AN EXHIBITION is to feature artwork tracing the history of advertising to women, from the start of the women’s suffrage movement to the present day.

The display, at the Said Business School in Park End Street, is launching today as part of the school’s Inspiring Women series.

Kantar, the Oxford University school’s partner in its Future of Marketing Initiative, has loaned 30 pieces of artwork which trace the history of advertising to women.

The What Women Want? exhibition runs until March 8 and is open to the public.

To launch the exhibition Philippa Snare, chief marketing officer of Facebook and Justine Roberts, founder and chief executive officer of Mumsnet and Gransnet, will join a panel event exploring how brands can better connect with women.

Kantar’s research shows that organisations across the UK are missing an opportunity to add up to $1bn to their brand value by failing to meaningfully reflect, represent and champion women in their marketing efforts.

Joining the panel is Felipe Thomaz, associate professor of marketing at Oxford Said Business School, who believes that part of the problem lies in a “lack of gender diversity in the creation and approval process (with a meaningful voice, not just presence) likely to lead to stereotyping and known tropes”.

The panel discussion takes place today from 6.15pm to 8pm and is open to all.

Activities linked to the exhibition include an online workshop on owning your career, which runs from March 8 to March 31.

It offers a free, short module for women based on the school’s research into women’s leadership.

There will also be a keynote talk on March 6, from 6.15pm to 8.45pm, featuring the school’s Professor Renée Adams, who will deliver a talk entitled Women on boards: the superheroes of tomorrow? to call for an increased role of research in developing informed gender balance policies.

And on March 5, from 6.30pm to 9pm two internationally acclaimed filmmakers, Dawn Porter and Lindsey Dryden, will show clips of their films and join a conversation to show how they use the power of film to give voice to the voiceless.

The films explore laws regulating abortion clinics in the American South, and the power of human connection in the face of a life-altering, debilitating illness.

Academics at the business school have been working on a study to advise women in business who want to become CEOs.

Don’t wait to be asked, don’t count on others, play the long game, actively ‘own’ your career and develop a unique leadership style are the principal recommendations to aspiring women leaders that come out of a study of female CEOs by academics from the Oxford University school.

Andromachi Athanasopoulou, Associate Fellow at the business school, said: “Despite an abundance of organisational initiatives aimed at supporting women’s leadership, our research shows that the critical factor in a woman’s achieving the top job is still active ownership of her own leadership career. This starts with acknowledging her ambitions and seeing herself as a leader, accepting the work-life compromises she will have to make, and ‘toughening up’ to overcome both personal and external barriers.”

“It remains true that aspiring women leaders face a range of gender-related barriers at both personal and contextual levels that are simply unknown to their male peers,’ said Tim Morris, Professor of Management Studies at Oxford Said.

“Our study found that it is possible for women to overcome these but only through an enormous amount of ‘self-work’, starting early in their careers.”

For more visit sbs.ox.ac.uk