Does the comms industry still need Feminism?

My name is Sophie Barnes, I’m a Senior Account Manager at Splendid and I’m a feminist. I am also the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Champion, but that’s not why I want to talk about Feminism. I identify as a woman of colour, so it is passion and necessity, rather than any requirements of my role, which make this a vital conversation for me.

Many of us are passionate about Feminism and for the most part, in our society we’re lucky enough to have seen progress towards gender equality. But there’s still work to be done…

Representation

Representation matters. When we see people that look like us in aspirational positions it is validating, improves self-esteem and helps us form positive perceptions about our identity[1]. When we don’t, it makes us more likely to believe – consciously or subconsciously - that we don’t belong.

Research by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University[2] – done in the year of the Barbie Movie, no less - found that speaking roles for female characters and women over 60 declined in 2023’s top-grossing films. What’s more, 77% of last year’s movies had more male than female characters.

In communications industry we work in one of the few business sectors that is female dominated, perhaps leading us to believe that the goals of feminism have been achieved. Debi, our Client Partnerships Director, says “I have a long roll call of inspirational female leaders who have helped guide me, both directly and indirectly, as I’ve progressed in my career. Today, surrounding myself with other women in leadership positions is incredibly important and a major contributor to my own job satisfaction.

Specifically at Splendid, we pride ourselves on having a wide variety of female role models, which I see as a vital component of running a successful business in our predominantly female industry. As I’m now in a position of leadership, I personally feel a great responsibility when it comes to inspiring others, and I consider it one of the ways I can pay it forward.”

Across the entire Splendid Collective, we are fortunate that most of our leadership positions are held by women, but as a total industry, men still hold most leadership positions[3].

Education

Education remains a need. The sharing of resources and information, enlightening us on the lived experiences and opinions of others, is invaluable in broadening perspectives. Education is key to engaging everyone across the industry, including men and people of all genders and gender identities, so that we may all become colleagues and allies. Education can address unconscious sexism and encourage everyone to champion women. At Splendid, we seek to engage the team through training, regular bite-sized educational content, and regular round-table discussions. The best way to learn is through conversation, so facilitating these is always a priority.

Inclusion

Research shows that when women are active participants alongside men in decision-making, perspectives broaden, creativity and innovation increase, conflict reduces, and decision-making processes improve.[4] So, we need women to feel comfortable to be themselves and speak their minds, without fear of being stereotyped or judged but I don’t think this is guaranteed. We need there to be no assumptions made about someone’s ability to do their job because of their gender or because they are a mother.

Equitable support is also needed to ensure that women can do their jobs despite the various health or lifestyle implications that can come with being a woman (PCOS, endometriosis, menopause, and more).

At Splendid, our maternity and parental leave policies allow women to feel comfortable in taking the time they need when having a child, without fear of any negative impacts on their job. Flexible working for colleagues of all levels also allows everyone to have conversations around adjustments needed to suit their needs.

Intersectionality

Support for women who exist at the intersect of different diverse groups is important, especially for women who belong to marginalised groups. For those people, research has found that the representation of women alone has little effect on their advancement[5] and so it is key that not only are we increasing representation of women in leadership positions, but also putting an emphasis on women of colour, women who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, women with disabilities and others who belong to two or more diverse groups. Here, intersectional feminism ensures that we are providing additional support where needed and always being conscious of the varying lived experiences and unique perspectives.

Senior Content Strategist, Chelsie comments on the importance of having an intersectional view on Feminism: “We face several hurdles as women in the workplace. Compound this with being a woman of colour and the challenge is amplified. For me, it is important that the workplace where I spend a fair proportion of my time recognises and acts on this.”

As a woman of colour myself, I have a keen eye on areas where my areas of diversity overlap, such as pay gap reporting. While there is lots of work to still be done in the industry at large, at Splendid we have zero or near-zero gender pay gap at all but one senior level. When it comes to the ethnicity pay gap, we are doing better than the industry average (22.4%[6]) but still on a journey, with a pay gap of 20%. Current industry reporting separates gender and ethnicity so it’s hard to get a picture of the precise impact pay gaps have on women of colour – perhaps understanding intersectionality is a next step for industry pay gap reporting?

So, while it may not be about increasing the number of women in our industry, Feminism is needed to level out the playing field and lead the drive for representation, education, inclusion, and the recognition of intersectionality. We must never forget that the modern world was not set up to favour women. In our recent roundtable discussion for International Women’s Day 2024, where we discussed the topics raised in this post, Designer, Poppy, recommended that we should all read the book Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. She commented, “It is a compelling exploration of how data fails to consider gender in areas such as healthcare, technology, and work environments. Men are the default in the modern world, costing women time, money, comfort and sometimes their lives. It is truly eye-opening and highlights how deeply this bias is baked into our fundamental systems, it’ll make you mad!” So, let's get mad and get even.    

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/psychology-the-people/202112/why-representation-matters-and-why-it-s-still-not-enough

[2] https://variety.com/2024/film/news/study-shows-decrease-speaking-roles-female-characters-1235923773/

[3] https://wadds.co.uk/blog/2024/2/1/cipr-pr-population-report

[4] https://www.undp.org/ghana/news/womens-participation-decision-making-why-it-matters#:~:text=In%20a%20democracy%2C%20it%20is,the%20process%20of%20decision%2Dmaking.

[5] Exploring the Impact of Women’s Representation on the Professional Careers of Women of Color, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07311214221148452

[6] https://www.prweek.com/article/1838408/prweek-uk-pay-gaps-project-%E2%80%93-ethnicity-pay-gaps