By the year 2021, the gift card market is expected to grow to more than 200 billion dollars. Gift cards are extremely popular among consumers and retailers. They are the most requested gift of the holiday season. They are popular for retailers because gift card sales mean more first time customers, more returning customers, and more money spent in their stores. The growth of gift cards has been very rapid since their introduction by Blockbuster Entertainment in 1994. As the gift card market has increased, so too has gift card breakage. According to FASB ASC 405-20-40-3 gift card breakage is, "the portion of the dollar value of prepaid stored-value products that ultimately is not redeemed by product holders for cash or not used to purchase goods and/or services". The average consumer may contribute to gift card breakage by not using the full dollar amount of their gift card, or by losing the gift card and therefore not redeeming it. For 2011, breakage was expected to be around two billion dollars, roughly two percent of all gift cards purchased. Gift card breakage is free money for the retail companies. They are able to recognize the breakage as revenue without having to give up merchandise or services. Recently, abandoned property laws have minimized the profits on gift card breakage for large retailers. In states where abandoned property laws include gift cards, retailers have been forced to turn over the cash from their unused gift cards. These laws are going to have an effect on many large retailers as some recognize tens of millions of dollar in gift card breakage income but will no longer be able to do so.

Women have more opportunities to expand their career aspirations than ever before, so many view it as being acutely relevant. However, although women now account for more than half of the work force, there is still a considerable gap in the representation of women in the top leadership positions within their organizations. This trend is especially prevalent in public accounting firms. Drilling down to the root cause of gender inequality in firm management reveals several key obstacles that women face including generational gender biases, inflexible work schedules, insufficient career development training, and limited visibility of other female leaders. The negative implications of uneven gender distribution in upper management leave a potential for firms to miss opportunities for diverse perspectives on innovations, solutions, and advancement in the industry. Furthermore, firms make tremendous investments on extensive training of their professionals throughout the entire length of their careers, so high turnover rates cause a significant loss to each firm's investment in their human capital. So, public accounting firms have made considerable investments to develop resources and programs in order to combat the issues that create gender inequality and uneven turnover. The thesis begins by reviewing the Ann Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse trail, which was a pivotal point in changing how public accounting firms treat and prevent sex discrimination within their organizations. The rest of the thesis analyzes the correlation between the barriers that are most frequently linked to hindering women's success in public accounting and the programs that firms have installed to address those barriers. It also addresses qualitative accounts from female CPAs on the actual effectiveness of their firm's programs on the longevity of their careers in public accounting, as well as perspectives from current Accountancy students on the relevancy of diversity and inclusion programs.