Content area
Full text
A decade ago an article titled "Babes in boyland" appeared in Creativity and asked, why are there so few women in agency creative departments ([8] Kazenoff and Vagnoni, 1997). Unfortunately, it is still a pertinent question today with at least one startling answer. On October 6, 2005, at a forum of top advertising industry creative talent - all men - celebrated the work of Neil French, the legendary copywriter. When French was asked why there were so few female creative directors, he replied that the work of women in creative departments is "crap ... and they don't make it to the top because they don't deserve to" ([13] Sampey and O'Leary, 2005).
His words reverberated across the advertising industry, yet for many who have worked in advertising or the business' practices, his words come as no surprise. The reality is that men dominate the creative side of the $300 billion advertising industry, and "... in his honest opinion [French] was voicing the inner thoughts of legions of men in the senior ranks of our business. Before us was a big part of the explanation of why more women aren't succeeding in advertising" ([16] Vonk, 2005, p. 19).
According to data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, women far outnumber men in advertising agencies. Overall women make up 66 percent of the workforce in advertising ([1] Bosman, 2005). Yet, according to an informal study in Creativity , only one in three in creative departments are women ([3] Cuneo and Petrecca, 1997), with even fewer in the higher executive ranks such as creative directors. Adweek looked at the top 33 agencies and found that only four had flagship offices with female creative directors ([1] Bosman, 2005). More to the point, the 20th anniversary issue of Creativity featured the 50 most creative people of the last two decades, and none were women ([2] Creativity , 2006).
It's a boys' club, after all
When Diane Rothschild was inducted into the One Club's Creative Hall of Fame, the second woman ever so honored, she said that Neil French's attitude was emblematic of his generation. "Based on the world according to uninspired, rigid, time-warped and aging advertising men, I should be home right now in a little apron," Rothschild is quoted...