CAPE TIMES – 1928, July 19
Important
Posts Held by women
Of the many fields
for women’s work which have developed in recent years that of advertising offers
the widest scope and makes the most picturesque appeal. It is work for which
the woman’s mind has an advantage over the mentality of the male. Advertising
authorities, pointing to America and Great Britain, where many women in the
advertising field now earn from £500 to £2,500 a year, agree that unparalleled
opportunities in this profession are waiting to be seized by women in this
country. There is a league in New York called “The League of Advertising Women,”
and both London and New York have their Women’s Advertising Clubs. There is
probably no profession in which the percentage of women holding responsible
positions is so high as it is in advertising. This is no doubt largely due to
the fact that it is of comparatively modern growth and women have not had to
overcome prejudices that are deep rooted in tradition to the extent they have
in some other professions.
There are
many women directors of advertising agencies, at least two of whom have been in
the business for 30 years or more and have advanced by the weight of great
ability form subordinate positions to administrative posts, and in one case, to
the chairmanship of a great advertising organisation. The most notable example is
Miss. J. R. Reynolds, F.I.P.A., who arrived in Wellington this week.
A
considerable number of the important posts in the advertising departments of
the British newspapers and periodicals are held by women, including the coveted
one of advertisement manager to London “Punch,” who rose to power because she
believed in advertising, started her career as a copywriter on the staff of a
London advertising agency. A large advertising firm in London has four women on
its copy-writing staff, and one of its three commercial studios is staffed
entirely by women. One of Sydney’s largest department stores has placed its
advertising in charge of a woman. The advertising department of the “Queensland
Country Press” is represented in Sydney by Miss Foote.
Appeal to
Women
A factor that
has had a considerable influence in providing their openings for women is that
the bulk of advertising directs its appeal to women. One of the speakers at a
British convention luncheon, at which a woman was in the chair, and for which
the details were arranged by women in advertising businesses, emphasized the
fact that 90 percent of the buying – not trading – in the world is done by
women, and 75 percent of the shops in Regent and Oxford Streets, London, are
for women alone. She quoted figures from an Oxford Street store which showed
that 75 000 women each day passed in and out of the doors, inspecting goods or
making purchases. The psychological effects of advertising are admittedly a
highly important branch of study, and therefore the instinctive desire to bring
women, into the profession, is thoroughly sound. A woman’s mind. With its love
of detail and its big imagination, can appeal to prospective women customers
better than the average man’s.
The three chief branches of advertising offering
wide scope to the woman expert are:
(1) Advertising Management: the organization
for business concerns of the advertising systems by which they aim to sell
their goods.
(2) Advertising Agency: the preparation and placing of
advertisements and the organization of selling-schemes for trade advertisers.
(3) Advertisement Management or the Organisation of Newspaper and Magazine Advertising.
The sale of space by canvassing is an important feature of this branch of work.
For Clever
Women
Advertising
is undoubtedly a profession in which a clever woman can secure big prizes. But
it must not be thought that these prizes are lucky windfalls. They are the
result of rigorous training, patient endeavor, and grueling work. One starts
early, finishes late and when emergencies arise, burns a lot of midnight oil.
But withal it is a fascinating business – curiously enthralling. It needs skill
of a high order to put the facts of an advertisement in a form that will
capture the imagination, and sway the buying moods of tens of thousands of
people. It is work that gives a gratifying feeling of power and, being
important work, it rightly commands high salaries. – “The Dominion” (New Zealand).
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