UPDATED 14:00 EDT / AUGUST 24 2016

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Catapulting more women into leadership roles, a micro-step at a time | #WomenInTech

Regardless of the industry, women are still lagging behind men when it comes to leadership positions.

One woman who is championing inclusion for females in leadership roles in the creative field is Kat Gordon, founder of The 3% Conference and advertising creative director. She developed The 3% Movement Manifesto: Diversity = Creativity = Profitability.

Gordon joined Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), cohost of the theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, to talk about the inequity in women leadership roles and her movement to change the dynamic for all women in all industries one “micro-step” at a time. Gordon is this week’s theCUBE Women In Tech featured guest.

What is the 3% Conference?

The interview began with Gordon outlining why she began the conference. She explained it was born out of frustration of dealing with the “Mad Men” stereotype within the advertising industry.

“I launched it in 2012, and the number three percent refers to how many creative directors and ad agencies at the time were [led by] females. So out of 100 percent of creative directors, only three percent were women. The reason that it just bugged me for a long time was because I knew that the consumer marketplace, which advertising is supposed to motivate, is primarily female. So you have mostly these ideas that spring from a male sensibility trying to motivate a female marketplace ,and I just couldn’t understand.

“[This is] not an activist movement, not ‘I’m female and it should be different,’ [it is] kind of like business suicide. Why are we doing this? I am part of that three percent, worked as a creative director for 25 years and just could not understand why my industry did not see the imperative to put women in top leadership positions on the creative side.”

Timing and perception

Frick agreed with the lack of foresight and questioned if it is a legacy issue of people continuing with the status quo. He asked Gordon why she thinks it remains this way. Gordon cited the research and perceived gender roles play a large part of it.

“I know why it is that way because I’ve done research about it, and it’s part of a legacy problem, which you alluded to; kind of the swagger of the ‘Mad Men’ era and that a creative leader is perceived to be a dude. It’s also just a lack of support for motherhood, so a lot of women once they are able to become creative directors are normally in their childbearing years and advertising has become a very unpredictable kind life. If you don’t sell the concept in ‘meeting one,’ you’re working all weekend or you’re on a plane. It’s a difficult field to have a family.

“Another reason is the lack of mentorship and just outdated notions of what creativity looks like. So much of what we see, and we see 3,000 ads a day [every one of us, including our kids], so if you start to watch them, you will notice that there are stereotypes that keep repeating. One of the reasons women are needed is just to have a different viewpoint and breathe some fresh air into these notions of what we look like as a society.”

Creativity requires diversity

Gordon continued to provide insight into the issue by talking about the research.

“There’s tons of research from Harvard and Catalyst about diverse perspectives not only creating better ideas faster, they also result in better error detection in businesses like tech. I think one of the things that happens in advertising, if you are a creative in advertising, you are often working odd hours. And it’s almost a very intense, intimate relationship you have as a creative team.

“Art director, copywriter; so often times you work with someone you would just want to hang out with late at night and so you hire someone who looks like you. What’s sad about that is that I always say that if two people have the same kind of background then one of them is redundant in the idea-making sessions. You need that otherness. You need that discomfort.”

A fixable problem

Frick brought up the iconic Mary Wells Lawrence, who was the advertising genius behind many memorable campaigns in the ’70s and ’80s, who went unrewarded by the company she worked for at the time. He questioned why, even today, why we are still at 3 percent. Gordon did provide hope by saying we are up to 11 percent today.

“We have made a dent, which is nice. The number of female creative directors is now up to 11 percent, but there is absolutely no reason why it should not be 50 percent. Unlike tech, [which has] a pipeline problem trying to get young girls interested, there are more young women graduating from portfolio centers than young men, so I almost find that the most criminal thing about the problem I am trying to solve. We have the women, we train them, they’re skilled, they have the great portfolios and we hemorrhage them right when they are most valuable. It’s a fixable problem, which is the good news.”

Micro-action items

When asked to talk about the conference and how Gordon’s organization is taking specific steps to address the issues to help move that number, she referred to the nuclear weapon in The 3% Conference arsenal.

“We have what I call our nuclear weapon, and it’s a living document called 100 Things. And it is literally micro actions, small things that outside of advertising, tech, anywhere can implement to create more inclusive cultures. And these are things that we have witnessed through our traveling events. We’ve been to every major US city and put on an event. We’ve been to London, and we’re going to Toronto this month. So we listen to what people are saying that they need or crave; what are the programs that are creating traction?

“It’s micro actions. It’s doing micro actions with consistency. I would say that the number one thing we advocate for and we did our own research around is this. If you have 25 percent or more women in leadership in a company, all of the other women that work there tell us what they care about improved. They self-correct. The fastest way you can keep women in any company is put women into leadership.”

Watch the completed videe interview below to learn more about the organization and the upcoming 3% Conference.

Photo by SiliconANGLE

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