Female adtech heroes you probably haven’t heard of

Celebrating the incredible achievements of adland’s unsung innovators and icons

It’s no secret that the achievements of women have been downplayed throughout history; even miscredited to their male counterparts. The trend can be traced back as far as the 6th Century, when the mathematical and philosophical work of Theano of Crotone was attributed instead to Pythagoras. But the suggestion that women can’t be just as innovative and pioneering is completely unfounded – in fact, women’s inventions and discoveries are responsible for huge strides in progress, in every field from communications to medicine, board games to astrophysics.

The advertising and technology industries are no different. Over the last two centuries, women have made numerous invaluable contributions that have fundamentally shaped the advertising landscape and without them, it would look very different today. With International Women’s Day on the horizon, The Digital Voice™ are celebrating the achievements of women in the industry both present and past – join us as we shine a spotlight on the unsung heroines of advertising and technology whose groundbreaking innovations have left an indelible mark on the industry throughout the years!

Ada Lovelace was the first ever computer programmer

Born in 1815, Ada Lovelace is frequently mentioned as the daughter of poet Lord Byron, although she never knew her father personally. Lovelace was privately tutored, and continued her education through self-study, aided by the first professor of mathematics at the University of London, Augustus De Morgan. 

Lovelace went on to be an associate of inventor Charles Babbage, interested in his machines as early as 1833 when they were introduced by a mutual friend. Babbage is heralded as having conceived the first automatic digital computer, for his unfinished plans to create the ‘Analytical Engine’ in the mid-1930’s. But it was Ada Lovelace who discovered and revealed in her writings that Babbage’s machine could be used to make complex calculations, and wrote on her speculations the machine could be used for more than just numbers. Without Ada’s work, who knows how long it might have taken for tech to develop the way it has today?

The early computer programming language Ada is named in her honour, and Ada Lovelace Day is set for the second Tuesday each October, celebrating the contributions of women to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Mathilde C. Weil ran the world’s first ad shop, 40 years before women could vote

The first ever Ad-Man was a woman. Back in the early 1870’s, German-born Jewish immigrant Mathilde C. Weil came to America with her husband, but was widowed shortly after. Incredibly intelligent, Weil became a translator for newspapers and magazines, fluent in German, English, Spanish, and French. However, she soon discovered there was far more money to be made buying and selling advertising space, and in 1880 she opened her own agency – the M.C. Weil Agency – which was entirely female-run. 

The first ever ad agency is usually credited to James Walter Thompson, who incorporated JWT in 1896, but the truth is that Mathilde Weil got there nearly twenty years earlier. Together with her associates Mary Compton and Meta Volkman, Mathilde ran her agency so successfully that she was able to continue her work for the rest of her life.

All of this came just two decades after the civil war, and a full forty years before women even won the right to vote!

Hedy Lamarr invented Wi-Fi – and was ignored by the U.S Navy

Engineer Vic Hayes has been labelled the father of Wi-Fi after chairing the IEEE committee that created the 802.11 standards back in 1997. But back in the 1940’s, Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr worked alongside composer George Antheil to invent a new form of wireless communication that allowed radio waves to jump between different frequencies. Lamarr was one of the superstars of Hollywood’s Golden Era, with dozens of popular movies under her belt, but she was also an incredible inventor, who loved to work on designs to simplify planes.

In 1942, Lamarr and Antheil were awarded a patent for their idea, which was originally intended to prevent U.S Navy signals from being jammed by their enemies during World War II. However, the U.S Navy outright ignored their patent and the pair never received any payment. After the patent ran out, the invention was used by the U.S Military during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Lamarr and Antheil’s expired patent was rediscovered shortly before her death, and in 1997 the pair received the Electronic Foundation Pioneer Award. In 2014, they were inducted posthumously into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The very same technology they developed back in the 1940s has become the basis for WiFi, GPS and mobile phones.

Grace Hopper was the Queen of Code who worked on the first electronic computer

From a very young age, Grace Hopper showed engineering prowess, taking apart her family’s household goods and putting them back together again. She was born in New York in 1906, and grew up to receive a Master’s degree and PhD in Mathematics from Yale University. 

In 1943, Grace resigned from her job and joined the US Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) – just a year later in 1944, her team worked on the Mark I, an early prototype of the modern computer. Hopper outlined the fundamental operating principles of computing machines in a 500-page Manual of Operations for the Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator she wrote herself, and coined the word “bug” to describe a computer malfunction.

Hopper also went on to invent the compiler, an intermediate program that translates English language instructions to the language of the target computer. This invention influenced other computing developments, like code optimization, subroutines, and formula translation.

It all seems very techy, but those same operating principles and language translation options provide the basis of much of today’s tech - and the compiler program allows digital advertising to reach target audiences all around the globe. Thank you Grace Hopper!

Barbara Gardner Proctor stood up for social justice and became the first Black Female agency owner

Back in 1969, America was in the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Barbara Gardner Proctor was working for an ad agency now forgotten to time, where she was told to launch a concept that parodied social justice marches to sell hair products. Gardner Proctor put her foot down and refused to run the racist ad, which quickly got her fired. But Barbara would not be silenced – within a year, she’d established Proctor & Gardner, her own agency.

