Women in advertising aren’t moving up the corporate ladder for the same reasons as other fields — sexism and kids. To get away from the long hours and golf culture that were holding them back, they started their own companies.
When Ms. Cantor got into the industry in the 1980’s, she said, there were few women able to juggle motherhood and their careers successfully. "The women who were role models for me were generally unmarried and childless," she said. "I thought to myself, ‘I want to have a family and I want to have a career.’ And I was hopeful as I ascended through the business that I would find people and family and employers who were accepting of that."
Some women, frustrated by their experiences in traditional firms, have defected to start their own shops. When Ms. Kaplan Thaler’s contract at Wells Rich Greene BDDP in New York expired in 1997, she left to found her own agency.
Now the chief executive and chief creative officer of the Kaplan Thaler Group, Ms. Kaplan Thaler said she was fed up with the long hours needed for advancement at Wells and J. Walter Thompson, where she also had worked for years.
"I started my own shop because I wanted to rewrite my own rules about how business was run," Ms. Kaplan Thaler said. "The policy of ‘you need to work till 12 o’clock at night or you’re not doing your job’ is going by the wayside. We get to work early, we work through lunch, we work collaboratively and we shrink the clock. Women are very well poised to do it because we want to go home and take care of our families."
Apt. 11d 