And Now a Word From the Media
I wanted to write a long and erudite post today about the history of women in the media and the media on women. But the hour is late and the task far larger than I can do with full justice. For the bigger picture, let me refer you to:
- the Women’s Media Center for stats that will knock your socks off and so will their programs to fix the imbalances,
- WIMN for Jenn Pozner’s smart and specific media criticism and a lively group blog
- Media Matters excellent reporting on media treatment of women
- FAIR’s Women’s Desk
- This website that has documented both sung and (mostly) unsung media women through history
In 1970, Time Magazine published this article entitled “Liberating Women”.
“Leaders of the women’s liberation movement have shown a penchant for oddball causes—from ban-the-bras to communal child rearing—that leave many women cold. Now the liberationists have trained their ire on a new target: the distorted image of women in advertisements. And this time the militants are gaining wide support among women. Agency executives are understandably concerned, partly because women are by far the biggest buyers of packaged goods,” the article began. It proceded to catalogue women’s complaints, from women being depicted as servile ditzes to being used as sex objects to sell toothpaste.
The women who called out these offenses to the the “admen”–but of course they were all ad men at the time–we’ve all seen “30 Rock”, haven’t we–were referred to as “militants” because they had the audacity to seek some media justice through the inherently political means of organizing and applying pressure.
And in our grassroots organizing lesson for the day, the article concluded that despite the revolutionary nature of the change being sought, these admen discovered they might just have to come with their most radical ad idea ever:
INTENTIONING
Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good
The new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.
But some executives in the business believe that they ultimately will have to take account of the feminine protest. “In advertising,” says Dr. Robert Wachsler, a psychologist on the BBDO staff, “we will have to show women less as women and more as people.”
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.