MOVE’s new research examines caregiving’s impact on careers and leadership pipelines and recognizes the 2026 Best Firms for Women and Equity Leadership.
By CPA Trendlines
Every firm in the 2026 Accounting MOVE Project has watched employees cut back hours or change schedules to manage caregiving. Nearly half have seen people slow their path to partnership or turn down leadership roles. Not one has calculated what that is costing them.
The 2026 Accounting MOVE Project found that 65% of firms surveyed have seen caregiving influence career progression during the past year, with mid-career professionals most often affected. Forty-seven percent have seen employees defer or slow promotion or partnership, and 47% have seen employees decline leadership opportunities. Forty-one percent have experienced resignations related to caregiving.
MORE Caught in the Middle | MORE MOVE Like This | MORE Caregiving Research
Yet firms are only beginning to understand the broader business implications. Fifty-nine percent say caregiving has definitely or possibly contributed to turnover during the past two years, and 53% believe it is affecting their partner and leadership pipelines. None of the firms surveyed has quantified the cost of caregiving-related turnover.
“Accounting firms have spent years talking about the talent shortage, but we may be overlooking what’s happening to experienced people who are already here,” said Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, president of the Accounting MOVE Project. “Caregiving responsibilities can change how much someone can take on at a particular point in their life without changing what they’re capable of over the course of their career. Firms that can recognize that difference have a better chance of keeping talented people on the path to leadership.”
The annual Accounting MOVE Project examines the factors that help women advance in public accounting and the workplace practices that can either support or impede that progress. Now in its 17th year, MOVE tracks women’s representation across career levels while examining the policies, practices, and workplace experiences that influence advancement.
Caregiving Is More Than a Scheduling Issue
Childcare remains a significant challenge, but it is only part of today’s caregiving story. All firms surveyed reported seeing employees manage childcare responsibilities, 76% have seen employees caring for aging adults, and 65% have seen employees simultaneously caring for children and aging family members. Seventy-six percent said caregiving responsibilities fall primarily on women, although men are affected as well.
Firms have responded with flexibility. Every firm surveyed offers remote or hybrid work, and 94% offer flexible scheduling. But the MOVE findings raise a more complicated question: What happens to someone’s career after they use that flexibility?
“Flexibility can help someone stay employed, but staying isn’t the same as advancing,” Ruszczyk said. “If using flexibility means losing access to important assignments, client relationships, or leadership opportunities, we’ve solved one problem while creating another.”
If firms want to retain experienced talent for the long term, they need career paths that can accommodate periods when the traditional route to leadership doesn’t fit an employee’s circumstances. Yet only 24% of firms have a formal, documented alternative pathway to partnership, while another 47% handle alternative paths informally.
Women Are Well Represented in the Pipeline, but the Top Still Looks Different
Women represent 55% of employees at MOVE firms and at least half of professionals at every level from associate through director. Representation drops at the highest levels, however, with women accounting for 42% of partners and principals and 41% of management committee members.
The gap is greater for women of color. They represent 35% of women associates but 22% of women managers, 17% of women senior managers, and 11% of women partners and principals. Overall, women of color account for just 5% of all partners and principals at firms surveyed this year.
The findings also suggest a gap between offering advancement programs and measuring their results. Formal mentoring and career coaching are widespread, yet only 18% of firms report leadership pipeline data to executives by gender, and just 24% evaluate the effectiveness of advancement programs by gender or ethnicity.
“Offering mentoring, career coaching, and other programs is one thing. Knowing whether they’re actually helping people advance is another,” Ruszczyk said. “If firms aren’t tracking what happens afterward, they don’t really know whether those efforts are helping people gain influence, build the experiences they need, and reach the next level.”
Inside the 2026 Accounting MOVE Project Report
The 2026 report goes beyond the numbers to examine what women’s careers look like as firms respond to changing expectations, caregiving demands, and continued pressure to develop and retain experienced professionals.
Among the topics explored in this year’s report:
- The State of Women in Accounting: Where women are gaining ground in the leadership pipeline and where gaps remain.
- Why Caregiving Is Getting So Much Attention Now: The demographic, economic, and workplace forces bringing a longstanding issue into sharper focus.
