What accounts for fewer women in the creative sector?

The proportion of female creative arts graduates entering creative occupations is now at its highest in the past five years, and the gender gap has narrowed slightly, though it still clearly exists.

The latest figures show that 43.1 percent of female creative arts graduates in employment six months after graduation work in DCMS-defined creative occupations, compared with 49.8 percent of their male counterparts. So if girls are interested enough in the creative arts to choose one of these subjects to study at university  – and in greater numbers than boys – why do relatively few of them end up working in the industry?

According to the DCMS, the creative economy “employs a lower proportion of women than the wider UK economy with 37.1 percent of jobs in the creative industries filled by women compared to 46.9 percent in the UK as a whole”.

This is mainly due to the largest sub-sections of the creative economy being traditionally male spheres – IT, software and computer services account for around one third (31.5 percent). Not only are girls less likely to consider these careers in the first place, but working patterns in these areas do not always fit easily with raising a family, and are therefore  less appealing for women who might want to do this in the future.¹

2. There is a lack of female role models

Creative directors are overwhelmingly male (96.4 percent in 2008) and a survey by the Young Creative Council in 2016 revealed the following about young female creatives:

• 88 percent feel they lack role models
• 70 percent have never worked with a female creative director or executive creative director.

3. The impact of negative placement experiences

Work placements are a fantastic way for students to gain experience alongside their education. However, without sufficient support or preparation, female creatives can struggle when thrust into male-dominated industries:

“Hostile and robustly masculinised working cultures, embedded gender norms and constructions of the ‘creative person’ as a masculine subject were routinely encountered by young women on their placements”. These experiences can lead female graduates to decide that creative industries are not for them before they even begin their career.

4. The prevalence of self-employment in creative roles

A vast proportion of employment within the creative industries requires graduates to become self-employed and, in many instances, seek their own work as freelancers. OECD data shows that about twice as many men are self-employed in the UK as women. This may partly be because women can be more reluctant to confidently assert and advertise their own abilities.

How can universities and employers help?

There are some practical ways that universities and employers can work to encourage more female creative arts graduates to embark on creative careers:

• Positive placements– universities should ensure that student placements are conducted in safe environments where their talents and enthusiasm are likely to be nurtured and given direction rather than dampened.
• Build soft skills– alongside academic studies, creative arts students should be given opportunities to develop the soft skills necessary for working in the industry, such as assertiveness, self-promotion and confidence. In this way, graduates will be better prepared in terms of what they expect, as well as the skills that they possess.
• Provide role models– female students and graduates would benefit greatly from awareness of and contact with successful female creatives, especially those in prominent positions, such as creative directors. This could be in the form of promoting their social media accounts for students and graduates to follow, arranging one-to-one meetings, or creating mentorship programmes for these individuals to encourage and inspire young female creatives over a longer period of time. This last point is especially important for those looking to enter traditionally ‘male’ spheres, such as the IT industry. Contact with successful female creatives could also tackle the lack of soft skills among female graduates, demonstrating how and when to utilise assertiveness, confidence, resilience and self-promotion, and adequately preparing graduates for a creative career.
• Forge relationships– all these solutions require stronger relationships to be built between relevant university departments and employers for them to work together to inspire the next generation of creatives.

This campaign blog provides some great tips for employers looking to encourage female creative talent. While it’s written with the advertising industry in mind, much of the advice can be applied across the creative industries.

>>>the writer is a Marketing Communications Expert