The IMAA on its all-male board, challenging the big globals, and ‘giving back’ to indies
A new industry body for independent media agencies has launched: Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA). While its mission attracted widespread support, the composition of its all-male leadership team also drew criticism. Mumbrella’s Brittney Rigby learns why the committee’s lack of gender balance “sits absolutely fine” with the inaugural chair, and whether there are plans to ensure the annually rotating committee is more representative in the future.
“Look, we all know that this industry is a bit of a boys’ club.” I’ve just asked Meg Gossert, who has run Multi Media Buying and Planning Services for more than 30 years, how she feels about the all-male inaugural management committee of Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA).
When the new industry body launched a fortnight ago, the photo of the management team accompanying the announcement immediately drew attention. Despite 61% of media agency staff being women, a number of whom run independent agencies, there wasn’t one in sight.
The photo of the inaugural committee (L-R): Dan O’Brien, Sam Buchanan, Dominic Pearman, Nick Behr and Ant Colreavy
Hi Brittney, great to call out the need for gender balance on this board but I wish you would also give a voice to the multicultural nature of our country as well. They aren’t just all Male but also all Anglo Saxon white males, let alone any other diversity elements? Diversity of thought and experiences is also important to represent such a big industry
My sentiments exactly. And very much noted when another association celebrated diversity of the board which again very anglo despite the female representation. Gender representation is critical but that does not credit you with diversity in this day and age.
But thankfully “there was a few girls there as well.”
We keep trying and at the very least try to head in the right direction.
The reasoning that insists that the board of any organization, company or cooperative, etc should be made up of equal numbers of women and men is limited and simplistic, perhaps even reflexive.
Throughout history, both women and men have achieved great things, and both have performed catastrophically stupid or mindless things. Historically, a male-dominated world has resulted in may political, social and business disasters being attributed almost entirely to men.
The social opinions and attitudes of the past are now viewed as having been wrong and change is underway, but adjusting numbers in order to achieve a tidy balance sheet is as foolish as employing cosmetics, theatrical staging or puppetry to give the appearance of truth to the real world.
Remarkable, exceptional and talented people will always achieve great things, and a world ready to accept that gender is absolutely unimportant to this process of achievement, will also fair better in a social sense.
The reporting on this story is just frankly embarrassing. Desperately trying to shoehorn in a “gender story” where there is clearly nothing there.
The contents of people pants is the least interesting thing about the board of the IMAA.
Maybe focussing on where they hope to be in 5 years, the issues they are trying to solve, how they want to grow their membership across the country might be of more interest to your audience.
We are now in a world where gender is a societal construct and legally there are 100 genders in some countries. So in a years time, when the IMAA board are 50/50 male-female (mathematically I’m trying to work this out on a board of 5), will we be asking; no trans? no non-binary? no enbyfluid? too straight? too gay? too beige? too rich?
By the reporters own telling a female CEO encouraged a gender-mixed group to set up an industry body. Said group openly invited anyone in the group to volunteer. Only men volunteered.
Disgrace. Won’t someone think of the children? How dare people have their own agency.
There was literally nothing;
A – stopping women volunteering
B – women setting up their own industry body
It’s embarrassing reading the reporter’s line of questions focussing on gender when the people interviewed male and female just couldn’t seem to care less.
Is gender an issue for the industry or is it actually just an issue that the industry media (and mainstream) like to use to create friction and outrage between groups.
I appreciate the irony of fall of the masterplan here but can we focus on the discrimination that is real rather than trying to find it in places it doesn’t exist.
Loved Dominic Pearman’s point that Mumbrella was set up by two men but apparently that doesn’t matter.
What’s good for thee is not good for me
So it’s not good enough to open up the nominations to all-comers and select a leadership team from those that are interested – we now have to go looking for people and push them to want to participate, even though they showed no self-driven desire to be involved in the first place. If you have to drag people kicking and screaming to ‘volunteer’, what’s the likelihood of them going above and beyond to contribute to the group outside their day-to-day responsibilities to their businesses?
The world has gone mad.
I’m such a big believer and supporter of Indies. Well done to the founding members for bringing it to life.
I do want to clarify that if the IMAA had asked me to be on the committee I would have put my hand up. HYLAND was never considered and I just don’t want readers to assume the women in the interview who are members were asked. Because maybe we weren’t….
A lot of diverse indies (both multicultural and female led) are able and more than willing to support the IMAA. Here’s to indies of all shapes and sizes!