The tales that prove sexual harassment is still a major issue in the Australian ad industry
Over the past few months, several women from the Australian ad industry have reached out to Mumbrella with stories of sexual harassment in the workplace. Mumbrella’s Josie Tutty speaks to them, along with industry expert Cindy Gallop, to discover what more needs to be done to eradicate Australia’s endemic problem once and for all.
According to a 2016 survey of some of Australia’s biggest ad agencies, 42% of female employees reported they have experienced sexual harassment at some point in their career, and 20% said they had experienced it “more than few times”.
The survey, conducted by agency body The Agency Circle, also found while strategy roles were pretty evenly matched at 48% male and 52% female, leadership roles were incredibly skewed. Just 16% of CEO or MD roles were held by females.
As revealed in the following stories from women in the Australian ad industry, calling out sexual harassment becomes an intimidating prospect when the board room is full of men.
They tell their stories to Mumbrella in the hope that they might encourage others to speak up and call it out.
I’m dumbfounded that this is happening in such a progressive part of the the world. As a female creative, I’ve also experienced this sort of treatment. The willingness to cover up harassment and protect those in power at the expense of the victim is so confusing to me.
Why should an industry like advertising get a free pass to perpetuate unethical behaviour and inequality? We write it off as ‘just the way it is’ rather than aspire to genuine social change.
I remember the landmark day the CEO of David Jones lost his job for continually asking a young woman out and ‘touching her bra strap’.
I remember the day well because it was the source of much mirth and merriment in the (top 5, iconic Aussie) ad agency I was working for.
Most of the blokes thought it was hilarious ‘God I would have lost my job 10 times hahaha!’ and sadly many of the women over 35 (who had lived through years of unbridled ‘this is how we roll’ harassment, rolled their eyes and said ‘Toughen up princess – we’ve had it much worse’. And we had. But that is no excuse.
I have been in the industry for 19 years and can see a massive shift between the way men speak and act in the agency compared to how they did in the late 90s when I was starting out. As a junior suit… I have been pushed into cabs by drunk clients, in front of my CEO – who laughed; I have been ‘pashed’ in elevators and felt up in client meetings; Had porn mags left in my desk drawer; Had my Head of Department throw shade over my client’s glowing review of my work by saying ‘surely he just wants to F%#! her’; And when a concerned colleague reported my senior male colleagues ‘creepy behavior, I, not my colleague, was asked to consider moving to another agency. And before you start thinking – god she must have been putting out the signals, no I wasn’t and I don’t. I just happened to be a young woman in a male dominated industry. I was ‘sport’. I was 25 and I sadly excepted the rules. I kept my head down, worked hard, won awards and stayed alive – survived. I wish I could say thrived, but that is a much harder road for a woman, and almost impossible if you take a few years off the pedal to marry and have kids.
The future is all about quotas. Putting women on management teams, sending them to Cannes and Judging panels – not 30/70 BS – 50/50 mandated! It’s the only way to crack this. Mandate change! And surprise, surprise the agency world will see we can all do this job, and do it well regardless of gender. The viral creative world (youtube et al) is already a laissez-faire when it comes to gender, colour, age, class – Evolve or Die adland!
Good god… I can’t believe what you had to endure! How on earth is this still going on?!
And how messed up is it that you even need to caveat it with the fact you weren’t putting out signals. We like to think we’ve moved on since the days of Madmen, but have we?
Typo: ‘accepted’ (not excepted) – was typing fast!
…and thanks for the supportive comments. As many of you have said I am not alone here – it happens to ‘women’, and that’s why many leave in droves + the lack of opportunity / growth.
So saddened to hear these stories.
I remember being a junior planner and upon resigning, my main client (who happened to be male) emailed my female boss to express disappointment in seeing me go. She lightly remarked that he must have had a crush on me or that there must’ve been some chemistry between us because god forbid it had anything to do with my ability to do my job.
I wish I was mature enough then to stand up for myself. We need to eliminate this culture where women feel they need to eliminate each other to climb the narrow ladder to the boys club floor. We’ll never achieve equality this way.
Nothing but respect for those who have spoken out.
This has totally been my experience. I feel responsible for not standing up more for all women. I like men, I like working with them but mutual respect still feels a long way off in our industry. We need to stop, on mass, accepting that this is ‘just the way it is’. I’m speaking out now. We all should.
The experiences of these two women are just the tip of the iceberg. The culture of misogyny in advertising in Australia is rampant – with much of it far more subtle than the experiences shared above – but don’t be fooled into thinking it is any the less poisonous. It is perpetuated by the belief that there are degrees of acceptable harassment – making allowances for “there was no physical contact” or “it could have been worse” – or masked (as we see here) as admiration and attraction. This behaviour is a result of lack of respect – pure and simple. The behaviour is appalling; the agency response is unacceptable. As they say – What you accept will continue. The lack of representation of women in leadership roles in Australian agencies is evidence the sexual discrimination is alive and well in many agencies. The lack of diversity is astounding. It results in smart, hard working talent leaving in droves, because quite simply why should you stay? Agencies don’t care because there’s always a new generation wanting to come through. And so the cycle continues.
Thank you Cindy Gallop for: “The moment you feel something untoward is going on, trust me: something untoward is going on…”
Harassment is such a shock when it happens, it is hard to believe you heard/felt it right. The men senior, the words or actions sly.
