The Great Backslide: Are These 28 Leaders Seeing Women Lose Ground?
From defunded DE&I to AI redundancy traps, LBB’s Alex Reeves speaks to senior industry figures from around the world on the structural threats to female empowerment and how adland must push back as we approach International Women's Day 2026.
With LinkedIn feeds skewing male, DE&I budgets quietly shrinking, and return-to-office mandates squeezing working parents, there is a distinct whiff of disempowerment in the air across the creative industries. The data backs up the feeling: Kantar recently revealed that the proportion of ads featuring women in non-traditional roles halved to 4% last year. But is the industry genuinely experiencing a 'Great Backslide', or are we simply witnessing the stress-testing of fair-weather corporate principles?
To find out, we spoke to 28 leaders across adland. What emerged was a complex picture of exhaustion, intersectional hurdles, and AI-driven redundancy traps – but also a fierce, defiant pushback. While some point to the undeniable gains in flexible working and female leadership, the overwhelming consensus is that progress is fragile. Is it time to move beyond performative awareness and demand structural accountability, ensuring the fight for equality is not quietly rolled back?
Lisa Bent, HR director at Captivate Group, introduces a crucial intersectional lens that challenges the entire premise. “Are things getting worse for women in our industry? In some ways, yes. But if I’m honest, they were never equally good for all women to begin with,” Lisa asks. “When we talk about a 'backslide', my question is back from where, and for whom? As a Black woman, there's always been hurdles and shifting goal posts that have impacted me across my career, far more than algorithms. History has always shown when the economic pressure tightens, it is not women in general who feel it first, it is women at the intersections.”