The struggle didn’t end with setting up her own company. Barbara used both her maiden and married names for the company to make chauvinistic clients believe she had a male business partner. But despite it all, she found huge success, featuring on 60 Minutes and even getting a mention in Ronald Reagan’s State of the Union Address in 1984.

She stuck to her values throughout it all, vowing to never run an advert that would hurt women or People of Colour. That extended to physical health as well as offensive adverts, and notably, Proctor & Gardner never advertised cigarettes. We can all thank and celebrate Barbara Gardner Proctor as adland’s original moral compass. 

Herta Herzog set up the industry’s first ever market-research think tank

In today’s advertising world, attention is the word on everyone’s lips – how can we find out what consumers want, and how do we best catch their eye to offer it to them? With third-party cookies on the decline, emerging adtech channels are seeking innovative new ways to learn about and reach potential customers.

But advertising wasn’t always so switched on. Born in 1910, Herta Herzog developed a fascination with psychology during her time at the University of Vienna. After fleeing Austria for America shortly before World War II, Herzog became a researcher at Princeton University, and was one of the first researchers to take a research-based approach to advertising. In 1943, she began working for agency McCann Erickson, and it was there that her studies concluded that advertising was far more effective in catering to existing audiences' needs and wants, instead of trying to change people’s opinions.

In 1964, she went on to set up the first ever advertising industry think tank, Jack Tinker & Partners, where she pioneered market research techniques for more than a decade, including the very concept of focus groups.

The fight for equality and recognition goes hand in hand

As a whole, advertising has been largely plagued by the sexism of its time. All through history, both in adverts and behind the scenes, women and other marginalised groups have been downplayed and stereotyped, ignored and ousted.  Adland has come a long way from where it was at the time these talented women were making strides, but it still has leagues to go in terms of representation and equity. Only a fraction of women hold leadership roles in ad agencies, even to this day. 

Progress is only made when the industry diversifies. Shifting the portrayal of women in adverts, making more space for women when making creative and business decisions, and addressing harassment and discrimination in the workplace is more important now than ever. Gender is often the jumping off point for any conversations on diversity because women are the most visible minority. But a bright future – one where everyone is equal, and everyone is recognised for what they bring to the table – will only come about when non-majority people of all backgrounds are uplifted into senior and executive positions, and more men encourage and support those people along the way.

Luckily, there are plenty of organisations out there doing the work. To round off this list of adland heroes, we wanted to shout out some of the heroic organisations of today’s industry – this International Women’s Day, why not check them out and get involved?

WACL is a membership organisation whose purpose is to accelerate gender equality in the advertising and communications industries, founded back in 1923. It’s led by current president Nishma Robb and VP Karen Stacey. 

The Women in Programmatic Network was designed to provide opportunities and support women in the digital advertising industry, run by co-founder duo, Emily Roberts and Sophie Toth.

Bloom is a professional network for women in communications, championing women in all stages of their careers. The 2024 leads are Elizabeth Anyaegbuna and Hannah Mirza.

SheLovesTech is the world’s largest acceleration platform for women and technology, building funding opportunities and visibility with a goal of catalysing a billion US dollars in funding for women by 2030. The amazing trio of co-founders are Virginia Tan, Rhea See and Leanne Robers.

lollipop mentoring is a mentorship program open to both diverse young talent and mid-level Black women in the advertising and marketing industry, founded by the inspiring Maria McDowell, who we had the pleasure of interviewing on our podcast in 2022.

Digilearning helps young people achieve their potential through education, training and career pathways. Their current #RightTalent initiative helps companies embrace DE&I by finding diverse new hires with the right skills!

Digital Leading Ladies is an industry group for senior women leaders. The group provides support, advice, cheerleading and above all, a community for female founders and leaders to have a safe space to connect with their peers.

Whilst you’re at it, join us in showing some love to all these amazing companies founded and co-founded by female leaders:

• Moment Company - Performance and wellbeing training co-founded by Fiona McKinnon and Alex Strang
• Shoorah - Mental Health app co-founded by Ferne McCann and Lorri Haines
• Brand Champions - Marketing agency founded by Fiona Wylie
• The Advisory Collective - Digital commercial strategists co-founded by Lisa Menaldo and Ellie Edwards-Scott
• Brixton Finishing School - Educational programmes in marketing, advertising and comms, founded by Ally Owen
• Canva - Online graphic design app founded by Melanie Perkins
• Starling Bank - Digital-only bank founded by Anne Boden
• Eventbrite - Event management and ticketing website co-founded by Julia Hartz,  Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage
• Bumble - Online dating app founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd
• And of course, last but definitely not least, The Digital Voice™, founded by our very own industry hero, Julia Linehan!

This International Women’s Day is all about inspiring inclusion, and celebrating the achievements of women around the world. If you do just one thing, take the time to celebrate the accomplishments of one of the women in your life and shout them out for the world to hear. It’s time for women to get the recognition they deserve.

Ren Bowman is the Multimedia Lead at The Digital Voice™, a first-class graduate in Creative Writing and an award-winning podcast producer. They’ve written for a range of industries including tech, entertainment, education, business finance, and lifestyle. Outside of work, they are an activist for social justice, especially Women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.