Women Accountants at Haskins Sells During the 1920s: The Pioneering Career of Jennie May Palen

Palen got her big break because of World War I, when male accountants were drafted into the military at the same time that firms were being asked to perform more and different kinds of professional services. [...]to get the job done, a few firms hired women accountants. The personnel shortages created by the war effort resulted in additional employment opportunities for women in the practice of public accounting. Born in 1891, Palen was raised in Samsonville, N.Y. While studying accounting at New York University in 1918, Palen was employed in the auditing department at H&S because of the shortage of men noted above (Wanda G. Spruill and Charles W. Wootton, "The Struggle of Women in Accounting: The Case of Jennie Palen, Pioneer Accountant, Historian and Poet," Critical Perspectives on Accounting, vol. 6, no. 4, August 1995, pp. 371-389). (A woman did not become a Big Eight partner until 1966.) Since accounting firms in that era apparently precluded women from performing audits, Palen was unable to meet the auditing experience expected for partner eligibility; her role was nonetheless significant, as she successfully managed the report department.