Creature's Megan Egan announced as a Creative Future Leader

After being put on hold last year due to the pandemic, the Future Leaders list, which recognises adland’s top 30 female, non-binary and gender non-confirming rising stars, has returned for 2021.

This year, the list which is a collaboration between Creative Equals and Campaign is more powerful and urgent than ever as women’s careers have been battered by Covid-19.

Creative Equals research has revealed that the number of female creative directors sits at around 17%. Looking at the data intersectionality, the number of black female creative directors runs at 0.25%.

One of the main challenges is the lack of equity on the creative shop floor, where 75% of women have a male line manager. Compared to their male counterparts, creative women are 24% less likely to agree with the statement “work is fairly allocated within the department”. When it comes to flexible working, they are 22% less likely to be happy with the flexible working policy their company provides and are 18% less likely to agree with the statement “my portfolio is gaining work I am proud of”. 

The simple fact is this list creates opportunities, promotion and role models. At one of the largest advertising agencies in London, where there are 800-plus employees, there are only two senior female creative directors. The single most business-critical area of diversity, equity and inclusion is representation at the creative table. As Creative Equals says: “Who makes the work, shapes the work.” This disparity in creative departments is one of the key drivers for the creative agency gender pay gap of 26%, according to the most recent IPA data.    

So we were beyond excited when they named Creature Creative Megan Egan, a Future Leader, even if we knew it already.

Find out more about Meg on her site, read her winning profile and more about the awards.