Women's careers in marketing: self-employment in Europe

Marketing is considered to be a feminised industry yet there is little knowledge about the careers women have in this sector, especially the self-employed. This paper focuses on women in the marketing sector in six countries from the 2009 EU LFS sample, where countries were selected for analysis on the basis of the Economic Intelligence Unit’s Overall Women’s Economic Opportunity rankings. The analysis builds upon prior work conducted using the UK LFS, to present a picture of the employment of women in marketing within the EU. The EU6 selected are: Belgium, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. Our analysis suggests that women working in marketing are younger and more highly qualified than in other sectors but are less likely to be in senior decision-making roles. A number of older and often highly educated women in the industry, many of which report being married and having dependent children, are self-employed suggesting that marketing talent may be being lost to corporate marketing but not necessarily to the industry. In addition, many of these women report secondary employment, suggesting that this talent may retain close connections with corporate marketing. Overall patterns among self-employed women in marketing are comparable across the EU6 suggesting women face similar working patterns across Europe, but with some important and statistically significant variations. The overall picture is one of women in marketing pursuing self-employment when they reach a particular life and/or career stage for the added flexibility this offers, often driven by caring responsibilities.