Wassia Kamon, CPA, a member of AICPA & CIMA’s Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee (WIEC), emphasises the interplay between gender equity, representation, and establishing yourself as a leader in this podcast episode celebrating International Women’s Day.
Kamon discloses how seeing gender representation early in her career helped her find her voice at work while balancing study and family commitments. She also explains why women often endure “subconscious” doubts when it comes recognising their worth as a leader.
An AICPA & CIMA video celebrates the day.
International Women’s Day this year is on Saturday 8 March.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
- Why more women are climbing the ladder in the profession.
- Gender representation’s impact on work culture.
- The relationship between hybrid work and equal opportunities.
- How the WIEC engages and empowers women in finance.
- The convergence of underrepresentation and impostor syndrome.
Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:
— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
Transcript
Steph Brown: Welcome to the FM podcast. I’m Steph Brown. Today I’m joined by Wassia Kamon, the CFO of Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, a small business lender based in the state of Georgia. Kamon is also a CPA and board member of the WIEC, which is the Association’s Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee. The focus of today’s episode is going to be on International Women’s Day. We will be discussing issues affecting women in the profession, from positive shifts in the pipeline to barriers and biases that still exist.
Welcome to the podcast, Wassia. Thanks for coming on.
Wassia Kamon: Thanks so much for having me, Steph. Glad to be here.
Brown: Thanks. What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
Kamon: For me, it’s really a reminder of two things. It’s a celebration on one end of all the great things women have been able to do throughout the world in so many different fields. It’s so great to see different posts and articles about what we’ve achieved. But, it’s also a reminder of the gaps that still exist and the things that we still need to address, and hopefully, move forward in terms of gender equity.
Brown: Speaking of equity, advisory and search firm Russell Reynolds reported that 20 of the 82 CFOs appointed globally across public companies last year were women. That’s the highest since 2021, according to their data.
Why are we seeing this shift in the pipeline, and do you expect this upward trajectory to continue?
Kamon: Well, I’m grateful for the upward trajectory until now, because I think it was really driven by all the efforts and advocacy and allyship we were able to have over the years.
As to the upward trajectory [in the future], I don’t know. But I do believe that as we already have a lot of women in better positions within organisations, they are able to represent, because representation matters. As a young woman, coming in and seeing myself represented at the top of the [organisational] chart is inspiring. I do believe that because of that, we will see better results and an improved trajectory in the long term.
Brown: Are there any key moments that helped you find your voice, in what has been predominantly a male-led profession, that you would like to share?
Kamon: Sure. For me, the first CFO I worked for when I joined corporate finance, the corporate accounting industry, as we like to say, was a woman. Her name was Toula Argentis and, to me, she was such a great model because she really showed that it was possible. Because in a lot of organisations, it’s usually a male CFO. Again, that representation really helped.
I was able to also have her as a mentor and [ask] questions [for] anything accounting, finance. But, also, “How do you balance life and kids?” Because while I was there, I got married, I had two young children. How do you balance all that: maternity leave, kids getting sick, but also pursuing education? It was the same organisation that I got my CPA and my CMA there. She was very supportive. But it was also inspiring to see that it was possible. That’s really how I was able to find my voice is being surrounded by people who genuinely want to hear your voice. That environment is really key.
Brown: It’s interesting in talking about the caregiving aspect with flexible working. How has the remote work era, do you think, affected opportunities? Why now is all the discussion about going back to the office such an important part of this?
Kamon: I think remote work was great. I think it was great not just for the mums, but also for the dads. Because we got a chance to see how that partnership of taking care of kids would work and spending time with them. It does give you that flexibility and that peace of mind as you go through your day, and it was very helpful.
I think as we’re talking about going back to the office, what I would love to see is a hybrid model. Because I do agree that sometimes some interactions are better when you learn in-person. To me, there’s nothing like being in-person. But I think having that flexibility of a hybrid schedule will really help.
Brown: Thank you, Wassia. As mentioned in the intro, you’re a member of the Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee. How does the work done by the committee help to address barriers and biases that women in the profession still face?
Kamon: Yes, the way the committee works, we have subcommittees, and there is really three pillars that we go through in our strategy. One pillar is education and training. The other one is amplifying voices. And the third one is member engagement. I’m on the subcommittee of amplifying voices.
A couple of initiatives that we did was launching the Global Women to Watch recognition. We also have LinkedIn Live sessions. Anywhere we can bring more women into thought leadership and their voices being heard, not just online, but also at work—how you combat things like impostor syndrome. Anything we can do to really amplify our voices in the profession, I think will really help others. Like I said, because of that representation, because we are able to inspire others to do it.
The education and training is there, the member engagement so they can take advantage of the resources that we do. I do believe that all this combined is really driving things forward for women in the profession.
Brown: How did you come about joining the WIEC?
Kamon: I’ve been a thought leader, content creator on LinkedIn, and there’s not a lot of women that are content creators, voices on LinkedIn when it comes to finance and accounting. I did apply and thankfully I was taken. It’s been great. That’s why I was so glad to join and be in the amplifying voices committee, because I just feel like there’s not a lot our voices when it comes to talking about what’s driving the profession forward: What does the future of finance look like?
It’s just been a great experience being able to connect with other women leaders as well. I also met incredible women in that committee and throughout a lot of other events at the AICPA, which really helped me as a leader today.
Brown: It’s interesting thing you said about impostor syndrome. How do you think that affects women compared to other people in the profession that don’t have the same, maybe, barriers and obstacles to progress their career?
Kamon: It takes me back to a study I read. They basically said that whenever women are in a room and they are outnumbered by men, they tend to shrink, and not necessarily speak up. When you are in a male-dominated world and/or profession or room, wherever you go, you have to be more intentional about owning your space and your seat at that table. Unfortunately, a lot of those tables were not necessarily made to fit us, but we still have a voice.
I think impostor syndrome comes in those moments where you feel like maybe I shouldn’t be here, maybe what I have to say will not be valued or appreciated. I think it’s more subconscious. It’s almost a war in your mind that you have to win in order to overcome it and really show up as the authentic leader you are.
Brown: That’s a really good piece of advice. Thank you, Wassia, for that. Any closing thoughts on the topic that we’ve maybe not touched on, or any WIEC resources that you’d like to share?
Kamon: Of course. Our website is, I think, overlooked, but please go on the [website] and look for our WIEC. There’s so many resources for the members. We have so many things in the pipeline; in the work for this year. We have the women’s conference. We’re going to have virtual events throughout the year as well.
Definitely stay in touch — look at our resources. Because it’s going to be great. We have so much energy on the committee and we’re really excited for the things we are working on.
Brown: Thanks again to Wassia Kamon. She mentioned the WIEC page on aicpa-cima.com. We will include a link to that page in the show notes for this episode. I’m Steph Brown. Thanks for listening to the FM podcast.
