We were offered a piece the other day by someone quite senior in an agency about the role, status and prospects of women in the biz and how this could be improved. We demurred on the grounds that it was “too trade.”
We try to give people an insight into how advertising, marketing and media work in the broadest business context. Should that preclude the above? Surely the girls can look after themselves (all the evidence seems to show that they’re brighter than blokes).
It is shaming that there are so few women in senior positions in creative departments. Conversely just about every big media agency in the UK is run by a woman (my friend Nick Baughan, CEO of Maxus, must be feeling quite hemmed in).
Why’s this so? Well lots of old style male creatives, art directors particularly in my experience, are unreconstructed chauvinists. I don’t understand this either. But they’re going (the sad thing is they are/were actually good art directors, thin on the ground these days).
Well there we go. Here’s Peggy from Mad Men grappling with the same thorny issues.
