Advertising Women of New York (AWNY) Embraces a New Brand Identity - She Runs It™ - and Releases a Comprehensive Study to Improve the Path to Leadership for Women in Marketing and Media

The first expression of the organization's new mission is the release of "Accelerating the Path to Leadership for Women in Marketing and Media," a study commissioned by She Runs It and powered by EY and LinkedIn. The study leverages the rich data and analytical capabilities of LinkedIn as well as EY's strategic insights to identify actions that companies and individuals can take to advance more women into positions of influence and leadership.

"There is data that proves women-led companies are extremely profitable, socially responsible and innovative, yet women remain vastly under-represented in the most senior roles across our industry," said Lynn Branigan, President & CEO of She Runs It. "You can't solve a problem this pervasive until you truly understand it, so this study is designed to lead us to data-driven solutions. We didn't want to just confirm what we already know, we wanted to identify specific actions that companies and individuals can make to correct the industry's track record."  

The researchers looked at more than 4,000 companies across the seven sub-sectors. The resulting sample set reflects more than 3.7MM members globally across all career stages. The sub-sectors include:

1. Publishers
2. Pure-play digital Publishers
3. Broadcast and Cable Networks
4. Ad-Tech companies
5. Creative and Media Agencies
6. Public Relations
7. Advertisers

Key Findings

The study reveals several insights about how women progress through their career trajectory, and it confirms some industry speculation about what keeps women from reaching the top of their organizations.

Only 41% of the people at early career stages in marketing and media workforce are women. And by the time they reach positions of executive leadership, women comprise only 25% of those roles on average.

Talent and career trajectories vary by sub-sector (see chart below), with Broadcast/Cable, Ad Tech and Pure Play Digital struggling the most to attract women and propel them into executive leadership roles. Overall, representation of women is trending downward in every sector except PR. The biggest barrier for women continues to be the step from senior leadership into the C-suite, and the drop-off at the top is most dramatic in Media and Creative Agencies.

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"More than three million profiles from LinkedIn were analyzed in aggregate, providing definitive data points and insights at scale.  It's very powerful to have the data to inform what actions we can all take to fast forward to gender parity at the top of our industry," said Janet Balis, Principal and Leader of Strategy Consulting for Media & Entertainment, Ernst & Young LLP. "Across media and advertising, it's particularly powerful to look at the specific subsectors that drive the ecosystem so we help build a better working world across the leading companies.  The call-to-action is clear for individuals and companies."

Additional Insights

Women need to do a better job of building their personal brand, at every stage of their careers. An ability to build a personal brand is a key factor in upward mobility, and the data indicates that men are better than women at creating this advantage. Women need to put more focus and energy into creating rich and robust presences on social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Women also need to put more effort into building their personal networks throughout their careers. On average, men in both leadership and mid-career influencer roles have 15% more connections than women in their overall network.

The study exposed a "messy middle" category comprised of mid-career professionals on their way to leadership roles. During this stage of their careers, women must be particularly intentional in developing – and promoting – the skills required for leadership roles. Companies should provide more opportunity for women to learn the skill sets inherent to HR, Finance and Strategy, where the biggest gap exists between women in leadership vs. the messy middle. In addition, women should be more proactive in getting recognized for their skills, particularly in management, leadership and strategy.

On average, close to 70% of all professional endorsements are coming from men. In addition, men tend to endorse men at a higher rate as compared to women.  At the leadership level across media and marketing, that percentage of endorsements provided by men rises to 78%; and the numbers are similar at the influencer level.

Taking Action

As She Runs It embraces a new mission – to pave the way for women to lead at every level of marketing and media – the research creates an actionable springboard and prescriptive insights that will inform the programming and strategic initiatives of the 100-year-old organization.

She Runs It orchestrates more than 50 market-facing efforts each year – in the form of events, executive achievement awards, workshops, mentoring programs, training sessions and other educational programs for women and men. She Runs It also works with corporate alliance partners to give more women access to the resources, training and personal development they need to succeed.

"Now that we have hard data that reveals the barriers and drop off points for women across all subsectors of our industry, we can dive deeper to get a true understanding of why these conditions and outcomes persist," said Branigan. "And armed with this knowledge, we can make palpable strides to address the challenges and realize our vision to have more women join their male colleagues at the head of more industry tables."

For more information:
Cheri Carpenter
312.446.9276
[email protected]

Virginia Milazzo
718-473-7376
[email protected]

About She Runs It 

Founded in 1912 as Advertising Women of New York (formerly AWNY), She Runs It exists to pave the way for women to lead at every level of marketing and media. With chapters in New York and Chicago, membership stands at over 1,600 women, men and corporate alliance partners who share a commitment to propel women to lead at every level of marketing and media. To learn more about She Runs It, visit Sherunsit.org.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Ernst & Young LLP is a member firm serving clients in the US. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

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SOURCE Advertising Women of New York

Related Links

http://www.awny.org