Why are we bored of women’s burnout?

Opinion

Is adland collectively on mute about female burnout? Nicola Kemp says there are a few topics that elicit an eye roll as quickly as the idea that women are disproportionately overwhelmed.

The media industry will not reach its full potential by turning a blind eye to the truth that women are exhausted.

Something singularly strange is happening in the media industry. Scratch the surface of most organisations, and the biggest challenge is universal: extreme exhaustion.

At the tail end of another challenging year, a singular truth is clear: As an industry, we collectively got bored with burnout. As the headlines on the much-heralded ‘great resignation’ evaporated, so too did our collective drive to make a meaningful effort to address burnout.

This lacklustre approach is killing women’s careers. As Bloom’s groundbreaking research revealed, over half (54%) of women felt overwhelmed by their workload. Work-life balance is a myth in the media.

In the stop-start chaos of 2025 across the industry, it is still women who are perpetually placing their plans on pause. As seemingly endless rounds of restructuring continue to confuse and compress their career paths. Over the past months, I have spoken to far too many brilliantly talented women facing impossible choices.

The account director who returned from maternity leave to be awarded the most difficult client of all. A CMO who leads with fear and foul language belonging to a bygone age.

The media strategist who is putting her plans to start a family on pause once again, because another restructure has left her running on empty and juggling multiple roles.

The CEO silenced by unfounded and unfair rumours that she is a bully. Does it even matter if the allegations are fantasy when the narrative has thrived unchecked for so long?

A suffocating narrative

The uncomfortable truth is that the media industry’s output has been hugely successful in creating and perpetuating narratives of leadership in which women can never win.

Last week, an industry email bulletin landed in my inbox with a question that many would find unremarkable because our bias is so ingrained: Is Cindy Rose too frank? The more urgent question is endlessly sidestepped: Why are female leaders endlessly tone-policed for being too direct?

The result is that women in the media industry exist in their very own ‘upside down’: a parallel world of extreme judgment and unsustainable pressure.

Structurally and culturally, the media industry is still setting women up to fail.

Overwhelm fatigue

While the wider business press bulges with articles on how leaders address transformation fatigue, we are collectively on mute about burnout. In fact, there are a few topics that elicit an eye roll as quickly as the idea that women are disproportionately overwhelmed.

So ingrained are the stereotypes we consume that, in turn, women stereotype themselves and each other.

If our workloads are unsustainable, perhaps we aren’t leaning in enough? When our colleagues make sexist comments, maybe we need to build resilience, not invest in structures and processes that protect women’s safety?

A senior media leader who recently made the painful decision to hit pause on a career that was crushing her ambition shared with me her immense personal shame at not being able to make it work.

With two young children and a desire to drive meaningful change in her industry, her company had been complicit in turning a blind eye as she drove herself into the ground. Yet she felt she was letting other women down by pausing her media career.

Rather than reflecting on the structures that set her up to fail, she instead gaslit herself for being a bad role model for the next generation of female leaders. When the undeniable truth is that it is the strength and clarity of her ambition which gave her the courage to leave an organisation that was systematically failing her.

Lipservice leadership

While women hold themselves to impossible, punishing standards, the companies they work for continue to treat their departures as inevitable. The media industry is still held back by leaders who sidestep the responsibility and accountability which come hand in hand with the immense influence and power they hold.

In 2025, the ‘unstable economic environment’ has fast become a three-word excuse for having no backbone. It is why, as an industry, we are content to sidestep the truth that social media is this generation’s smoking.

It’s easier to look the other way as we hand our children smartphones, like sweetly flavoured vapes, when no one with any caring responsibilities can hold down a leadership role without swiftly unravelling.

Yet this steady stream of brilliant women from the media industry is not inevitable. It is possible to make a meaningful difference. We can make excuses about why we are so numb to the idea of women being overwhelmed, or we can commit to making a meaningful difference.

Leadership has always been— and always will be — about choice. So ask yourself honestly, why are you content to keep putting your head in the sand?

Women won’t win unless we tell the truth

Media is a business built on storytelling, and it is time to tell more real, honest stories about the challenges women still face.

Women are still not paid enough, leaving them on the sharp edges of the cost-of-living crisis. The IPA census revealed that the gender pay gap increased from 15.2 % in 2023 to 19.7 % in 2024 in favour of men.

Women are still not respected enough, and gendered ageism means the industry continues to sideline women’s wisdom. Barely a week goes by without another headline on a trailblazing female leader exiting the industry. Women are facing the impossible truth that turning up for themselves means turning in their notice.

The doors have silently slammed shut for women in the media, yet the industry is on mute. We must make noise to push them open. Silence will never be the answer. Equality still matters.