The advertising industry in this region has plenty to shout about when it comes to gender diversity. We recently interviewed a number of female executives for our annual Women in Advertising issue and there were lots of positive comments about the progress being made.
But no-one will deny there is a lot more work to do in leveling the playing field. We will be publishing these interviews online at Campaign Middle East and in our September issue.
Damayanti Purkayastha, Head of Strategy, MullenLowe MENA
What has been your high and low point as a woman in advertising?
An obvious high has been being promoted to Head of Strategy, but the more meaningful one has been that this role has given me a platform to build and mentor a team of bright strategists from the ground up.
It’s satisfying to mentor female members of my team, but I think it’s actually even more impactful having the opportunity to be a mentor to the guys in the team. It makes a difference when women can be seen as role models and mentors to men as well.
A low has been that being a strong, confident, plain-speaking woman has sometimes put me outside the ‘inner circle’.
What advice would you give to women starting out in the industry?
It’s a tough yet inspiring and invigorating industry to be a part of. The best way to thrive and not lose your way into it is to build your support system of mentors, coaches and peers who see your value, push you in the right way for the right opportunities, and will always have your back.
What message would you like to give men in advertising?
Walk the talk by being a true ally. This will mean being open to accepting your unconscious biases and learning how to overcome them to engage, interact and support women in positive ways.
Being a true ally also means not speaking for the women in your agency, but letting us and encouraging us to speak for ourselves.
What more can be done to support the growth of women in the industry?
The elephant in the room is that while there might be a healthier pipeline of women entering the industry, the number drops off quite drastically when you start looking at the stats for the percentage of women in senior roles.
As well as having more flexible working arrangements, we need better programmes for mentorship, compensation and training for the real root causes of what holds women back from getting (or wanting to get) promoted.
Ultimately, I think lasting change will only come from not expecting women to bear the brunt of parenting responsibilities.
Plenty of women leave the industry for long stretches of time and then don’t come back because the work environment is not right for them anymore, they don’t want to (a perfectly valid choice) or they don’t feel they can compete with the current crop because they’ve been out of the game for too long.
It takes a village to raise women up.
