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In 2020, advertising leaders committed to expanding emphasis on DEI. In 2023, new data from nonprofit organization She Runs It shows some promising improvements, but also underscores that marketers’ are relaxing their commitments to equity.
Other studies back that up. Only 18% of respondents to a MediaLink survey marked diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental sustainability as top priorities.
There are other studies that show existing diversity and inclusion efforts aren’t enough to fix advertising’s representation problem, and that the industry representation is worsening when it comes to agency ownership. 4A’s 2023 data showed that between 2021 and 2022, the number of agency CEOs who are white jumped from 71% to 90%.
“The purpose of this work is to work toward having our workforces be as inclusive and diverse as the population we serve,” said Lynn Branigan, president and CEO of She Runs It. The nonprofit began tracking data six years ago, in partnership with Seramount’s Inclusion Index. Tracking the data helps members of She Runs It’s #Inclusive100 consortium understand how their inclusion initiatives are paying off.
Three years since the pandemic began, the percentage of women who work in the media, marketing and technology industries in 2023 hadn’t bounced back to where it was before. More positive data show industry progression in a few ways: More of the women who remain in the workforce are rising to C-Suite roles, alongside people of color.
Women still haven’t returned to the workforce, and they’re still underpaid
The advertising industry is still reeling from the pandemic’s impact on the workforce. Women, who before the pandemic comprised half of ad industry employees, now make up only 37%.
She Runs It did not ask respondents for information about why they left the workforce. Branigan thinks factors like economic issues, childcare costs and generational differences are keeping women out of the media, marketing and technology industries.
“The younger population … They don’t want to live the lifestyles that their father’s lived. They want a more flexible work schedule, they’re more entrepreneurial [and] they want to create their own side hustles,” Branigan said.
Another reason is pay.
Women’s compensation still trails men’s. Women comprise only 32% of the industry’s top 20% of wage earnings. That number is up only 2% from last year, underscoring the slow pace of change.
But there are more women in the C-Suite, and companies are embracing diverse-hiring practices
Even though women haven’t returned to the workforce, more women are rising to the C-Suite. That’s true across demographic groups.
This year, Black women executives made up 8% of executive roles, compared to 4% last year. Latinx executive representation also rose from 5% to 8%.
