Campaign highlights our 50% CEOs Playbook launch
Wacl campaign accelerates push to smash 50% women CEO ceiling
‘The 50%’ includes roadmap for ad agencies and case studies on likes of Channel 4, Sky, PepsiCo and Vodafone
Wacl has launched a campaign supporting its call-to-action for 50% of chief executive roles in the ad and communications industry to be filled by women.
Dubbed “The 50%”, the campaign also calls for those women CEOs to reflect the “full diversity of British society”. It builds on Wacl’s push announced earlier this year, when it appointed a number of patrons to help spread the message to the wider community.
Just 30% of CEOs across adland are women and while this beats the 17% across business in general, on its current trajectory the 50% target will not be hit until 2060.
Wacl is asking agency leaders to look inwards and gauge where their businesses are on the journey to 50%, using the hashtag #MeasureWithMeaning. While 50% is clearly a significant target, Wacl stressed that it marks just a “basic level of change it deserves” and is not an “absolute or standalone objective”. The organisation hopes that achieving that benchmark would help improve the representation of women across all walks of life.
“If we don’t all work together to improve representation at CEO level and in turn in all key decision-making roles, today’s inequities, misrepresentation and gender pay gap will continue – and get worse,” Wacl said.
At its heart, “The 50%” includes a practical guide for agencies to adopt called “The 50% CEO Playbook”, which lays out five tenets for change, explaining their importance and how they can be taken on board:
- Change the language of leadership
- Promote for potential
- Be a women’s health hero
- Be flexible first
- Work like the world is watching
Each of the “levers of change” must be founded on data that enables agencies to #MeasureWithMeaning so they can gauge transparently where they are at and where they need to go. The playbook also includes case studies demonstrating how various organisations have progressed towards gender parity, including from Channel 4, Grey, PepsiCo, Dark Horses, Diageo, Pablo, Publicis Media, Sky, Quiet Storm, Tesco and Vodafone.
Rania Robinson, president of Wacl and Quiet Storm CEO, said: “Although 70% of the advertising industry’s junior manager cohort are women, IPA and AA surveys show that women take only 37.5% to 39% of C-suite level roles. Compared with the situation before, this is progress. But it’s not enough.
“The five levers we set out in the ‘50% Playbook’ are by no means the only factors affecting equality. However, evidence suggests that addressing them will have a significant impact.
“Wacl hopes that this playbook will prompt reflection, provide useful new actions to try and encourage agencies, where possible, to share anonymised data and strategies for change to build our collective learning.”
Agencies can join the #50%mission and sign up to #MeasureWithMeaning by downloading the playbook here.
The case studies on offer give insights into how Channel 4 has spearheaded gender equality across its business, with initiatives such as the introduction in 2019 of its menopause policy, its 2021 pregnancy loss policy and its progress in closing the pay gap between women and men across its top 100 paid staff.
Sky has been making similar inroads, such as via its target of achieving 50% women at leadership level.
Wacl’s patrons for change, appointed in January, are: Oti Mabuse, former professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing; Harriet Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham; Kate Mosse, writer and founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction; Dame Sharon White, chairman of John Lewis Partnership; Maisie Summers-Newton, athlete and Paralympic champion; Maggie Alphonsi, former England rugby player and Rugby World Cup winner; and Baroness Helena Kennedy KC.
This article appeared in Campaign on April 17th, 2023
About the author
The Others & Me; Author of No More Menemies