There is an “almost perfect” gender diversity split across the advertising industry, but agencies must take more steps to achieve gender parity within the walls of creative shops and at C-suite level according to the Institute Practitioners in Advertising’s (IPA) 2016 Diversity Study.

This year the IPA and Campaign magazine received responses from 131 agencies including 98 creative agencies.

In creative agencies 51% of roles were occupied by males, while 49% were occupied by females. Within the creative c-suite just 31% of roles were taken up by women.

However, the findings showed that in media agencies 53% of employees are female, yet c-suite roles filled by women are at 29%.

Across all agencies questioned, the IPA found that there was a “marginal” male to female average salary gap, but there was never more than a 1.6% difference between the genders in terms of average percentage of staff compared to the average percentage of salaries.

The IPA’s ‘Make the Leap’ initiative invites companies to pledge to a series of industry-wide targets, including 40% female representation in senior positions by 2020 and a dedication to eliminating unconscious bias through training.

A recent Diversity Census by The Drum indicated that over a third of respondents had experienced discrimination in the workplace during their careers. The qualitative findings suggested this was due to assumptions being made about an individual based on their gender, personal characteristics or background.

The Census also found that the industry is predominantly white with 85% of respondents identifying as such.

(Words: Rebecca Stewart,  The Drum)

Read more (stats, diagrams, interviews etc) on Campaign website