SheSays wants you to spam your boss to improve parental-leave policies

It's usually the boss who sends out demanding messages to staff but, thanks to SheSays, you can turn the tables and send your own anonymous email to them at any time, day or night.

The campaigning group is calling on the industry to "spam" their chief executives with anonymous messages calling for equal parental leave to "eradicate sex discrimination in the workplace".

"#SpamForEquality" asks businesses to pledge to review their paid parental-leave policy by the next International Women’s Day in 2021.

According to SheSays, making a change will "help to normalise men staying at home with their child and will stop women of childbearing age being disadvantaged in the workplace".

SheSays has developed a website, equalparentalleave.com, where staff can send a pre-written message directly to their boss asking that they commit to reviewing their parental-leave policies.

In the advertising industry, the gender pay gap is as high as 38.3% at some agencies, according to the latest figures. That women are disadvantaged by taking time out to care for children is widely reported.

Companies such as Aviva, Diageo, Save the Children and Spotify offer equal paid parental leave as part of their diversity and inclusion offering, SheSays said.

But within adland, agencies vary widely on their parental-leave policies, with some providing enhanced leave packages and others offering closer to the legal minimum.

"Chief executives pledging to review their policy before International Women’s Day 2021 will make a massive difference to the advancement of women in our industry, removing the stigma of partners taking paternity leave and allowing parents to decide how they want to parent," Joyce Kremer, UK president of SheSays, said.