SeeHer, the global gender equality initiative within the ANA that champions the positive representation of women, announced today a campaign that rallies the marketing and media industry to change the current trajectory of gender equality by pledging to include one or more of the Gender Equality Measure (GEM) Suite of Tools into their practice.
Timed to launch at the start of Women’s History Month, SeeHer’s “Pledge to Embed” campaign is designed to recognize the impact that marketing and media have on the accurate portrayal of women in media and advertising, and the urgent need for these industries to make actionable change. Recent studies by SeeHer have documented that gender equality across the entire marketing ecosystem is a consumer expectation, with 90% of adults agreeing that media is critical in shaping gender roles. Yet only 16% of women feel that they are usually portrayed accurately.
“Using Women’s History Month to launch the pledge is intentional, however this is a 24/7, 365- day-a-year business imperative,” said Christine Guilfoyle, President of SeeHer. “This will enable the industry to not only remove gender bias, but also drive business growth and tap into the $31.5 trillion in consumer spending controlled by women. We encourage the industry to use SeeHer’s GEM Suite of Tools by targeting consumers that in the past have not felt seen, heard, and valued. The time is now to take action.”
SeeHer offers the industry GEM®, the first data-driven methodology that quantifies gender bias in ads and programming. Considered the global measurement standard on gender equality, ads with positive GEM® scores have been found to drive purchase intent by 42% among consumers. Multi-dimensional portrayals of women have been shown to increase brand ROI by 500% versus stereotypical portrayals.
For more information or to sign the pledge, please visit this page.
