A now infamous double page spread in trade publication Campaign Brief sparked considerable backlash after publishing a feature on creative leaders that spotlighted 20 men and no women.
But while many were shocked that in 2024 such an inequitable spread would even make it to print, concerns around gender inequality are nothing new, with many claiming the issue is systemic and has been deeply embedded in the industry from the outset.
According to Creative Equals, only 24% of creative directors are women, indicating progress is crawling in creative leadership roles.
Why are female creative leaders still being overlooked? What barriers are keeping them from the spotlight? Is true gender parity even possible in an industry still dominated by men—as blatantly shown in that Campaign Brief feature?
There's been endless talk around diversity and achieving gender equality for years, but while talk has persisted, many are left wondering what real progress has been made? Will the conversation shift to solutions? Will a double page spread in 2024 with a blatant lack of female representation finally be the tipping point for real change?
We asked several female creatives what it will truly take for women to achieve parity—and what needs to be done to turn talk into tangible progress.
Sarah Vincenzini
Freelance executive creative director / copywriter
I know many talented, experienced creative women who have had enough of things staying the same—and are right now exploring career options outside of advertising, or swearing off networks like they swore off dating assholes in their 20s. We're over having to behave in a way that suits men, in order to succeed as women. Our 'diversity' isn't available only on your terms.
If agencies don’t support flexible ways of working, we won’t have more women in senior creative roles. If agencies don’t support part-time work (four days is hardly a big ask), we won’t have more women in senior creative roles.
If agencies don’t stop covering up for the male leaders who have sexually harrassed women, we won’t have more women in senior creative roles. If agencies don’t stop covering up for the male leaders who have discriminated against women for being pregnant, we won’t have more women in senior creative roles.
If agencies don’t adapt their ways of working to support the realities that come with being a female caregiver, we won’t have more women in senior creative roles. If agencies keep dismissing high-schoolish bully behaviour as “normal agency stuff,” we won’t have more women in senior creative roles.
And if agencies keep normalising ageism/pushing talent into the volcano as soon as they hit 40, we won’t have more women in senior creative roles. Or men. Or anyone with experience and real value to clients.
So my question to agencies (and their leadership teams) is: when will you start really changing the things that underpin the adland leadership gender bias?
Phoebe Chan
Regional creative director at DDB Group Hong Kong
Many believe that the lack of female leaders in the creative industry is due to 'unfair treatment' within the industry—which I just partially agree with. As a female creative leader born and bred, and working in Hong Kong, where women shine bright, I see a world that's ready for some serious enlightenment.
It's time to shake off those outdated gender-stereotyped notions of what makes a leader tick. Strength, creativity, and resilience aren't gender-specific traits. In the end, these are rather individual qualities.
Every woman has to start gaining parity simply by embracing self-respect before anyone else tries to employ a so-called model for it. I always define myself as a 'creative director' instead of a 'female creative director'—because we deserve a spotlight based on talent, not gender. No labels are needed for anyone to own the stage.
Jardin Anderson
Former head of creative at MONA
It seems a lot of the chat surrounding female leadership in agencies suggests there is some kind of ‘level playing field’ for both men and women—this fails to account for the facts of life for women. Women give birth, are often required to be the primary carers for children, and assume the majority of domestic responsibility. Combined with men’s use of their dominant status to preserve male advantage in the workplace through establishing and controlling the rules that underpin merit, hierarchy, and reward, this means ongoing difficulties for women.
The feminine is simply not as valued as the masculine—not only in the industry, but in our modern society more broadly. The advertising industry has always been aggressively dog-eat-dog. Is it any wonder how pernicious the result is when such a worldview is encoded, unquestioned, systemic? So my answer is yes, we need to devise an entirely new model. We’re still fighting for a seat at the table when the whole house is burning down. Why not try and change the system, not just the people in it?
I’m unsure if the industry has the will to change, but with the way it’s heading—the way everything is heading—it kind of needs to. I am optimistic. There are women building their own interesting things on the peripheries. And moments like this Campaign Brief furore and the conversation that ensues, in a time of increased connectivity and agency, results in a ‘crack’. And in the words of Leonard Cohen, ‘there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.’
Soleil Badenhop
Creative director, VCCP Singapore
Agencies often still prefer a strong male voice to lead, and, unfortunately, clients—yes, even female clients—prefer it that way too. Until it becomes the norm to see and hear female leaders in charge, people will continue defaulting to male leadership. We need to extend the table, making room for more women and non-binary creatives, and ensure that the table is spacious enough to allow for growth and improvement—so no one is set up to fail.
