Words by Mark Tungate
Illustration by JC Peñaflorida
Although I know many women in prominent roles in advertising—in fact, six of the ten recent interviews I’ve done for our website have been with successful women—all the evidence would suggest that there’s a gender diversity problem in the industry that needs to be fixed.
It would be ridiculously presumptuous of me to suggest solutions here. But perhaps I can offer a sound argument for removing the glass ceiling. Because, looking back at my career in the media business so far, I’ve often worked for women. And by and large they’ve been more effective bosses than men.
The first was Pauline Leighton, my features editor at a newspaper back in the late 1980s. Although her opposite number on the news desk was a stereotypical tyrant—young, arrogant, insecure—Pauline resembled a wisecracking heroine from a 1940s movie, one hand on her hip and a cigarette in the other. Flexible and tolerant, yet able to cut a reporter down to size with a smart put-down, she exercised authority through sharp wit and simply being great at her job. I knew I could learn from her, and I wanted to impress her.
My next boss, at a PR agency called Paragon Communications in London, was the redoubtable Julia Thorn. Perhaps not coincidentally, she also came from a newspaper background and appreciated snappy dialogue. Once she caught me emerging from the elevator at 10am. “You’re late, Mark,” she observed. “Don’t worry Julia,” I replied, “I’ll leave early.” She laughed, and we always got on well after that. Julia could be tough, but she tempered it with humanity and good humour.
A couple of years later, my editor at a magazine called Media International was Penny Wilson, a South African. Penny combined a certain hip coolness with a steely streak that surfaced when needed. Nothing obvious, just a particular inflection. One of my male colleagues, a prickly hack from the golden age of print, had nothing but respect for her. I think it was because she didn’t try to fight him—she used his combativeness as an asset for the magazine and only brought him into line when strictly necessary. It was a bit like watching a lion tamer.
Rudyard Kipling famously wrote that “if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…you’ll be a man my son.” But in my experience women are better at this. Perhaps men are more likely than women to get promoted beyond their competence level. Sound like anyone you know?
By the way, none of the women above sacrificed their “femininity.” They looked good and dressed well. Their role model might be somebody like Isabelle Huppert, the French actress who was recently nominated for an Oscar. At 63, Huppert is successful, powerful and unrepentantly stylish.
Of course Huppert is Parisian. Tell a Parisian woman she can’t be feminine and strong at the same time and she’ll kick you in the balls with her Louboutin heel, then grind out her Gauloise in your eye. I should know: I’m married to one.
I have to believe that the rapturous media coverage of Huppert is a sign of the times. Women who don’t fit conventional norms of beauty—young, thin and pouting—are dominating the headlines: Huppert, Michelle Obama, Lena Dunham, Adele, Viola Davis…I’m pretty sure I’ve missed a few.
The recent ‘This Girl Can’ ad for Sport Britain, by FCB Inferno, is also part of this trend. Non-patronizing and highly inclusive, it points the way for advertising that targets women.
One of the interviewees I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, Katie Keith, who runs the UK production company Rattling Stick, confirmed that of the 16 directors on Rattling Stick’s list, only two are women. But she pointed out that most of the budding directors who send her their reels are men. “Perhaps what’s needed is some kind of industry-wide initiative that encourages young women to come into the industry.”
They need to be told that “this girl can.” Or rather they need to be shown. If any young woman thinking of entering the media business had seen my bosses—Pauline, Julia and Penny—in action, there is no doubt they would have been inspired. Maybe we need fewer mentors and more women-tors.
About the Author:
Mark Tungate is a British journalist based in Paris. He is editorial director of the Epica Awards, the only global creative awards judged by the specialist press. Mark is the author of six books about branding and marketing, including the recent Branded Beauty: How Marketing Changed the Way We Look.
This article was published in the adobo magazine Gender 2017 issue.
