Emma Gardner* says the events industry can do a lot more to create gender balance in the workplace and the boardroom.
As a senior female in the events industry, I’ve often wondered where all the women go.
Don’t get me wrong, the events industry is full of talented women.
But at the leadership level, the table is skewed towards male decision-makers.
It’s far more unusual to find a female creative leader than a male one.
Research from McCann Bristol tells us that while many design graduates are female (61 per cent), women are being “lost” in the hiring process, with 50 per cent of qualified female talent not making it to creative departments of advertising and marketing agencies.
Reasons include unconscious bias at the hiring stage and a lack of female role models.
More worrying is the misconception that women lack confidence in excelling at perceived masculine traits, such as assertiveness, resilience and self-promotion.
There’s a view that women strive to be “good” rather than to “kick up dust” at boardroom level.
As head of creative at Smyle, I can say that a lack of confidence has never held me back.
However, upon having a child, peer and industry experience incited a fear that I might not be taken seriously if I was viewed as a “mum”.
Inevitably as a parent, there are times when you do have to leave early, along with lots of unpredictability when it comes to children, and I feared this would go as a black mark against my career progression.
I am happy to say that my employer understands that, if anything, becoming a parent is empowering and can make working parents more focused as they seek to be fully present in all aspects of their lives.
So, what can we do to help grow female creative leadership?
- Deal with certain behaviours in the workplace
A key concern at senior level is how different men and women are at communicating with one another.
For example, studies by Forbes show that senior men are often guilty of interrupting female colleagues.
All workplaces should encourage a culture where women feel empowered to speak up and be heard.
- Focus on proactively bringing women to the table
As the majority of decision-makers are male, men must become proactive allies to help their female counterparts break into boardrooms.
Male leaders should ask themselves regularly, “How do I remove my bias from decisions that affect the gender balance of our organisation’s leaders?”
- Educate your teams with training and policies
Training and policies can help to bring more women into positions of leadership.
For example, you can educate with unconscious bias training, and start initiatives such as removing names from CVs.
- Embrace inclusive working practices
Make sure your organisation is ready to embrace female talent by stopping practices such as non-inclusive networking events like meetings on golf courses that don’t include women.
Look at day-to-day processes like mixing up teams and getting different people working together.
- Inspire future female leaders
It’s important to work with female talent at all levels, in universities and colleges, and even within organisations themselves.
Women in leadership need to tell their stories and be role models.
You can’t be what you can’t see!
It’s time female leaders got out there and let their voices be heard.
Ultimately, the more diverse we are, the better the creative output will be.
And that’s got to be positive for employers and employees alike.
* Emma Gardner is Head of Creative at Smyle.
This article first appeared at www.citmagazine.com.
