Summary of story from The Guardian, January 12, 2012

The number of women at managing director level or above in UK advertising agencies has fallen to the lowest proportions since 2003 according to a new report.

A report by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) shows that women account for just 13.5% of the industry’s executives as chair, chief executive or managing director at a UK ad agency.

This is down from 17 per cent from last year’s report. The total number of women designated as running agencies has fallen from 76 to 56, a 26 per cent drop.

While there are fewer women in top positions, there has been an increase in the number of women in other executive management positions – from 25.5 per cent to 27.3 per cent.

This meant that the overall proportion of women accounting for roles in executive management or higher held stable year-on-year at 22.4%, the IPA said.

The report also found that the split between men and women overall in the industry is almost equal at 51.3 per cent men and 48.7 per cent women.

In terms of ethnicity and age, 90.6 per cent of staff in the industry are from a white background, and only 5.7 per cent are older than 50.