At the Met Museum, less than 5% of the artists in the modern art section are women, but 85% of the nudes hanging on the walls depict females (this statistic of course made famous by the Guerrilla Girls in 1989). Moving from the art world to advertising, it is sadly unsurprising to find yet again a male-dominated creative industry. The gender gap in advertising, although improving, is still problematic. Luckily there are movements like #timeto which are helping to shed light on sexual harassment and sexism that is prevalent in UK advertising.

Here are some stats from studies and polls taken in 2021/2022:

One in six women want to leave the industry due to discrimination and lack of representation. 

For the first time since 2018 female representation has dropped below 50%.

The wage gap between men and women is 24% and that expands even further for women from an ethnic minority background. 

But what is this ‘gender difference’ between men and women that is causing such hullabaloo? 

Well, let’s look at the theories of psychologist Erik Erikson, (‘the name so nice when you say it twice,’ to quote Moto Moto). Erikson proposed the theory that gender affects an artist’s spatial arrangements within the picture plane. He suggested that artists recreate their genitals through space within their designs. As a creative, I did wonder why I kept leaving a massive, gaping hole in the centre of my designs *wink*. I joke, but we can laugh off his theories and others like it now, but it doesn’t prevent belief in gender difference which is what has justified the inadequacy of female representation within the advertising business. 

The brain is a unisex organ, as new-borns there is no difference between a male or a female brain scan, it is only when we start to grow and culture changes our perception of ourselves and we learn how we ‘should’ act, that our cerebral sponges change as children according to gender. As my favourite neuroscientist Gina Rippon said, ‘a gendered world will produce a gendered brain.’

Luckily, I was raised in a much more open and free generation than my predecessors. My parents did not force me to play with dolls or dress in pink, I was even allowed to eat Yorkie bars much to Nestlé’s dismay. Again, I joke, but I do feel very lucky to be a part of the generation that is breaking down the historical convention of the duality of gender and creating a fluid, inclusive scale. 

Unfortunately, for centuries gender difference has been believed and reinforced by stereotypes and false reports to represent men as more capable than women. Hopefully, this country will continue to become more inclusive and less binary in its discussion of gender. A large part of this is children being raised to be who they want; without being forced into typical gender roles and supported as the gender they identify as. 

With this burgeoning inclusivity in society alongside places like SCA, which does not discriminate and is inclusive to all genders, races, and sexualities; hopefully the next generation of advertising will disregard the hapless clinging to gender difference and become inclusive and safe for all. 

In the words of J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, a charming 18^th– century French farmer/writer,‘men are like plants; the goodness and flavour of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow.’ As students at SCA, we have been given some fantastic, inclusive soil in which to grow, so we can produce some really delicious fruit. 

@OSHKcreates