Betty Quinchon manager BEQ Expertise
Accountancy is a fascinating profession, so complete and exciting, but at the same time very time consuming.
I’m a 38 years old and after three years in a firm with 100 staff, six years at PwC and five years as a partner of a firm with 150 staff, i have started my own practice.
I have never felt discriminated for being a women, be it financial discrimination or in interactions with other colleagues. At PwC, the salaries were publically disclosed and scaled in function of the position in the firm.
My two children are what motivated me to launch my own firm. This profession offers total freedom as to how you want to practice it, as my personal career path demonstrates : you can be an employee, work in industry, work in a firm, become a partner, or do it on your own.
I left by buying out some of the clients. of the 26 clients i had originally asked to follow me, 24 immediately said yes, one declined due to his upcoming retirement, and the last one is still thinking about it.
None of these clients ever asked me if i intended to have children, none of them asked me any question related to my gender or status as a mother either. I admit that i was expecting some questions, but really none of them did.
Today i am fully satisfied and happy both in my private and personal life. Nevertheless one can’t deny the bad habits that are deeply anchored in the collective unconscious, making it sometimes a complex situation when a husband takes care of the house and the kids. That is why i think women often have to be « supermen » because they have to juggle with various roles and responsibilities at the same time if they want to have a full time professional life.
Currently i’m considering to form a partnership in order to be able to have the support of partners and associate partners because i work too much, too too much. Having said that, if i could rewind the clock i wouldn’t change a thing : it is a beautiful job for a woman.
Translated from french by Vincent Huck
