Where Are All The Women In Digital Media?

“I walked into the cocktail reception and I swore I was at a bachelor party.”

Elaine Kunda, CEO of The Grindstone’s parent company, B5 Media, said this in her description of the cocktail party for the recent Annual Digital Summit Conference hosted by Digiday, the media company and community for professionals who work in the digital media, marketing and advertising industry. Elaine said the conference, which was held in Bonita Springs, Fla., was overloaded with males. At the cocktail reception she said there seemed to be only 15 women mixed in with the 100-plus male attendees. Out of 38 speakers, Elaine was also the only female to have her photo appear in the speaker list for the three-day conference. This unbalanced attendee ratio led us to wonder, where are all the women in digital media?

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Women were absolutely not excluded from the event, according to the Digiday team. Many were invited, they just didn’t show up. But Elaine as well as Andrea Miller, founder and CEO of YourTango.com and Tara Schmitt, Senior Vice President of Sales for SheKnows, did show up and spoke on a panel called “Publishing for Women, By Women.” Though there may have been some fear that the mostly male audience would not be interested in women’s content, according to audience feedback the panel was one of the most well-received. “I thought the panel was one of the best we had at the conference, and showcased three powerful business women as both professionals as well as their “girlie” side. They all spoke intelligently about all aspects of the digital publishing ecosystem, and seamlessly drifted into the softer side of women’s content, making the moderator, Mike Shields, blush on more than one occasion,” said Corey Kronengold, Content Director for Digiday. Andrea Miller agreed that the panel was very strong. “It was lively and entertaining plus it offered many useful insights into this space. We had quite a few very good questions from the audience, which is a sign of engagement. Of the many take aways, the biggest one is probably: Watch Out Old Media!”

Despite the success of the panel, there were few other females on the stage – or the audience. “They [Digiday] want to be inclusive and it was such a well-run conference. It was really unfortunate for Digiday that more women didn’t come,” said Elaine. Miller agreed that it was a great conference and she gives them kudos for squeezing in a ton of speakers and providing plenty of networking time. She felt that the lack of women was due to the conference’s heavy emphasis on advertising technology.  “Ad tech companies were the main sponsors and so it makes sense that the attendees were mostly men as continue to dominate all things tech and certainly are the main constituents of DSPs, SSPs, Data Managers, Exchanges, etc. If there was greater emphasis on content, social media and/or direct ad sales, there would have been a larger female audience.”

Elaine and some of the Digiday staff discussed some possible strategies for getting more women involved in the conference – like making the event for free for women. But at the same time she believes making these exceptions for women may deter conferences like this from attracting women of a certain caliber. “This isn’t a happy hour. They want the right kind of women to come to these things.” Corey said he thinks the gender imbalance, especially at the longer summits, may be due to the life balance issue. “I don’t have any statistical data as to why, but I’d guess that women are doing a better job of balancing their careers with their families than men do. I suspect that the women are saying, “Why don’t you go?” to their colleagues, while the men are saying, “Three days of golf away from the wife and kids? Where do I sign up?”  But again, thats just a guess.”

He said Digiday will be making a conscious effort to invite more women to their events. “We’ve been working with other trade groups, like Women in Wireless, to co-present panels, and that has been very good for getting more women on stage. Partnering with other trade and networking organizations to offer discounts to their members is one option we’re exploring as well. But we’re committed to making sure that we have as diverse a lineup of speakers as possible, and that goes beyond just focusing on women.” He added that Liz Schimel, Chief Digital Officer of Meredith National Media, was supposed to be a keynote speaker at the summit but had to cancel and was replaced with someone with a Y chromosome.

And the right kind of women are out there. There may be more men in the field but women in digital media are making a big impact. From Arianna Huffington, Tina Brown, Elizabeth Spiers, Anna Wintour and Janet Robinson, there are more women doing a great job with media properties than ever. And it’s time conferences put some effort into making sure they appear at events.

Creating digital content for women is so important because women are the ones really driving the trends. On a worldwide basis, women spend 8% more time on the Internet than men. They go online 58 times per month on average, more than the 54 times per month for men. They also spend about 4 minutes more per day online than men (82 minutes vs. 78 minutes). Plus events like this are opportune times for women to network – something women tend to do less of. Building relationships through networking can help land clients, find mentors or finesse deals. Across industries, approximately 80% of job openings are filled through word-of-mouth referrals. Groups like AWNY (advertising women of NY), Women in Wireless and Ladies Who Launch are all great networking groups for women and can help them move up the digital media business ladder. Women in digital media have an upper hand in knowing what speaks to women in terms of content but they need to show up for events. At the least to remind everyone in their industry of how good they are at their jobs.

Photo: Gemenacom/Shutterstock.com