MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — DDB Melbourne is making its mark beyond the campaigns and into the very heart of culture with the launch of Hungry Women, a bold DEI initiative aimed at empowering the next generation of female creative leaders. Fueled by the insight that while the hunger to create burns strong among women in the industry, systemic barriers continue to starve that potential. As a result, DDB Melbourne is setting the table for change.
Launched last October, Hungry Women has quickly become more than a lunchtime catch-up. It’s a space where women across all agency disciplines connect, challenge, and champion one another. Think career development meets candid conversation, all underpinned by a collective appetite for progress in an industry still battling gender disparity.
DDB Melbourne Creative Director and Hungry Women founder, Becky Morriss, said: “Being a woman in this industry is still hard work. And it’s not easy to talk about either. Who’s going to discuss having extra work from home flexibility for those suffering from endo in a meeting room full of men? The thing is, if we don’t talk about these things, they don’t change.”
“Since launching, Hungry Women has given us the opportunity to hear the things women haven’t always felt comfortable discussing, helping us identify key priorities and drive more meaningful, collective change. We’ve gained insight into what mentorship really means for our cohort and the importance of everyday visibility. As a result, we’re much more aware of having more female team members address the agency. And soon, we’ll be launching an offshoot of Hungry Women called Dear Hungry Woman to connect creative women across DDB offices.”
“Our Hungry Women lunches are an opportunity to bring the ‘awkward’ topics to the table, connect with other women, share experiences, and gain new perspectives. We want our female-identifying staff to walk away hungrier than ever about their career and their professional development.”
But initiatives like these don’t exist in a vacuum. The gender leadership gap in advertising remains stark with only 31% of creative department leadership roles are held by women or gender-diverse individuals, per the Create Space Census 2024. And while WGEA’s latest data shows a slight dip in the gender pay gap (down to 14.1%), the imbalance still looms large.
Hungry Women goes hand-in-hand with all the DDB group Women in Leadership activities, including the “Inspire Series” – a series of seminars for female DDB staff and allies across the agency’s three offices in Australia and New Zealand. Last year, the seminars featured a host of remarkable speakers, including National Gallery of Victoria Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture, Simone LeAmon; MONA Head of Creative, Jardin Anderson; WOWOWA Architecture & Interiors Creative Director, Monique Woodward; and DDB New Zealand CEO, Priya Patel. This year’s schedule promises more remarkable speakers, each of whom will share their special pump-up jam, which will be added to a bespoke Hungry Women Spotify playlist.
DDB Melbourne Creative Director and Hungry Women founder, Becky Morriss, said: “Being a woman in this industry is still hard work. And it’s not easy to talk about either. Who’s going to discuss having extra work from home flexibility for those suffering from endo in a meeting room full of men? The thing is, if we don’t talk about these things, they don’t change.
“Since launching, Hungry Women has given us the opportunity to hear the things women haven’t always felt comfortable discussing, helping us identify key priorities and drive more meaningful, collective change. We’ve gained insight into what mentorship really means for our cohort and the importance of everyday visibility. As a result, we’re much more aware of having more female team members address the agency. And soon, we’ll be launching an offshoot of Hungry Women called Dear Hungry Woman to connect creative women across DDB offices.
“Our Hungry Women lunches are an opportunity to bring the ‘awkward’ topics to the table, connect with other women, share experiences, and gain new perspectives. We want our female-identifying staff to walk away hungrier than ever about their career and their professional development.
“Hungry Women is more than just a program. It’s a movement within DDB – one that will continue to challenge the status quo, amplify the voices of women, create better allies, and build a culture where ambition and empowerment thrive.”
The Hungry Women initiative comes amid the ongoing gender gap and lack of representation in media and marketing agencies nationwide. According to the Advertising Council Australia’s Create Space Census 2024, while there’s been recent shifts in female leadership across the industry, the leadership of creative departments is still skewed towards males, with only 31% consisting of female and gender non-conforming representation. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published gender pay gaps in March 2025, reporting that during 2023-24 men in the advertising sector were paid on average 14.1% more than women, compared to 14.6% reported in the previous year’s WGEA data.
Morriss said: “Part of the Hungry Women initiative is about education for our entire staff cohort. While DDB Melbourne is 54% female, there’s still work to do in leadership roles. We want to encourage women to be brave and challenge the gender gap, but we also want everyone to understand how bias plays a role in gender equality. Education is critical – we want men to speak up on policies that disadvantage women and call out bias as they see it but also be active in educating themselves about how they can be a better ally for women in the industry.”
The Women in Leadership and Hungry Women team is run by Becky Morriss and DDB Melbourne staffers James Cowie, Courtney Guy, Liana Bignall, Issy Susnica and Ella Ward.
