Nancy Vonk
Co-Chief Creative Officer
Ogilvy Toronto

Although still partially paralyzed by Neil French’s words about women last evening, I feel compelled to push my rigid hand across a page or two to attempt a response on behalf of women, who in the extremely entertaining, informative performance took a particularly harsh beating in the last minutes of the show, edging out the Australians and account people for his greatest disrespect.

First, a little context. Janet Kestin and I have known Neil since we began seeing him at the Ogilvy “Cadre” meetings he organized starting in ’98 in cities around the world. We became fast pen-pals and over the years we learned a lot from him, especially through his example of being brutally honest and true to himself. We’ve felt honored that Neil calls us his friends. We would both say we’ve had the most fun, most memorable parts of our ad careers in his company. Before this week we last saw him on our final night in Cannes last June at one of his favorite 5 star restaurants. Good times.

I knew before last night where Neil stands on women. One of my first clues was the way he introduced a new female CD to the overwhelmingly male Cadre members in Bangkok. He spoke glowingly of her accomplishments before concluding with, “And can you believe it? She’s a WOMAN!” Janet and I became jaded to his frequently outrageous comments long ago, thus surviving many experiences of laughing and crying simultaneously. We genuinely like him and developed a ‘take the good with the bad’ philosophy, looking the other way as required to maintain the highly valued relationship. To stay in the club.

Last night Neil was true to form and more than delivered on the event as advertised. For performance, for dialing “shit disturber” to 11, he said what he really thinks and added spin on top if it. I almost managed to blank out the idiocy of the French maid for awhile because the Fenske-Boyko-French combo was on the whole so interesting and enjoyable. But by the time Neil let into the women---the slacker breeders who he made clear really don’t belong in this man’s game, my jaded jaw hit the floor.

It’s too easy to discount Neil’s views as those of a man from an era and geographies that reinforced that the role of women should be reserved for pleasing the men, marrying them, bearing and caring for their offspring. What struck me so hard as he described a group that will inevitably wimp out and “go suckle something” after their short stint in advertising, was that in his honest opinion he was voicing the inner thoughts of legions of men in the senior ranks of our business. Before us was a big part of the explanation of why more women aren’t succeeding in advertising. If male CD’s even a little like Neil see the female creative coming towards him with her work and he’s already convinced she’s extremely limited in her ability and value, what lens is he seeing her work---her---through? Would you expect that CD to offer the same support and guidance and consideration he gives the men? Might that woman keep herself down on the farm when her leader conveys in countless ways she’s not as good as the boys? Might she respond with less than her best effort when the adored leader expects little of her? Might she want to leave, not to have babies but because the conditions for her to succeed don’t exist and the message she can’t succeed is too discouraging?

Many young women in school or just out of it have asked Janet and me, can it really be done? Just last week: “My teacher keeps telling the women, ‘You know, this is really hard. Are you sure you want to do this’?” Another ad legend wasn’t shy to share with me recently that he doesn’t think women can do great ads, because they’re hard-wired to have the “balance alarm bell” go off at a decent hour of the evening, therefore leaving the men to carry on putting in the long hard hours required to do the best work. There was no malice here; he meant it as a sort of credit to women that they won’t kill themselves like the men.

If our greatest leaders are busy quietly persuading girls they’re just not cut out for this gig, how far is this group going to get---the brave ones who soldier on in spite of the discouragement? And by the way, can you imagine law or med school professors giving their female students the same advice? (Step aside, ladies, the boys will take care of the hard stuff. Enjoy motherhood you lucky girls.) Well once upon a time, of course they did. Advertising remains in the dark ages as other fields reap the benefits of workforces now glittering with talented women. Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of the sea change that happened in the music industry when auditions for symphony orchestra members began to include hiding the musicians behind screens, thus eliminating the enormous bias against female artists. Female membership skyrocketed when conductors could no longer see who was playing the best. Now women comprise up to half the orchestras on merit.

Last night Neil didn’t know his Canadian audience. He doesn’t realize we have Elspeth Lynn, Lorraine Tao, Christina Yu, Judy John hitting home runs in the shows he respects most while they fulfill the top jobs; that Canada’s largest city has almost as many female CD’s as male in the best known agencies. He doesn’t see the creative departments filled with women burning the midnight oil as much or more than the men (not that either gender should be bragging about that). Too bad for him that his experience working with women has been so limited, considering he’s spent his career in the most notoriously sexist environments in the world.

Yes, ladies, the deck is stacked against us, as it used to be in so many other demanding professions. Even as the best ad schools graduate equally talented men and women in equal quantities. What happens after that is the question of the hour. There are many factors. Among them: those who do want a family don’t get stay-at-home spouses like so many men do (well, lucky Sally Hogshead does, to count exactly one that I know) and we’re not happy to hand the job over to a replacement mom. As long as we’re pegged not as heroes but as slackers for taking on the whole deal, it’s a rocky road indeed--- never mind being condemned from day one on the mere chance a baby may some day materialize.

Neil did us the favor of voicing a widely held view, albeit an extreme version. It’s an opportunity for us all---men, too---to confront something every bit as wrong and unacceptable as racism. (Replace every comment Neil made about women with the word ‘black’ and take my point.)

For all the young people at the Neil French night, especially, I hope you will retain the many pearls of wisdom he had to share and use them to your benefit. This ad giant has many good lessons to teach. As for his perspective on women, consider it the perfect demonstration of one of the biggest obstacles to success women face and see it for what it really is: a load of crap that inspires you to prove Neil and friends wrong. Take note that working at an agency run by any man known for bias against women may be a losing proposition in the pursuit of achieving that goal. A happy, successful career can hinge on having a CD who truly believes in you and makes it his or her job to help you win.

Finally, the women reading this are going to have to do better than me. I’ve suddenly realized that looking the other way, turning the other cheek in any situation equivalent to a black person being called a nigger makes me part of the problem. I’m snapping out of it awfully late, and it seems obvious that we can’t take this shit and expect to see anything change. Don’t be discouraged; be outraged and act accordingly.