I'm sure that less than 1% of women work in advertising agencies.

But perhaps you're really wondering what percentage of advertising agencies' employees are women?

Cheers,

T

Thomas, you made my day.
Did you know? More than 50% of all women are female!

I would say the majority of working graphic designers are now women. I have no empirical evidence. I have been to numerous design offices and can just say that somewhere along the way in recent years, women seem to have increased in numbers in the field.

ChrisL

There are definitely more women than there used to be working in ad agencies, probably nearing a 50/50 mark. However, it depends on whether or not you are only interested in the design aspect or the company as a whole. I find that Creative Directors are often still men, there tends to be more women Associate Creative Directors, near split in Art Directors and slightly more men in Senior Designer roles. But, beyond design there are predominantly more women in other roles - account managers, traffic managers, HR, etc.

"Generally working as creative designers."

Given then only perhaps 10% of designers in ad agencies are creative, I'd say that leaves us with about 5% of employees in ad agencies are female creative designers.

Old joke: So how many are working here? About half.

@Jackie T: Why's that?

@russellm: I'd agree with that a little.

@missgiggles: You could always start calling ad agencies and ask. This would be a great way to get some real numbers.

I do a bit of freelancing at agencies here, and as far as I can tell, women are more in the role of account managers etc or in the production side of things, just as Shu wrote. Very few seem to make it through the glass ceiling to get to the Creative Director or even Art Director level (I really don't know how to call all these jobs, they seem to changing every year!). Those who make it, are often given feminine accounts, such as cosmetics, clothing, maybe travel. Mind you, I used to work with a female art director for a petrol station chain, but even that was more about gardening tools and chocolate than petrol. There seems to be more female copywriters than art directors.
All this is just my gut feeling, no science about it. Ambitious young men get hired and promoted, when young women don't. I suppose the main reason is, that the young man is unlikely to go on maternity leave (here in Finland you can be absent up to about four years and still expect to have a job waiting for you).

I have emailed about 20 ad agencies and no one has got back to me.

Mili, your gut feeling might be right for Finland, but not the rest of the world. I am a girl and an art director in a major canadian agency. My main accounts are General Motors, Microsoft and Nestle. And I'm not an oddity

Missgiggles who are you emailing? Most agencies have a general info email, and they probably won't answer your question because of the trouble you can get in when dealing with gender issues in advertising. Especially if it's a man doing the answering. Research what happened to Neil French. And another reason you probably aren't getting answers is because the general info lines usually go to someone who doesn't work in the creative department.

Phoning is a much better way to get a hold of creative people. If you want I can give you some names of prominent female creative directors who would be willing to maybe answer your questions about women in advertising.

There are industry journals and organizations out there that conduct yearly salary surveys and the like... Hint, hint...

Omigosh, Ms. Fiege, you have found me out!

< runs away and hides under a rock >

Jackie, they may be gay, but they are still women.

Chuck,

Are you still getting over nipple fonts? I hope you response means in a positive way... I can't take much more in negative statements this year. I think my quota was used up.

Meanwhile Ricardo, yes, a gay male who dresses and feels like a woman will refer to themselves as a woman. But when it comes to choosing a public restroom....

Meanwhile Ricardo, yes, a gay male who dresses and feels like a woman will refer to themselves as a woman.

Oh, sorry, Jackie -- I thought you were refering to lesbians! My misinterpretation.

:-/

Chris G said... the view must be great up there in your ivory tower

You mean it's delusional to expect students to do their own research rather than to try to get all of the answers on various internet forums? Last I heard, profs still expect the former from their students.

Think of all the poor elephants who be without tusks just to build one?

ChrisL

I was hoping that comment would bring you, Norbert! :-)

ChrisL

I work at Maclaren MRM Worldwide - part of InterPublic as well!

*technically coworkers high five*

The current Pharma. Ad. firm I'm doing freelance for ( www.hlg.com ) is primarily female in the creative dept. We have two Creative Directors, one is female. 3 Art Directors, two are female. One full time designer, also female and a studio manager, also female. Then there's me!

Oh and Hello! (Seriously need to get back to this board more often.)

Haley said... Can you image actually living in an ivory tower though? It would be impossible to keep clean.

Chris said... Think of all the poor elephants who be without tusks just to build one?

Tusk-tusk, we wouldn't want that!

(Sorry, I just couldn't resist.)

I’d just like to add my comment — growing up with designers in the publishing world this was the case. By 30 they were either made an Art Director and knew that they had found the right house to stay in until retirement — or they were cast out into the world of freelance only to be seen during occasional lunches or cocktail parties.

Totally disagree. One of the things I like about publishing is that it is NOT youth-quake oriented, and in fact age and experience are appreciated and respected. I was made Art Director at 30 but that was considered very young, and they let me know they felt they were taking a gamble on me cuz of my age (luckily it worked out). Five years later I lost an AD position at another publisher because I was too young. You find designers and editors of all ages working in publishing.

You mean it’s delusional to expect students to do their own research rather than to try to get all of the answers on various internet forums? Last I heard, profs still expect the former from their students.

Why not canvass opinion from a resource like this? Typophile's members can always be relied on to explore a topic in thought provoking and relevant ways. You have a narrow definition of research.

Norbert, Chris: Getting planning permission for an ivory tower these days is even more of a task than rounding up the elephants ;-)

Why not canvass opinion from a resource like this? Typophile’s members can always be relied on to explore a topic in thought provoking and relevant ways. You have a narrow definition of research.

Well, Chris, there is nothing inherently wrong with getting opinion from this or any other forum... That's not what I was saying.

< goes back under his rock >

Patty, I think Chris has missed my point, which was about laziness. Surely you can see that.