The Mad Men Industry – attracting and retaining women
After figures yesterday revealed the number of female creatives in Australia remains low, Miranda Ward looks at what can be done to get more women into the industry, from new initiatives to quotas.
According to the Communications Council 2013 Salary, women only account for 27.3 per cent of creative departments and represent 13.5 per cent of senior positions. However, according to a Mumbrella Survey, women aged 40 and older only account for 7.59 per cent of those currently employed, and women aged 30 – 40 taking up the bulk representing 36.7 per cent of the women employed, it is clear that as women get older they leave the industry. With agencies losing women suitable for senior positions, it needs to be asked how can an agency better retain talented and capable women?
“I think a good creative department needs diversity of experiences. There’s no point employing a bunch of creatives that are all the same. So having a spread of guys and girls of different ages and backgrounds brings different thinking to the briefs,” a respondent to the Mumbrella survey commented.
With having a family easily identifiable as the biggest hurdle for women staying in a demanding and competitive industry, agencies need to look at practical measures to help women cope with the demands of the job and being a mum. Flexible working hours or being able to work part time is one solution for working mums to be able to manage a career and the demand of parenthood, currently 8.10 per cent of female creatives work part time while only 1.70 per cent of male creatives have taken the option up.
Certainly the laboratories of the enlightened world are now beginning to stock up with female rats, in order to balance the disparity of so many years of medical research upon male only rats. The complicated nature of the female ( you know…female hormones etc) has been the main thinking to date behind the use of male only rats for medical research.
Women’s health demands female rats. Speaking of which, the nursing profession is top heavy with women, there is need for more men there, so maybe we could rearrange industry and get more men into nursing, more women into garage workshops, garbage collecting etc.
I think the notion of an equal mix in advertising will cause unforeseen problems. We will have the problem of female ideas regarding male products, and the greater problem of male ideas regarding female products, and all the good work done in the past consulting women and paying female presenters may well be watered down as a result of the introduction of gender balance.
Even the advertising servicing of women’s gymnasia, cosmeticians etc may be rendered vuLnerable.
Look, I think the chaos factor (once called the order of things) will kick in, but it is not up to me thank goodness. You young energetic people must do as you will, but it is possible to play with the cat until it scratches, and there may be tears before bedtime.
P.S. Beware the tide, it is at your heals.
Basically, I left because I have a small child.
My child needs a home and needs to be fed and put to bed at night.
So I can’t put in long, late hours at the agency while earning a ridiculously low salary – like all those 30 year olds living in share flats with no commitments.
That’s about what it comes down to.
Australia was ranked ahead of Britain last year in terms of creative, we had over 4 campaigns in the top 20 awarded campaigns in the world. Two Australians are currently the most awarded people in the world.
Whatever we’re doing now, is working.
As an aside, when I studied creative, more than half the class were female. Most of them left half way through the course. They decided they wanted to do law, travel, proper art, illustration or even account management / production.
Why?
Well, half of the men did the same thing too. In fact, out of a class of over 100, only 5 blokes and 1 girl still have jobs as creatives. There are 2 blokes on top of that who still freelance and are making a transition into a new career – in under 5 years.
It’s tough work for few rewards and with women being the smarter sex, I can see why they wouldn’t work in a creative department either.
We shouldn’t be making the conditions better to attract more women – we should be making them better to retain more talented, smarter people.
Hi talented women,
We work with mostly brands who target females. We appreciate the insight women bring to talking to other women.
Our agency offers flexible working arrangement and I am all for work/life balance for Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers – men and women alike. Afterall I am a mum and a business owner.
Before thinking that there is no place in the industry come and talk to us.
Regards
Virginia
There’s usually a fairly easy answer to keeping talented women. Agencies (and by that I mean the fat cat suits – male and female at the helm) need to behave better. Offer proper career paths, serious HR and talent retention programs and in your back offices at least, when it comes to women in management and leadership roles, ditch the ‘we’re too cool for school’ boys club mentalities and behave more like some of the client companies you work for.
Just sayin’.