The Drum gives away copies of its Girl Guides Annual to celebrate International Women's Day

To mark International Women's Day, The Drum is giving away free copies of The Drum Girl Guides Annual published in December 2013.

In December last year, The Drum continued its commitment to championing the successes of women in the digital realm with the publication of its Girl Guides Annual, a 38-page book highlighting 12 women who have succeeded in a male-dominated sector.To celebrate International Women's Day, The Drum is giving our readers access to a free, downloadable pdf of the book, which is normally priced at £14.99.Here, we pick out just a few snippets from the book – from women who have emerged as role models for a new generation of young women starting out in the digital, media and creative industries.“Women are definitely not represented enough in media,” says Carla Buzasi, editor-in-chief, Huffington Post UK. “There aren’t many female newspaper editors in this country and that’s really sad.”“It is tough, especially now as there are fewer jobs, but if you believe in it enough there is no reason why you can’t succeed. It’s such an interesting time to work in this space – everyone is experimenting and trying new things and it’s a time when brands like the Huffington Post can gain cut-through quite quickly.”Laura Jordan Bambach, president of D&AD and creative director at Mr. President, says she has encountered a general undertone of sexism throughout her career and her experiences led her to create SheSays in 2007, an organisation designed to “educate, promote and inspire” women to take up digital creative careers.“It is very, very hard as a woman to get the respect of senior people in the industry, and so you just have to really slog at it,” she says.“A couple of times I’ve had something more overt, where someone has suggested I’m ‘being emotional’ when I have a strong opinion, when actually I’m just passionate about a piece of work.”Abba Newbery, director advertising strategy, News UK argues that more work is needed to encourage women into the tech side of the industry.“There are women at the top of some of the largest digital companies – Sheryl Sandberg
 at Facebook, Dawn Airey and Marissa Mayer
 at Yahoo – so this industry clearly offers opportunities for women at the highest level. However, if you step into any tech or developer department you usually only see men so there is still a clear divide over what types of careers women are attracted to. We should be making more effort to attract women into all areas of the digital industry.”Young women embarking on a career in digital should find a “good mentor who you can talk to and share some of those inner demons with,” according to Telefónica’s head of online creative and user experience Sarah Evans.“We need to remove personal barriers because sometimes we’re our own worst enemies – I’ve been in meetings where they ask for volunteers and only the men put
their hands up and I don’t know why that is. There’s probably some brilliant psychology behind that, but it frustrates me that we’re not a bit more game.”Meanwhile Fru Hazlitt, commercial chief at ITV, believes women aren’t represented enough in multiple professions, including digital, and that businesses see the sharpest drop-off in female employees when they hit their mid- thirties. She believes entrepreneurship could be the key to reversing this.“You can be [an entrepreneur] at any time of your life. That’s flexibility, pride, economic growth, it’s non-ageist, and many women are more 
in touch with consumers than men.”Update: The Drum Girl Guides Annual is no longer available for free download under our limited period offer to coincide with International Women's Day. You can purchase a copy here.