We’re fed up with the systems designed to keep us quiet and smiling
With the reckoning truth spoken by Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins last Wednesday at the National Press Club of Australia, has a new catalyst for change from the ever-present ‘boys club’ culture been reignited within the Australian marketing industry too? Lauren Swidenbank shares why she’s fed up with systems that've kept her quiet, ignored or poorly treated in the industry, and why she hopes Tame and Higgins are marking just the beginning of a change in an outdated culture in the industry.
Seeing Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins up onstage last week at the National Press Club has reignited a fire in many of us.
These two extraordinary women who spoke of being silenced in more ways than one, are sharing parallel experiences to what many of us have felt – and this includes myself.
Lauren Swidenbank
We’ve been encouraged to keep smiling or we’ll lose what ‘privileges’ we’ve been given in the space.
In an industry that’s held together by a predominantly female workforce, but still has 62% of management positions filled by men, the power dynamic still doesn’t sit in women’s favour.
And today, it’s time we start to voice our experiences – and this is mine.
During a period of my life where I held an account manager role at a marketing agency, I had a male colleague with the same title as me suggest I leave for being ‘too nice’. Nice girls don’t make an impact. He said it would be easier on me to leave than be pushed out of the job.
And this was the same colleague who introduced me as his personal assistant when we were in a client meeting. But, I did what I needed to do – played the role and remained ‘professional’.
Another role, different digital marketing agency with an all-male management team, but this time, I decided to speak.
I raised the issue of a male colleague who continually made sexist comments, saying the only thing women were good for was cooking and cleaning. This was just one of a slew of sexist comments, some verging on abuse.
Yet, the HR department chose in his favour. He was ‘having a laugh’ and I was best to just ‘ignore it’.
These stories however are seemingly ‘mild’ compared to one experience that will stay with me for life.
While at the same digital marketing agency, my phone rang one day with one of my clients on the line – in a serious emotional state.
Business wasn’t going well, but he’d been convinced by the sales team we could help him revive his business.
He had been locked into a contract that the agency wouldn’t let him out of.
I stayed on the phone for over an hour while I emailed the team leaders/directors at the agency pleading for help.
But the situation was seemingly ‘hilarious’, with a pack beginning to crowd around me, asking me to put the client on speakerphone.
Management thought I was overreacting, getting ‘too emotional’ and taking things too personally.
I was offered no support following the event, and I quit two days later with no job to go to. This company and its culture have not changed since.
The digital marketing and sales industries are sadly still rife with toxic ‘boys club’ culture and it’s evidently harmful to both employees and their clients.
Is this really what the industry stands for in 2022?
There’s been a relentless question I’ve been faced with during my years of working in the marketing industry in Australia: Why are values like empathy and compassion seen far less desirable in this industry than a ‘competitive edge’?
With the extent of common experiences that women have been inspired to share, thanks to the bravery of women like Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, it’s time to change an undercurrent of misogyny that still exists today.
As someone who’s now voiced this, I know there will be the perception that “I’m a man hater”. But the opposite is true.
It’s about ensuring equality, empathy and of course, the right for women to share their experiences – in the hope that one day, no female will ever have to experience them again.
Lauren Swidenbank is an economist-turned paid-advertising expert, Cali Social Founder, and 2020 ‘Digital Marketer of Year’ for Women in Digital National Awards.
So incredible important these stories are shared – to break the silence on this underlying culture in some agencies (and organisations) I too have seen and been part of.
Thank you Lauren – and of course, the incredible Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins – for igniting this fire.
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