Mumbrella360: Only 1% of creative agencies are founded by women, why don’t more people care?
At Mumbrella360, four female agency founders addressed some of adland’s biggest challenges. But, it seems they were preaching to the choir – a half-full room of mostly women. So, why doesn’t the industry seem to care more to hear what female leaders have to say? Lauren McNamara, journalist at Mumbrella, asks.
Speaking on a panel moderated by Supermassive’s co-founder Simone Gupta, Special Group’s partner and CEO Lindsey Evans, Think HQ’s founder and MD Jen Sharpe, and Reunion’s managing partner of people and operations Dominique Hind, unpacked the challenges they faced starting their respective businesses, and where the industry still needs to improve.
And while one may think the session would be a must-see for the industry – especially since the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA) gender pay gap data revealed that the media industry has a larger gap (as high as 26%) than the Australian average (21.7%) and we should be talking more about female leadership – the reality was very different.
The room was only half full, and the crowd was a majority of women. My colleague Matthew, who represented Mumbrella’s editorial team in the session, was one of two men. The other was Justin Hind, Dominique Hind’s husband. Just two men. Let that sink in.
Is something actually stopping more women starting their own agencies? While it’s fair to point out the statistic, I’m not sure it’s fair to blame it on anything other than women choosing not to start more agencies.