Art Director's Club 50/50 initiative - a step, but too where?

Well finally somebody is saying what we women have all known for such a long time. The advertising industry is a, well, to put it politely, a sausagefest. 

The ADC has launched an initiative to bring more women into the industry. I hope it also intends to change the way business is done. 

It's not that women are not smart or do not want to be 'Mad Women' but its the way business is done that, well, frankly repels us. The atmosphere of machoism, intense competition vs intense collaboration, the awarding of trophies to singular creatives instead of to teams, this is what most women find distasteful and tiring. 

We also would like to know we can have our babies and know that we are not thought less of, demoted and locked out of the industry when our children are finally going off to school and we are frankly at our best in understanding the market panorama (since we have lived and worked as the consumer in our personal lives)

And while I talk about personal lives lets talk about all those women of colour out there barely represented in the industry. No! I don't mean as receptionists, assistants and managers. I mean as creative directors. Name five heads of agencies who are women and are women of colour(!?) right! I mean everyone can name the Alexs and Brians and Michaels out there heading up the most famous creative teams. But where are the Angelas, the Roxannes, the Carols? Do we even recognize their talents before they get fed up of the industry and leave to make some other industry great?

That's me crossing on the left…

Here is ADC's Ignacio talking about what the Club hopes to achieve

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/66835568?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=ed3295" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

Here's a link to Karen Mullia speaking  on the same issue http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2009/08/7056-biological-clocks-warfare.html?m=1