Seventeen Is Not Enough

I've often thought about how women were portrayed in advertising and how this shapes our opinions of them.  When I started my own career in marketing communications, I endeavored to always make sure that I took a critical look at our own materials with an eye toward pushing the boundaries of representation of both women and people of color.

Then, two years ago, I had the privilege of seeing Geena Davis speak at a YWCA luncheon. She talked about how the presence and portrayal of women in the media has some very interesting parallels to how women fare in the real world. 

She spoke about how the media has helped to subconsciously shape our reality. Women make up 50% of the global population, and yet the US has only achieved 20 percent female representation in Congress and women also make up only 16.9 percent of Fortune 500 corporate board seats. 

Now, consider this: on average, women and girls make up only 17 percent of crowd scenes in popular films -- and we've been conditioned to think this is normal. This is why on so many of your favorite shows, we don't think twice when most of the lead characters are men. And it's why, when we look around our own offices and website "our executive team" listings, we're not surprised to see four men (or more) for every woman.

This is how I came up with the title of this blog: Seventeen is not Enough. Well, that and the fact that pretty much every possible blogspot URL has been taken already.

I'll be writing reviews of ads, corporate videos, websites, and other media with an eye toward raising awareness of the portrayal and presence of women and people of color in them. If you're doing something similar, let me know and I'll cross promote your blog, too.