Written by Brenda McNeilly, VP Creative Director. Originally published in Marketing Magazine, July 2010
 
When I was being interviewed after presiding as a judge in the Direct Lions at Cannes, I jokingly commented, “We need more cans in Cannes.”
 
Actually,  I wasn't joking. If somebody had told me 20 years ago that there would be no more and possibly fewer female creative directors in 2010, I would have said “I don't believe it, not in a million years.” But here we are in 2010, and it is so.
 
Of the 29 members of the Direct Lions jury, only eight of us were female. And the Direct jury was not exceptional. The total number of male judges far exceeded female judges across all 11 categories. The Cannes organization goes to tremendous lengths to bring a diversity of cultures, countries and genders to the table, so if the female CDs were out there with the right reputation and body of work, they would have brought them. So what gives?
 
In Canada, we have impressive female CEOs at big ad agencies like Ann Nurock at Grey. We have female visionaries and agency owners like Dawna Henderson of Henderson Bas, and Arlene Dickinson of Venture Communications to name just a few. We have no shortage of brilliant and powerful female CMOs client side.
 
So what is with the drought of female CDs in this country? Certainly, there is no shortage of brilliant female creative talent throughout the agency world, and in fact, post-secondary classes for advertising, new media and design have a balanced representation of both men and women. So why are more women not making it up the ranks to the level of CD?
 
In my experience there are 3 primary reasons:

• A male-dominated mass agency environment, which can be discouraging to women. This tends to be less true in agencies like mine, which play in the results and activation space, and more prevalent in the big agencies, though not all of them. However it could not prevail without the apathy and complicity of other women who choose not to rock the boat, which does a great disservice to the young women entering our field.
• More men than women aim for top spots and actively pursue them, because we doubt ourselves more than men and don't realize how great we could be at these roles.
• The decision to start a family, and the challenges of balancing home and work life. In the U.S., big companies like SAS provide on-site daycare and medical services in their quest to attract and retain the best talent. This is a lofty (and expensive) goal, but attainable in degrees that would help support women (and men) with young families. 
   

I was fortunate in my career to have great male and female CDs take me under their wings and make opportunities for me. I never went looking for misogyny, and it never came looking for me.
 
Many years ago, when I worked for the direct powerhouse Wunderman, we jokingly used to refer to it as “Wunderwoman” because there were so many women in the company, including president Mona Goldstein and general manager Trish Wheaton. My creative directors were Tracey Oliver and Lynn Sproatt. It was one of the great learning experiences of my professional life, and I credit having been exposed to people of this calibre and intellect as a big part of my formative years in this business. But what if I hadn't been so lucky? What if I had started somewhere where there was an entrenched boys' club mentality?
 
It wasn't until 2005 that I experienced, for the first time, real misogynist attitudes up close and personal. It happened when Neil French made his obtuse comments at a WPP event I've since dubbed, “The Night Og Spoke.” The roaming worldwide creative director of WPP thought it completely appropriate and funny to make disparaging comments about why there aren't more female creative directors in agencies. According to French, women don't have what it takes because they're too busy having babies. His comments fired a cannon through the industry, and the media storm promptly blew in. Nancy Vonk responded by writing “Female Like Me”. So in swoops the charismatic Sir Martin Sorrell and unceremoniously punts Og out of his cushy, lap-of-the-gods job.  
 
From where I sat in my own agency world, I saw an almost incomprehensible vortex of activity swirling around that one night. I was horrified that a male senior staffer at my own agency was reported to have defended French's comments, followed by an internal e-mail to all staff denying the comments. I watched, appalled, as some of my colleagues-including one female senior executive-rushed to defend French's comments as “much ado about nothing.” I have always said that the only thing worse than a male misogynist is a female apologist.

I don't claim to have all the answers, but for more deserving women to move up the ranks to the top post of CDs, a few things need to happen. 

Community colleges and universities need to raise awareness of the issue, arming young advertising hopefuls with the desire to eradicate it.

Both men and women in creative departments need to stop turning the other cheek when they see things that constitute a pattern of gender-biased hiring or misogynist behaviour and do something about it.

Given the harsh demands of agency life, we need more support systems and flexibility for women and men with young families, to help with the work/life balance.
 
You can say I'm full of it. You can say I'm right on the money. But my hope is, you'll say something.
 
Because people have been saying nothing for far too long. 

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