In this knowledge era, when gender doesn't matter as much as talent and expertise do, more and more women turn into professionals and are proving their mettle by playing an important role in every sphere of business and industry nationally as well as internationally. Indian accountancy profession is no exception to this phenomenon.

Today, ICAI can boast of women comprising 21.1% of the total membership and girls students comprise of 36% share of active students. As on date, there are approx 48,658 women members. It is indeed commendable that women accountants are consistently leaving their mark of excellence on corporate world while more and more young CA girl students are making it to merit list of CA examinations very frequently.

The immense potential that lies embedded in these encouraging numbers is still vastly untapped and needs to be harnessed, strengthened and empowered further in the interest of CA profession, our society and nation. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) believes that to tap the enormous potential of women professionals, there is a need to help them find flexible working conditions so that they can pro-actively contribute towards the growth of CA profession and also towards the economy at large, while simultaneously managing their commitments at domestic front.

CA. K Raghu, President ICAI, said " Women are skilled at multitasking, and they tend to take a larger share of responsibility wherever they are, including in our profession. As such, if we empower women, we actually empower ourselves. As the leader of the Indian accountancy profession, I am particularly alive to this cause."

To provide the women members a medium through which they can explore suitable opportunities which provide part time jobs, jobs with flexi hours or jobs with work from home option, ICAI has recently launched a 'Flexi Working Portal for Women Members'. Besides providing job opportunities, it will also have important announcements of ICAI, details of events, success stories and articles by women professionals, and feature a section on health tips. This portal will not only serve the interest of women members but will also enable CA Firms and industry to tap talent pool which might not be accessible otherwise in normal course.

To make effective use of this new initiative the members are required to post job requirement(s) having option to work part time or flexi hours on this portal (http://womenportal.icai.org/). This portal will serve the best interest of both the job seekers and employers.

CA. K Raghu, President ICAI, added, "Providing part time/ flexi hours option will be very cost effective to our practicing members specially SMPs who look for addition human resources during peak audit season like corporate audit, bank audit, tax audit etc."