The three major strategy houses are trying to increase the percentage of women in their ranks but are finding that getting results at the highest level is slow-going.
The percentage of full-time permanent female management ranges from 16 per cent at McKinsey, 20 per cent at Bain and 25 per cent at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), according to filings with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
Based on personnel figures as of June 30, 2015, the data also shows that at the professional level, the percentage of full-time permanent women at about 40 per cent in all three firms.
The challenges faced by the strategy houses are similar to that of accounting and law firms, which have also found it a hard slog to improve the level of female leadership.
This comes as BHP announced a plan to have a 50 per cent female global workforce by 2025, with the mining giant's minerals boss Mike Henry saying "if we don't make a bold declaration we will consign ourselves to incremental gains that are not much better than the status quo".
Re-hiring strong performing women
The Boston Consulting Group currently has 30 partners of which five, or 20 per cent, are women, said Andrew Clark, the firm's Australia and New Zealand managing partner.
"We've been very explicit, we're trying to grow the number of female partners in the firm," Mr Clark said of BCG's moves to encourage former staff to rejoin.
"We've been actively re-hiring strong performing women who left BCG in the past.
"These days we have more options for senior men and women around flexible working arrangements as well as a broader set of types of work."
He said the firm had a target to have 30 per cent of its partners be women by 2020.
"We have a significant proportion of our women and some of our men on flexible working [arrangements]," he said.
"They have different models: some it's four days a week, some it's this many hours a day, every day."
But he also cautioned that the nature of the work – where travel can be required and hours can vary dramatically – meant that the consultants needed to have sufficient support at home.
"We've got a lot of flexibility [but] we also acknowledge that men and women on flexible working arrangements need to ensure they have the right set-up at work and at home," he said.
"We offer an increasing range of options here, much like our clients."
Gender parity research
The Australia and New Zealand managing partner for Bain, David Zehner, said the firm was "committed to being a great place to work and creating a supportive culture for all of our people."
Mr Zehner pointed to a list of initiatives to support women at the firm including flexible working programs and a Women at Bain group.
The firm also partners on a pro-bono basis with Chief Executive Women on research about gender parity in Australia.
Mr Zehner said Bain had short- and long-term goals but that it viewed the "percentage of women" number as only one of many indicators.
"We believe focusing on this number in isolation can lead to the wrong focus or behaviours," Mr Zehner said.
"Instead, we focus on ensuring that we have the right culture, initiatives, and programs in place to support and retain talented women."
Bain declined to reveal the current number of partners nor the number of female partners at the firm.
Pipeline of talent
McKinsey Australia partner Emma Petherick said her firm was encouraged by the number of women coming through the company.
"The WGEA annual process is an important reminder of the continued work we need to do to see more senior women in our ranks," Ms Petherick, who has been a partner since 2013 and works on a flexible basis, said.
"Having said that, we are encouraged by our pipeline of terrific female talent joining and progressing through the firm. They will be our future partners."
"We are committed to staying the course until we achieve gender equality among our partners."
The firm's local managing partner, John Lydon, has been a member of the Male Champions of Change since 2014.
McKinsey declined to reveal its current partner numbers nor the gender breakdowns of its partnership.
The firm would also not comment on whether it had targets for the percentage of women at the leadership level.
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