If that statistic doesn’t stop you in your tracks, you might be part of the problem.
The 2025 Women in Media report paints the picture we all feel but rarely name: women are not just tired. They’re disillusioned.
Fifty-nine percent are dissatisfied with their careers. More than a third are ready to leave. Eight in ten say nothing’s changed since Respect@Work. And mid-career women, those in the thick of juggling ambition, caregiving, and survival, are the most disheartened of all.
As someone who leads a purpose-driven media agency, I can tell you, this isn’t just a “people issue.”
It’s a performance issue.
When culture erodes, so does creativity. When women are sidelined, underpaid, or treated as a risk rather than a resource, your business loses more than talent. It loses truth, perspective, ideas that could have shifted the brief entirely.
We can’t tell powerful, inclusive stories if we’re replicating the very power dynamics we claim to challenge.
I learned that the hard way. When I became a mother, the career progression I’d experienced less than 18-months earlier was taken away from me. I returned to work after being asked when my son was just 19 weeks old. I took client calls while on maternity leave, I worked while he slept. There was hardly any understanding, just expectations and assumptions.
That moment drove me to build Equality Media + Marketing from scratch. Not just as a business, but as a cultural rebellion. In 2022, we implemented Equality Time, a four-day week at full pay. No catch. Just a belief that people do their best work when they’re respected, rested, and supported.
Since then, we’ve seen a 14% increase in gross profit, 85% staff retention, and a 23% rise in project volume. Not in spite of our culture, because of it.
Creating systemic change in an organisation presents challenges, but is not impossible.
Because while some are leaning into structural reform, others are regressing.
We watched WPP mandate four days in-office, a move guaranteed to punish caregivers, who are disproportionately women. We saw a top list of “leading creatives” that barely included a woman. As if talent and testosterone were interchangeable.
The truth? It’s not that women aren’t rising. It’s that the system keeps pushing them down, then asking why they’re sitting.
And the question that keeps me up at night isn’t why are they leaving? It’s this: What campaigns, ideas, or breakthrough creative are being lost because the women who would have led them walked away?
Respect at work isn’t a luxury. It’s the floor.
Psychological safety isn’t a HR trend. It’s a productivity lever.
And gender equality isn’t a side project. It’s a business imperative.
So here’s my challenge to every leader, client, and campaign award judge out there:Don’t ask where the women went. Ask: what did you do to keep them?
Visibility is great. Accountability is better.
Don’t launch a “progressive” campaign if your agency has regressed.
And don’t expect the best work from burnt-out, boxed-in women.
We are 51% of the population. We carry three times the unpaid load. We’re managing your brands and building your bottom line.
We’re not asking for favours. We’re demanding parity.
Because if only 1% of women believe this industry is walking the talk? The time for talking is over.
Article posted on Adnews, by Marilla Akkermans, Founder & Managing Director, Equality Media + Marketing
