MIA (Mums in Ads) has today released The Part-Time Pitch, appealing to advertising agencies to join their initiative to help retain women in the industry, by making all advertised job roles classified as full-time/part-time negotiable as standard.
The campaign comes off the back of 2022 statistics, unearthed by Advertising Council Australia’s (ACA) Create Space Census, revealing an underrepresentation of women in senior roles and a sharp decline in women’s participation in the advertising industry from the age of 35.
Julia Spencer, co-founder MIA, said: “We think it’s no coincidence that the age women begin to leave advertising coincides with the age where child-caring responsibilities are at their peak. By better supporting women to not only stay, but thrive, during these spicy years of motherhood, our industry will start to see the gender imbalances in leadership begin to even out.”
Added Spencer: “We know that 77 per cent of women in Australia are mothers and that 69 per cent of part-time workers in Australia are women. So by advertising job roles as full-time only, as our industry currently does as standard, we are putting in place a barrier that shuts down conversations and shuts out women – and the findings of the Create Space Census reflect this.”
MIA’s part-time pitch deck was sent to agency leaders and HR representatives from over 50 Australian agencies with the aim to have them commit to making all advertised jobs listed as full-time/part-time negotiable as standard – in a bid to remove barriers for working mothers and open up conversations to an even wider pool of talent.
Says Regina Stroombergen, co-founder MIA: “We strongly believe that by having agencies commit to purposeful changes, like the simple language change propositioned in The Part-Time Pitch, advertising will truly become that pioneering place of inclusivity that it strives to be – future-proofing our industry and leaving ladders down for the next generation of talent.”
Added Stroombergen: “With more people wanting more flexible employment, and increasingly more men wanting to take on more caregiving themselves, it’s not just the mums in the advertising industry who would benefit from de-stigmatising part-time work but also dads, caregivers and anyone else who wants more balance, for whatever reason.”
Off the back of The Part-Time Pitch, MIA will be launching an online jobs board at mumsinads.com later this year, featuring all agencies that have signed on to support the initiative and the current full-time/part-time negotiable job roles they have on offer.
