Janet Kestin Co-Chief Creative Officer Ogilvy Toronto It’s interesting that so many people, sadly mostly men, horribly maybe mostly young men, are pillorying Nancy for expressing her counter-argument to Neil’s point of view. Why is Neil’s freedom of speech to be defended and Nancy’s attacked? Frankly, why is the entire dialogue centered around Nancy and Neil rather than standing back and recognizing that an issue is being raised here? So far, most women in our business do less well than men. There are a lot of reasons for this. Here are a few that I’ve heard. Recruiters have told me that men typically request male partners when they’re looking to hire. Women in male-female partnerships say that many clients address all their comments to the man, just like when you go to buy a car or ask for a loan along with your husband. Girls in ad schools tell us that their male professors try to discourage them from attempting this as a life’s work since it’s quite hard and they’ll probably just go off to have babies anyway. I’ve even heard that all the great artists, sculptors and writers through history were men, so maybe it’s also true of advertising creativity. Then there are the hurdles we put in our own way: we don’t make enough of our accomplishments, don’t ask for what we deserve, compromise when we shouldn’t, wait till we’re sure before we speak up. We don’t fight for ourselves because nice girls don’t. Of course we don’t. Ambitious men are driven. Ambitious women are bitches. No stereotypes there. It’s embarrassing how slowly we change. Of course, advertising isn’t unique. .Many industries think like ours. And women’s progress is slow everywhere. The systems of business were created by men and large numbers of women in the workforce is a comparatively new phenomenon. In the past, if women wanted to succeed they behaved like men. Now, 60% of the students graduating from universities are women. They are the new intellectual capital and they’re not so willing to change. Every day, there are articles about how business is trying to become more liveable, more humane in order to keep the best employees. A lot of those employees are now women. Sabbaticals, training, heck, even yoga, are making their way into the halls of corporate life – or what I might call nouveau corporate life. It dares to suggest that you can succeed in business without giving everything else up. Nancy has a child. So do I. And Judy John.and Karen Howe. None of our kids is in reform school. We have good lives. It hasn’t gotten in the way of our progress. I think we deserve credit for that, but our agencies deserve it, too. They’ve created environments where women can do well. To some degree, they’ve allowed us to design our own jobs; Nancy and I work together so we don’t short-change our agency or our families; Judy works hand in hand with her president and has defined the particular conditions that allow her to be a good creative director and a good mom. Her agency is strong; Karen’s CEO, Mark Weisbarth, is a born feminist and proud of it. Elspeth Lynn and Lorraine Tao started their own shop with the highly-evolved Andy Macauley. Their agency is a rocket. I don’t know, but it’s possible that, though there aren’t many of us, our small Canadian community can boast more female CDs than anywhere on the planet. We’re in a creative business and a little creative thinking was applied to make things work. These agencies didn’t fall back on hoary, old assumptions. They’ve recognized that women need different conditions to succeed and they’ve gone for it. Here are some of the things that stand in women’s way: according to Catalyst, a leading women’s research and advisory organization: a lack of mentors, exclusion from formal networks (still primarily boys’ clubs) and stereotypes and preconceptions about their abilities or commitment. I don’t accept that women aren’t as good as men nor are they less hard-working. I’d suggest that many of them work much harder since they don’t have wives at home doing things for them. The simple fact is that women can’t succeed unless someone wants them to. And so far, not enough people want that. One of the young guys who works for us said to me that he had never known there was sexism in the ad business until he heard Neil speak. But many of our business’s ad legends, Lee Clow, Steve Hayden, Kevin Roddy are certainly keenly aware as my son pointed out this morning when he said, ‘Hasn’t anybody looked at the AWNY (Advertising Women of New York) film where they interview all those big guys in drag about the sad situation of women in your business?” If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour and check it out. Most of my women friends are very successful whatever their field of endeavour. Many of them also have children. My son thought the world was run by women until he was 16 and a helpful teacher decided to enlighten him. His role models have been people of both genders working hard and doing well. He won’t make assumptions. I hope we don’t have to wait for his generation to grow up to see the world become a fairer place. Let’s all get a grip: advertising is a thinking job. It doesn’t require being tied to a desk. It can be done before breakfast, and after tucking in. What it does require is having a brain and the last time I looked women had at least as many of those as men. Oh – one last thing, when you write to tell me how wrong I am, have the guts to sign your name.