Number of women in marketing up, but salary and seniority remain problems

The marketing industry is in an interesting position when it comes to women in the workforce. Women hold 60% of all North American marketing jobs, according to data from LinkedIn, and women now hold 52% of CMO roles.

But modern marketing roles are incredibly diverse in their nature. As marketers know, the roles in the modern marketing organization include people who analyze data, create content, develop platforms, buy media and more.

For International Women’s Day, let’s try to figure out where woman are making gains in an industry they dominate but are historically not equal when it comes to pay.

One area of marketing where women seem to be doing well is SEO.

Women hold 51% of the jobs in U.K. SEO agencies, according to a new report by Enough Digitial. This is quite impressive, given that, as the report states, “SEO has traditionally been viewed as male-dominated.” Despite this, men hold more senior positions in those agencies.

• The most common job title for men in SEO agencies is Managing Director. For women, it’s Account Manager.
• Women in U.K. SEO agencies hold 24% of C-suite roles despite making up more than half of the workforce.
• 32% of job titles containing the term “SEO” are held by people who identify as women at U.K. SEO agencies.
• Women SEO agency employees were less likely to be in “head of” or “director” positions than men.

The report is based on data from more than 2,000 employees from 102 U.K.-based SEO agencies.

Women in SEO

In other area of marketing, like martech for instance, it’s more difficult to get a clear view of how women are faring. Martech sits at the intersection of marketing, where women hold 60% of all jobs, and tech, where they hold only 35%. And because martech is a function and not a standalone business sector, it is probably impossible to figure out its gender profile.

This jives with what we found in our upcoming 2024 Martech Salary and Career Survey (which will be released at The Martech Conference on March 19). Overall, men earn 35% more than women — up from 24% last year!

But there is also some good news: At the senior levels (director and up), women earn 5% more than men.

Dig deeper: The war on DEI is hitting marketing and hurting business