Lucy Cohen: ‘Rollbacks on DEI are terrifying. I will fight it’
Lucy Cohen: ‘Rollbacks on DEI are terrifying. I will fight it’
The CEO of Mazuma Money says the rolling back of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies by some the other world’s biggest accountancy firms is “terrifying”, but that she is a “formidable opponent” to fight for what she believes is right.
Lucy appeared on the second episode of the Businessin Wales podcast, which launches on 3rd June, where she discussed watching her parents struggle with their finances growing up and how that shaped her into being an innovator in the fintech sector.
Cohen started Mazuma Money, the UK’s first subscription model in accountancy., working out of her spare bedroom after having a brainwave while working as an accountant for Cardiff Council.
She now boasts more than two decades of experience in the industry and last year was elected to become Vice President of AAT, the UK’s representative trade body for accountancy firms.
In that time, she says, there has been progress when it comes to gender equality in accountancy, but now that progress is under threat from a changing social and political tide.
“We have had progress, but it’s glacial;” Cohen said: “Women have only been allowed to be accountants for a hundred years. Any change in any industry tends to be underpinned by a change in legislation, which is why it’s so terrifying to see DEI rolled back from some of the largest accounting firms on the globe.
“When we look at the kind of swing of politics we’ve had and DEI programs getting slashed, our position as women in accountancy is precarious because we don’t have the support, we don’t have the numbers at senior level.
“All humans tend to hire people who look and feel like them. [Women] just don’t have that critical mass, so it’s going to be very hard to get to gender equality.
“We know when you look at a lot of the research, McKinsey and some of the companies have done a lot of research about how diversity of socioeconomic background, ethnicity and gender, a company actually delivers better results to bottom line.
“I’d hope I wasn’t just hired because of the gender I identify with. I hope I’m hired because I’m genuinely competent. However, to reach me, you’re not going to find me on the golf course. So, if your recruitment policy is networking with people at a golf course, I’m not going to be there.
“And you are therefore limiting the number of people you are able to reach. And then I hear these companies say things like ‘we put a job advert out in the same publication we’ve been putting an advert in for the last 30 years and all these people applied and there were no women.’
“That’s a ‘you problem’ because you didn’t go and find that talent. You wouldn’t do that with your customers, would you? If you weren’t getting the right sort of customers from advertising, you change your advertising. It blows my mind that people don’t think the same thing about recruitment.”
Away from accounting, Cohen has also worked her way up the ladder in the world of powerlifting, having been crowned British champion and picking up a silver medal in the 2015 Common Wealth Games.
Now in her early forties, she says she feels a need to give back and offer a helping hand to others wanting to get their foot in the door of accountancy, which is why she takes her fight for equality so personally.
Cohen continued: “These policies take time to get the shifts to equality and it’s multi-generational. It will take multiple generations to get that. And it takes a concerted effort. It’s a long play. When companies have, and I’m not defending them, stakeholders, and shareholders, who are screaming about the bottom line and where their returns are, and they’re investing money into programs that they’re not going to see a return on for 20, 30 years.
“It’s very hard to decide to invest money in something that is not going to give you a return. We do live in a world of instant gratification, and we live in a world of short private equity cycles and the need for need for return on investment quickly.
“When you then combine that with a political environment that is less supportive of DEI, it’s permission. It’s a permission because when you when you’re held under scrutiny for it and you’re having to report all those stats, that will watch your gender balance and watch your pay gap. And you’re legally forced to report that, then it’s embarrassing if you’re not faring well against your competitors.”
You can watch or hear more from Lucy on her battle for equality, her Commonwealth silver medal and how she built Mazuma Money in the second episode of the Businessin Wales Podcast which will be launching on 3rd June.
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