Campaign reported on a diverted diversity diagnosis via “Exclusive Research”—which really should have been titled “Exclusivity Research”—from a gender equality study conducted by Campaign Asia-Pacific and Kantar. Not surprisingly, while the presentation was made at a Campaign360 event in Hong Kong, the female factoids were delivered by a White woman from Australia. Also not surprisingly, the data showed White women in the advertising industry fare better than their peers in brand or technology companies. And totally not surprisingly, no one acknowledged that White women globally enjoy waaaaay more opportunities than racial and ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, there are no exclusive studies being done to prove the true and persistent inequality in adland—probably because it’s all common knowledge. Plus, White women are taking a “ladies first” approach to diversity.
Agencies better for gender equality than brands: Exclusive research
Women are more equal in the agency environment than they are within brands or tech companies, according to Campaign Asia-Pacific and Kantar’s inaugural gender diversity study.
Agencies provide a better experience in terms of gender diversity than brands or tech companies, according to Campaign Asia-Pacific and Kantar’s 2017 Gender Diversity study, which was revealed at today’s Campaign360 event in Hong Kong.
Anne Rayner, global head of communications research at Kantar-owned TNS, laid out the inaugural Gender Diversity study in partnership with Campaign Asia-Pacific.
The research found that women still have less access to opportunities. The crucial point, though, is that this is not related to their performance, but perception and unconscious bias.
“If you’re a male leader, you might not see this around you, it might be invisible,” she said. “But just because you don’t see this with your own eyes, it doesn’t mean this isn’t felt by the women in your organisation.”
The research also revealed that 35 percent of women at non-agencies say they spend their time in meetings dominated by men.
“Unconscious bias is a real barrier for women,” Rayer emphasised. “Agencies are doing a somewhat better job, but there’s a lot more to go. Good intentions are not enough, we need to be much more interventionist.”
The report, which in February surveyed 630 media and marketing professionals—394 women and 236 men—across 21 countries in Asia-Pacific, found that women felt more respected and credible at agencies than brands.
Eighty percent of agency respondents said men and women were equally credible to top management, compared to 62 percent of non-agency respondents. Moreover, 73 percent in agencies said women and men equally respected by top management, versus just 56 percent in non-agency companies.
Agencies are also more than twice as likely to have a female CEO than the other types of companies, the study found—although the numbers in both instances remain low.
Another key finding was that of preconception issues for women in the media and marketing industry. The study found that men feel they are judged more on what they have done—their track record and experience—whereas women feel they are appraised on who they are—their age and gender.
In addition, the research showed that men have access to more opportunities than women in the workplace: 43 percent of women surveyed said they had missed out on opportunities because of their gender, compared to just 16 percent of men surveyed.
Strikingly, given the intensity of the debate around gender diversity in the industry, an enormous 75 percent of men surveyed said gender doesn’t matter anymore in the workplace, while 51 percent of women believe it still does.
To help address these and many other issues highlighted by the report, both men and women felt the two most important areas to address are development opportunities and flexible working. It is also vital for organisations to have more female leaders in senior positions.
“The study shows that although women aspire to leadership just as much as men, there is still a glass ceiling of unconscious bias firmly in place in our industry,” Rayner said. “This means that women are often less respected than men in their workplaces and miss out on opportunities because of their gender. The study also shows that good intentions are not enough to challenge unconscious bias; we need to be more proactive and interventionist to create change.”
1 comment:
Female hire data is obviously considered worthy of expending time and money by agencies and holding companies. But they'll never, ever tell you what percentage of those women are white women (hint, almost all of them) vs. ethnic minority women.
Ethnic diversity data is considered not important enough to be specific about, much less actually dig into.
Worse, agencies and holding companies conflate foreign visa hires with minorities/multicultural, so on the rare occasion they do release any soft numbers, there's no way to tell what tiny percentage is an actual minority (usually working security desk jobs, janitorial, etc.) vs. decision making positions (foreigners brought in on a visa to work Chief Creative Officer, Creative Director, etc.).
I've seen with my own eyes holding companies and agencies count 30, 40, 50+ Asian programmers flown in on visas as "Asian-American" or "minority." The numbers look fine on paper, until you step into those agencies and realize the only black or brown American you'll find is the one parking the cars or watering the plants.
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