Ad of the Day: symbolic umbilical cords entangle mothers fighting for equal gender pay
Motherhood is a beautiful thing for many women, but often the journey comes with a lot of personal sacrifices – notably career progression and its financial implications. Shining a light on this, creative agency Mortierbrigade has collaborated with Equal Pay Day on a beautiful yet thought-provoking film.
‘The Umbilical Cord’ portrays real athletes who have been extremely successful in their respective sports entangled with their children with a symbolic conduit. The sports stars featured include six-time world champion hammer thrower Kathleen De Wolf, gold medalist pole vaulter Karen Pollefeyt, champion hurdler Vita Van Belleghem, synchronized swimmers Genevieve Michils and Alexandra Baes and gymnast Ellen Grillet. Each of the women has made huge sacrifices in their careers in order to be the main caregivers, but this new campaign wants to highlight that this doesn’t have to be the only option.
According to research done by ZIJkant, a socio-cultural movement that specializes in gender equality, the gender pay gap can be attributed to the traditional roles within the household. Mothers often struggle to reconcile work and bringing up children, while it’s often the case that the fathers go back to work – resulting in fewer promotions or bonuses for women. The rallying cry is clear: give mothers a fair chance to compete.
The stats speak for themselves – women earn 23% less than men on an annual basis, which means they need to work 83 days longer to get the same wage. That is why Equal Pay Day falls on March 24 2022, as at this rate we must wait another 58 years to earn the same.
Support for the campaign will come from the short film, radio, print and PR activations.
On a similar note, during International Women’s Day, an anonymous Twitter ‘bot’ using the handle @PayGapApp took the internet by storm after it began sharing brands’ ‘fluffy’ posts alongside data exposing their gender pay gap. Read our interview with one of the people behind it.
