Honouring some early pioneering ad women
Lizzie Broadbent has worked tirelessly to bring these women’s stories to light.
As the WACL centenary celebrations show, women held leadership roles in advertising from its earliest days. In new research exploring early British business women, it has emerged as a sector where women did particularly well in the early 20th century.
Lizzie Broadbent, organisational consultant and founder of the project Women Who Meant Business, trawled through newspapers, magazines, books and several archives, including the WACL archives, to piece together the lives of pioneering women in advertising.
‘Honestly, it was quite a surprise to find so many examples, but it appears that advertising was one of the few industries before the Second World War where women could work their way up from the bottom, earn equal pay and have long careers. There was a pool of experienced women who sat on the boards of other businesses and contributed more widely to the advancement of other women through formal and informal networks. It’s a fascinating example of how individual qualities, opportunity and systemic factors interact to enable change.’
This month five of these women, all early WACL Presidents, are being added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Up until now Olive Hirst, WACL President in 1959-60, has been the sole flag-bearer for women industry leaders. Now she will be joined by Marion Jean Lyon, Ethel Wilson, Ethel M Wood, Florence Sangster and Margaret Havinden.
“We’re really excited to be adding these entries to coincide with the WACL centenary” said the ODNB’s Senior Research Editor, Dr Mark Curthoys. “Advertising is clearly a sector where women had huge impact and we are delighted that they will now be better represented in our national history.”
About the author
The Others & Me; Author of No More Menemies