In the run-up to International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month over the past few years, I’ve adopted the brace position, ready for the slew of performative actions and unmet commitments. This year, it has felt vastly different. The conversation has become far more advanced with an intersectional approach and a focus on tangible actions. Instead of the hollow promises and “we must do better” platitudes, this year’s statements are grounded in reality and suitably nuanced.
So, what’s triggered this change?
The past two years have forced us to rethink the way we do business and accelerated a plethora of positives. We have a much deeper understanding of what our employees expect, and what they will and won’t accept, and we are listening to them in ways we didn’t in pre-pandemic times. The talent crisis has intensified the need to rethink our working patterns and double down on our unique agency cultures to give us the competitive advantage when it comes to hiring. And then in the middle of the pandemic, the world finally woke up to the scale and scope of racism in our society and business leaders recognised the role we can all play in driving change and creating a more inclusive working environment.
Coupled with this, the lockdowns threw the disparity in caring responsibilities into sharp relief as parents and carers did their best to juggle work and childcare through chaotic circumstances and so frequently the women bore the brunt. Research shows how much more likely women are to be sole carers than men, and how much more likely people from ethnic minority backgrounds are to have caring responsibilities than their white counterparts.
We now have more enlightened leadership in business, we know there’s another way to work and that we can make it work, and we understand the importance of opening up our industry to different communities to ensure we’re truly representative, in order for our work to remain relevant.
At Publicis Groupe UK, we took action during the pandemic, establishing a new strategy to build a more inclusive culture that actively welcomes and values difference, building on our core Viva La Difference principle.
Among the many communities we need to appeal to (and there are many) we have to make our working environment more appealing to women, we have to create conditions that allow women to thrive in our industry, no matter what their responsibilities outside work.
Gender equity is a strategic priority for Publicis Groupe globally with a target for 45% of our senior leaders to be women by 2025. In the UK, we have a gender equity strategy in place to ensure we meet this target with a range of initiatives to unlock the potential of women in our business. A year ago, we introduced a package of measures to support people experiencing the menopause, and last summer we introduced a series of family-friendly policies that have made a huge difference, primarily to the women in our business, and today we’re introducing a domestic abuse support package and a trans inclusion policy. These will be followed by programmes to support disabled colleagues and carers.
The work we’re all doing in adland and across industry will take time to realise. The numbers make depressing reading. We are three decades away from gender equity, and we all know countless talented women who have had to drop out of the workforce for one reason or another because of life circumstances.
We are not going to fix an issue like this overnight, and by making empty promises and setting unrealistic targets, we only revisit harms on the people we’re trying to support. Despite the pace of progress, I feel optimistic this Women’s History Month. Yes, I would like to see change happen more quickly and we certainly don’t lack ambition, but we need to stay focused on the short, medium and long term and stay positive to deliver on what needs to and must be done.
Annette King is CEO of Publicis Groupe UK
