Kari Marin
The women + Girls in AV
study
The results
Read below for results. enjoy!
Females working in the AV industry are predominantly White/Caucasian.
265 respondents or 52 percent stated Could Be Better as their perception of how the AV Industry values women’s participation and advancing diverse, inclusive workplace environments. 147 respondents or 29 percent feel women are Undervalued, 79 respondents or 16 percent believes women are Important to the industry, 11 or 2 percent find the AV industry to be Unwelcome for women, and 4 or .8 percent perceive women’s representation as It’s a Priority in AV.
Only 11 percent of females working in AV are college-aged or younger.
Women working in AV are, on average, equally represented in age ranges 25- 46 plus at approximately 30 percent. Females aged 46-plus are the largest group of women at 156 respondents or 31 percent. 147 respondents or 29 percent are ages 26-35 and 146 respondents or 29 percent are ages 35-46. The smallest group of women represented in AV is college-age and younger of 18- 25 at 57 respondents or 11 percent.
More than half of females working in AV have families.
92 percent of females working in AV reside in the USA and Europe.
256 respondents or 52 percent of women working in AV state they have families to care for while an additional 131 respondents or 26 percent have, at least, pets they are responsible for beyond their professional jobs. 110 respondents or 21 percent have no family obligations or dependents.
331 respondents identify the United States as their primary location and 140 respondents are located in Europe. Collectively, this represents 92 percent of women working in AV worldwide. 0 respondents taking the survey are located in Africa, Antarctica, and several Latin American regions, including Mexico, Central America, and South America. Optimistically, 5 respondents or 1 percent indicate her home location in the Middle East.
Half of all females have worked in AV less than 10 years.
Nearly 60 percent of all females in AV are in a supervising or higher management position.
The largest group of women has been in AV between 0-4 years at 29 percent (147). Women in the industry 5-9 years represent 22 percent, 10-14 years represent 16 percent, 15-20 years represents 14 percent, 21-25 represents 9 percent, and 8 percent or 45 women have been in AV longer than 26 years. Women have been finding the AV Industry increasingly year after year for the last decade by nearly twice as much.
The largest category for female seniority is Staff at 36 percent or 182 respondents. 29 percent of women in AV are Managers, 16 percent are Executive Management, 6 percent are Supervisors, 6.6 percent are CEOs/Presidents of their companies, 6 percent are Freelance workers, and .4 percent or 2 females are Interns. 60 percent of all women working in AV are in management, at least, of Supervisor-level position.
Women primarily work in Commercial/Pro AV
with Audio, Video, and Control Systems Technologies.
312 women mention the Commercial/Pro AV sector of what they do in AV over the Consumer Electronics and CEPro sectors at 25 mentions and 65 mentions, respectively. The three major AV technologies received the highest mentions of what women do in AV with Audio (311), Video (293), and Control Systems (213). Live Events was mentioned 156 times and Lighting was mentioned 103 times as the technology women work with in AV.
58 percent of females hold non-technical positions in AV.
Saleswomen are the highest individual occupation of respondents at 25 percent or 127 women working in AV. Other non-technical roles are the other top 2 categories with 19 percent in PR/Marketing and 13 percent of women are Project Managers. Both engineer and technician roles are on average 12.5 percent of females or 64 and 63 respondents, respectively. Customer Service represents 5 percent or 27 respondents and 4 percent or 23 respondents identify in the End-User/Owner category. Categories of Finance, Human Resources, News Publication, Product Development, Systems Administrator all have under 2 percent of women filling those positions and less than 1 percent or 5 females are currently unemployed.
Manufacturers employ the highest number of women working in AV.
Over 80 percent of females do not require a second job working in the AV Industry.
Manufacturers employ the most females in the AV Industry at 106 respondents or 21 percent. The second largest category of employers of females is Systems Integrators at 96 respondents or 19 percent. 51 respondents or 10 percent work in Live Events, 41 respondents or 8 percent work in Higher-Ed, and 31 respondents or 6 percent work in Design/Consulting. Reseller/Distributors, Media/Press, House of Worship, Owner/End-User, and Government employ less than 30 females in the AV Industry. No females in AV work for the Military. 116 respondents chose Other and almost 100 respondents wrote their name as the answer, indicating a flaw in the question.
420 respondents or 83 percent of women working in AV only hold one job. 86 respondents or 17 percent have to have a second job to work in the AV Industry. Female technicians are the highest category of women who need a second job at 24 respondents or 38 percent out of 63 total female technicians.
Most females work in AV for both Passion and to Pay The Bills.
Women working in AV prefer the Technology over the Creative Art.
339 respondents or 67 percent of females work in AV for both the Passion and to Pay The Bills. 100 respondents or 20 percent are in the industry solely to Pay The Bills
while 67 respondents or 13 percent count Passion are their main motivation for pursuing a career in the AV Industry.
When asked if they like the technology or the creative art side of AV more, 58 percent of women prefer the technology over 42 percent of women who prefer the artistic, creative side of the industry.
Females working in AV are almost equally split
between using social media Daily versus Rarely/Never.
Generally speaking, females working in the AV Industry are on split evenly when it comes to using Social Media professionally. 187 respondents or 37 percent use social media Daily while 120 respondents or 24 percent use it Rarely. 95 respondents or 19 percent use it Weekly, 63 respondents or 12 percent use it Monthly, and 41 respondents or 10 percent Never use social media professionally.
Nearly two-thirds of females fell into working in the AV Industry.
337 respondents or 67 percent of women state they Fell Into It as to how they started their career in the AV Industry. 76 respondents or 15 percent of women received Education/Training as their transition into a professional career, 40 respondents and 30 respondents credit Family/Friends and the smallest group of 23 respondents or 5 percent were Referred to a career in the AV Industry.
Half of females feel the AV industry could be better
at valuing women’s representation and diversity.
265 respondents or 52 percent stated Could Be Better as their perception of how the AV Industry values women’s participation and advancing diverse, inclusive workplace environments. 147 respondents or 29 percent feel women are Undervalued, 79 respondents or 16 percent believes women are Important to the industry, 11 or 2 percent find the AV industry to be Unwelcome for women, and 4 or .8 percent perceive women’s representation as It’s a Priority in AV. 52 percent of women in AV take a relatively neutral position on the industry’s reception and recognition of female participation while; extreme sides of the spectrum receive 2 percent as negative, uninviting and less than .8 percent feel their professional development is a priority to the AV industry.
Most females working in AV do not have a mentor
and those who do count only men as their mentors.
223 respondents or 44 percent of women do not have a mentor in their professional careers. 144 respondents or 28 percent count male-only as their mentors, 89 respondents or 18 percent have both male and female mentors, and 50 respondents or 9 percent have Female-only mentors.
Women want to see more growth opportunities in Leadership,
Technical Training, and Career Advancement.
Leadership was women’s most desired opportunity with a total of 421 mentions. Next, Career Advancement received 384 mentions and Technical Training was relatively close behind with 356 mentions. Mentoring is the fourth largest category receiving 325 mentions followed next by Work/Life Balance with 315 mentions. Networking, Women’s Equality, Diversity, and Industry News all received less than 300 mentions as areas where women desire growth opportunities. Females working in AV primarily want new, career development opportunities specific to their personal, individual growth as 5 categories all received over 300 mentions (Leadership, Career Advancement, Technical Training, Mentoring, Work/Life Balance) while information related to broader, general areas impacting group and industry-related topics are less desired (Networking, Women’s Equality, Diversity, and Industry News).
THANK YOU!
Thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far! I hope you stick around and check out what else I have in store! I promise you there's more... :)
