The Violet Thermometer of the communication and audiovisual sector, released by the Association 50a50 to measure the degree of compliance with the Equality and Parity Law in organizations, makes clear the low participation of women in the decision-making positions in this sector.

Carried out with a sample of 52 business groups comprising a total of 258 companies in the communication and information technology sector in Spain, the study reveals that the average participation of women on boards of directors is around 20%, while in management committees this percentage is 33% in larger business groups and 40% in small groups (those with less than five companies).

In the boards of directors, in the analysis of compliance with the new parity horizon (50%), only 3.9% of companies reach this objective, while three quarters are still far from it. The most worrying fact is that up to 11.5% of these groups still do not have any women in this governing body.

In the management committees, the figures are slightly more positive. Thus, 17.3% of business groups reach parity. 44.2% are far from the target and 7.7% have not included any women in this governing body. On the other hand, up to 30.8% of groups haven’t published these data.

This is the second Violet Thermometer published by the Association 50a50, in a campaign whose motto is “Equality is not negotiable, it is law”. Launched last year, the first study focused on the food sector and found that 34.8% of companies met parity on boards of directors, and 12.5% ​​on management committees.

The spokeswoman for the Violet Thermometer working group of the Association 50a50, Mercè Armelles, has expressed the disappointment of all the members in the face of the figures of the new Thermometer: “With the first study we already denounced the gender gap that still exists in the sector of food, but in the communication and audiovisual sector the figures are even worse. We must make a change and incorporate more women into government bodies, because this leads to better economic results as several studies have shown.”

“From 50a50 our goal is to move towards 50% female representation in decision-making positions in the workplace – added Armelles-. It is the Sustainable Development Goal number 5 of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, and it is recognized as the sine qua non condition for the fulfillment of the rest of the goals: we need to incorporate women into the spheres of power in order to eliminate hunger, end with wars or fight against climate change”.

In addition to the publication of the study, the Violet Thermometer campaign includes personalized communication to each of the companies that have been the subject of the study, by sending the violet letter, where they are informed of their position in the ranking of their sector and they are encouraged to incorporate more female talent in order to move towards a more equal and fair society.

The publication of the Violet Thermometer classification is also intended to be an act of recognition of companies that comply with the law.