Gender and Creative Recognition: A Content Analysis of Communication Arts

Kasey Farris
University of Texas at Austin

Table of Contents

Abstract

Introduction and Literature Review

Research Questions

Methodology and FIndings

Conclusions

References

Abstract

Females are underrepresented in the advertising agency by a ratio of 2.3 to 1. One indicator of the lack of female presence can be found by examining creative awards and creative awards annuals. This research examined issues of the Communication Arts Advertising Annual in 1984, 1994 and 2004. Through content analysis, it was found that women represent only 9.1 percent of those credited in Communication Arts throughout the issues analyzed. Further, this research suggests that women's presence in Communication Arts has actually declined since 2004.

Introduction and Literature Review

Neil French, worldwide creative director at WPP, sparked controversy in October 2005 at a dinner and speaker series in Toronto, billed as "A Night with Neil French" (Boseman, 2005). When asked why there were so few women creative directors, French was reported to have answered, "Women don't make it to the top because they don't deserve to. They're crap" (Creamer and Sanders, 2005). The problem, in French's view, was that women "wimp out and go and suckle something" (Cadwalladr, 2005). French's comments have once again brought to the forefront conversations about women's role in advertising creative departments. In fact, an uprising from females within WPP, as well as in the trade magazines, led to French's resignation in late October 2005.

Women's role in the marketplace and in the workforce is larger than ever before. Women make up 51.4 percent of the American population (Quinlan 2003) and earn 57.3 percent of all Bachelor's degrees (Catalyst 2004a). Eighty-five percent of women aged 18 and over identify themselves as the principal shopper in the household (Catalyst 2004b). With this changing role of women in the marketplace, advertising messages are increasingly targeted toward women.

While the advertising industry has a comparable representation of men and women throughout (53 percent male averaged across positions- Endicott 2002), women are underrepresented in the creative department in particular, favoring males by a ratio of 2.3 to 1 (Endicott 2002). Additional incongruence within the agency was shown in an article in Advertising Age , which found that while males in the advertising agency dominated the top five posts by a ratio of 2.77 to 1, females outweighed men in the six lowest positions by a ratio of 1.12 to 1 (Endicott, 2002). Furthermore, on average women in an advertising agency make 86 cents for every dollar made by men (Endicott 2002).

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that females' creative influence has declined since the late 1960s. The One Club, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advertising industry, has a Creative Hall of Fame. Of the 40 total inductees to the Hall of Fame, only four are women (oneclub.org). The four women were inducted in the following years: 1974, 1969, 1968, 1967. This suggests that females' creative influence has actually declined since the late 1960s and early 1970s, when four women were inducted into the Creative Hall of Fame.   Since 1974, not one female has been inducted.

While there has been much speculation about the underrepresentation of women in creative departments, very little research has developed theory or empirically tested this phenomenon. Several themes have developed through anecdotal evidence in trade magazines.  

One theme is that the boys club environment of the creative department is unwelcoming to women (Weisberg and Robbs, 1997). One female creative director said the following of the present system, "Men create the standards by which ads are judged and then go round handing out awards to each other. The thing is that they just don't value the kinds of ads that women write and that women like" (Cadwalladr, 2005).   Females who survive in the industry are often those who have adopted more male-like traits. "Many say that the male-dominated creative departments and the larger agency environments themselves are male bastions, therefore the women that best succeed in advertising -- at least for now when the scales are tipped in favor of the Y chromosome -- are those who can best operate like a man" (Parpis. 2005). "You need to be a little tougher in this business," says Susan Hoffman, creative director of Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. "If you are a girly girl, this isn't the business for you" (Parpis, 2005).

Another reason given for women's underpresence is the difficulty involved with taking on the dual role of creative and mother. Neil French said that the reason women do not make it to the top is because women must often choose between having children and becoming a creative director, as there is not time for both in the grueling schedule of a creative (Silverman, 2005). Weisberg and Robbs (1997) also found creatives who believed that the hectic schedule of a creative made it difficult to have a family.

Another theme that females tend to mention is the lack of opportunity to work on great assignments. Cadwalladr (2005) interviewed a creative who was one of five women in a creative department of 50 people. She said the females "tend to end up getting the low-fat crisp ads." Female creatives feel that males receive more good assignments, as the male creative directors feel more comfortable with male creatives (Weisberg and Robbs, 1997). One creative said, "Sure I get my shots at jobs that can win awards, but I get a lot fewer of them than the guys" (Weisberg and Robbs, 1997).

