AdNews wins gender war; Mumbrella comes last
After a quick survey – or should that be Gallop Poll? – it’s official: AdNews leads the Australian trade press editorial team pack as far as hiring females, with a perfect score of five. Yes, five women journalists, no men (pictured right).
Coming equal second is B&T, with three men and three women, and Campaign Brief, with one man and one woman, on the editorial staff.
Coming in last spot is Mumbrella (pictured top left), with five men and one women on its esteemed editorial team.
Yes, it’s the secret shame of the advertising trade press. B&T and CB could do better, but Mumbrella needs to drastically improve its female to male journo ratio if it’s to avoid the ire of Cindy Gallop in New York or, shame of all shames, be included in the ad industry Tumblr site Too Many Guys, one Girl.
The results of this survey come in a week of much debate about gender inequality in the creative departments (although not in the account service and other areas) at some ad agencies – and after the CB Legendary Lunch for The One Club on Wednesday.
37 Comments
Or you could argue Adnews is the most sexist and least gender balanced?
Top banter
Thanks for joining the fray Lycnhy. Great “survey”. You must have missed this column from earlier in the week where we recreated the Leo’s shot with our all-female team and while they are an all-star team I lamented that we lack gender diversity! Not ashamed that every hire we’ve made in the last 18 months, a female has been the best candidate – miles ahead of any male applicants. Watch this space.
http://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/does-leo-burnett-deserve-the-backlash-over-its-all-white-male-creative-team
Any one counting the number of gays in all these pictures….that may help balance the figure!
Seriously lynchy? Why not do some real journalism and actually report on stats about the issue – gender neutrality in CREATIVE DEPARTMENTS OF ADVERTISING AGENCIES. Don’t just go finger pointing at other publications that are doing a better job of covering the issue than you – and without having to blanket block comments about it.
Hey Lynchy, surely you have a better photo of me than that? Something from Cannes perhaps?
CB promotes women creatives more than any trade press. Here’s a couple of recent stories:
http://www.campaignbrief.com/2015/10/how-lisa-fedyszyn-and-jonathan.html
http://www.campaignbrief.com/2015/01/phillip-duster-andrew-departs.html
This is great. Nobody complains about the lack of female mechanics, or the lack of male producers. So why are people complaining about the lack of female creatives?
Or should the question be why are nobody hiring them?
Guaranteed, if you’re good and female, you’re in hot demand. Boss gets diversity points and a good creative to boot.
It’s a meritocracy and the simple fact is we don’t have enough good female creatives in the industry to hire.
It’s sad, but it’s true.
If Rosie from adnews comments above about the ‘best hire’ were reversed – a man saying it about all male hires- can you imagine?
On another note,
So why is it Creative departments should be more sexist than account service departments or production departments? Those other departments, according to statistics, have males at the top so unconscious gender bias should apply there too.
Are creatives more sexist? That doesn’t quite hold to me.
So well done for completely trivialising the issue.
At least the other industry publications are actually covering the problem.
And let’s be clear, it IS problem.
Clients think so.
Creatives think so.
The average person on the street forced to see, watch and engage with the work we make thinks so too.
There are just a few relics from last century who think that this whole thing is some kind of hysterical feminist beat-up.
It’s not. Our industry’s viability depends upon it.
So grow up.
Thanks!
CB promotes women creatives more than anyone. CB has done so for 30 years and Bestads for the last 10.
And that’s why CB hosts a creative lunch with only blokes. #nothingtoseeherefolks
Both B&T, and CB have an equal number of men and women on their staff, but they “could do better”, while all women is a “perfect score”?
I’m not going to try and claim men are being discriminated against, but I would have thought a 1:1 ratio would be the ideal situation.
Also, when did it become a gender “war”?
I wholly agree that gender equality is an issue but this sort of sensationalist journalism doesn’t help facilitate a productive discussion, it just creates animosity.
Dear Gender Balance,
Total rubbish there aren’t top senior female creatives the main reason (next to outright discrimination) that talented women over the age of 30 struggle to get jobs in creative departments is the lack of flexible working arrangements. Creative departments are living in the stone age and lagging behind much more conservative organisations when it comes to including women in the workforce.
