Women consistently represent most students enrolling on advertising courses but are far outnumbered by men once in industry. This dissertation will investigate what barriers women face when progressing in the creative field to identify why this may be the case. Women are struggling to see progression in their roles as informal structures in the workplace can mask discrimination. As workplaces often work using systems such as networking when earning career capital, it is easier for conscious and unconscious bias to creep in when it comes to hiring and promotions. Outside of the workplace, women are taking on the majority of household and caregiving responsibilities, which can give them less time to network and show loyalty to their workplace, making them more likely to be overlooked for promotions. This dissertation will explore how these factors can cause women to see less progression in the workplace compared to their male counterparts, and what changes need to be made in the future to create a truly fair workplace. It will explore the opinion of women currently working in the industry along with statements from current Creative Directors and CEOs in the top advertising firms to discuss their thoughts on women’s workplace progression. Using both qualitative data from those working within the industry and quantitative data from ONS surveys, it will identify outdated gender bias as one of the main factors causing a hostile industry for women. The findings of this dissertation show that despite progression in the workplace and broader societal expectations, women are still behind their male counterparts when it comes to workplace progression. As well as identifying networking, gender bias, childcare expectations, as causes for this, a lack of female role models is cited as the key factor. Suggestions will be made as to what changes can be made in the future to improve the diversity of the advertising industry, which is centred around hiring and promoting more women into the industry.
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