Go ahead: laugh at Letterman. Then ask if your agency is guilty, too.

Earlier this week, Nell Scovell wrote a courageous piece in Vanity Fair about her experience -- and discomfort -- working as one of the few female writers on David Letterman's Late Night show. Here's an excerpt worth repeating:

I have a theory. An executive producer with an all-male writing staff once inadvertently revealed his deep, dark fear. While discussing a full-time position for me, he mused out loud, “I wonder if having a woman in the room will change everything.” Of course, what he really meant was: “I wonder if having a woman in the room will change me.” Male writers don’t want to be judged in the room. They want to be able to scarf an entire bag of potato chips while cracking fart jokes and making lewd comments without fear of feminine disapproval. But we’re your co-workers, not your wives. Crack a decent fart joke and, as professionals, we will laugh. And while writers do need to feel comfortable in order to make comedy, denying an entire class of people certain opportunities in order to preserve a way of life seems a tad antebellum. Plus, it’s been my experience that a room with a fairer sampling of humanity will always produce funnier material.

Does a similar gender inequity exist in the advertising industry? For those of you shaking your head no, let me share a statistic:

3% of agency creative directors are women.

Does that rattle your cage a little? For me, it's right up there with the other embarrassing biggies, like
California ranking 49 out of 50 states in educational standing and childhood obesity tripling since 1980.
Having just returned from the Marketing to Moms conference in Chicago this week, I'm connecting the dots. Research was presented there indicating that 90% of women consumers feel advertisers don't understand them.

But how could they, really?

Advertisers won't strike a chord with the most powerful consumer segment in the country until they enlist that very same segment to create campaigns.