There have been many attempts to tackle the gender imbalance in ad agency creative departments but Ali Hanan’s Creative Equals is really getting things done. Hanan started Creative Equals in 2015 with a mission to create 50/50 gender diverse creative departments at UK agencies. Its charter asks agencies to sign up to a list of commitments, including tackling the gender pay gap, putting female creatives on gender diverse accounts and creating positive, aspirational images of women. Included among its supporters are WPP’s Global Chief Creative Officer John O’Keeffe and two of our Creative Leaders 50 – Duan Evans of AKQA and James Temple at R/GA.


creativeequals.org

Hanan wrote a piece for Creative Review about why the creative industries need to have a better system in place to help mothers return to work.
If you do a Google Image search for ‘advertising creative director’, this is what comes up. It’s the ‘face’ of the industry: white, male, in black T-shirts. But does it have to be this way? Hanan offers five practical suggestions for how we can get more women to the top.