Women Must Ask for More, No Matter the Month

In 2018, I wrote a blog post encouraging women to be bold, ask for more, and take risks.

Five years and one pandemic later, much has changed.

There has been some positive forward momentum. For example, research from the ANA in “A Diversity Report For The Advertising/Marketing Industry” reports that gender identity in the marketing departments of participating ANA member companies is skewing highly female: 67.5% female and 32.4% male. That percentage of female representation is now the highest it’s ever been in the report’s five-year history.

Also, LXA recently shared that 47% of CMOs hired last year were women.

And according to Deloitte, from 2019 to 2022, women’s share of the global tech workforce increased by 6.9%; their share in technical roles grew by 11.7%. Furthermore, the fastest growth—an estimated gain of nearly 20%—occurred in the proportion of women in leadership.

On the flip side, however, things have either stayed the same or not accelerated at a rate we’d like to see.

That same ANA report details that although the gender of marketing department staff skews female for every job level, the higher the job level, the lower the percentage of women: 84.5% for administrative and 55.6% for senior level.

And MarTech’s 2022 Career and Salary Survey reports women earn an average of 30% less than men in martech jobs at all levels. This pales slightly next to the overall IT sector, where women earn an average of 28.9% less than men. The survey also found 29% of men received promotions in the past six months versus 24% of women.

The pandemic also had significant impacts as well. According to a BCG study of the pandemic’s effects on female leaders in technology, gender diversity in tech leadership fell from 86% in 2020 to 59% in 2021—likely in part due to pandemic-related caregiving. 44% of women reported spending over 20 hours per week on caregiving, compared to 33% of men.

As I have said previously, when we don’t recognize and support talented women, we not only hold them back but also prevent business as a whole from reaching its full potential.

And when it comes to the world of martech, there’s no better time than right now to be audacious. Our skills are in demand, and companies remain hungry for martech talent.

Although the world looks very different today than it did just a few years ago, certain crucial factors have not transformed accordingly: Women must ask for more, but they also require a business environment that supports them to do so.

It goes well beyond commemorating and assessing every March.

Instead, set a high bar for you, your company, and your industry, and strive to achieve it—no matter which month it is or what gender you are.

For more information or to get in touch with DemandLab, contact us.