WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership) has unveiled ‘The 50%’ – a new campaign which hopes to encourage the advertising industry to fill 50% of its CEO roles with women.
According to the organisation, women will not hold half of CEO positions until 2060.
Therefore, as WACL celebrates its centenary year in 2023, the company wishes to encourage and empower those in positions of leadership and influence to take a ‘meaningful and transparent view’ on where they are on the ‘journey to 50%’.
“Equal representation among CEOs isn’t an absolute or standalone objective: only when 50% of CEOs within advertising and communications are women, will the industry have achieved the basic level of change it deserves,” WACL said.
“In turn, this will build momentum through better representation of women in adland and the communications it creates, to improve the representation of women in all walks of life.”
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To support WACL’s mission, the group have also launched a guide titled ‘The 50% CEO Playbook’ that details five levers of change to help achieve the 50% representation target. These five elements include changing the language of leadership, promoting for potential, being a women’s ‘health hero’, being ‘flexible first’ and working ‘like the world is watching.
Case studies are also included in the playbook, highlighting the ways Channel4, Grey, Conker, PepsiCo, Dark Horses, Diageo, Pablo, Publicis Media, Sky, Quiet Storm, Tesco and Vodafone have achieved positive steps towards gender parity.
WACL president and Quiet Storm CEO, Rania Robinson, added: “Although 70% of the advertising industry’s junior manager cohort are women, IPA and AA surveys show that women take only 37.5% to 39% of C-suite level roles. Compared with the situation before, this is progress. But it’s not enough.
“The five levers we set out in the 50% Playbook are by no means the only factors affecting equality. However, evidence suggests that addressing them will have a significant impact.
“WACL hopes that this playbook will prompt reflection, provide useful new actions to try and encourage agencies, where possible, to share anonymised data and strategies for change to build our collective learning.”
