Persistent Accountability: Struck’s April 2017 Diversity Update
Another round of numbers and words in our ongoing commitment to diversity—and public accountability.
The Numbers
For the first time since we started doing this, we have good news across the board. The number of women in our agency has increased and the percentages broken down by department/group are up as well. If you’d like to track the progress of the last couple years, here are a few links:
Portland 3% Mini-Conference
April 2016
October 2016
Dear Kat
And here’s our semiannual report, a staff breakdown by role and location (with the numbers from last October as a point of reference)—
Obviously, the biggest thing to note is that we’re still tracking very binary, very basic information. I love what the folks over at August are doing. Their team is smaller, but the model they use for diversity allows for a more flexible and comprehensive analysis—including nationality, military service, economic background, and other elements of identity. Their state of the union also sets a high standard for transparency. It’s worth checking out if you’re interested in accountability and transformation. Everything they do is open-source, so I’m hoping that we can adopt/adapt (steal!) some of what they’re doing.
The Words
As always (and especially with such a small sample size), the numbers are only a part of what happens in an agency like Struck. Here are some less-quantitative highlights from the last six months.
- We were active advocates/allies/participants in the Day Without A Woman protests/activities. And some of our women wrote wonderful things about their experiences: A #DWAW Recap.
- Inspired by Pledge Parental Leave, Struck adopted a new parental leave policy. And we’ve already had two employees enjoy the benefit. Look at these babies! Seb and Carter.
- And, of course, our talent/recruiting team has been amazing in finding more diverse candidates. Of our five most recent hires, four have been women. Each one of them is fantastic in their own way, proof that emphasizing diversity has never made an organization less powerful.
Finally, there’s always more to do. Gender diversity is only the beginning. This year’s 3% Conference will push beyond its origins to examine much more than the lack of women in advertising’s creative leadership. If we want to keep up, we’ll have to do the same.
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