First Name:
Shelby
Last Name:
Forsyth
Major Department:
Communication
Thesis Director:
Thomas Mueller
Date of Thesis:
May 2014
The glass ceiling has existed since women entered the workforce. But despite its formal identification and definition in the mid-1980s, the glass ceiling has yet to be broken. Women are still invisibly barred from reaching the highest positions of executive power, especially in the advertising industry. The lack of female executive artists and writers—creatives—in the advertising industry presents an opportunity to question women, the industry, and society about the glass ceiling in advertising and what can be done to break it. This study focuses on the dearth of creative women in power in advertising and seeks to find explanations and solutions to the absence of females at the top. Quantitative and qualitative research methods are used to survey 21 female creative professionals and their answers are thematically grouped in relation to existing theories and literature about the glass ceiling in creative advertising. Data analysis seeks to provide women, men, advertising agencies, and clients with the knowledge and insight to break the glass ceilings in their respective spheres to encourage the promotion and ascension of creative women in advertising. Keywords: advertising, creative, female, feminism, glass ceiling, women