Creative is a man’s job – AWARD tackles gender gap at Semi-Permanent this Thursday May 22

Creative is a man’s job – according to figures from The Communications Council’s latest Salary Survey (2013).

Despite results showing an even gender split across Australia’s advertising workforce*, less than a quarter of females hold roles in creative (23.7%), of which only 13.5% have progressed through to the levels of creative director or executive creative director.

The findings are released ahead of a dedicated panel discussion at Thursday’s Semi-Permanent event, addressing ‘The Creativity Gap’. Presented by the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association (AWARD), the discussion will welcome female creatives, Rebecca Carrasco (creative director at Clemenger BBDO), Kieran Flanagan (creative director at McCann), and Mietta McFarlane (copywriter, Droga5) to investigate why our industry is ignoring the business imperative to achieve a gender balanced workforce and how the situation can be reversed.

Says Mark Harricks, AWARD chair: “It is worrying that a profession driven by diverse and forward thinking is so behind and undeveloped in terms of gender balance. We have read the business cases a thousand times in the media, but figures show awareness hasn’t yet filtered through into understanding or action in our sector. We are limiting our talent pool, which ultimately damages our business. It is something AWARD is committed to tackling, starting with our own training and award judging programs.”

Mirroring the current gender ratio for senior creative roles, only nine in 100 jurors for this year’s AWARD Awards were female – a figure that AWARD seeks to change into the future.

Says Harricks: “We aren’t expecting to solve this issue in this panel discussion, our aim is to explore the causes and symptoms. It’s up to the people of our industry to take this conversation further. Only by raising it as an issue will there be any motivation to solve it.”

Mediating the panel, Harricks will question the three speakers on some of the key perceived barriers to entry and retention for females in the creative industry, from agency culture, and inflexible work conditions to gender bias, and a lack of role models and celebration of female creative work.

The panel discussion takes place on Thursday 22nd May. Those interested in participating can post their questions to the panel in advance on our Facebook, Google+ or Twitter pages, using the hashtag: #SPsyd2014.

All members of The Communications Council and AWARD are eligible for a 20% discount on passes to the Semi-Permanent event, which runs from 22nd to 24th May at the Carriageworks in Sydney. For more event details and booking information, visit AWARD Online.

(Pictured L-R: Mark Harricks, Rebecca Carrasco,  Kieran Flanagan, Mietta McFarlane)