In my early twenties, while I was getting coffee, my manager put his head on my abdomen and said he was just giving me a hug. On reflection, I bravely went to him and calmly asked him not to do it again please. He blustered and belittled that he was ‘only’ etc, so I courteously agreed, but repeated that I did not want him to do it again. My face still flames to think of how wretched I felt, but he didn’t try it again.
If it helps anyone else; in some instances I treated the person like a flasher ie ignored the words with impassive face and moved back on to business (where work words live!) and in the case of a CEO in the lift making suggestive remarks, I asked after his wife.
Harassment shouldn’t happen but it does. Be brave and determined to defend your boundaries – even as a quiet person with no HR support, you can make that decision and stick to it. Good luck!
Ahhh, but is the solution about individuals sticking to a decision?
It takes more than that to change an industry-wide issue.
What happens when a victim goes to the police for help and receives none, when there’s no HR protocol, or even worse they seem cover it up like they did with the CD at the ‘prominent Sydney agency’?
It breaks my heart that so many women are afraid to use their real names for fear of being persecuted – including me. The level of victim blaming is appalling.
It’s as big an issue as it has ever been. The stories I hear on an almost weekly basis defy belief. The ad industry needs to rid itself of these grubs and their caveman mentality.
We are all duty bound to call out this behavior when we see it and support our female colleagues to the max. Harassment and workplace bullying should have zero tolerance threshold. Well done those brave people who stood up for themselves, I wish more people had your courage. Remember the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
Sage advice Gezza. Let’s hope these guys realize the ongoing trigger effects this has for the women who go through these events. Imagine how the power taken out of their hands effects their self esteem, confidence and potential. Can’t wait for the Weinstein effect to emerge in Adsville.#comingsoon
I started working at a small agency in my mid 20’s. We all went out for all agency functions frequently. The CD was well known for being sleazy when he was drunk so all the girls in the agency gave him a wide berth (I later found out every girl in the office had experienced his inappropriate comments and leering many times). After numerous times of the same thing happening to me, at yet another function I got stuck with him alone at the bar and he tried to come onto me again. My response was to ask how his wife and two kids were and politely try to edge away. I mentioned this to my AD the next day. She reported this to our ‘HR’ even though I deferred against it. (we didn’t really have a formal trained HR rep, just someone acting as HR and other office duties).
I was pulled into a meeting with our male ‘HR’ and asked if I was just too drunk, that I remembered correctly and implied that I had invited the situation. I was in disbelief that in the 2000’s this was still the question being asked of women. I was also asked whether I wanted to make a formal complaint. It was made clear that this would be quite damaging to the agency and perhaps it was better let go. Being young and also really respecting the MD of the agency I didn’t want to make a fuss and let it go. Instead avoiding functions when the CD attended thereafter.
He remained at the agency for another few years.
It’s damn hard to speak up when these things happen, victims are already in a vulnerable mental space. And surely it’s about more than us telling them to share their humiliation with a louder voice to make it stop?
There should be accountability within the organisations and the industry too. Ad agencies aren’t exempt from basic HR requirements – is the onus not on the company to provide a safe working environment for all employees, just like any other business? And shouldn’t it be provided regardless of gender?
If there’s no HR that’s a real issue which needs to be addressed. And what about incidents like the one described at the ‘prominent Sydney agency’… it as all on record, flagged with management, and yet nothing was done to hold the perpetrator accountable, it seems like it was just covered up.
No wonder so many people choose to remain anonymous when they share their experiences – it feels like everything is put back on the victim.
Going to HR is mostly a waste of time. Very few people holding that title or handling talent responsibilities in agencies are qualified let alone understand the legislation and how to respond to workplace harassment. And let’s be clear, the role of HR is ultimately to protect the company from employee problems, not to solve them. Don’t necessarily expect to be supported, especially if the person holding that title used to be in a similar role or is mates with management. It’s another example of how juvenile this industry is. We don’t take employee welfare seriously and never have.
Call a lawyer.
So true. Among other things, we need a revolution in the culture of HR departments. At the moment anyone expecting HR support on issues like this is deluded.
This is atrocious and unacceptable.
NOT BEING SEXUALLY HARASSED AT YOUR JOB IS SO BASIC HOW IS OUR INDUSTRY FAILING MISERABLY?
Even as one of the 16% of female CEOs I’ve faced it (not in my own business but early in my career in marketing). An extraordinary amount of women I know have too. This is not the price anyone should pay to work in our industry.
There is no contract, campaign, or financial incentive big enough to put up with this. It’s simple: If a client sexually were to harass my staff, I’d terminate the contract. If a staff member were to sexually harass another staff member OR a client, they would be fired. An agency that won’t do the same shouldn’t be in business.
The fact that my staff aren’t sexually harassed—and that our leadership team would take swift action if something were to happen—shouldn’t be rare. Apparently, it is.
We have roles open and proudly provide safe and intellectually challenging environment without fear of harassment. If you’re in an unsafe environment, please get out. It’s not worth it, and there are better options. If you need someone to talk to, you can find me on LinkedIn.
Thanks Mumbrella for giving this issue air for discussion.
Couldn’t agree more on HR. They represent the company’s interest. Do not trust them.
Get a lawyer.