Why Women Are About to Change Their Names to 'Dave' for IWD 2019

This story starts in March 27th 2016, when creative director Cathy Hutton attended Creative Equals ‘Creative Equals Leaders’ conference where TV presenter, Sandi Toksvig co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party and comedienne, spoke. 

The statistics she heard from Toksvig that day inspired this year’s campaign. 

As Toksvig said on that day, so little progress has been made bringing diversity to the very top of the UK’s PLCs. 

The simple fact is female chief executives are still outnumbered by bosses called ‘Dave.’ 

The theme for this International Women’s Day is ‘Balance for Better’. For International Women’s Day, Creative Equals is asking every woman to change her name to ‘Dave’ for the day on their social; to show just how far we have to go on FTSE 100 PLCs – and in our own industry to make it fair. "This is social activism, 2019 style," says founder and CEO Ali Hanan. 

Hutton is the co-founder of her own agency, Jolly Rebellion. "This idea is our gift to Creative Equals – we wanted to give back. At Jolly Rebellion, we create ideas that do good and we do it differently too. Just a simple name change will highlight the issue and hopefully help make change happen. 

Ali Hanan added, "But it can only happen if we all do it, right Dave?"