By Chua Hian Hou

About 70 per cent of the accounting graduates in Singapore are women. Yet, only 35 per cent go on to obtain the necessary additional work experience and post-graduate qualifications to become public accountants.

This, said the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, seems to indicate a 'retention challenge' at the Big Four accounting firms, and it urged them to do more to adjust their work practices so keep female accountants within the profession.

The Big Four: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG hire the lion's share of Singapore's accounting graduates.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 11 July 2008.