW) in 1860. SPEW was one of the first British women’s organizations. Harris Smith worked as a public accountant and opened her own practice in 1888. She applied multiple times to join the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors, but was rejected because she was a woman. In 1919, the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was passed by the British parliament and allowed women to join professions and professional bodies. Harris Smith applied yet again to the Society but did not meet qualifications, so she was instead named as an Honorary Fellow. In 1920, at the age of 72, she renewed her application and was admitted to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. This made her the world’s first female Chartered Accountant.

Christine Ross

Born in Nova Scotia in 1873, Ross moved to New York City in the late 1890s. She became heavily involved in the women’s suffrage movement and the Women’s Henry George League (WHGL), which was an organization dedicated to the single tax movement. In 1896, New York offered the certified public accountant (CPA) exam for the first time, where Ross participated and passed, placing second in her class. However, many questioned whether or not a woman was capable of holding the CPA title. After a long dispute, Ross was issued her CPA title in 1899, making her the first female CPA in the United States. By 1905, she had become the president of WHGL and was a prominent advocate for tax reform. Ross’s work focused heavily on giving financial advice to female business owners to help them become more financially independent.

Ellen Libby Eastman

Eastman was born in Porter, Maine, in 1891 and excelled in mathematics as a student. As an adult, she taught in a school for 2 years before working for a lumber company founded by Merrill Lord, Harvey Granville, and Frank Fenderson. These three men were prominent businessmen and soon became her mentors, quickly realizing her potential. Granville helped Eastman secure contract work with various businesses for public accounting, and in 1918 she became the first woman in Maine to earn the CPA title. She then became the Town Auditor for the city of Sanford, and established her own accounting practice, making her the first woman to do so in New England. Later in 1921, she helped found the first state-wide professional women’s organization, known as the Maine Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. 

Jennie May Palen

Palen was born in New York in 1891, and studied accounting at New York University in 1918. She found a job in the auditing department at an accounting firm called Haskins & Sells. After her graduation in 1919, she began writing and reviewing reports in the report department of the firm. It was rare for women to be seen working in accounting at this time, especially at a large firm like Haskins & Sells. By 1923, Palen had earned her CPA title, becoming the 10th woman in the state to do so. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Palen was regarded as the highest-ranking and highest-paid female CPA. After her retirement in 1949, she dedicated the rest of her life to writing.

Mary E. Murphy

Mary Elizabeth Murphy was born in Iowa in 1905. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1927 with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce, having studied accounting among mostly male peers. She then moved to New York City to attend Columbia University where she earned a Master of Science in Accountancy. In 1930, she applied to take the CPA exam in her home state of Iowa, and became the first woman in the state to receive a CPA certificate. After a few years of working in public accounting, she went to London and earned her Ph.D. in accounting from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was only the second American woman to do so. Later, Murphy became an assistant professor in economics and conducted prolific academic research, including the publication of more than 20 books and 100 journal articles.

Mary T. Washington

Washington was an African-American woman born in Mississippi in 1906, and later raised by her grandparents in Chicago. She excelled in mathematics and earned her bachelor’s degree in business from Northwestern University in 1941, where she was the only woman in her program. As a college student, she worked at Chicago’s Douglas National Bank, and by 1939 she founded her own accounting firm called Mary T. Washington & Co., providing people and businesses with accounting and tax services. At the beginning of her business, it was run out of the basement of her home. In 1943, she became the first black woman to become a CPA in the United States. While working, she trained a generation of younger black CPAs. Washington was a prominent figure in Chicago’s African-American business community, even after she retired in 1985 at the age of 79. 
 
Larzette Hale-Wilson

Born in Oklahoma in 1920, Hale-Wilson went on to attend Langston University where she graduated in 1937 with a degree in business administration and secondary education. She later earned her M.A. degree in accounting and finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1943. In 1951, she became a CPA, and in 1955 she earned her Ph.D. in accounting– This made her the first black female CPA to also hold a Ph.D. in accounting. She established her own CPA office in Atlanta and later moved to Utah in 1971 where she became a professor of accounting at Utah State University. She also became the head of the School of Accounting at the university. 

Ruth Coles Harris

Born in Virginia in 1928, Ruth Coles Harris is the great-granddaughter of slaves and grew up during the Great Depression. She graduated from Virginia State College in 1948 with a degree in business, but had to leave the state to pursue further education due to segregation rules in place during the Jim Crow era. Although she earned her MBA from New York University in 1949, she could not get hired by any accounting firms because of her race. She was hired as a teacher in the commerce department at Virginia Union University where she taught for 48 years. The department later expanded into the Sydney Lewis School of Business, with Harris being the school’s first director. In 1962, Harris passed the CPA exam and became the first black woman in Virginia to be certified. 


These are just a few of the trailblazers who helped create a space for women in the accounting field. Today, women make up about 62% of all accountants and auditors in the United States. We hope you found this article informative, and we thank you for reading. As stated above, Hoods Tax & Accounting offers a variety of services including small business consulting, QuickBooks training, tax preparation, accounting, payroll, and more! Visit our website for more information, as well as helpful links to resources you may find useful. Thank you for reading and we hope to see you back next time to keep learning about various tax and accounting topics!