Never Not Creative and Agender Relaunch Year-Round Campaign for Gender Equity in Creative Industries

At a time when diversity efforts are being rolled back globally, two purpose-driven forces -- Never Not Creative and Agender -- have joined to relaunch Never Not International Women’s Day (NNIWD), expanding the conversation to reach all the corners of our industry.

This isn't another panel talk. It’s not a LinkedIn post that vanished from the algorithm on 9 March. It’s a bias-ridding 24/7/365 loop of unfiltered conversation from the people shaping visual culture - or too often, shut out from it.

Originally launched by Never Not Creative in 2021 to expose gender realities inside the creative industry, NNIWD now expands through a new partnership with Agender, a Gender Equity Studio focused on rebalancing gender power behind the lens.

The platform extends its reach to amplify the voices of photographers, directors, producers, agents, and crew - the creators of the imagery that defines how society sees itself – all alongside new talks from creatives and agency leaders.

Because here’s the truth: When over 90% of ads are shot by men, despite women making 85% of consumer purchasing decisions (Jill Greenberg, TED), we need to ask: whose world are we really selling?

"Representation doesn’t need performative visibility. It needs action," said Angela Liang, co-founder of Agender. "While many agencies increasingly celebrate diversity in leadership and casting, they rarely interrogate who gets hired behind the camera. Would any agency dare to audit their past year’s campaigns and disclose how many were shot by men, women, or other marginalised creatives?”

The fatigue around International Women’s Day is real, and justified. Brands celebrate women for a day, and quietly go back to business as usual.

Meanwhile, research (ShEqual, Ad Council of Australia) continues to reveal stark gender disparities. Women are chronically underrepresented behind the lens, in creative leadership, and at decision-making levels. In the U.S., the rollback of DEI initiatives is already threatening decades of progress globally.

Agender’s recent exhibition The Lipstick Effect -- the official art installation for the Sydney Opera House’s All About Women Festival 2025 over the week of IWD -- reignited crucial conversation around how women see, and how they are seen.

NIWD is the next step: a platform where real change is demanded and genuinely explored through discussion; not compressed into a single calendar day each year, but platformed loudly, unapologetically, and continuously.

We need a reckoning and a recognition of the female gaze,” said Cybele Malinowski, co-founder of Agender. "The female gaze isn’t soft filters and clichés. It's a richer, more empathetic lens that makes better stories. When we exclude it, we don’t just lose women’s perspectives. We lose the opportunity for stronger, more resonant storytelling."

"If we only celebrate women one day a year, we’re complicit in a system that keeps the power where it’s always been," said Andy Wright, founder of Never Not Creative. “The platform is there to take away the burden from women to explain the issues over and over again, helping to share the discussion and experiences that can help to educate a broader audience.”

The Format

Contributors across the creative, production and media and marketing ecosystem are invited to finish one powerful sentence:

“It should never NOT be International Women’s Day until...”

No scripts. No corporate PR lines. Just real, intersectional perspectives.

The new wave of voices includes:

● Founder of Assisterhood Linh Diep (senior account director at Ogilvy) on breaking free from gender boxes and acknowledging our vulnerabilities.

● Co founder and executive producer Erin Moy and executive producer Kyle Blanshard (Entropico) on the role of production companies to foster creative talent and to be the bridge for change between ad agencies, directors, and crew.

● ShEqual’s Lauren Zappa on the urgent need for workplace structural change.

● Photographer Cara O'Dowd on women's autonomy and visibility, in the world as well as in the industry.

● Erika Addis, national president of the Australian Cinematographers Society on their groundbreaking study “A Wider Lens” that exposed gross inequalities in Australian camera crew.

● Photographer and director Karima Asaad on why blending in gets you nowhere. You need to build your voice, own it unapologetically, and let it repel the wrong people so the right ones come running.

● National chairs of Youngbloods Phoebe Peralta (business director at Special) and Tiger Hongmung (art director at DDB) on keeping diverse talent in the ad industry.

● Dr. Amanda Coles, senior lecturer at Deakin University and lead researcher on “A Wider Lens” on creative crew needing the workers’ rights that all other workers are granted under legislature and awards.

● Photographer and director Lester Jones on men being a part of the conversation and the change.

● Photographer and producer Emily May Gunawan (UBank) on how monocultures flatten creative storytelling.

To submit content or be interviewed for NNIWD - contact hello@nevernotcreative.org or angela@agender.com.au