It’s been a big week for female empowerment and the shattering of glass ceilings. Unless you’ve been living under a WiFi-less rock, you’ll know that last week Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves became the first ever woman to deliver the Budget speech.
She referenced her pride and, speaking directly to young women and girls watching, said there should be “no ceiling on your ambitions, your hopes and your dreams.” A message I’m sure we can all agree with, regardless of political affiliations.
With that, alongside Kamala Harris fighting to become the first female US President, it’s hard not to think about the very real gender disparities felt not just in the UK, but worldwide.
What does the data say?
- CBI Cymru data found 42% of women had been negatively judged for leaving work early, compared to just 7% of men.
- The latest ONS figures show that while the UK gender pay gap has been steadily declining, there is still a 7% disparity - equating to full-time average earnings of £19.24/hour for men, compared with £17.88/hour for women.
- Google Trends data shows that not once in the past five years have there been more searches for “jobs for men” than “jobs for women”, suggesting there is still a view that certain roles are more accessible for females.
Despite the stereotype that PR and comms itself is a female-heavy industry, the gender disparities are unfortunately very real in our industry too. While data shows that 66% of PR professionals below director level are women, this drops to just 46% when looking at senior roles. It’s an example of one of the many assumptions people have that cause divides to grow - if people assume a certain industry is ahead of the curve, not enough effort is put into levelling the playing field.
The dangers of assumption-based decision-making becomes clearer when you consider who is making them. Men remain much more strongly represented in leadership roles. So unconscious bias tends to creep in, regardless of how well meaning they are. The CBI figure referenced earlier is the perfect example. The reason for that judgement is at least partially down to men in senior positions not appreciating the juggling many women have to do between their professional and personal lives, which results in needing to work outside of the ‘traditional’ 9-5 routine.
There’s also the very real issue of gendered language choices that are used in the media, whether consciously or otherwise. Many AI language learning models are taught using content that’s readily available online, which is why GenAI has been found to show gender biases too.
Antidote is led by an entirely female leadership team, and we are committed to our constant efforts to ensure there’s diversity of thought going into any and all creative and strategic plans we put in place. It’s also why we’re so proud to continue our work on the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award, helping to recognise and celebrate the most incredible and influential females in business each and every year.
If you want to explore more about the gender divide, I can wholeheartedly recommend the brilliant ‘Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’ by Caroline Criado-Perez. It’s a real eye-opener on just how far reaching the gender divide is.
Come back for next week’s Your Weekly Antidote, another dose of data-driven news analysis on one of the biggest stories of the week from your favourite comms tech agency.
