Today shEqual, Australia’s movement for advertising equality, led by Women’s Health Victoria, together with the City of Melbourne launches a fantastic and practical guide to promoting gender equality in local government advertising and communications.

Developed with input from 33 local governments across Victoria the new resource Gender Equality Advertising and Communications: Guidelines for Local Governments lays six principles to achieve gender equality in every aspect of marketing, communications, and advertising campaigns. Each principle has clear actions to improve the way women and girls and people of all genders are represented in communications.

The guidelines help embed gender equality, diversity and inclusivity in advertising and communications, supporting the representation of everyone in the local community with equality and fairness. They are flexible to support numerous uses, platforms, and algorithms. The guidelines are applicable to creative briefs, brand guidelines, communications materials, photo captions, social media, promotional materials for activities, events and festivals, and internal communications platforms, policies, templates and so much more.

Importantly, the guidelines support requirements of Victoria’s Gender Equality Act 2020  in the identification and elimination of systemic causes of gender inequality in policy, programs and delivery of services in our workplaces and in the communities we serve.

Advertising and marketing shape our beliefs and attitudes about who and what is valuable in our community. Gender equality in advertising and communications helps prevent violence and discrimination against women and gender diverse people by strengthening positive, equal and respectful relationships.

Local government communications play a significant role in shaping and reinforcing our ideas about what it means to be a woman or man and how women and men are valued in our communities…

– Sally Capp, Lord Mayor of Melbourne

 

shEqual and its partners call on all local governments to apply these guidelines and build gender equality and prevention of violence across all areas of work and communications for a healthier and more equal community and workplace.