Mad (Wo)Men: How Female Creative Leaders in Advertising Resisted a Male-Dominated Leadership Culture
Public Deposited- Creator
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Tackett, Teresa
- Affiliation: Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Mass Communication Graduate Program
- Abstract
- This dissertation features a multi-method study of women advertising leaders to examine gender roles, corporate social advocacy, and activism happening across the advertising industry. I aimed to understand how women negotiated their path to a creative leadership position in advertising agencies as a result of professionalized and marketized social movements. I drew from a variety of theoretical frameworks, including social movements theory, corporate social advocacy, and liberal feminism to aid in contextualizing the social phenomena that are occurring across the industry regarding activism and outcomes related to women’s advancement in creative departments. First, I drew from the “professionalization of social movements” to better understand how advocacy organizations like the 3% Movement were legitimized across the advertising industry. Second, I conceptualized the “marketization of social movements” and argue that Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Social Advocacy are mechanisms of a larger, single construct: “Corporate Social Performance.” Finally, I used this framework to explore the tension between the “professionalization” and “marketization” of social movements and outcomes across the highly gendered advertising industry. I conducted semi-structured interviews and collected participant-driven timelines with women advertising leaders to draw theoretical and practical conclusions regarding how gender bias has produced inequities at the leadership level in creative department in advertising agencies, which presented an opportunity for the professionalization of social movements across the advertising industry. Professionalized social movements like the 3% Movement exist because of the pervasive gender bias in creative departments, and the movement’s mobilization of industry leaders and framing of the issue as a business case puts added pressure on the advertising industry to respond to inequities. This presented an opportunity for the marketization of social movements across the advertising industry. When advertising agencies responded to these calls for change with statements promising to empower and advance women in creative departments, agency leaders developed Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Social Advocacy initiatives to fortify their intentions. As a result of agencies engaging in these Corporate Social Performance efforts, I examined whether women creative leaders interpreted advertising agencies’ response as authentic or performative, aiding in the advancement of theory in this area. Liberal feminism supported my analysis to help explain how women perceived barriers to attaining leadership roles in a male-dominated industry. This dissertation contributes to the literature in understanding how social movements can be leveraged to influence industry-wide outcomes related to social change. I add an examination of power and authenticity to definitions of Corporate Social Advocacy, as well as critiquing Corporate Social Advocacy definitions that center on controversy. As a result, this dissertation advances our understanding of social movements, both professionalized and marketized, as related to institutions through the lens of liberal feminism, bringing the theoretical frameworks into conversation with each another and articulating how the constructs work together in the context of the social movement outcomes.
- Date of publication
- 2022
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
- Advisor
- Austin, Lucinda
- Friedman, Barbara
- McGuigan, Lee
- Andrews, Kenneth
- Overton, Holly
- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
- Graduation year
- 2022
- Language
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- Parents:
This work has no parents.
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