While anecdotal evidence in the trades has not been plentiful, academic research on women's underrepresentation in creative departments has been downright sparse. Alvesson (1998), in an ethnography of a Swedish advertising agency, found a strong division of labor, where men held all senior and creative positions while women filled a more supportive, service role. She observed that the highly ambiguous and evermore feminized profession of advertising put a strain on identity for men, which caused the gender divide to grow larger as men tried to define creative work through masculinity. Because the advertising industry calls for "intuition and feeling" instead of more traditionally male values, males may experience unease and have the desire to enhance the masculinity of their work in order to support their own self-identity (Alvesson 1998, p. 997).  

Ibarra (1992), in a study of the network structure in an advertising agency and its impact on women's advancement, found that while men were able to form friendship, social and business ties with other men, women often formed friendship and social ties with other women and formed business ties with men. This put women at a disadvantage, as men reaped greater network returns through forming more personal relationships with business ties.

Research in organizational behavior has examined the impact of demographic difference, where b ias against groups who are demographically different has been shown through many studies throughout the years. Flynn, Chatman and Spataro (2001) found that people who are demographically different are perceived more negatively on average than those who are similar. Because females are underrepresented within creative departments, they may be subject to this sort of bias, which has several important implications for their overall job satisfaction.

In a study assessing the impact of diversity on the majority, Tsui, Egan and O'Reilly (1992) found that as demographic difference (race and gender) between a person and others in their organizational unit increases, the person will be less psychologically committed to the organization, will have a higher their absence rate, and will have a lower intention to stay at the organization (Tsui, Egan and O'Reilly, 1992).

When examining the impact of gender differences on the relationship between superior and subordinate dyads, Tsui and O'Reilly (1989) found that "subordinates in mixed-gender dyads were rated as performing more poorly and were liked less well than the subordinates in same-gender dyads" (p. 414). Subordinates in mixed-gender dyads also reported higher role ambiguity and role conflict.

Several female creatives have pointed out the scarcity of women award winners to show not only that women were underrepresented within the department, but also as evidence that the best assignments go to men (Weisberg and Robbs, 1997). This paper will examine Communication Arts, the leading trade journal for the visual arts (commarts.com).   Communication Arts publishes eight trade journals per year, with an Advertising Annual each December devoted entirely to presenting the year's best creative advertisements.   Creative individuals and agencies submit entries to Communication Arts, which forms a nine-person panel of advertising creative directors to judge the work. Judges spend three days pouring over and whittling down the thousands of entries (they had 11,787 entries in 1993 alone). The goal of this study is to examine trends with regard to females' representation in the Communication Arts Advertising Annual.  

Research Questions

RQ1:  How many females in Communication arts are credited for creating advertisements (in the following positions):            

RQ1a:    Art Directors            
RQ1b:    Copywriters            
RQ1c:    Creative Directors

RQ2:  Did women's creative presence in Communication Arts differ over the three decades analyzed: 2004, 1994 and 1984?

RQ3:   Are female creatives likely to work with other females or with males?   Are they likely to work with female creative directors or male creative directors?

RQ4:  Were female creatives in Communication Arts more likely to be copywriters or art directors?

RQ5:   Which agencies were most influential overall and in 1984, 1994 and 2004?

RQ6:   Which cities were most represented in Communication Arts overall and in 1984, 1994 and 2004?

Methodology and FIndings            

Communication Arts, the leading trade journal for visual arts, devotes its December issue to showcasing the top advertisements of the year. In this research, a content analysis was performed on three issues of the Communication Arts Advertising Annual. Issues covering three decades were chosen, 2004 (n=192), 1994 (n=287) and 1984 (n=256).   Every advertisement was coded for a total of 735 ads.              

A code sheet was developed to ensure consistency and accuracy in analysis. Each advertisement was coded for the media category (i.e. consumer magazine, outdoor billboard), the advertising agency and its city, the product category for the advertisement (i.e. clothing/shoes or cars/motorcycles), and the gender of all creative personnel, including copywriters, art directors and creative directors. Names which could not be determined by the researcher, such as multinational names the researcher was not familiar with or ambiguous names, were eliminated from the analysis. The purpose of this research was to examine trends with regard to women's representation in Communication Arts and to determine whether women's presence in Communication arts has changed over the past 30 years.            

