Being a female marketer in a male-dominated industry can be difficult. Maxine-Laurie Marshall sought advice from female leaders about dealing with the most common barriers stopping women from progressing their careers
March plays host to International Women’s Day so it only seemed right to dedicate a couple of pages to women in marketing. At B2B Marketing we’ve spent a lot of time looking into professional development and how you can grow your career. We’ve asked client-side CMOs and agency CEOs for their advice for aspiring leaders and produced a Professional Development Benchmarking Report based on a survey of 250 agency and client-side marketers. Now, given the nature of the month, we’re going to round this up by looking at three issues to career progression specific to women. There’s no need to turn the page if you have a ‘y’ chromosome, you’ll find most of the advice below can be applied to your own career progression too. Alternatively, it may act as an eye opener and you will discover some advice you can pass onto your wives, girlfriends and daughters.
Women on boards
In 2011 Lord Davies published his Women on Boards report advising FTSE 100 boards should aim for a minimum of 25 per cent female representation. In an article published at the end of January The Independent said: ‘Twenty per cent of all directors and 25 per cent of non-executive directors are women.’ Marjorie Scardino was appointed as Twitter’s first female board member at the end of 2013, and the London Stock Exchange has recently appointed two female non executive directors (NED), Sherry Coutu and Joanna Shields.
Things are moving in the right direction. But let’s not forget the aim is 25 per cent, and that is still only one quarter and we’re not even at that number yet. So what do women need to do to stand a chance at filling a seat that is predominantly filled by men? “Go for it”, Victoria Park, marketing director at Sapphire Systems, says emphatically. “I once read that when women look at job specifications, if they don’t have all of the skills or experience required listed, they won’t apply; but a man would still apply even if he didn’t.” This is echoed by Joanne Turner, agency director at Proactive International PR, when she says: “If you don’t believe in you then no-one else will.”
Having confidence can help deal with a particularly thorny issue when it comes to women in the workplace: emotions. Having enough confidence and self-belief can help keep emotional outbursts at bay. Park, who is the only female on her board, says: “I was recently informed that of all the women in senior or management positions within the company that I was the only one the managing director has not made cry. As such, I would say that dealing with criticism constructively, without being too emotional – or taking things personally when they are not personal – is important. That said, being devoid of emotion is good for no one.”
While people are in charge of their own destiny, the working environment in which they operate has a major impact. “We must remember the workplace was historically a male sphere, and as such many organisations are still structures in which men have more opportunity to flourish – with inflexible working hours that make balancing a family and career a seemingly distant dream,” says Jane Asscher, founding partner, strategy and management at 23red.
The historically male dominated workplace can also look upon certain female attributes as a sign of weakness. As Alana Griffiths, marketing strategy director at Mason Zimbler, says: “I think at times it can be daunting to operate at a senior level with few females around you, especially if you happen to have a softer skillset. Unfortunately, not all colleagues value a gentler approach, or understand that it isn’t synonymous with weakness.”
In order to promote those internal personal changes – such as an increase in confidence – and give women the strength to push for wider change in the industry, a mentor is needed.
Mentoring
Jonathan Becher, CMO of SAP, believes the lack of females in their twenties with mentors is potentially harming their future career success: “I saw a survey recently of about 1800 modestly to very successful professionals over the age of 40 in California – heavily weighted toward the technology field. In the study, there was a strong correlation between the degree of success and the presence of a mentor in the respondent’s twenties. If I look at women in their twenties who have business mentors compared to men, it seems substantially lower.”
Most of the senior marketing professionals I spoke to valued mentoring highly but hadn’t got anything formal in place showing that simply surrounding yourself with positive role models can be just as effective.
When thinking about who you might like to have as a mentor or role model, Jen Roach, VP communications, EMEA at SAP says: “Ensure they are prepared to make time for thinking creatively, are confident and engender a collaborative, listening approach. It is better to pick someone you admire and approach them yourself: be well prepared and be able to articulate your case and what you aspire to and how you’d like the relationship to develop with the mentor. In other words you will need to market yourself.”
Women and children
Finally, whether you’re in your early-mid thirties, and regardless of whether you are planning on having a child soon, it’s likely your boss is thinking about it. So is it possible for women to be in a leadership position while having children? It must be because women do it, but the number of women who can make it work are small. When thinking about how to increase this number Fran Brosan, chairman and co-founder of agency Omobono, touches on something a lot of people overlook, encourage men to share the childcare load so women can share the professional workload: “Anything that makes it more practically possible for men to take on the childcare role will free up the possibility for women to continue advancing on their career paths, towards board positions.”
Turner found honesty was the best policy when tackling the issue of children and work. When asked if she wanted children after an interview had finished she answered truthfully and said yes in two-three years, but she would be back afterwards. She was true to her word and advises: “At the end of the day if the company wants to employ you because they believe you can do the job, then they should also respect that you will help them find the solution to covering your role when you do decide to have a baby and return to work.
“When deciding to have a baby it is about turning it on its head and presenting the opportunities for your employer and fellow team members to be able to take on more responsibility. Also all good managers should always be ahead of the situation and sensitive that female employees could make that life decision at any point and have a contingency plan in place for that so you can be responsive and supportive of the woman.”
So if career progression and leadership roles are your aim, and it’s not something everyone wants, then some of the changes required to make that happen rest with you. But we all need to act and keep pushing this topic to the forefront, it’s not whinging, it’s raising awareness and pushing for a change in attitudes. Brosan sums up: “Put more pressure on companies to appoint women to their boards. Research like Cranford’s female FTSE index and Catalyst’s Fortune 500 Census do a good job of highlighting the figures – but the Government, public and business leaders need to respond.”
External mentoring opportunities for professionals in marketing and communications
Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is relaunching its mentoring programme in spring 2014.
If you have any questions in the mean time email: [email protected]
National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS) offers two hours of one-to-one mentoring to Partner Card holders.
For more information email: [email protected]
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) offers one-to-one mentoring to members.
For more information email: [email protected]
Women in Marketing Awards: while this isn’t strictly mentoring, by becoming part of this network you’ll meet like-minded inspirational women you can learn from. It was launched by Ade Onilude five years ago to recognise the achievements of women in marketing.
It traditionally had a B2B category but it was removed last year due to lack of interest. There are scores of female B2B marketers worthy of recognition so please get in touch and register your interest.
The group also hold an annual conference every March.
For more information visit: imawrds.co.uk and wimconference.co.uk
