There are more and more women in marketing. But why? Simple: they are good at it. Of course, many of the more skeptical may say it’s because “they can.” They say the field is more open to women, unlike engineering and finance.
A convincing case is made by Patricia Hume — Global Vice President responsible for all marketing, sales, service and operations for Avaya’s Small and Medium Business market segment who rose the professional ranks in the male-dominated IBM during the 1990’s — who says in an interview in MarketingProfs this week http://www.marketingprofs.com women are more emotional and emotive, and that gives us a creative flair, so critical for success in marketing.
In addition, she asserts, research shows women are better than men at multi-tasking, so important because marketing “crosses many areas within the business and there are a lot of balls that you have to juggle at once in order to be a really successful marketer.”
True enough, as I have learned working for and with women during my 28 years in marketing.
Roy Young BIO
03.28.06
True enough that the discipline of marketing is dominated by more women than other professions, but if we’re so much better at it, why aren’t there more women in top marketing positions? It seems to me (and maybe I am jaded) that the big marketing and advertising firms are still run and/or owned by men. The fairly new CMO positions that are filled or are newly created on a daily basis are just as likely to be filled by a man than by a woman. Is it because there are less women in the work force than men (I doubt it) or is it because society hasn’t really caught up with the Women’s Movement, or is slow in realizing the creative potential of women in this capacity? I, for one, would be proud to claim marketing as a woman-dominated profession. As Patricia Hume of Avaya put it in her interview, “Marketing can make or break a business. [It's the] difference between a good company and a great company.” I look forward to having more successful women-driven companies in the near future. Jamie Barrios, On the Ball Marketing
If the top marketing positions today are still filled by men.. that shouldn’t be the case much longer. The multi-tasking/multi-sensing/relational way women’s brains work lends itself to the creative and collaborative challenges inherent in marketing. Plus, according to what books like The Future of Men or A Whole New Mind say – how women tend to make decisions and communicate will become the new standard. In A Whole New Mind, in particular, the six essential abilities people will need in this emerging conceptual age, according to Daniel Pink, include right brain strengths that already come more naturally for connecting/”it all matters” women: story, empathy and meaning.
I think Jamie and the rest of us will soon see all those successful women-driven companies! Look out.
Effectivement, je confirme. Je suis une simple petite assistante marketing et mon histoire ressemble un peu à celle d’Emma, Héroïne du roman ‘Can you keep a secret’ de Sophie KINSELLA …
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Tant que les hommes rechercheront à rationnaliser le marketing et à vouloir en faire une science exacte et dupliquer sans fin des modèles qui ‘fonctionnent ‘ et permettent d’atteindre le ROI, alors le marketing ne fonctionnera pas
Well, nice content to talk about.
I will try to give another perspective that I experienced and also learned from my women partners.
Therefore any predefined “women are better at…” or “men are better at…” makes little to me personally. Each individual can be good or bad for certain job.
And ussually women tend to sell them with the same, gentle and emotional touch. Which can be wrong. Men mostly know better what men want and like.
What I like mostly about this case and show my point – team work is the best. The final advertisment was interesting for men and women – http://www.kainoto.com/Li_air_concept.jpg
Enough, I wrote too much. 
First, I think we need to understand there is no men and women, we’re all somewhere between. So actually predefined sex in your personal ID doesn’t mean anything. It only shows what you might be looking like in certain body part.
On the other hand, speaking of women position in marketing, I think they’re better mostly because they know how bigger part of market makes decisions. It is known that women are actually spenders of “home budget”. And the more money in the house, the more women spend. And noone know better how women think then women. Rarely can a man know (and feel) it so well, unless he has some neccessary femine gens.
But that doesn’t mean women are to lead marketing. There are still some men out there that buy things.
So my opinion is that it is not up to sex, who is better for any job in marketing. It is up to how good you understand customer. If that means knowing women, then it is up to who know women better. If it is about investments, then it is about who knows investors better.
That’s also my experience in some cases. Just few weeks ago we did an advertisment for a flight school. A women from the client wanted a photo of sky and a slogan “It is a pleasure to fly”. I wanted a photo of good looking women and slogan “Women like uniforms”. Of course, target group was men.
The slogan is “Flying is passion”.
So, I think we shell not discuss if this is a male or female business, but to give it a team work.