On International Women’s Day, 8 March 2017, the German events industry magazines Tw–tagungswirtschaft and the M+A report launched a survey in conjunction with the IMEX Group asking Women in the events industry – equal partners or assistants? The survey was aimed at women in the international events sector worldwide and carried out in both German and English.
The survey aimed at establishing where the international events industry stands in terms of equality, career opportunities and work-life balance. The project had already gathered huge positive support before it was launched as a large number of different German and international industry associations and partner organisations of the IMEX Group had called on their members to participate.
The extremely high-level of participation in the survey exceeded all expectations. Within three weeks, 3,059 women opened the link to the survey, of whom almost one third (909) gave answers to the questions: 578 responded in German, 331 in English. 628 were from Europe, of whom 473 were from Germany, 35 from Austria, 28 from Great Britain, 19 from Belgium, 11 from Italy and 62 from other European countries; 150 respondents live in North America, ten in Asia, seven in Africa, two in South America and one in Australia. This high response rate suggests that the survey addressed an important topic at the right time.
The results were highly revealing and striking: in particular that 66 percent of women in the events sector love being part of the industry. However, only three out of ten women said they felt equal in terms of salary and six in ten women do not believe they have the same career prospects as their male counterparts.
Further survey results will be presented today, Wednesday 17 May, at 11.00 at IMEX in Frankfurt c/o the Research Pod on the Inspiration Hub.
The results give a clear picture of the current state of the industry, but this topic definitely deserves to keep being monitored in future, especially as it reveals that there is a great deal of work to be done in achieving equal treatment in the workplace.