last fall, this Forbes article about the mismatch between female consumers and agency CDs caught my attention. and shocked me. did you know that women drive over 80% of purchasing decisions, yet the number of female creative directors at agencies hovers sadly around 3%? i don’t often write about work stuff here, but obviously, this is an issue close to my heart. seems pretty crazy, right? not that men can’t create work that resonates with women and vice versa, but hello? this totally does not make sense when you think about how little female creative perspective goes into so much of the work targeted to women.

why is this? i have a lot of theories that actually don’t fall far from the typical corporate story about why women don’t typically advance as quickly or to the levels men do. a lot of it has to do with decisions about family, work and communication styles and (sorry) old boy networks and status quo. and all that is probably for another post.

i feel incredibly lucky to have achieved what i have in my career. i say lucky because, well, it’s just not feminine to boast about my own talent. lols. okay, so totally not, um, at all. i say lucky, because in addition to knowing what i’m doing, i think i’ve just been at the right place at the right time quite often and had mentors (actually, mostly men) who believed in me and helped me get ahead. i don’t take lightly the responsibility of my position and over the years, have tried to help out other female creatives — with advice, a recommendation or whatever other support i could offer — whenever i could.

that’s why i’m super bummed i’m not able to attend today’s 3% MiniCon right here in Atlanta. i was asked to take part in the Speed Mentoring session, but had to decline in favor of preparing for a big client presentation tomorrow. i would have loved, not only meeting some eager young talent, but also connecting with others invested in making change and hearing some of the awesome lineup of speakers. i’m sincerely hoping everyone who does get to attend gets inspired and empowered, and that some enlightenment and change are underway. maybe they’ll need to change the conference name to 5% soon.