Meet Ethel Ayres Purdie, Britain’s first qualified female accountant.
ACCA, through the London Association of Accountants (LAA), became the first professional body to open its doors to female accountants on 13 May 1909, when council elected to membership Ethel Ayres Purdie, a woman in public practice in London.
It must be said that most of the membership was appalled at the idea of admitting women, particularly someone as radical as Mrs Purdie, but the London Association’s secretary for its first 11 years, Henry Lewis, firmly believed in the principle that entry should not be restricted on the basis of gender.
The LAA’s newsletter – The Journal – noted that the Association has not “waited for Acts of Parliament to compel them to admit their sister professionals; theirs is no tardy, grudging recognition but a far-seeing and wise decision, characterised by a thorough understanding of modern requirements”.
At the annual dinner where her admission was formally recognised, she sat down with more than 100 of her male colleagues and was accorded “a most gratifying and whole-hearted reception” and gave a speech in response.
Mrs Purdie informed those attending the otherwise all-male annual dinner of 1909 that she had been first attracted to the Association by the inaugural president’s warning that “the established accountancy profession would find in this Association a strong militant force. Of course, the word ‘militant’ attracted me at once. ‘Good,’ I thought, ‘here are some men who evidently mean business. I will get myself into that Society.’ And here I am. I have arrived, with some more militant force.”
The London Association’s policy was praised by the Daily Telegraph, which mentioned that, over the next 12 months, five more women had been admitted. The newspaper encouraged female students to become articled to a certified accountant. But the ambitious woman
“determined to start practice for herself must bear in mind the fact that a capital of £150 at least would be required to finance her during the period she is working up a connection”. A book entitled New Careers for Women (1917) recommended accountancy as a ‘congenial’ occupation for women and encouraged them to seek admission to the London Association, the only body willing and able to meet the needs of the female practitioner.
The London Association did not take the lead in appointing women to a position of authority, missing the opportunity in 1913. Mrs Purdie was nominated for election to council but failed to become the first female on the governing body of a UK accountancy body by a single vote.
A fervent campaigner for women’s rights, one of the original members of the Women’s Freedom League, perhaps even more remarkably she was recognised as an authority on income tax in both Europe and America, making her a trail-blazing accountant, who against all the odds had spent years establishing and running a successful business.
Ethel Purdie would be proud of what her accountancy body has become: an accountancy organisation which works hard to promote inclusion, a strong gender balance across future members and members; and, for the second year running, has women holding all three officer posts.
- Thanks to ACCA for this article
