Women on Screen, Men in Charge: The Industry’s Open Secret
When the pressure was on, the Lionesses delivered.
Beating Spain, retaining the European championship – I couldn’t be prouder!
But every time I see this fun BBC ad for the women’s football games, I feel a twinge of disappointment – because as powerful as it looks, I know who’s missing behind the scenes.
The BBC’s UEFA Women’s Euros campaign, Names Will Be Made, is a bold stop-motion film celebrating our Lionesses, created to address the gender gap in football. As a female director, I was thrilled to see animation used in such a high-profile space. But then I read the credits.
Only 25% of the team were women – mirroring the very gap the campaign sought to address.
None of the creative HODs – the director, the writers, the cinematographer, etc. – were women.
Blinkink, the studio in charge, had brilliant female stop-motion creatives on its roster, but none were chosen. That’s what prompted me to write an Open Letter on social media – and over 131,000 people read it. Messages came pouring in; and I realised this wasn’t an isolated case.
So let’s discuss our industry-wide gender gap.
In commercials, it’s usually a 3-bid process: clients brief agencies, who invite three studios to pitch, where directors work days (unpaid) to win – and one does. In this case, some simple sleuthing revealed the BBC’s campaign was a single-bid – despite the BBC being a publicly funded body with strict DEI policies. Favouritism doesn’t just skew the race… it decides who even gets to run.
From pitch to promotion, women are routinely sidelined. We don’t get hired. When we do get hired, it’s often on smaller, lower-profile projects (usually ‘woman-focused’), with less trust, less budget, or in roles that lack creative power. So from the very small pool available to us, when a rare high-profile one like this comes along and is handed on a platter to a male director – it stings.
And over the years, we’ve heard all the excuses.
“But the job was rushed – we went with who we knew!”
Production companies today are under enormous pressure. Budget constraints, short timelines, and commercial demands means hiring gets routed through trusted relationships and perceived ‘safety.’ But inclusion isn’t optional – especially when your campaign is about uplifting women. If your talent pool is narrow, your ‘safe’ choice becomes a biased one.
“We couldn’t find a woman with enough experience.”
Men are hired on potential. Women are hired on proof (BBC; Proof versus potential, 2019). It’s a self-perpetuating cycle: without nurturing women creatives early on, there will never be enough ‘experienced’ ones later. Inclusivity needs to be built into how you plan: mentorships, co-directing roles – if diversity is the first thing to go in a crunch, it was never valued to begin with.
“We hire the best.”
Here lies the myth of meritocracy. Women make up 51% of UK animation grads but hold less than 15% of creative leadership roles (USC x WIA, 2019). The problem isn’t the pipeline …it’s opportunity. We aren’t asking for jobs just because of our gender. We’re asking for a fair chance to compete.
“But we represent women on our roster!”
And what kind of work are they being offered? Women creatives are often handed tiny budgets, unpaid charity spots, or pigeonholed into ‘identity’ stories – while the usual suspects get to work on the high-end gigs, moving between genres. Add in exclusivity contracts without monthly retainers… and women are stuck waiting for jobs that never come.
“We hired a woman director – what should we do next?”
Support her. Celebrate her. Give her the same platform you’d give her male peers. Take Jess Deacon’s BBC Sports Wimbledon promo: a high-calibre piece that received virtually no ad industry press… Compare that to Names Will Be Made. From behind-the-scenes BBC Breakfast coverage, ‘Ad of the Day’ articles to senior BBC execs pushing the ad on socials; they have received wall-to-wall coverage. True inclusion doesn’t stop at the hire.
And finally:
“We’ll do better next time.”
…When?
Hannah Lau-Walker, founder of She Drew That reflects
“It was the 2018 Dove campaign, ‘I’m Fine’, created to empower young women, but made by a majority male team with a male director, which led to the formation of ‘She Drew That’ in 2019.
Changing the culture of the industry is painfully slow, but we must recognise that it’s not just what these animations are saying, but who these animations are made by, that has an impact. Commissioners, broadcasters, agencies, and studios need to invest in women’s and marginalised genders’ talents if we want to see gender equality in our industry, and we must call it out when we see the industry falling short.”
ITV Creative’s Ella Toone ad? National Lottery girl’s football ad? You can count the women in key creative roles on one hand. None shaped the story. Yet the campaign’s about us. These aren’t bad campaigns – they’re well‑crafted and well‑intentioned – but they prove the point: women are the subject, not the storytellers.
The industry is losing brilliant talent – not because women aren’t capable, but because they’re being underpaid, under-recognised, and pushed out.
So if we want real change: we must back our messaging with action.
Inclusion should be baked into policy, not left to personal goodwill – particularly in the current climate. Mandates drive change. Ask: Who’s on the roster? Who got to pitch? Make bids open, not exclusive. Fairness begins with access. Promote women into creative HOD roles, not just coordination or production jobs. Embed mentorship so new voices can grow without being set up to fail. Track and publish gender data – not just headcount, but across all departments. Build systems where women aren’t just featured on Women’s Day, but booked again. Given room to fail, succeed, and lead – just like men have been for decades.
This isn’t a call-out. It’s a call-in – to every commissioner, studio, broadcaster and agency that wants to do better. I know we care about the craft. I know we care about equity. Let’s build an industry that champions both.
WIA UK Statement
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen adverts that promote female empowerment led by majority-male crew & HODs. Neeraja’s post raises valid questions about the limits of representation when inclusion falls short behind the scenes.
We’ve seen how poor hiring practices directly impact women & underrepresented genders, who are more likely to be out of work and eventually leave the industry, thus shrinking the female talent pool and further widening the gender disparity in animation. WIA UK is committed to supporting and elevating women & marginalised genders, so we hope to channel the dialogue Neeraja’s statement has opened into meaningful change in the industry.
When the pressure was on, the Lionesses delivered.
Now it’s your move.
To anyone affected by the issues raised in this article and who would like to reach out to WIA UK to share their thoughts and feelings about further action, please respond within this form.