That’s why NatWest and Getty Images have launched a new campaign to improve the way female entrepreneurs and business leaders are represented in media and advertising.
The partnership sees the creation of a new gallery of images on gettyimages.com featuring 15 female entrepreneurs, illustrating the diversity of female-led businesses in the UK.
The latest customer download data from Getty Images reveals that female small business owners are being represented within narrow stereotypes, depicted as being mid-20s to mid-30s in age and owning a business within hospitality or retail.
The new image gallery, which features a wide range of NatWest’s own customers, authentically depicts women of all ages and backgrounds working across a diverse spectrum of industries including farming, blacksmithing, recycling, sustainable business, technology and wellness, and also reflects the impact of the pandemic on how certain sectors operate.
The campaign comes at a pivotal time for female-led businesses, as recent research commissioned by the bank in conjunction with YouGov shows that female entrepreneurs have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic compared with men.
NatWest CEO Alison Rose authored the pivotal Rose Review into Female Entrepreneurship in 2018 with HM Treasury, with the report finding that a lack of visible and relatable role models is a major barrier for aspiring female start-ups. NatWest aims to further tackle this challenge through this partnership, which sees over 1,200 licensable images created for use by brands and businesses globally via gettyimages.com.
The campaign is the latest of many female-focused initiatives by the bank in the two years following the Rose Review’s launch. In January, the bank doubled its UK Female Entrepreneurship Funding to £2B.
Margaret Jobling, chief marketing officer at NatWest, said:
“Providing funding and business support is central to how we support female-led businesses as a bank.
“But we know the issue is far broader than this, and that a lack of relatable role models is another barrier that needs to be overcome before women can picture themselves setting up a business.
“Through this partnership with Getty Images, we want to encourage a more realistic and diverse portrayal of female business owners, workers and entrepreneurs in the UK, and hope that this is just the beginning of that transformation.”