Since the start of the month, our inboxes have been flooded with brands rolling out campaigns for ‘Women’s Day'. While we featured some of the best pieces of work, many went under the radar, and could be termed as 'tokenism' from a brand.

And that tokenism is just what Indian Creative Women wants to end with ‘meaningful action’ for the industry, ever since it was formed in 2017, by Sakshi Choudhary, founder of the independent forum working towards furthering diversity in creative teams across the Indian advertising and design industry.

In conversation with Manifest, in the lead story for our March issue, Choudhary, put the onus on the agencies creating those ads.

“A lot of workplaces will typically use a woman leader as a shield to talk about diversity. But what is happening beyond that person? Is there an intentional focus and system that's supporting women and their growth? Are they set up for success or designed to fail? Any diversity efforts have to happen with true intentions. A leader can't make an organisation diverse just because they're expected to. That has the danger of turning into tokenism pretty quickly." she said.

“It's ironic that our industry celebrates the most powerful Women’s Day campaigns this month but doesn't look inward to make itself more diverse. We are in the business of making ads but how are we making Women’s Day ads without women,” she asked.

In terms of changes within the workforce, Choudhary pointed out that change has been slow, but has started. “The media spotlight has traditionally gone to the standard list of CCOs. Often, some of the spotlight lists feature seven men and two women. The media has a huge responsibility, as visibility goes a long way in creating real change on this front."

While the media has to take the onus, it’s on the agencies too. If there aren’t enough leaders showcased from within agencies, media probably wouldn’t have access to them, and then there’s the case of corporate communications ‘suggesting names’ within agencies.

Responding to this, she said, “There is no dearth of good female talent. There may not be enough women chief creative officers right now, but there’s a long list of ECDs, GCDs, CDs and also exceptional creatives working in-house. I don't see much spotlight on them.”

In the print story, Choudhary also discussed why there’s a drop off in creative agencies – between the mid-level and the top.

Get the March issue of Manifest to read the full story.