Percentage of women in media agency management positions rises to 44% in latest MFA census
The number of women in media agency management positions has risen seven percentage points to 44%, according to the Media Federation of Australia’s (MFA) annual industry census, released today.
For the purpose of the census, ‘management positions’ include: CEO, chair, managing director, general manager and heads or leads of departments. 34% of media agency CEOs – and 61% of media agency employees overall – are women. In the average Australian workplace, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) found that women hold just 30% of key management positions.
The MFA census 2020 results. Source: MFA [Click to enlarge]
So that’s an index of 72, women in management vs women in media agencies. Not really that great. I would also like to understand the definition of “management” because we will no doubt find that with seniority, the gender and pay gap becomes more pronounced. In the past when these breakdowns didn’t suit the MFA they simply changed the definition to include middle management and junior managers, thereby capturing more women. The reality is that at the senior level, media is still very much a boy’s club.
I’m a bit surprised by the growth. There have been a number of redundancies at the end of the year and hiring is down significantly across the job boards. I suspect due to media spends and programmatic implementation.Which categories are spending? Would like to know more about what has caused this growth ? 5.9% its significant in an economic market under pressure.
Just a theory, but an economic market under pressure and concerns around climate and well-being may lead less women to have or plan to have children in their late 20’s or early 30’s.