International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 landed on Saturday 8th March, with the theme ‘Accelerate Action.’ The message is clear: good intentions aren’t enough - progress needs to be faster, bolder, and measurable. Yet, in the creative sector, where innovation thrives, gender equality still lags behind. And too often, businesses rely on the same tired excuses to justify inaction.

So, what are the main excuses we tend to hear?!

Excuse #1: “We just hire the best person for the job.”
Translation: “We’re not actively addressing bias in our hiring process.”

Talent doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If women and underrepresented groups aren’t making it through your hiring pipeline, something is wrong with the system. 

✅ Action: Review job descriptions, adverts, hiring criteria, and selection processes for bias. Ensure recruiting managers are appropriately trained. Balanced shortlists and diverse interview panels.

Excuse #2: “We don’t get women applying internally for more senior roles.”
Translation: “Our culture and progression pathways don’t support women advancing.”

If women aren’t putting themselves forward, ask why. Are promotions fair? Are career pathways clear? Are leadership opportunities accessible? 

✅ Action: Speak to the women in your team to understand barriers, implement sponsorship programs, and ensure promotion criteria are transparent and equitable.

Excuse #3: “We’ve done unconscious bias training so we’re all good.”
Translation: “We ticked a box and moved on.”

Training is useful, but it doesn’t change systemic issues. If you’re still relying on a one-off session to fix deep-rooted inequalities, you’re quite frankly missing the point. 

✅ Action: Embed inclusive leadership into management expectations, measure progress, and make it an ongoing commitment.

Excuse #4: “We offer flexible working… if people ask for it.”
Translation: “But we quietly penalise those who use it.”

If flexibility is only available to those who fight for it, it’s not really flexible. And if parents (usually women) take it up but find their career progression stalls as a result, that’s a problem. 

✅ Action: Build flexible work into your culture, not just policies. Normalise it at all levels, including leadership.

Excuse #5: “We pay fairly - we just can’t talk about salaries.”
Translation: “We don’t want to admit there’s a gender pay gap.”

If you can’t confidently publish your salary bands, chances are, pay disparities exist. The EU Pay Transparency Directive coming in 2026 will force companies to be open about salaries, so why not start now? 

✅ Action: Conduct regular pay audits, adjust discrepancies, and be transparent about salary bands in job adverts.

Excuse #6: “We support parents - they’re able to take parental leave as well as maternity/paternity/shared parental leave .”
Translation: “We do the legal minimum, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do more.”

Even if offering enhanced leave isn’t financially feasible right now, businesses can still foster a culture that supports working parents. Normalising flexible working, ensuring parents don’t face career penalties, and actively encouraging all caregivers (not just mothers) to take their leave can make a real difference. Where you are able to offer enhanced leave, this goes a long way. We’re seeing more businesses adopting equal enhanced leave rights for caregivers now which is really promising. Seeing mothers as the main caregivers is outdated - consideration should be given to equal family leave policies where possible. 

✅ Action: Ensure all parents feel equally supported, reinforce that career breaks don’t mean career setbacks, and provide clear pathways for parents to progress without penalty. Where there’s room to do so, consider equal parental leave policies. 

Excuse #7: “We celebrate International Women’s Day!”
Translation: “We post about our female employees once a year.”

Great, you wrote a LinkedIn post. Now what? Gender equality isn’t a once-a-year PR exercise. Real change happens through sustained, structural improvements. 

✅ Action: Move beyond performative support. Set gender equality targets, measure progress, and hold leadership accountable.

No More Excuses - Only Action

Gender equality isn’t an HR initiative, it’s a business responsibility. If leaders claim to support women in the workplace, they need to prove it with action. No more excuses, just real, measurable change.

If your company is ready to ditch the excuses and make real progress, Fresh Seed can help Reach out to us for a chat.