Regina Stroombergen and Julia Spencer
Founders, Mums In Ads
Through Mums In Ads, we’ve both spent a huge amount of time talking with countless creative women to try and understand the female vacuum in senior creative leadership—and the answer we keep arriving back at is not a comfortable one: institutions like ours simply do not value the female perspective. Which is a soft way to say men just don’t think women’s ideas are as good as theirs. Men will not like this, and they won’t admit to it—but this is the lived experience of female creatives. And trying to break past the creative gatekeepers is exhausting. Trying to prove yourself in perpetuity is exhausting. Add to this the grind of agency culture, and it’s just not worth it. This reality is a detriment for both our industry and our clients, because pop culture will show you just how profitable the female perspective is when it’s given a clear run to be realised.
This industry, like most, was not designed for women to thrive in. So for women to succeed in this industry, the industry must change foundationally. The time for talking has long expired. It will require some trial and error to reshape what has always been into something new. It will take creativity and unconventionality—but that’s what we’re good at, right?
Importantly, this rebuilding will require some vulnerability and courage from today’s creative male leaders—the ones who have inherited this industry, with all its baggage. If they want to leave this industry better than they found it, they need to step up and not shy away from this discussion and this moment.
Cara Cheng, HR manager, BBDO China
Tiny Hu, corporate communications manager at BBDO China
In China’s advertising industry, a creative director role often requires seven to ten years of experience—a career stage that typically intersects with family-focused life stages, such as marriage and motherhood.
Faced with such life changes, some women may opt to return to their families, abandoning further advancements and developments in their careers. Conversely, others may seek out jobs that offer greater ease or flexibility, enabling them to balance their family and professional responsibilities. Yet, under the framework of traditional gender role divisions, men in similar life stages as women can often concentrate solely on their careers.
We need to dismantle these structural and cultural barriers by fostering workplaces that support both career and personal growth without compromise.
Katrina Alvarez-Jarratt
Executive creative director, TBWA Sydney
Executive creative director, TBWA Sydney
It’s not enough to just hire more women, they need to be supported, challenged, trained, and given all the opportunities the blokes are being given. I would love to see a reframe of what a creative leader looks like. What a creative leader sounds like. How she leads her team and what kind of work she creates. I can only speak from my experience over the span of my career—it can be very difficult to get a seat at the table, and to get in front of the right people if you’re not perceived as a ‘creative leader’.
The issue of gender diversity and equity in creative departments is a complex problem and I’m not sure anyone has the silver bullet—but I would love to offer up some suggestions that I think could begin to make a difference for parents in the industry, they are:
Equal parental leave for both genders. Job shared leadership roles so that two people can work part-time in the one job and much clearer boundaries set with clients. You’ll note that these are things that will benefit all genders—what’s good for women is, as it turns out, also good for people.
Elle Bullen
Executive creative director, Bullfrog
I would love to spend these words telling you how far we’ve come, but it’s not far enough. Because it’s 2024, and here we are again scratching our heads and wondering where all the female identifying leaders in creative advertising are.
Allow me to enlighten you. They’re still working as mid weights because their career progression got hijacked when they dared to take time off to have children. They’ve thrown the towel in because we don’t tell them that everyone returns from 12 months out of the industry feeling like an imposter, and we refilled their calendars without rebuilding their confidence. Or they’ve side stepped into different industries that don’t make them sacrifice time with their family on the alter of creativity. And that means we’re still not doing enough to stem the bleed of incredible women pouring out of this industry.
We need to shape roles around different circumstances to create space for diversity. As a result, our creative department at Bullfrog is made up largely of accomplished female creative leaders and founders, three of whom currently work part time.
More means boundaries. The kind we respect people for setting, and that we respect when they’re in place. And more empathy. You shouldn’t need go through this struggle to get it.
Heidi Kasselman
Creative director, Clemenger BBDO Australia
Creative director, Clemenger BBDO Australia
I once had a brilliant female ECD tell me that if I wanted to succeed in this industry, I would need to behave like a man. I thought that was the saddest thing.
We are seeing the power of a feminine perspective across culture. Those who embrace, feed and nurture female talent will continue to find their place on the cutting edge of creative excellence, and those who don’t will be left behind in a cloud of irrelevance.
Progress needs to come from the top. We need to see the leaders in our industry (male and female) recognising the issue and being allies in driving real change. In return, we need to support and celebrate the people and places who are embracing transformation.