I bet half the female creatives at home looking after babies would run rings around you and your facebook surfing, casual shoes wearing mediocrity
Advertising Agency staff are not diverse and do not reflect the multicultural people on the street. Theres a much bigger issue than enough girls or boys. And more upper middle class Poppy-Louise’s and Mary-Anne’s aren’t going to solve that problem.
Whoever is best should get the job, end of. And good creatives can put themselves in any ones shoes.
Whats the male / female ratio in PR Agencies ?
I’m sorry but CB does not promote female creatives in the Australian industry “more than anyone else”. Both the examples you cite are women who work overseas. Rarely do I see more than one woman a month (if that) participating in Creative Circle or featured in the magazine’s articles. I know so many international award-winning senior local creative women (including myself) who have never had an invite to a Legendary Lunch or been featured in any way (unless my agency has supplied a press release). Instead of being dickish about this issue, how about leading the way and do something positive? Like running an article on the Top Women to Watch, a little like this one: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-creative-women-in-advertising-2015-2015-2?IR=T You could start with looking through the few year’s issues of The Work to find your candidates. There would not be 30 (our market is tiny compared to the states) but I promise you there are more than a handful.
We call our creative department ‘the cock forest’.
Everyone should watch Cindy’s 3% talk. She’s right and it’s a good talk. This rampant discrimination is so accepted that the industry doesn’t even realise the rest of the country is looking at us with total dismay.
Time to fix it.
To be honest, it’s somewhat difficult to take most of these ‘passionate’ comments, opinions, observations, whatever you want to call them, seriously when most people aren’t prepared to put their actual name behind them. That would be a good place to start.
I’ve employed creatives – female and male. The issue of gender has never come into it, it’s always been about the quality of work.
Admittedly I’ve deliberately employed men – but only because I’ve had a brewery client and they demanded men 21-28 to work on their business (and as many creatives would know, breweries are cunts at the best of time).
Similarly, I’ve deliberately employed females only – mainly to balance the department out, but also give fair representation on an account whose products are evenly used by both sexes (it was a very very large bank, if you must know).
In all honesty, in my 20 odd years in advertising I’ve never experienced a ‘boys only club’ mentality within ad agency, it’s always been the best person gets the job. I’ve experienced a ‘girls only’ club within account management and PR (more on that below).
But, the clanger in the room is this: females go off start families. If they’re lucky enough to have a partner that earns a lot then they tend to want to stay home and look after the children – work becomes a distant second. I just have to look at my own home life to see the metamorphosis that happened to my wife. She’s a doctor and was at the top of her field when we started a family. I fully expected her to go back to work soonish after the second (and last) child started kindy full time – but she didn’t. Why? Because something more important than work came along that meant more to her than been stick in a (fairly corporate) work environment.
Applying this filter to what I’ve seen in advertising, many female creatives are reluctant or refuse to come back because they see the industry for what it is. So, of course the male/female numbers are swayed towards men in large creative departments, especially when you look for females in the 30-40 year age bracket. There are plenty in the 20-30 year age bracket.
When I looked at the Leo photo, what I saw was an agency that struggled to find the right sort of female talent in a senior role, so they had to find guys (whom are probably very very good).
If only we could switch this whole argument towards PR companies, from what I’ve seen they tend to be female dominated and exclude males to such an extend that would leave Cindy frothing at the mouth.
That’s if she cared to look. But she might have an agenda.
@This one said – I couldn’t agree more. Its also the reason jnr & mid level account service tends to be more women & then suddenly senior level are all men. The women move client side where they can find more flexible arrangements. Men & women in advertising would all benefit from workplaces that could be a bit more flexible. I am not arguing that all women want babies & want to stay home, simply that we acknowledge that those who choose to have kids (mums & dads) cant work 5 days a week doing 10 hour days – it doesn’t work. If we want to nurture & retain talented women, our industry needs to get more flexible.
