Here’s What Women Want to See from Brands in Advancing Gender Equality

January 12, 2021

This article is included in these additional categories:

Advertising Trends | African-American | Creative & Formats | Demographics & Audiences | Hispanic | Women

SeeHerdentsu Brands Advancing Gender Equality Jan2021When it comes to women’s representation in media, only about one-third of Hispanic (36%) and White (33%) women say that media has made a lot of progress to better represent women in the past decade, while even fewer (23% of) Black women agree with that statement. Can brands help improve the stature and representation of women in the media? Here’s what a recent report [pdf] from SeeHer and Dentsu found.

The August 2020 survey of 800 adult women found that Hispanic and Latinx (52%), White (45%) and Black (41%) women agree that brands have a lot of responsibility to improve women’s equality. However, which types of initiatives women want to see most from brands in order to advance their stature and representation varies, at least to some degree, by ethnicity or race.

For instance, 57% of both White and Hispanic women surveyed say they want to see brands increase female leadership within their organization, while fewer (41% of) Black women feel the same. It is worth noting that there has been progress made in this arena, with Spencer Stuart finding that in 2019 43% of CMOs at the most advertised brands in the US were women, a figure that has been creeping upwards since 2016.

Additionally, Hispanic and Latinx women, in particular, want to see brands support/nurture their female employees (55%), increase the visibility of women’s work in under-represented industries (51%) and donate to organizations dedicated to female advancement (50%).

There seems to be more of a consensus among all groups of women in wanting to see brands accurately represent women in advertising (White women: 56%; Black women: 51%; Hispanic women: 50%).

Half of White women (50%) surveyed felt it would be most impactful for advertising to show women in leadership positions, a sentiment shared by 46% of Black women and 45% of Hispanic/Latinx women.

Some 51% of Black women believe advertising should show women in situations that reflect “real-life” — 48% of White women and 38% of Hispanic women agreed. More than half (55%) of Hispanic and Latinx women, on the other hand, said it would be most impactful if brands increased diversity of talent (i.e women of color, LGBTQ+).

The full report can be found here.

About the Data: Findings are based on an online survey of 800 women ages 18-65 fielded in August 2020.

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