Women in Digital Marketing: Why We’re Not Just “Nice to Have”
There was a moment this week that stayed with me, and not for the reason you might expect.
I was chatting with Ben Murphy from PunkFox, and what stood out wasn’t just the conversation itself, but how easy it felt. If you’ve ever spoken to someone else in your space, someone who genuinely understands what you do, you’ll know that feeling. There’s no need to over-explain, no blank stares, no polite “oh… cool…” responses that tell you they don’t quite get it. The conversation just flows, and you’re able to move straight into the thinking without having to justify your place in it first.
We ended up talking about SEO, strategy, how people approach their work, and what actually moves the needle. At one point he said something along the lines of, “The things you’re saying just make a lot of sense. It’s actually really refreshing,” and it landed in a way that was hard to ignore. Not because I’m not used to talking about what I do, but because that kind of response still isn’t as common as it should be.
There was no ego in the room, no sense of being quietly assessed, and no need to push harder just to be heard. It was simply a conversation where the thinking was taken at face value, and where listening came without hesitation or qualification.
As the conversation moved on, we found ourselves talking about something that doesn’t get said out loud often enough – what it’s actually like being a woman in SEO and more broadly, being one of many women in digital marketing navigating a space that still feels heavily male-dominated. Not in a dramatic way, and not in a “this industry is broken” way, but in a way that feels grounded in experience and difficult to ignore once you start paying attention to it, because if you work in this space, you’ve probably felt it at some point, even if you haven’t quite put words to it yet.
Being a woman in digital marketing can feel isolating
There are moments that stay with you, not because anything dramatic happens, but because of how quietly obvious they are in hindsight.
I remember sitting in a meeting with a hot cup of tea in front of me, laptop open, notes ready, everything mapped out in my head. I’d come in prepared, not just with a few thoughts, but with a full strategy, a clear rationale, and a direction that made sense. In my head, I’m giving myself the pep-talk. I found myself taking small, careful sips of that tea, not because I was enjoying it, but because I was timing it – waiting for the right moment to speak, making sure I wasn’t caught mid-sip when an opportunity opened up. Because if you miss that moment, even slightly, the conversation moves on, and it’s surprisingly hard to get back in.
When I did speak, I walked through the strategy properly, with confidence. I explained it step by step, clearly and logically, the way I always do when I know something holds together. I had planned notes, stats – facts and figures to back up my argument. And then the conversation kept moving. It wasn’t dismissed, and it wasn’t challenged, it just didn’t quite land in the way I expected it to.
A few minutes later, the same idea was repeated by a male SEO further down the table, and the shift was immediate. There was energy, agreement, heads nodding, a sense that this was the direction to take. Nothing had changed, except the voice delivering it.
Later, I was in the car and my mum called, like she always does after a big meeting, asking how it went. We’d gone over my plan the night before – not that she particularly understood my rambling, more because she’s a supportive woman who loves that I’ve made a foothold for myself in this space. I sighed, and told her – they loved the ideas, just not when they came from me; I really wasn’t heard – well, aside from the guy who just regurgitated all of my arguments. There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and then a sigh. Not surprised, not shocked, just a quiet kind of understanding. She’s heard this story before.
It’s not something you need data to recognise. But the data does confirm it.
The numbers reflect what many women in digital marketing already feel
This isn’t just a one-off experience.
Across the industry, the data tells a similar story.
Women still make up a minority of SEO professionals, with some surveys showing they account for around 30% of the workforce, reinforcing how male-dominated the digital marketing space still is.
In other datasets, close to 70% of SEOs identify as male, which helps explain why certain perspectives are more commonly heard, and others take a little longer to land.
Even within the work itself, there are patterns. Research has shown that technical SEO content is still largely produced by men, while women are more visible in content-focused areas.
And while women are well represented across marketing more broadly, women are still less likely to hold senior roles within SEO agencies, which shapes how decisions are made and whose voices carry the most weight.
None of this is surprising when you’ve experienced it.
But it does put context around it.
But something shifts when you find the right people
What I’ve found over time is that everything changes when you’re surrounded by the right kind of professionals. People who listen to the thinking, not the person delivering it, who care more about the outcome than the ego in the room, and who are genuinely open to different ways of approaching a problem.
Those are the moments where the conversation becomes what it’s supposed to be, focused, collaborative, and driven by ideas rather than perception. And in those environments, something subtle but important happens. The need to prove yourself fades, the second-guessing quiets down, and you’re able to contribute without constantly measuring how you’re being received.
It’s often in those spaces that women in digital marketing are able to do their best work, not because anything has changed about their capability, but because the environment finally allows it to be recognised without friction.
And when that happens, the gender part fades pretty quickly. You’re no longer “the woman in the room”, you’re just someone who knows what they’re talking about.
And the truth is – I love myself some strategy. I love looking at numbers and figures, working out what the patterns mean, and looking for gaps that we can fill. I complete SEO strategy for clients who know I know what I’m talking about – irrespective of gender.
Why women in digital marketing are so valuable
This is where the conversation becomes more important, because it moves beyond experience and into impact.
Women in digital marketing often bring a level of clarity to the work that goes beyond simply executing a task. There’s usually more emphasis on explaining what’s being done, why it matters, and how it will affect the outcome, which helps clients understand the strategy rather than just follow instructions. That understanding builds trust, and trust leads to better implementation.
There’s also a stronger tendency to look beyond traffic or rankings and focus on what happens after someone lands on a website. Whether the messaging makes sense, whether the structure is clear, and whether someone knows what to do next are all part of the process. Because traffic without clarity doesn’t convert, and that’s where a lot of strategies fall apart. I find that women focus a little more closely on the psychological process of converting on a website. How someone feels makes a huge difference in how they behave digitally. As I say, traffic is one thing – doing something with it is entirely another.
More broadly, digital marketing is rarely just technical. It sits across business goals, human behaviour, messaging, and user experience, and being able to connect those pieces is where real growth happens. Women in digital marketing often sit comfortably in that space, bridging the gap between strategy and communication.
And perhaps most importantly, different questions tend to get asked by women in digital marketing. Not just what keywords to target, but why something isn’t converting, what’s confusing, and what someone is actually trying to understand when they land on a page, or how they feel when they get there. Those are the questions that lead to meaningful improvements, not just surface-level changes.
Why this matters for businesses
This isn’t just an internal industry conversation, it has a very real impact on results.
If your marketing isn’t connecting, converting, or making sense to your audience, it’s rarely just a technical issue. More often, it comes down to how clearly something is being communicated, how well it’s structured, and whether the person landing on your website can actually understand what they’re looking at and what to do next.
That’s where sometimes a different perspective, based in alternate lived experience, becomes important. The way a strategy is explained, the way a message is framed, and the way a user is guided through a site can be the difference between someone leaving… or becoming a customer.
And this is where the contribution of women in digital marketing becomes particularly valuable. Not because it replaces anything, but because it adds a layer of clarity and connection that directly supports better outcomes.
This isn’t about men vs women
I write this, not to incite some massive gender war – some of the best people I’ve worked with in this space are men, and this isn’t about drawing a line or creating a divide. It’s about recognising that better work happens when there’s balance. And I’m a strong proponent of balance being at the heart of everything successful.
When you bring together different perspectives, different ways of thinking, and different ways of communicating, you create space for stronger ideas, clearer strategies, and more effective execution. It reduces blind spots, challenges assumptions, and leads to decisions that are more considered and better aligned with real people.
And ultimately, that’s what good digital marketing is meant to do.