- The Career Cost of Caregiving: Firms overwhelmingly say caregiving falls on women, yet most can’t say whether women pay a bigger career price for it. We look at why that gap matters and what it may be hiding.
- When Flexibility Works: What separates flexibility that protects a career from flexibility that merely keeps someone employed, including workload management, trust, caregiver visibility, and consistent policies.
- Money, Opportunity, Vital Supports, and Entrepreneurship: What the 2026 findings reveal about the four MOVE factors and where firms are making progress or still have work to do.
- What Firms Can Do Next: Practical questions and recommendations firms can use to examine their own career paths, leadership pipelines, flexibility, and support systems, starting with the managers who aren’t yet ready for the caregiving conversation.
Throughout the report, examples illustrate how accounting firms are approaching these challenges and where opportunities remain to strengthen the employee experience and leadership pipeline.
Explore the findings, firm examples, and recommendations in the full 2026 Accounting MOVE Project report.
About the Accounting MOVE Project
Since 2010, the Accounting MOVE Project has measured and supported the advancement of women at accounting and consulting firms, combining workplace data with research into the policies and practices that influence women’s careers. The project uses the MOVE methodology, developed by Wilson-Taylor Associates, Inc., which examines four factors essential to women’s career success:
- M – Money: fair pay practices
- O – Opportunity: advancement and leadership development
- V – Vital supports: work-life programs that remove barriers
- E – Entrepreneurship: operating experience for managing or business ownership
MOVE is the only annual benchmarking project that both counts and advocates for women in the profession. MOVE is made possible by support from its sponsors. Firms interested in participating in the 2027 Accounting MOVE Project can register here. See the archives of MOVE Project reports at https://accountingmoveproject.com/archives/.
About the Accounting MOVE Project Sponsors
Baker Tilly is a leading advisory, tax, and assurance firm, providing clients with a genuine coast-to-coast and global advantage in major regions of the U.S. and in many of the world’s leading financial centers – New York, London, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP and Baker Tilly US, LLP (Baker Tilly) provide professional services through an alternative practice structure in accordance with the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and applicable laws, regulations, and professional standards. Baker Tilly US, LLP is a licensed independent CPA firm that provides attest services to its clients. Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP, and its subsidiary entities provide tax and business advisory services to their clients. Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP and its subsidiary entities are not licensed CPA firms. Visit bakertilly.com for more information.
The Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance promotes the professional growth of women in accounting and finance. Members of the association benefit from opportunities to connect with colleagues, advance their careers, and become industry leaders. For more than 85 years, the organization has proudly upheld its mission to enable women in all accounting and related fields to achieve their full potential and to contribute to their profession. Visit afwa.org for more information.
The Center for Accounting Transformation enables transformation by guiding professionals through the adoption and change required to step into the future of the accounting profession. It was established to provide accounting professionals with a framework for utilizing innovations that are ready for adoption, the training and resources necessary to apply the innovations, and an opportunity to engage the talent and community needed to further the pursuit of innovative accounting practices that drive responsible and mindful business performance. We are not here to convince people to change but rather to empower those who seek an alternative to the status quo. We #EnableTransformation to #improvetheworld. Visit improvetheworld.net for more information.
CPA Trendlines is a leading provider of professional resources for practicing professionals. The streaming network offers news, trends, research, benchmarks, analysis, guidance, and commentary from the best experts in the accounting profession. Visit cpatrendlines.com, where hundreds of thousands of professionals access more than 10,000 articles, dozens of handbooks and manuals, and a million data points in checklists, step-by-step procedures, examples, case studies, and real-world, practice-proven, street-smart experience. Elite decision-makers worldwide look to CPA Trendlines for trusted advice, bold insights, and confidential access to exclusive intelligence and decision support.
bbr companies was founded on the knowledge that not all firms need the same level of marketing resources, leading to its part-time CMO offering. Whether firms need to create a strategic marketing plan, help managing projects that current team members can’t handle, mentoring or coaching for young marketing team members, or help with DEI training or program development, bbr’s goal is to deliver comprehensive, effective insight and services so firm leaders can reach and exceed their growth goals. Learn more at bbrcompanies.com.