Anyone noticed there are actually quite a few snr female freelance creatives? These women are doing well, but choosing when & where they work.
Could ‘Rare Bird’ please reveal her identity.
Dear this one,
Can I ask you a question?
Which ECD in their right mind would hire a male over a female who can not only win him a truckload of awards, but also deliver profitably on the day to day and be available for weekend and night work?
If you can’t make it to the office, and you expect the office to work around you and you want flexible hours to raise your sprog while all the other creatives pick up your slack, maybe the problem isn’t the fact you’re female. The problem is, you’re unprofitable.
There’s no ‘outright discrimination’ here, just a shitty business model. But man or woman, you need to show up for your job.
I’ve seen plenty of men are fired for doing too much ‘family time’ and not enough time on the job.
The fact remains, with 4 vacancies at my agency for creatives, female creatives are hard to find. Maybe because they’re smarter than the rest of us males who stick it out and put up with the crap hours.
I am a middle-class, white, anglo-saxon male creative.
If I don’t get a job, which has happened quite a few times, is it because I’m too male, white, anglo-saxon or privately educated?
If I am fired, which has nearly happened twice, is it because I am anglo-saxon? I heard people don’t like angolo-saxons, but is it because my penis is anglo-saxon too?
If I miss out on winning that amazing award, is it because I can’t bare children, as much as I want to, or I can’t dance like a black man – as much as I want to too? Is it because my penis is shorter than the dancing man’s penis?
So many questions…
Wow. Much maturity. If this is how a local industry publication deals with a problem so obvious it’s like your own dick is slapping you on your forehead… what hope?
And the comments. Jesus. I mean, how bout you all just stop for a moment and take a look around you. At your current creative department and every one you’ve previously worked in. White much? Male much? White, bloke culture much? It absolutely needs to be addressed by the industry in a rational, thoughtful way.
Instead, we get this.
So it’s OK for Mumbrella (who has 5 male journos and one female journo), to unfairly get stuck into Leo Burnett Sydney on the basis of gender inequality, despite the fact that Leo Burnett Sydney has a near 50% ratio of men and women in their agency?
Why is the team with 100% women winning? And why is that better?
The base assumption of this article is that the winner of this “war” has 100% women. That is by its very definition is inequality.
Your winning side should have a good balance of both genders. Isn’t that equality?
What outcome do you want here?
And should there be an equal number of gay people, black people, disabled people…where does equality begin and end ? Hiring more woman is not a panacea.
Good grief… Slapping age brackets into the arguments now too?
Why are women aged 30-40 the only option for senior roles? Can’t they be 43.? Or 50? Or does that become a whole new age bracket???
Oh dear @Lolwhat: surely you understand this article is satirical?
Peggy’s List is a new practical initiative which highlights women who are available to speak at our industry events and comment on trade media articles. Already over 100 women are involved – all making a difference. It’s a ‘small intentional step’ which is a part-solution to these complex issues.
Take a look – and if you can – please get involved – http://www.mediascope.com.au/women-in-media-peggys-list
Haha love ‘Gallop Poll’. (Tragically an ‘after-lunch’ (all male, all girls or all sorts type of lunch) pun that one thinks is hilarious until one see it in the real!)
@dougwatson I would – but you’ve probably never heard of me!
What about the all female production departments? What about the 75% female suit ratio?
Meanwhile, the editor of B&T thinks there’s no glass ceiling, work-life balance is bullshit and that men deserve to be paid more than women.
http://mumbrella.com.au/john-bastick-women-in-media-b-t-273804
And you’re having a go at AdNews and mumbrella?
…and what does the one Mumbrella female reporter cover? PR – the female heavy, lightweight cousin of advertising and media.
If your clients specify a man for an alcohol client sell them the idea of a women working on the business (because selling ideas is what we do right?). It might go something like this …”while we are busy getting pissed who do you think are the observers mate?” or
“did you know women drink too and the number one AA group in Australia is Mosman – mums, turning the tables might just work for you!”
Quality of work? I haven’t seen a quality ad come on tv, in the paper, online or anywhere else in Australia in a while – you might want to look at that.