Top 10 Most Influential Women in the Advertising Industry
The history of any industry is rife with influential men. As a woman who is entering the advertising industry, it would be nice to focus on some female role models for a change. This list contains the top 10 most influential women that I look up to from the advertising industry, both in history and today.
1. Mathilde C Weil
Mathilde was the first women to start her own ad agency, aptly named M.C. Weil in New York in 1880, paving the way for other women to own and operate their own agencies.
2. Helen Lansdowne Resor
Helen made history as the first female copywriter, hired in 1908 by J. Walter Thompson. As the head of the Women’s Editorial Department at Thompson’s agency, she and her team took a psychological approach not used during that time to appeal to a wider female audience. They showed women engaging in male activities, such as sports, instead of fulfilling the typical housewife duties, effectively challenging the way women are portrayed in advertisements. She may be my favorite female advertising practitioner in history because of her feminist ideals.
3. Nedda McGrath
Nedda became the first female art director after being hired on at the Blackman Agency in 1926.
4. Erma Proetz
Erma was the first women elected to the advertising hall of fame in 1952 after working as a copywriter and executive for the Gardner Advertising Agency. She was also recognized in 1935 as one of the 16 most outstanding women in American business by Fortune magazine.
5. Mary Wells Lawrence
After co-founding the Wells, Rich, Greene Agency, Mary became the first female CEO of a company traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1968. She was later inducted into the American Advertising Hall of Fame in 1999.
6. Barbara Proctor
In 1970, Barbara founded Proctor and Gardner agency, making her the First African American woman to own an ad agency. She began her career as a copywriter, but set out on her own to ensure that her race and gender wouldn’t affect her career advancement.
7. Caroline Robinson Jones
Caroline became the first African American female VP of a major advertising agency, BBDO, in 1977, which is pretty amazing considering she started her ad career as a secretary at the J. Walter Thompson agency. Her work focused on marketing strategies geared towards minority consumers, and assisted many other minority people in obtaining careers in the advertising industry.
8. Susan Gianinno
Susan became the chairman and CEO of Publicis in 2003 and is now the chairman of North America Publicis after the merger of USA Publicis and Canada Publicis in 2013. She oversees all of Publicis North America operations.
9. Margaret Johnson
Margaret, who is the executive creative director and partner at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is the first woman to be named partner at the agency in 2012. She has won many accolades including being named Executive of the Year by Ad Age in 2018.
10. Kim Getty
Since my goal is to work as an account manager at an advertising agency, it only makes sense for me to include Kim, who is the youngest person to be named partner at Deutsch LA, and is also director of account management.