WACL’s VP talks to the Guardian about adland’s gender leadership gap:
Extract from Guardian article by Mark Sweeney, 16 April 2023, featuring Women in Advertising & Communications Leadership
There are now more women working in the advertising industry than men (54%), and the number of female employees grew by almost a quarter last year, according to the IPA. Conditions have also improved at the top of the industry, with women occupying almost 38% of executive positions – known as C-suite roles – up from a third in 2021.
However, Nishma Robb, a senior director at Google UK and vice-president of the advertising industry gender equality body WACL, says agencies continue to struggle to retain senior female talent. “Female leaders who are jumping ship are motivated to do so because they face micro-aggressions in the workplace, alongside a lack of recognition, and are also often overlooked for new opportunities,” she says.
Ethnic diversity has greatly improved in recent years; the balance of employees from a non-white background is now at almost 24%, up from 18% in 2021 and just 10.6% a decade ago. Although in big cities such as London and Manchester, where most advertising employees work, those from BAME backgrounds represent 46% and almost a third of the overall populations respectively. And in terms of seniority, people from a non-white background account for just 11% of employees in C-suite roles.
“Although we’ve come a long way, evidence suggests we still have a long way to go to close the gender leadership gap, particularly for women of colour,” says Robb.
From: ‘A hard business’: UK’s illustrious ad industry tainted by burnout and inequality.’ Read the full Guardian article here
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