Big things are going on at this professional services firm, where the number of female partners has grown by 48% since 2003. Prominent women include Lynne Doughtie, vice chair, advisory; Nancy Calderon, national partner in charge of operations; and the managing partners of offices from San Francisco to Washington, DC. Each business offers support to women in line for partnership and managing director jobs; female partners can receive sponsorship and advice from in-house power players. Whenever the firm appoints someone to a top position, its choice is vetted to confirm that all suitable women have been evaluated.

Chairman & CEO: John Veihmeyer

Vice Chair, HR: Bruce Pfau

% of senior managers who are women: 36%

% of corporate executives who are women: 19%

% of promotions to manager, senior manager and corporate executive positions that went to women: 43%

% of the top 10% of the company’s earners who are women: 28%

% of corporate executives with profit-and-loss responsibility who are women: 18%

% of the executives running divisions with revenues of more than a billion dollars who are women: 17%

% of executives who report directly to the CEO who are women: 17%

% of the members of the board of directors who are women: 13%

% of female workforce participating in mentoring: 55%

Audit partner Jennie Friedman knows what it’s like to try to balance a busy schedule filled with competing priorities ranging from conference calls to doctor’s appointments to business meetings to dance recitals.

Over the years she’s become pretty good at prioritizing and mentoring, so much so that, while she was out for her second maternity leave, other women in the office began reaching out to her on a regular basis for advice on their own work-life effectiveness.

“These women had a lot of good questions,” says Jennie. “They were looking for guidance, from someone who had faced similar issues.”

Jennie, who also serves as co-leader of KPMG’s Network of Women (KNOW) in New York, soon recognized a need for a formal mentoring program for working mothers. So in the fall of 2009, when she was pregnant for the third time, she spearheaded the launch of “Moms Who KNOW.” The mentoring program, run by KNOW, connects working moms and expectant mothers in the New York office with more experienced mentors with similar family dynamics who can offer guidance and support before, during, and after pregnancy or adoption.

Through the program, mentees complete a questionnaire detailing what they are looking for in a mentor both professionally and personally. They are then connected with a mentor who matches their needs. Since the program’s inception, more than 100 moms have participated in mentoring relationships.

Aside from her role in launching Moms Who KNOW, Jennie also walks the talk when it comes to mentoring working mothers, currently serving as both a formal and informal mentor to several women at the firm. She’s passionate about what she does; she cites as one of her proudest moments as a mentor the time she successfully helped a fellow working mother move into another role within the firm that was a better fit for her and her family.

Facing any new parenting situation for the first time can be tough, something this accounting firm recognizes with its Parents in the Know initiative (available in Boston and New York City). No matter what stage of life an employee is in—having a baby, adopting, returning to work—she can be put in touch with a colleague who has been through it and can offer advice. To help parents in Kansas City, the firm’s women’s network just debuted a Working Parents group (joining similar ones in other locations), which hosts social outings and informative lectures. Across the firm, parents attend seminars on nutrition for young children and learn how to help kids do well in school. While women earned half of all promotions to manager, senior manager and executive last year, the growth of virtual meetings means they don’t have to stay in the office to be considered top performers.

Chairman & CEO John Veihmeyer

Vice Chair, HR Bruce Pfau

Women managers/execs 38% 

Women among top earners 33% 

Women hires in 2010 46% 

Average weeks of fully paid maternity leave offered 9 

Allows new moms to “phase back” into work with reduced hours? Yes

Offers affinity group for new mothers? No

Offers backup childcare? Yes

Employees working flexibly 100%

Employees in 70 offices around this audit, tax and advisory services firm watched by webcast last September as its top officer, John Veihmeyer (hosting his first chairman’s Forum on Diversity), announced aggressive goals for promoting female professionals and people of color to the partnership by 2015. It was a clear declaration of the firm’s intent to advance the status of its multicultural employees, whose recruitment, mentoring, role in succession plans and, yes, promotion rates are currently tracked by an internal scorecard. championed by the firm’s two dedicated advisory boards (for women and diverse individuals) and its six diversity networks, women of color can expand their career horizons. Going forward, the firm plans to set objectives for appointing multicultural employees to senior manager and second partner roles on top 100 accounts.

