Advertising Women of New York's National Industry-wide Survey of Women and Men Advertising Professionals Points to the Importance of P&L Responsibility for Career Advancement

NEW YORK, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Men working within the advertising industry earned $16,000 more on average than women despite the fact that a similar percentage of men and woman say they have asked for a raise (54% vs. 57%), negotiated for benefits (76% vs. 80%), and asked for a promotion (73% vs. 71%), according to a new survey from Advertising Women of New York (AWNY). The results of the study also showed that for respondents in a managerial role, men in advertising are more than two times as likely as women in advertising to have company-wide P&L responsibility (37% vs. 17%). However, of those respondents reporting P&L responsibility, there was almost pay parity between men and women with the salary gap narrowing to less than $2,000 on average.

"The relevance of this finding for women in our industry is huge," Carol Evans President and CEO of Working Mother Media added. "It tells us that we need to be out there educating and informing women about the importance of making P&L responsibilities a part of their job description if they want to play on an even, or close to even playing field, with men in our industry."

Men vs. Women: Who's better at multi-tasking, negotiating financial compensation?

While the majority of both sexes said there are no differences in most skill sets, women sell themselves short far more than men. Furthermore, men tend to give women very little credit for having advantages in the workplace.

While women and men both see men as stronger in certain skills long-associated with men -- confidence, risk-taker, political savvy, financial skills, only women see as stronger in certain areas such as multi-tasking (68% of women say women have this advantage), working well with peers (32%), and getting the work done (31%). Interestingly, majorities of men do not give women credit for having the advantage in any job skills discussed. So for the most part - men do not recognize what women see as their greatest strengths in the workforce but women give credence to men's greatest strengths.

Reacting to this finding, Ms. Evans noted, "Even if only three out of ten men are less likely to give women credit for any employment skills, I wonder how this will affect a woman's chances in numerous situations including getting hired or promoted, and being given the critical assignment or the top job."

Finding a Work/Life Balance

In a surprising twist, the survey shows that men are more likely to have taken advantage of work/life balance options than women. Six out of ten men (61%) vs. five out of 10 women (53%) report they are currently taking advantage of a work/life option or have done so in the past, with telecommuting and flex-time being the most popular options.

Commenting on what many perceive to be a rather ironic finding, Ms. Evans explained, "When it comes to taking advantage of work/life balance options it could be that women are more concerned about how that might look, especially if they have children."

AWNY was founded in 1912 as the first women's association in the communications industry. The organization now consists of more than 1,200 dynamic, influential women and men representing the advertising, marketing, media, promotion and public relations fields.

Methodology

The survey, which was commissioned by AWNY and conducted by Harris Interactive(R), was conducted online between May 25 and October 28, 2005 among 1,102 U.S. adults who work full-time in the advertising industry, of whom 628 were women and 474 were men.