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B2B Marketing magazine February 2011

You only have to attend a fewindustry events to see that, as adiscipline, B2B marketing ispopulated relatively evenly byboth male and female marketers.

This is certainly the case when youcompare it to stereotypically male careers,such as finance or IT.

There’s no lack of successful women inthe field either. This was illustrated by thefact that the winner of the coveted B2BMarketer of the Year accolade at the B2BMarketing Awards 2010 was a woman –step forward Stephanie Doyle, marketingand business development manager at lawfirm Berwin Leighton Paisner LL (BLP).

But as we all know, appearances can bedeceiving. Have we really achieved genderequality in B2B marketing? And do thestatistics back up such promisingindicators?

A level playing field?According to Paul Sykes, managing directorat specialist recruiter Michael PageMarketing, the answer is a firm yes.

“Looking at the placements we make,there just isn’t a gender divide,” he says.“Marketing has become more measurableand people are being judged on results, sothe opportunities are there whether you aremale or female.”

The statistics, at first glance, back upthis argument. The Chartered Institute ofMarketing’s (CIM) membership base, for

example, demonstrates a largely even splitbetween the genders, with a very slightskew, in fact, towards women: 50.5 percent of its current members are female and49.5 per cent are male.

Yet the gender gaps within thememberships of the Institute of DirectMarketing (IDM) and The MarketingSociety are not quite so negligible, withboth at 60/40, and the skew towards malemembers. Delving a little deeper, there areother areas where women remain under-represented, too.

Firstly, the CIM has two types ofmember; studying and professional. Thegroup that is studying is much moredensely populated by females than theprofessional group, at 61.6 per cent versus43 per cent respectively. This could be apositive sign that rather than women failingto fulfil potential in their careers, there arein fact many highly motivated and skilledfemale marketers due to emerge fromformal training courses. However, there isalso evidence of some disparity betweenthe numbers of men and women atmarketing director level and their levels ofremuneration at this stage of seniority.

According to the CIM’s Croner RewardsSurvey 2010, the median basic pay forwomen was £65,000 versus £75,000 formen at the same level. Moreover, only onein three marketing directors whoresponded to this survey was a woman,whereas women from all job grades made

up 69 per cent of the total respondents. Inaddition, out of the IDM’s entiremembership base, 72 per cent of thosewith director in their title are men.

Why are there less women at marketingdirector or board level, even though thereis a predominance of women undertakingformal studies to support a successfulcareer in marketing?

It’s a controversial question, but manysuccessful female B2B marketers believethat the issue has something to do withwomen leaving their careers or takingbreaks to have children. According toAmanda Rendle, HSBC’s global head ofmarketing and propositions, commercialbanking, “It’s a fact that women tend to domore childcare. What turns women off isthat they get tired of wrestling withchildren and then trying to do a job. I’veseen so many good women walk awaybecause they get tired.”

Flexible workingRendle, however, has three children herselfand says that she managed to juggle careerand a family by championing flexibleworking patterns. Modern technologies aremaking it easier to be flexible, she says.

Shane Redding, director at Cyance, setup her own limited company after havingher second child, so that she could enjoymore flexibility in her working patterns.She now holds a variety of non-executivedirectorships, is a lecturer at the IDM, and

UNIQUE CODE: 07:12:22,23,24B2BMFeb 2011

Unlike other business functions, the gender gap in B2B marketing is far less distinct. Lucy Fisher investigates the stats, stereotypes and success stories of women in marketing

GIRL POWER

Vox pop: B2B survival –does gender matter?

Ewa Johnson, head of marketingcommunications, Vodafone Global Enterprise:“Women naturally think about a number ofdifferent things at a given time, with aninherent ability to see these from end-to-end.This includes seeing the consequences ofactions taken and instinctively planningcontingencies.”

Stephanie Doyle, marketing and businessdevelopment manager, Berwin LeightonPaisner LLP:“Good people want to work with good peopleand it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female.The only way to negate the sexism is tosucceed on your merit.”

Amanda Jobbins, vice president, Europeanmarketing, Cisco:“In B2B, you can still count the number ofwomen in the top marketing role on onehand, even though the marketing teams havea high proportion of women overall.

I think this is typically because in B2Bwomen do not spread their knowledge tolearn enough about the technical side of thebusiness, and instead limit themselves to thepure communications aspects of marketing.”

Claire Macland European head of marketingAvaya

Just look at the number ofwomen compared to mendoing science subjects at A-level, and the numbersdoing computing and engineering degrees. I think most of this is conditioning

a consultant at Think Direct. She believesthat up to marketing manager level, there isa fairly even split of men and women inB2B marketing, but admits that at boardlevel she is in a minority. However, shethinks this is less to do with whether or notwomen choose to have children, and moreto do with the choices that people at bothends of the hiring process make in general.

“It’s not about lack of opportunity now,”she says. “I find sometimes women hit abarrier that they may perceive as sexist,when in fact they may lack a skills set, orthey may decline a promotion because theyare not prepared to work 100-hour weeks.”

