Campaigning to accelerate gender equality for all
Why WACL campaigns
The fight for gender equality in the workplace faces a critical turning point.
We are witnessing the very real impact of the political decisions across the pond, combined with a growing global backlash against gender equality progress at work and at home, and a widening gap between the way young men and women understand the world.
As leading global brands roll back their DEI initiatives for fear of retribution or sanctions, there’s a growing narrative that backtracking on gender equality is acceptable; even that it’s beneficial to business.
But gender equality is not just about women. It’s proven beyond any doubt that gender equality benefits everyone, including men. And it benefits business.
That’s why our goal as leaders is to affect long term change. And our strategy remains consistent – identifying opportunities and barriers to gender equality, and working with our allies to drive action.
The WACL Campaigning mission: 50% CEOs
Our mission, as we set out in our Playbook, is for 50% of leadership positions in our industry to be held by women by 2045. And that means right up to the CEO.
The CEO is the iconic leadership role in business and it is the role with the most power to create change. We know that when women are at the top businesses are more profitable, show a stronger commitment to ESG and diversity and have better outcomes for employees.
In advertising and communications businesses only 30% of CEO roles are held by women. In the wider industry it is only 17%.
At current rates, we estimate it will take another 37 years to create equal representation. That’s why we’ve launched our 50% CEO Campaign: our ambition is to double the rate of change so that we hit 50% by 2045 .
Our strategy to achieve that
WACL’s campaigning accelerates gender equality for the benefit of all, in the areas proven to have the greatest impact for our industries.
We gathered some of the best strategic minds from across the industry, analysed all kinds of robust data, and developed an evidence-led strategy that focuses on the five levers that are proven to create the most significant change.
Change the Language of Leadership replaces the accepted wisdom of what great leadership looks like with an evidence-led version that includes many attributes in which women tend to over-index.
Promote for Potential highlights how promoting and rewarding based on what people have achieved in the past exacerbates gender leadership gaps and overlooks valuable talent.
Flexible First asks businesses to become #FlexibleFirst, which benefits everyone but is especially important in keeping women in work for longer and closing the gender pay gap.
Be a Women’s Health Hero is about ensuring that women’s more complex health needs, from periods to menopause, fertility, maternity and more, don’t hold women and businesses back.
Work Like the World is Watching includes our Represent Me initiative that urges the industry to create more positive and progressive gender portrayals in our work; and our timeTo partnership that helps create workplace cultures where everyone feels safe from sexual harassment.