Women in creative and digital industries

A few weeks ago The Guardian published the results of a Glassdoor Economic Research report that stated that Britain has one of the worst records of gender equality at work. Britain ranked 11th out of 18 countries – behind France, US and Sweden – in a league table that took into account a number of factors including board level representation and the gap between male and female employment and pay.

Whilst these results are disappointing they are not surprising to myself or our MD, Bella. Back in March we attended a conference for Women in Creative Industries and it was hosted as part of Women of the World Festival at the London Southbank Centre, which coincided with International Women’s Day.

The aim of the conference was to discuss, review and address the steps needed for gender equality in the creative sector. It was a day packed with panel speaker events, a series of smaller sessions addressing different challenges and ended with a review of the new and innovative steps discussed throughout the day.

Being part of a business which holds value in diversity is something close to my heart and I thought I’d share a few of the bitterly disappointing statistics that we’ve recently learnt:

• Creative industries has been the fastest growing sector since 2008 and is worth over £84bn to the UK economy
• Within the Digital sector only 26% of the workforce are women
• Within the TV & Film sector only 37% of the workforce are women
• Within the Advertising sector only 25% of senior positions are held by women
• Overall less than 33% of the managers in the cultural industries are women

In the search for expanding our creative and digital department we have found these statistics to certainly ring true. Within the local talent pool there is a shortage of female creatives and developers during our search for creative and digital positions within the team we had fewer women apply for the roles.

We’re not sure why there is the lack of talent in the area and if there is a multitude of factors at play but we hope by banging the drum a little more and sharing the facts it might bring to light the great opportunities available for women in these sectors and begin to improve gender equality at work. Let’s work together to change that league table!