Redding believes that a career inmarketing often allows a high degree offlexibility and agrees that recent movestowards greater flexibility in workingconditions, especially in large companies,will improve choice for everyone, and thatthis may help eradicate what is left of anygender divide.

A good educationOther successful female B2B marketersbelieve that any remaining gender gapwithin the industry is due in large part tosocial conditioning, education choices andexpectations.

Claire Macland, European head ofmarketing for networking firm Avaya,agrees that there is a lot more equalitywithin the marketing space compared toareas such as finance, legal and medicine.However she says that in her experience,there is a divide within B2B technologymarketing in terms of a higher percentageof men in more technical roles, such asproduct marketing, and women in events,or as brand leads, or in field marketingroles.

“I think this is due to education choices.It’s a reflection of the background theyhave,” she says. “Thirteen productmarketers work for me at Avaya, and onlyone is a woman. However, in fieldmarketing I have 20 people, and themajority are women – there are only fourmen in this function.”

In creative areas, Macland thinkswomen are probably equally represented,as the decision as to who gets placed inthese roles tends to be not so dominated byeducation choices. But she suspects thatshe sees more men in heavily strategic oranalytical roles because they come from astats background, “Just look at the numberof women compared to men doing sciencesubjects at A-level, and the numbers doingcomputing and engineering degrees. I thinkmost of this is conditioning.”

Both Macland and BLP’s Doyle pointout that they are speaking in very generalterms, but add that they have seen manywomen ending up in certain types ofmarketing roles having proved that they are

hyper-organised and good at multi-taskingin various support roles. This allows themto make the move from admin orsecretarial to marketing functions such asevents management. A key piece of advicefrom successful female B2B marketers is toremember that the types of roles peoplechoose, from very early stages, have a hugeimpact on where their careers can go. Youvery rarely see a marketing director whohas come up from an events managementbackground, but somebody in productmarketing or management could oftenbecome a marketing director, they say.

So, rather than claiming that male andfemale brains are wired differently, someargue that old stereotypes have hard-wiredmen and women to make certain choices –and that newer, emerging marketing roles,unfortunately, might reflect the same socialand behavioural patterns.

Macland fears that the explosion of digitalmedia and social marketing is unlikely tomake any significant difference to this.Although she sees just as many women asmen in roles focusing on these new andemerging channels – and believes that thefragmentation into technology, analysis andcreative roles hasn’t happened yet – shebelieves that, when this happens, we’ll seea similar split. “I think people will fall intosimilar choices. That’s a shame,” she says.

The Mars vs Venus debateWhether or not men and women differ interms of their innate capabilities remainsan area of contention. Other highlysuccessful female B2B marketers believethat men and women boast differing – andoften complementary – innate capabilities.Debbie Williams, chair of the IDM’s B2BCouncil, says that she is seeing successfulfemales come in and translate the technicalinto practical value propositions which arecompelling for the customer.

She believes there are somefundamental female attributes that workreally well within marketing, such as goodcommunication skills, intuition, patienceand tenacity. These qualities are reallyimportant in a B2B environment with longsales cycles and various stakeholders, shesays. “We’ve moved away from a traditionalhard sell. Look at the explosion of socialmedia and digital media. A CMO needs tobe able to create a dialogue withcustomers. Females can be veryempathetic, which is useful when you’redealing with diverse teams andstakeholders, too.”

Experts agree that today’s marketerneeds such a rounded blend of skills thatso-called gender skills hardly matter. Dataanalysis, for example, involves both the leftand right side of the brain; mathematicalsegmentation is just as important asinsightful interpretation. And marketingremains a developing science, too. “Overthe years, it has changed,” says HSBC’sRendle. “DM used to be seen as separateand it was more about advertising andcommunications. You get more roundedmarketers now, and you need many stringsto your bow.”

Pride and prejudiceTo routinely assume that there aredifferences between men and women is toperhaps reinforce longstanding prejudice. One thing that is clear is whether or notyou believe there are certain gender skills,the number of successful women we see inB2B marketing today proves that we are nolonger prisoners of our sex. A successfulmarketer today has so many areas in whichto prove themselves and there are noinsurmountable barriers to either genderachieving their true potential.

UNIQUE CODE: 07:12:22,23,24B2BMFeb 2011

24 Cover story

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B2B Marketing magazine Febrauary 2011

Five top tips: Howwomen marketers cansupercharge their careers

1. Be strategic in the types of role that youchoose. Ensure your CV includes roles that aredirectly aligned with business strategy, ratherthan solely execution, creative orcommunications roles. 2. Be seen as an equal. Don’t be afraid ofroles that interface heavily with traditionallymale-dominated discipline such as IT sales.3. Learn new skills. Don’t underestimate theimportance of formal education or networkingopportunities. Ensure that you have sufficientdigital or online marketing skills. 4. Get savvy to ROI. Demonstrate that youunderstand how marketing impacts thebottom line.5. Believe in yourself. Recognise thatpositivity, passion, and self-confidence sell.

Amanda Rendleglobal head of marketing &propositions, commercial bankingHSBC

What turns women off is thatthey get tired of wrestlingwith children and then tryingto do a job. I’ve seen so manygood women walk awaybecause they get tired