Chairman & CEO John Veihmeyer
National Managing Partner, Diversity & Corporate Responsibility Kathy Hopinkah Hannan

At KPMG, multicultural women represent…
15% multicultural women
2% of corporate executives
8% of senior managers
8% of the top earners
16% of the company hires
12% of the company promotions
17% of the company losses
14% of participants in mentoring programs
22% of participants in affinity groups

37% of senior managers are women

Can women really have it all? Yes, says the Managing Career/Life Choices program at this professional services firm, which teaches female senior associates that maintaining a full personal life needn’t preclude success at work. Senior managers and partners who attend the Executive Leadership Institute for Women learn how to propel their careers, while the Strategic Connections Partner Visibility Initiative offers women valuable exposure to leadership

Chairman & CEO John Veihmeyer  

Vice Chair, HR Bruce Pfau

48% of employees are women

49% of managers are women

37% of senior managers are women

19% of corporate executives are women

44% of recent promotions to manager, senior manager or corporate executive have gone to women

35% of top earners are women

56% of women participate in mentoring

55% of women participate in networking

100% of women participate in sponsorship programs

45% of women participate in leadership development programs

Offers women’s task force? Yes

KPMG’s online parenting seminars include “Being an Involved Parent: How Much Is Too Much?” and “Autism Awareness.”

As the country tightened its belt last year, this professional services firm got creative. In March 2009, it piloted the KPMG Executive Leadership Institute for Women, featuring training sessions on topics such as "Gender and Leadership" and "Building Personal Resiliency." Its new sabbatical offering four to 12 weeks off at 20% pay attracted more than 900 employees. To save money, parents relied on child-care discounts at 1,100 U.S. centers and subsidized backup care that cost just $20 to $25 per day. After the birth or adoption of a child, employees may take 26 job guaranteed weeks off, with 12 weeks partially paid for moms and eight weeks fully paid for primary adoptive caregivers, who are eligible for a $5,000 adoption benefit. In an especially touching change, the firm gave up last year's holiday party to stitch teddy bears and wrap books for 21,000 children in need. The firm held online parenting seminars such as "Autism Awareness."

Chairman & CEO John Veihmeyer

Vice Chair, HR Bruce Pfau, PhD

Women managers, senior managers and corporate execs 38%

Women among top earners 35%

Women on board of directors 13%

Women corporate executive hires in 2009 5%

Women participating in management or leadership training in the past year* 45%

Women participating in formalized executive succession planning last year* 1%

Women promoted last year who utilized a formal flexible work arrangement Not tracked

Do formal compensation policies reward managers who help women advance? Yes

*Percentages reflect number of women participants versus company’s total female workforce.

40% of KPMG employees belong to at least one of its six diversity networks, which boast 118 local chapters.

Women and minorities comprise 60% of the workforce at this audit, tax and advisory services firm, which employs a full-time team of diversity recruiters to seek out the best in the field. Plus, management may provide new hires with career counselors, coaches or mentors to help them refine their skills and prepare to enter the pipeline for senior positions. In the first three years of their employment, multi-cultural women may elect to join the new National Associate Development program, which gives employees with diverse backgrounds greater exposure to top accounts. Also important, the national diversity team helps monitor this effort each quarter by comparing the number of multicultural employees working on high-level assignments to the firm’s stated diversity goals. Last June, more than 600 members of management and the executive ranks came together for a Leadership Conference on Diversity; impressively, 90% of participants said later that the meeting helped them better understand the firm’s diversity priorities and devise strategic action plans.

Multicultural Women 15%
Chairman Timothy P. Flynn
National Managing Partner, Diversity & Corporate Social Responsibility Kathy Hannan

At KPMG, multicultural women represent…
2% of corporate executives
7% of senior managers
8% of the top earners
16% of the company hires
19% of the company losses
14% of participants in mentoring programs
15% of participants in career counseling programs

*Denotes a member of the Top 5 Best Companies for Multicultural Women