Agency: McCann
Client: State Street Global Advisors
This statue of a fearless girl appeared on Wall Street on the eve of International Women’s Day. The marketing stunt is designed to draw attention to the fact that companies who place females in positions of leadership, perform better financially. Not only this, but the campaign asks companies round the world to take steps to increase the number of women on their boards. You can read more about the campaign here.
On a more personal note, it seems strange that in 2017, we need to create PR stunts to convince companies to take these steps. However looking back on my short career, I realise why we still need them.
So far, I have:
- worked at 3 companies where women made up less than 15%
- worked at 2 companies with an all-male board
- attended senior management meetings and been the only woman in the room
- attended middle management meetings and been the only woman in the room
- worked at a company where I was always, the only woman in the room
- realised that 37% of my MBA class were women
- realised that none of my clients have been a wholly-female owned and run company
- noticed that it is 2017 and there are no women on either of these lists
- the second list is a global list, comprising of fairly new, tech-orientated companies
- recently read this story about a year at Uber – another fairly young company
- read this just-published article about how sexism in tech is a feature, not a bug
I love this statue, it’s a powerful and necessary symbol and the city should choose to keep it there indefinitely.
