Hearing from women in marketing

There’s a movement that has picked up steam across the world. Women are starting to demand they are heard, and paid properly, and promoted. What started with a chorus of women speaking up against sexism has grown into action.

As part of the Financial Services Forum’s focus on how women can support each other to make the transition into becoming tomorrow’s leader, we saw our own Co-CEO Kirsty Maxey take part of a panel of strong and successful women; Courtney Waterman, Head of EMEA Marketing Schroders, Lindsey Clay, CEO Thinkbox, with chair Emma Kane, CEO Redleaf talking on the actions we can all take. This ‘Women in Marketing’ event was well attended.

Kirsty had asked us to all think about where we want to be in five years. Once you’ve decided what that is then getting it just becomes a process of how you can make it happen. If you find yourself in a company that does not see your potential and cannot help you fulfil your goals, then that’s not the place for you. Ultimately, it only matters what you think of yourself regardless of your environment but a detrimental environment can chip away at your opportunities and self-belief.

Courtney had a great example of how she managed to do something different to get noticed. She was once praised at a review for the work she’d been doing in the past few months (even though she’s been doing less), and considering what had changed, she realised the only difference was that she had been making notes every week of what she had been doing and emailing it to her boss. This power of visibility is a superpower we all need to use.

Lindsey brought up how we must stand up for other women and be active in the workplace. We can speak up and inspire others by doing so. We can speak up and challenge for change. We can speak up to praise and promote the good work of other women. By having each other’s back we are stronger together.

There was an excellent example from Courtney on one example of pay disparity being addressed. A man and a women were hired for two almost identical roles at the same time. The man had moved around more and came to the interview on a higher salary. The women had not moved around as much and was on a lower salary. When they were both offered the roles, the pay disparity was challenged and corrected with the women being offered a very large pay increase to match the salary offer to the man. It is worth moving around more often perhaps but also it’s worth finding out the salary for the role and not just expecting a percentage increase on your current salary.

Question time was longer than the talks as the room of mostly women spoke of their hurdles and hindrances and how to overcome them. A wonderful point raised was how young people are bringing a new perspective to gender bias and sexism. They often don’t see gender differences. Or how your workplace can engage in unconscious bias training. Question time ran over. It’s a strong indication of just how much women want to keep on leaning in.

Watch another fantastic panel of women speak at an event hosted at Teamspirit for the International Women’s Day and the LGBT community. More women who engage, energise and inspire.