The gambling companies who co-opt International Women’s Day should be ashamed
Every year, companies of all kinds try to piggyback off International Women’s Day for commercial purposes. The gambling industry is no exception.
Some describe it “femvertising“. Companies yearn to be seen to be catalysts for furthering the feminist cause – but only when it’s convenient, or when it has the potential to translate into good PR or extra profits.
The irony, is that the story often doesn’t even correlate with the reality in these organizations.
Fearless Girl
Fearless Girl is a bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal. The statue was installed in New York City on March 7, 2017, in anticipation of International Women’s Day the following day. It depicts a 4-foot high (1.2 m) girl – promoting female empowerment.
The week after The statue was installed in New York City, an op-ed in the NYT argued that the figure represented a form of false feminism, and just a few months after installation the SSGA (State Street) agreed to pay $5 million to settle allegations that it underpaid female and Black employees.
Audi
In a Super Bowl commercial which advocated for gender equality, German auto maker Audi committed to equal pay for equal work and declared that “progress is for everyone” – regardless of gender.
Meanwhile in “reality-check” land – viewers noted that Audi’s 6-person board at the time did not include even a single woman.
The company also released an ad which compared buying a car to finding a wife, saying “an important decision must be made carefully”. The advertisement showed a woman having her nose, ears and teeth inspected by her mother-in-law on her wedding day.
Gambling Industry
Let’s look at a few examples (from the UK, where gender equality data is available):
Clarion Gaming – renowned for their gambling industry conference can’t help themselves. Year after year they grab the mic on this special day to “celebrate” women – while they themselves don’t even come close to gender equality.
Women at Clarion Gaming get the sharp end of the stick:
- Pay: In this organisation, women earn 80p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay – 19.8% lower than men’s.
- Bonuses: Women earn 48p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median bonus pay. Their median bonus pay is 52% lower than men’s.
- When comparing mean (average) hourly pay, women’s mean hourly pay is 24.9% lower than men’s.
[source]
Perhaps people will boycott these events until change happens – but most likely not.
The Unibet brand, (owned by Kindred until recently) always goes to great lengths to pretend they are on-board with IWD, even going so far as to sponsor horses races which sing this tune.
We’re not exactly sure how sponsoring a horse race (or a poker event where Queens beat Kings) helps women in any way whatsoever.
- hourly pay gap: Women earn 93p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay. Their median hourly pay is 7% lower than men’s, and when comparing mean (average) hourly pay, women’s mean hourly pay is 12.5% lower than men’s.
- bonus pay gap: In this organisation, women earn 79p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median bonus pay. Their median bonus pay is 21% lower than men’s.
- The percentage of women in each pay quarter: In this organisation, women occupy 24.5% of the highest paid jobs and 44.4% of the lowest paid jobs.
[source]
William Hill UK : While having a small hourly pay gap – this org has a rather large bonus pay gap, in favor of men: Women earn 64p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median bonus pay. Their median bonus pay is 36.2% lower than men’s. [source]
Bad “Femvertising” will surely continue to backfire on gambling industry companies who are dishonest in this regard – especially when data is available to all. Meanwhile, the companies trying to disingenuously exploit this opportunity appear sexist, stupid or both.
Like companies engaged green-washing- this tactic is tacky and shows close to zero self-awareness.
Hopefully the industry will take a good look at itself, and make some ch-ch-changes…