Parity is being achieved in many places. Having worked across four continents and witnessed female leaders shaping their companies as well as the industry, I am confident that the same will happen here.
Marielle Nones
Associate creative director, Dentsu Creative Singapore
Women drive 80% of purchasing decisions, and as an industry it would make sense to not only promote but hire more women. It isn't for the sake of having representation but for better and more authentic work.
There should also be a greater effort providing a comprehensive view of both men and women creatives in the media. Currently, most feature exposures are limited to chief creative officers or creative directors who are mostly male. So why not make an effort to focus the spotlight on female account directors or producers in the team, as so much of the workforce [is made up of] women?
Additionally, for as long as society expects women to carry a heavier domestic and caregiving load, it’ll continue to exacerbate the issue of gender imbalance, especially in the creative world. Women should be given support and flexible working conditions to help them thrive in and outside of work.
I've seen how hybrid work in Dentsu has helped our female talents show up and shine. Feeling safe should be a baseline, whether that means simply feeling safe to duck out and pick up your kid or feeling safe around your male colleagues.
Anita Forte
Creative director, RGA Australia
Creative director, RGA Australia
We’re under no illusion that the industry has been largely designed for and led by men, but that doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t evolve—it must. Without this transformation toward gender equality, both businesses and society will suffer.
Creative women, particularly in leadership, are often going unnoticed. It’s deeply disappointing that in 2024 we’re still facing this issue, but it’s up to every single one of us to drive positive change. While there has been a little progress in moving the dial, it hasn’t significantly impacted the numbers, which really do speak for themselves.
We need to challenge existing assumptions about women, their ambition and their potential. For the sake of society, progress, and for the sake of better work, we need to see more women in creative leadership.
Women are great for business—organisations with at least 30% women in leadership roles are 12 times more likely to be in the top 20% for financial performance. If you aren’t moving towards inclusive leadership and leveraging the creative superpowers of women, you aren't doing everything to ensure your business's success.
Jane Evans
Founder, Visible
There needs to be a cull of all the men who have actively stopped women's careers. We need to bring back all the women who have been lost. We need to start designing careers that suit a woman's biology and life choices. Creative director at 35 and retirement at 55 is no longer an option for any of us. I want to see 45-55 year old women getting the job when we're at our peak with the brain space to give 100% to our careers. Clients need to demand their target market are making their ads—especially when midlife women make 50.3% of all consumer purchases.
We need to go back to a time before men designed the modern advertising world. Before the 50s, creative jobs were seen as 'women's careers' then came television and advertising got sexy with a lot of money to be made. Instead of women communicating to women (women have and always will be the major consumers) men came in and complicated the whole thing. When comms need to be faster, more insightful and braver to cut through the clutter, women's intuition, wisdom and creativity should be a creative department's most valuable asset again.
Designing women's careers for long and successful careers with plateaus and peaks is the answer. Women need to see women coming back after raising kids and raising the bar. Most importantly, clients need to exert their power and demand more female creatives working on their accounts. Because we've been fighting this since 1995.
Rachel Blacklaws
Creative director, RGA Australia
Creative director, RGA Australia
I see agencies increasingly wanting female creative directors. I suspect it’s because many agencies hire male CCOs and ECDs, then attempt to ‘balance it out’ with a female CD.
So, the desire for female leadership is high, but 'they’re just not out there'. There’s an expectation that female leaders grow on trees—fully formed, creatively developed, and ready to win a pitch—no training required.
They don’t. We don’t.
To those agencies: if you’re looking for female creative leaders and can’t find them, grow them yourself.
I think that’s the change in mindset needed. Don’t wait until there’s a leadership gap and then wonder where all the female candidates have gone. Hire to grow—look around you, open your eyes to the talented women already in the building. They’re probably sitting three seats away.
Pauly Grant
Chief talent officer, Publicis Groupe APAC
As an industry, we still have a long way to go when it comes to recognising female creative talent in the way we need to.
There are incredibly talented senior creatives whose portfolios are missing award-winning work—not because they aren’t capable, but because they may have been on maternity leave who are therefore not represented in creative rankings, which are usually tallied from award wins.
Addressing unconscious bias in project allocation is also critical. Are high-visibility projects in certain categories being allocated based on assumptions about capability and interests? Implementing objective criteria for project assignments can ensure that women and other underrepresented groups are not overlooked. This also includes encouraging women to lead key accounts and high-profile pitches, ensuring they are represented at decision-making tables.
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This post is filed under... Sounding Board: APAC experts speak on marketing and comms issues |
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