New Data on Gender Issues Revealed & Nancy Hill Award Announced

Speaking at the Fifth Annual 3% Conference, held on November 3 in New York City, 4A’s President and CEO Nancy Hill continued to demand agencies and marketing companies do better when it comes to gender and diversity.

New Data on Gender Issues Revealed

On a panel with Megan Averell, Erin St. Onge Carpenter and Michele Madansky, Hill shared exclusive data from a survey the 4A’s fielded with its member agencies earlier this year. That survey revealed that more than 50 percent of female respondents reported being sexually harassed at least once in their careers.

Since the 3% Conference targets female creatives within the ad industry, the 4A’s took a look at how this segment of employees has been impacted by discrimination. Some key findings from the study include:

• 58 percent of female creatives report experiencing sexual harassment “often”—compared to 32 percent and 11 percent of women who work in the account management and administrative departments respectively.
• 72 percent of female creatives ages 25 to 34 years old said they feel either somewhat vulnerable or very vulnerable to discrimination, based on their gender.
• Nearly 60 percent of female creatives ages 45 to 54 responded they have not received desired assignments or promotions because of discrimination either “often” or “a few times.”
• 40 percent of female creatives say they have been made to feel different based on their body shape “often,” while 30 percent have been made to feel different about their body shape “a few times.”
• Nearly half of the youngest group of respondents reported they had never experienced sexual harassment. But every female creative 55 to 64 years old reported they had experienced sexual harassment at least once.

An important mission for the 4A’s is to create real, meaningful change across the industry. That’s why Hill announced the 4A’s will undertake a new benchmarking survey this year, with results to be announced early in 2017. This will help make measureable strides toward a better, more inclusive and less discriminatory agency environment, where everyone has access to great opportunities.

Introduction of ‘The Nancy Hill Award’

Additionally, this year the 3% Conference created “The Nancy Hill Award,” which was given at the conclusion of day one of the conference. Its purpose is to honor one woman who has gone above and beyond to champion other women in the past year. 3% founder Kat Gordon credits Nancy Hill’s early and steadfast support of the 3% movement—the 4A’s is a founding sponsor—as critical to both the success of the conference and in Gordon’s belief in herself.

Cindy Gallop is the inaugural winner of the Nancy Hill Award. Her numerous keynotes at the 3% Conference, Glass Ladder series, Glass Lion jurying and countless other actions and achievements make Gallop an inspiration to thousands of women in the industry.

Upon receiving news of the award, Hill wrote: “I couldn’t be more humbled that Kat Gordon and the 3% Conference chose to name a new and prestigious award in honor of my work. Helping women to move forward in their careers has been a large part of what I’ve considered to be a mission: Creating a more diverse workforce and humanistic work places in the industry.”