BITE’s weekly round up of the most read features on the Creativebrief platform underlines the importance of creating space for women to thrive in the workplace.
Yesterday the industry was invited to take part in the third All in Census. The census is the biggest industry-wide workforce survey of its kind and aims to ensure that the lived experiences of the talent in the industry today can shape the future of the industry tomorrow.
It is an exercise that is particularly important in the wake of International Women’s Day; a day of both celebration and reflection. A moment in the shared calendar to remind us of the progress still to be made in reaching true gender parity.
Last year, the IPA’s Agency Census revealed that women account for 39.9% of individuals in C-suite roles in tandem with a 19.7% gender pay gap in favour of men over women. In an industry that seeks to represent the audience it serves in a world where over half the population are women, these figures underline a say-do gap.
Creating an industry in which female talent is able to thrive is important not only for societal progress but because it is the essential ingredient to creating great, impactful work. McCann’s documentary which tells the story of Ilon Specht and her iconic ‘Because I’m worth it’ line, proves what women are capable of.
International Women’s Day might be over, but this week’s stand-out article shows that the industry has an ongoing responsibility to champion, celebrate and support women for the benefit of us all.
The story of Ilon Specht has remained largely untold, but her strapline for L'Oréal Paris; ‘Because I’m worth it’, is one of the most iconic in advertising history. ‘The Final Copy of Ilon Specht’ is a documentary, supported by McCann, that brings to life the woman behind the iconic line. While it has already been widely acclaimed in advertising circles, this week the documentary debuts on AMC+, TED and Prime Video in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal.
The Final Copy of Ilon Spect is an intimate account of the work of an unsung advertising genius through a series of moving interviews with Specht and her stepdaughter. The documentary tells the story of a creative writing at a time when there were only a few female copywriters in ad land. ‘Because I’m worth it’ is ‘a four-word feminist manifesto’ that continues to resonate with audiences around the world today.
A myriad of data points from the IPA and the All in Census underlines a lack of female representation of women in the C-suite and a growing gender pay gap. 120,000 women have left the creative industries over the past two years, according to preliminary data from Major Players 2025 Salary Census.
Inflexibility, a lion’s share of caring responsibilities and a creative environment that is incompatible with the needs of women today means that Ad Land is losing some of its best talent. As the industry obsesses over ‘talent pipelines’, return to work mandates and presentism rather than people’s lived experiences, it is easy to get disconnected from the reality of the challenges women still face in their careers. BITE asked leaders if the industry should be doing more to support women through the ‘messy middle’ of their careers.
While the industry preaches better representation, Hanisha Kotecha, Head of Brand and Marketing at North London Collegiate School urges us all to move beyond empty empowerment messages and to real-world action.
In this honest and open-minded article Kotecha candidly shares her experience of attempting to create a campaign and choosing to work with truly representative teams. For her, having women both in front and behind the lens was essential in creating work that could truly resonate but she continued to come up against teams that lacked representation.
By sharing her story she serves to inspire others to choose to work with teams that align with our values. “It’s about the industry-wide refusal to admit that representation isn’t about ticking a box: it's about refusing to compromise on the values that matter most,” says Kotecha.
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