Ivy Thomas
The First Female Certified General Accountant
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 Ivy Thomas and T.H. Frankling
Thomas Hudson Frankling was the driving force of the CGA designation in Ontario prior to the incorporation of CGA Ontario. Born in England in 1887, Frankling would ultimately serve as president of CGA Canada and president of Toronto Branch, but it was as secretary-treasurer of Toronto Branch that he made his greatest contribution. Frankling established the offices of his firm, T.H. Frankling & Company, at 67 Yonge Street in Toronto, and from there he ran the daily business of Toronto Branch—the precursor to CGA Ontario.
The CGAs who knew Frankling describe him as an intimidating figure with a patrician, Victorian demeanour, but Frankling was a visionary: Ivy Thomas was still a teenager when Frankling hired her for clerical and secretarial duties, and he supported Ivy in her pursuit of her designation.
In 1931, the Dominion Board of the then General Accountants’ Association—knowing that Ivy was studying for the Intermediate Examination—announced that female candidates would be allowed to sit for examinations. Harold Garland, FCGA, recalls that the directors of Toronto Branch were nevertheless nervous about Ivy’s prospects: “When she completed her examinations, apparently T.H. and others were wondering what the
reaction of the GAA head office in Montreal would be. Certainly they were hopeful that there’d be no objection, but people wondered. They were glad when she became a CGA.”
In 1931, after passing the intermediate exam, Ivy A. Cox became the first woman to be admitted into membership of the GAA. In 1932, after passing the final exam, she became the first female CGA in Canada, and today she still stands as the youngest person to achieve either honour.
Her achievement was national news. The Toronto Telegram, Evening Telegram and Toronto Daily Star reported the event, accompanied by headlines such as “First to be Honoured,” “First Woman C.G.A.,” and “Toronto Girl, 20, Gets Unique Honor.”
It was an article in the Toronto Daily Star, however, accompanied by the headline “Girl is Member Accountants’ Assn.,” that raised the ire of T.H. Frankling. The article insinuated that Ivy was “given an opportunity of trying the intermediate examination” because of her success at the University of Toronto. It was an insinuation that provoked a frosty response from Frankling:
Since the General Accountants Association was incorporated in 1913 under a Dominion Charter, its membership has been open to those interested in the profession of accountancy who are of good moral character and reside in the Dominion of Canada. Last year ladies were, for the first time, admitted to membership, and Miss Cox was the first one to make application and be accepted. She applied to sit for the Intermediate Exam last month, and was successful in passing the complete Examination, thus being the first woman to obtain Intermediate standing in the Association.
 Ivy Thomas and The Great Depression
The beginning of the Great Depression is usually associated with the American stock market crash known as Black Tuesday that occurred on October 29, 1929. No country besides the United States, however, was more deeply affected by the Depression than Canada. Unemployment rose to 27 per cent by 1933, and both production and national income were halved.
How did the Cox family suffer the Depression? A letter written in 1935 by Ivy to her older sister, Ruth, provides a few clues. Ivy was 24 years old, and had been a CGA for three years. Her letter reveals a number of family tensions, mostly over money:
Dad has had about a month’s work, and has been able to clear up some of the arrears of rent. I hope that he can continue to work throughout the summer months and save sufficient to carry them through the winter. Verna [Ivy’s younger sister] and I going home is out of the question, as mother does not seem to want more than 3 or 4 hours of our company at any time. Their rent seems to be their biggest worry, for even if Dad is working they never seem to save enough for that. I will try to scrape up $5.00 a month throughout the winter. If I do, I will pay it direct to the landlord on account of the rent, so that they may be sure of a roof over their heads.
Ivy’s letter of 1935 also reveals that not only was she working for T.H. Frankling—her sister Verna was as well. Just 18 years old in 1935, Verna had worked for Frankling since the age of 16. She was taking night classes—at the same high school her sister had attended—in order to complete her education. Perhaps the strain accounted for an amusing drama between the two sisters that Ivy recounted in her letter to Ruth.
Verna brought me down to earth…by not speaking to me, for she apparently thought I was being spoilt and needed to be taught a lesson. She goes to such elaborate steps so as not to speak to me—preparing written reports of what has happened at the office, and when I get home at night I find a written report of what I owe her for supper.
The melodramatic nature of teenagers is an old tale, but Ivy’s recording of T.H. Frankling’s response to the drama does Frankling well:
The amount of work she [Verna] does when she is peeved amazes not only me, but Mr. F. as well, who said that if she can work like that when she is angry probably we had better make her angry all the time. It might be good for business, but I don’t think it would be good for me.
Continued...
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