Do you want to drink another glass of warm white wine while listening to leaders discuss the challenges of driving women’s creative careers forward, or do you want to do something practical to close the gap?

In an industry that can at times be guilty of viewing talking about a problem as a substitute to solving a problem, Creative Equals is calling on this industry to invest in training women and gender nonconforming people to thrive.

Creative Equals Business, which launched in 2018 with the ambition to accelerate female leaders in the marketing and creative industries, has extended its applications until the 11th October.

The training programme, which is sponsored by Stagwell, is now entering its sixth year. The programme has already helped over 100 women achieve the skills and network to supercharge their leadership journeys.

The six-month programme, led by Helen James, CEO at Forsman & Bodenfors and Fiona Bryan, has racked up a wide range of strong endorsements from previous cohorts.

Hayley Sivner, Head of Strategy at TBWA Manchester, described the course as: “The rocket fuel every ambitious woman deserves to supercharge their goals, clarify their priorities, and step forward into their rightful spotlight, surrounded by an inspiring cohort cheering on your every move.”

Aileen Rushton, Group Head of Creative at STV, credited the course for being different to other management training courses. She explains: “It's focused, honest, and empowering; backed by a team of inspirational advertising heavyweights who understand the challenges of being an aspiring female leader."

Navigating the messy middle

2024 is a pivotal year for women in leadership. Data from the World Economic Forum, shows that despite women holding 42% of all jobs – they only make up 25% of C-suite positions. While women’s advancement into leadership roles grew over the past 8 years, it started falling in 2022 and continued to decline in 2023.

“Many women seem to get ‘stuck’ in middle management roles and training them to step up to the next level is key to creating more leadership role models,” explains Laura Jordan Bambach, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Uncharted.

In the creative industries it is clear that more needs to be done to address the broken rung on women’s career ladders. In such an informal industry transparency is often missing from the recruitment process, a state of play which makes tangible investment in closing the leadership gap essential.

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