International Women’s Day is full of inspiration for me. My social feeds light up with amazing content about inspiring women and industries that are leading the way for how they’ve tackled diversity. I’ve been lucky enough to work with phenomenal women, and to be part of an industry where women and their achievements are visible, accessible and celebrated.

While I have so many amazing examples I can draw on of women that inspire me and have had an impact on my career, International Women’s Day is also a great time to reflect on the role of communications research and measurement and how we can contribute to significant change.

It’s really easy to talk a big measurement game, and even easier to get lost in the details of only measuring specific deliverables. It might be a strategy, a brand, a campaign, but it’s really about the effectiveness of that one thing, usually that one time. It can be rare to consider the bigger picture, and to challenge ourselves, and our clients to examine an area as complex as gender and representation.

The greatest motivator for me is when we can provide evidence that can influence communications, media, policy makers and leaders to consider their actions and change behaviour. In my career so far, I’ve been so lucky to work on research into gender bias using media as the lens. I don’t mention these projects to draw attention to individual projects or clients themselves, but to show how the impact we can have as an industry when we challenge ourselves to answer big questions.

So far, I’ve found that:

• Female athletes face inherent bias in media coverage, they are more likely to be positioned as a partner/spouse/mother, are less likely to be the authority on their own performance, and that female success is usually contextualised by male failure.
• Complex issues that affect women, including domestic violence, struggle to maintain media attention on education and support when incidents and scandal result in more clickthrough.
• A lack of women in corporate leadership impacts how media report on, and understand what good leadership looks like.
• As leaders, women are more likely to be positioned as a “puppet” of a male dominated board or chairman.
• Creating content for social media needs a broader view on how representative content is, and consider any potential bias community managers and content creators.
• Women are less likely to be used as an expert source in media coverage across almost all sectors.

I also know that findings like these are changing, and will keep changing the more we work to provide evidence about inclusive representation. As research and measurement practitioners it’s on us to encourage our clients to consider representation a metric of success. We have the opportunity to advocate that evidence allows us all to hold ourselves accountable, and to encourage and celebrate change.

Representation is important. Where, in what context, and how often we see women shapes our expectations. Next time you’re exploring what success looks like for yourself or a client, consider diversity and representation. We have such a strong opportunity to advocate for, and drive change – it’s so important we don’t waste it.