First, this research sought to learn the overall proportions of male and female creatives credited in Communication Arts (see Table 1). In total, there were 2236 creatives credited throughout the three issues examined.   Of those creatives, there were 755 art directors, 87.2 percent of which were male. Of the 795 copywriters credited in this analysis, 90.7 percent were male. Finally, 95.3 percent of the 686 creative directors analyzed were male. This shows that the representation in Communication Arts of advertising creatives is overwhelmingly male (90.9 percent across all positions and years analyzed).

Table 1
Overall Gender Representation of Creatives

Crosstabulations were run in order to determine whether the presence of females in creative positions increased throughout the three decades examined. For the position of art director, women occupied 8 percent in 1984, 19 percent in 1994, and 10 percent in 2004. Thus, it seems while women's presence increased 11 percent from 1984 to 1994, their presence fell 9 percent from 1994 to 2004 (see Table 2.1). Women's presence in the art director position has not increased overall throughout the period examined.  

Table 2.1
Art Director Gender Representation by Year

For the position of copywriter, females contributed to 9 percent of the ads featured in Communication Arts in 1984, 11 percent in 1994, and 7 percent in 2004 (see Table 2.2).   This suggests that women's presence as copywriters has been lower overall than their presence as art directors. Even in 1994, when women constituted 19 percent of art directors, they only represented 11 percent of copywriters. Further, women's presence as copywriters was at its lowest in 2004, suggesting a decline in their creative contribution to this trade journal.

Table 2.2
Copywriter Gender Representation by Year

In the position of creative director, women have been extremely underrepresented in Communication Arts. Women constituted only 2 percent of all creative directors with ads in Communication Arts in 1989, only 6 percent in 1994, and only 5 percent in 2004 (see Table 2.3). Thus, while their representation did increase by four percentage points from 1984 to 1994, women still only constituted 6 percent. Additionally, females' presence decreased one percent from 1994 to 2004, once again suggesting that women's presence is not improving within the industry.

Table 2.3
Creative Director Gender Representation by Year

Another issue examined through this content analysis was whether creatives generally tend to work in gender-homogeneous teams or in gender-heterogeneous teams.   Crosstabulations revealed that while there were 560 all-male creative teams (copywriter and art director), there were only 15 all-female teams. Further, 131 teams were heterogeneous, with 88 having a female art director and a male copywriter and 43 having a female copywriter and a male art director (see Table 3.1).  

Table 3.1
Copywriters * Art Directors

This is important in relation to research by Heilman and Haynes (2005), which found that females who worked in teams with males on a male-dominant task were less likely to receive credit for a successful joint outcome. "In at least 74 out of 100 (a minimum of 24% above chance) comparisons, men would be evaluated more favorably than women for their involvement in precisely the same excellent joint outcome, unless constrained otherwise" (Heilman and Haynes, 2005, p. 915). Further, "the average man was frequently evaluated at or above the 85 th percentile of the female distribution" (Heilman and Haynes, 2005, p. 915). If females who work in teams with males are likely to receive less credit for a successful joint outcome, female creatives working in heterogeneous teams are likely to be at a disadvantage when decisions about promotions and raises are made.

Table 3.2
Creative Directors * Art Directors

Through this analysis we were also interested in examining trends with regard to creative awards. For instance, which cities are advertising "hot spots," and do the top cities change throughout the years or stay the same? New York was the most represented city for receiving creative honors in Communications Arts throughout the time periods examined in this analysis. Agencies in New York represented 16.5 percent of all advertisements honored in Communication Arts, with Minneapolis coming in a close second with 15.8 percent. Los Angeles (8.3 percent), San Francisco (6.7 percent), and Portland (5.3 percent) round out the top five cities in this analysis (see Table 4).

