18 out of 150 digital agencies in the North headed by women

The hierarchies of digital agencies in the North of England are dominated by men, with just 18 out of 150 run by women, found a survey by recruitment firm The Candidate.

In the region, twice as many men currently work in the sector than women – with the total number of employees reaching 4173.

The survey found that 441 women occupy management roles, compared with 1131 men.

At senior management level, just 18 out of the 150 businesses involved in the research were headed up by women.

“We know there is a lack of professionals with digital skills, especially in the North, but we wanted to find out whether a gender gap might be a contributing factor,” explained Brian Matthews, managing partner at The Candidate.

“What we discovered in our findings, is that we could potentially be alienating women, and discouraging them from taking up a career in digital – thus missing out on a big proportion of talent.”

The research suggested that ‘soft skill’ jobs tend to be favoured by women, with the top three roles being in marketing and social media (27%), public relations and communications (18%), and account management (14%).