Gender equality is everyone’s fight—so why is marketing at the frontline?

As another International Women's Day approaches on March 8, I find myself reflecting on this year's theme: "For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment." While the sentiment is noble, its resonance in 2025 remains more aspirational than realised.

Having lived across Australia, Europe, and Asia, I've witnessed firsthand the vast inequities that persist in women's experiences—disparities that are not merely economic or cultural but foundational to the very way societies perceive and value us. And as equality itself is increasingly treated as an ideological battleground, I find myself asking: Where does the responsibility for it truly lie?

This year also happens to mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark framework adopted by 189 governments in 1995. It remains the most progressive and widely endorsed blueprint for women's rights, addressing critical areas from economic empowerment to political participation, media representation, and the elimination of violence. The Beijing Platform set in motion key legislative victories—before 1995, only 12 countries had legal sanctions against domestic violence; today, that number stands at 193 countries with 1,583 legislative measures in place.

Gender equality has ironically become collateral damage in the endless debate over who owns it—passed around like a hot potato. It's the guest everyone wants at the party, but no one wants to entertain, because doing so requires effort, investment, and accountability. Its presence is indispensable, a marker of social clout and progressiveness; everyone wants to be seen advocating for it, but few are willing to pay the price of truly championing it.

We all claim to support gender equality—until the numbers show that it requires systemic change, financial commitment, and a recalibration of power structures. Then suddenly, we ask: Whose responsibility is it anyway? Governments are stepping back, social media platforms have passed the baton to policymakers, who in turn defer to public sentiment, which shifts the burden onto corporations. But corporations, ever mindful of their bottom line, hand it off to individuals—the very people most affected by systemic inequality.

The scale of this systemic issue is staggering. Despite robust legal protections, one in three women worldwide still experiences physical or sexual violence, with only 10% reporting their abuse. In 2024 alone, 612 million women and girls lived amidst armed conflict, a 50% increase in just a decade—a damning testament to how fragile progress remains. The data is equally grim on economic parity. Women worldwide still earn 20% less than men, most prevalently in Asia, where countries like South Korea have gender pay gaps soaring to 31%, the highest among OECD nations. Even in developed economies such as Australia, the disparity has stood as high as 18.6%. Maternity leave, a supposed safeguard for working mothers, remains underutilised due to entrenched stigma, and at the upper echelons of industry, the glass ceiling remains impervious—female leaders in industries such as finance earn nearly 30% less than their male counterparts.

Yet rather than a reckoning, we are witnessing a retreat—a quiet resignation as gender equity is deprioritised in boardrooms, media narratives, and policy agendas alike.

In this frustrating circle of deflected responsibility, the marketing and advertising industry has found itself holding the bag—expected to solve decades of systemic inequality through representation alone. Campaigns are scrutinised for diversity, casting criticised for inclusivity, messaging dissected for progressive values—as if advertising narratives alone could correct societal imbalances built over centuries. The expectation that this industry should bear the brunt of correcting these imbalances has become almost dogmatic, with scrutiny falling disproportionately on campaigns, our hiring practices, and boardrooms.

Yes, marketing wields enormous influence in shaping perceptions and challenging stereotypes. This power is acknowledged, along with its responsibilities. But there's only so much advertising can do when the underlying systems remain unchanged—it cannot operate in isolation from broader societal and public realities because its very role is to cater to and represent them. The problems of pay disparity, violence against women, and political disenfranchisement are not issues that can be solved through better representation in advertisements alone, no matter how progressive our casting or messaging might be.

To be fair, we are trying. Even in our own industry, where we pride ourselves on progress, we see meaningful efforts. In Southeast Asia, while 55% of senior leadership teams in agencies are male, and only 24% of creative directors are women, countries like the Philippines (37.46%) and Vietnam (36%) boast higher female leadership figures than much of the West, showing that progress is possible and happening in Asia. The industry also has vocal advocates working tirelessly toward gender diversity, and we are seeing encouraging growth in women taking leadership positions and shaping creative direction.

After all, the business case for equality is undeniable: Companies with greater gender diversity in leadership consistently outperform their peers—with the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams 25% more likely to have above-average profitability. Firms with gender-diverse leadership see a 21% higher likelihood of outperforming on profitability and a 27% increase in value creation. Women's economic power extends far beyond the boardroom, too. Female consumers drive the majority of global spending, influencing over 80% of household purchase decisions. However, the issue is much larger than what our industry can address alone. Despite these clear economic benefits, as of 2025, women hold only 29.2% of senior-level positions in S&P 500 companies, with a mere 8.2% occupying CEO roles. In Japan, just 0.8% of publicly listed companies are led by women. At the highest corporate levels, the pattern remains stubborn across most of Asia and the world.

It comes down to a stark reality: Marketing isn't society's silver bullet. Our industry can spotlight issues and challenge norms, but we cannot single-handedly dismantle structural inequality. Campaigns might shift perception, but they cannot rewrite legislation or redistribute wealth. Representation matters, but transformation requires commitment from those who hold genuine power in boardrooms, parliaments, and institutions worldwide.

Society at large—particularly men who still hold the greatest influence over whether equality stalls or advances—needs to play a greater role in fixing these imbalances. Men continue to hold the keys to the systems that shape society—from relationships to boardrooms to political offices to leadership positions in government, business, activism, entertainment, and media. While gender equality has always been a societal issue, the burden of advocating for it has disproportionately fallen on women, particularly those with privilege, fighting on behalf of those who cannot fight for themselves.

The 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration comes at a particularly precarious time—one of growing insecurity, economic downturns, and shrinking civic spaces. The return of Donald Trump to political dominance, alongside a broader global shift towards right-wing populism, has emboldened movements that view gender equality as a distraction rather than a necessity. Policies once designed to protect and advance women's rights are being stripped back under the guise of rolling back 'wokeness,' when in reality, they are rolling back hard-won progress. 

What we urgently need is for policymakers and corporations at large to guide this process and create genuine momentum. We need governments to enact and enforce equality legislation with real teeth. We need educational institutions to dismantle gender biases from early childhood. We need tech platforms to address algorithmic biases that perpetuate stereotypes. We need financial institutions to close investment gaps for women entrepreneurs. And perhaps most crucially, we need corporate leadership to prioritise gender equality as a fundamental business imperative, not just a marketing message or a box-ticking exercise for International Women's Day.

Let me be clear: This is not about shirking responsibility—it's about recognising that systemic problems require systemic solutions. Women have fought relentlessly for equality—often at the cost of being dismissed, ridiculed, or labelled 'radical feminists'—but advocacy alone cannot dismantle a system that was not built for them to succeed in. Balance shouldn't be the responsibility of the oppressed; it should be the responsibility of the system to remove the barriers it has upheld for generations.

As Gloria Steinem famously said, "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights." To echo this year's UN theme, until rights, equality, and empowerment become everyone's imperative—not just everyone's slogan—gender parity will remain an aspiration for many rather than the lived reality for all.