Table 4
City Representation by Year

Further, we sought to examine whether top most represented cities were consistently on top throughout the years examined. We found that most cities had a great deal of variance with regard to the number of advertisements presented in Communications Arts each year (see Table 4). For example, New York represented 21.9 percent of ads in Communication Arts in 1984, 14.6 percent in 1994 and only 12 percent in 2004. Other cities declining in popularity are San Francisco (from 8.2 percent in 1984 to 2.1 percent in 2004), and Los Angeles (from 11.7 percent in 1984 to 7.8 percent in 2004). In contrast, some cities have gained creative prowess throughout the years. The largest increase came in Miami, which represented .78 percent of advertisements in Communication Arts in 1984 and represented 9.4 percent in 2004. This was mainly due to the recent creative efforts of Crispin, Porter + Boguski, an agency famous for accounts such as BMW Mini, Burger King and the Truth Campaign.   Boston has also increased its representation from 2.7 percent in 1984 to 5.7 percent in 2004.            

In addition to examining the top cities represented in Communication Arts, this research examined the agencies that were honored with the most advertisements in Communication Arts (see Table 5). Topping the list over the combined three decades was Fallon in Minneapolis with 7.5 percent. TBWA/Chiat/Day, Ogilvy & Mather, and Weiden & Kennedy finished out the top four, with 4.6 percent, 4.1 percent, and 3.5 percent respectively. Just as cities tend to ebb and flow in their representation in Communication Arts throughout the years, so do agencies. While Crispin, Porter + Boguski was the top agency in 2004, responsible for 8.3 percent of the advertisements featured, Crispin only accounted for .69 percent in 1994. Other agencies gaining in representation are Arnold Worldwide and Weiden & Kennedy. In contrast, some agencies' representation in Communication Arts has declined over the years. While Chiat Day was responsible for creating 10.5 percent of featured advertisements in 1984, they only represented 3.1 percent in 1994 and 6.3 percent in 2004.

Table 5
Agency Representation Percentages by Year

Conclusion           

Through a content analysis of Communication Arts Advertising Annual in 1984, 1994, and 2004, this research was able to show women's severe underrepresentation in creative departments. Females male up only 9.1 percent of the creatives listed in the issues analyzed. Further, their presence seems to have decreased from 1994, where they represented in 19 percent, to 2004, where they constituted only 10 percent. Further, we were able to determine that females are more likely to be recognized as art directors (12.8 percent) than as copywriters (9.3 percent) or creative directors (4.7 percent).

In an examination of the gender make-up of copywriter/art director teams, we found that while 560 of the teams analyzed were all male, only 15 were all female and 131 were mixed-gender teams. Further, since there are so few female creative directors, males are much more likely to work with a male creative director than are females to work with a female creative director.            

Finally, we examined general trends to find that New York and Minneapolis were the cities with the most ads in Communication Arts, with Miami growing in its impact in 2004. Fallon and TBWA/Chiat/Day were the agencies with the most advertisements in Communication Arts.

Unfortunately, the results of this study do not suggest that women's presence in the creative department is increasing. In fact, this analysis suggests that female presence has actually declined since 1994. Female's presence in advertising annuals does not seem adequate at a time where women make up over half of the advertising industry and influence 85 percent of all purchases.

While this study offers several contributions to the literature, it is not without its faults.   First, because only one publication, Communication Arts, was used in this analysis, results could have been biased. Future research should content analyze award shows such as the Addy's and the One Show in the same years used in this research (2004, 1994, 1984) in order to determine if there are differences. Further, though the years chosen to analyze were chosen randomly, it is possible that they are somehow unrepresentative of the true representation of female creatives in the surrounding years. A further limitation is the use of one coder for this research, due to time constraints by the researcher. When the researcher expands upon this dataset to learn about trends in other publications, care will be taken to recode this data with two independent coders, so that intercoder reliability may be shown.   Care will also be taken to try to rectify some of the international names that were deleted from the analysis for this study.   International students can help the researcher to determine the gender of the creative based on customs.

References

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Bosman, Julie (2005),   "WPP Executive Resigns Over Remarks on Women,"New YorkTimes, October 21, 2005.

Cadwalladr, Carole (2005),   "Focus: Sexism row: This advertising boss thinks women make 'crap' executives. It seems he's not alone: Carole Cadwalladr talks to Neil French about his comments, and looks at why women are blocked from reaching the top," The Observer, October23, p. 19.

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About the Author

Kasey Farris is a second year doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include creative advertising and issues of gender within the advertising agency. She earned a Master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor's from Louisiana State University.