Creating Equity

By Alan Kirkpatrick (MA ’96)

Women are entering the ad industry in increasing numbers, but SJMC female creative alums say they know their limitations in a field that is still predominately male.

“Not having enough brute strength to fight to be the first person to use the microwave during lunch,” for example, observes Nichole Berger (’08), art director at Wexley School for Girls in Seattle.

Her creative partner, copywriter Josie Keeney (’08) agrees: “If I must break it down by gender, yes, boys work on more sports, and girls work on more fashion, culture, art, music, technology, quantum physics and aerospace engineering.”

In fact, they perceive few, if any, career barriers.

“It’s a fun boy’s club,” says Leah Dietrich (’02), associate creative director and writer at Secret Weapon Marketing in Santa Monica, “full of sophomoric humor and generally lacking in drama. But in the end, it just comes down to who does the best work.” So creative departments of agencies are still, as Dietrich mentions, “boys’ clubs?”

Josie Keeney and Nichole Berger.

“I don’t know what the actual statistics are, but if a ‘boys club’ exists merely because the boys greatly outnumber the girls then, yes, there is,” says Jenna Hall Capobianco (’95). She is a self-employed creative director and writer who has worked at Leagas Delaney London, Fallon in New York City, Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, and Hal Riney in San Francisco.

“I think you have to be very careful as a creative in general not to get pigeonholed. So far I have been able to steer clear of Maxi Pads, household cleaning agents or anything advertised solely on the Lifetime channel,” she said.

Jessica Shank (’04) is a copywriter at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. Her partner at the agency is art director Katie McCarthy (’04).

Leah Dietrich (’02).

“As part of a female creative team, Katie and I have worked really hard to make sure we don’t get pegged as ‘the perfume ladies’ or ‘the girls who work on mom stuff,’ and thus far, it’s worked,” Shank says. “Some assignments we’ve gotten, like our work on Frito-Lay Dips, happen to target a female audience, but we’re lucky because the client buys really good work.”

Shank says the predominance of male creatives might have contributed more to an inaccurate perception of female consumers than of female colleagues.

“If most of the work specifically aimed at women were any indication of modern life, we’d all be at home dancing with our mops and fretting about plastic food storage,” she says. “There’s a real disconnect between the lives women lead and the way advertising portrays our daily lives and desires. Perhaps this relates back to the majority of work being created by men, although I also think clients have to give their female audience more credit and be brave enough to buy intelligent, relevant work.”

As for whether there is a glass ceiling for women seeking to be executives in creative advertising, Berger says each agency’s situation is different.

“I think the lack of females at the very top is in part a reflection of demands of the industry,” Shank says. “It’s not that women can’t make it to the top, some just choose not to for very valid reasons.”

Jessica Shank and Katie McCarthy.

“I’m anxiously awaiting the brave new world where we can grow children in pods,” Hall Capobianco says. “I think more women need to be encouraged to enter the field to begin with. Maybe portfolio schools should start running ads in women’s restrooms, on Tampax boxes and on ‘The View.’ ”

Berger and Keeney say that at Wexley, a boutique agency, their view is somewhat different, with the future of advertising perhaps coming into focus.

“Our senior staff is mostly men, but the rest of the agency is almost 75 percent women,” Keeney says. “It shows that more women are working their way into the industry than when my bosses (both male) were meeting people they wanted to start agencies with.”