Having spent more than a decade working with women leaders, preparing them for media interviews and hearing about the incredible work they’re doing in their businesses, I can say with absolute certainty that there’s no shortage of brilliant female expertise. 

But what I can also say, with equal certainty, is that their representation in media paints a very different picture. Women account for just 26% of news subjects and sources globally, a figure that has barely changed in recent years.

For a long time, we've talked about gender representation primarily through the lens of fairness. And rightly so. But while there's widespread recognition that greater representation is the right thing to strive for, momentum too often seems to stop there. 

Perhaps what's needed to persuade more businesses to act is a stronger commercial case for change. If so, that evidence is available in spades too. 

And while ours is by no means the only research making this case, our most recent study, commissioned in partnership with Sapio Research and involving 200 business leaders, marketers and communications professionals across the UK and US, adds further weight to the argument. We found that 79% believe gender-diverse spokespeople help build audience trust, while 78% see benefits for employee engagement, 77% for brand reputation and credibility, 74% for talent attraction and 64% for competitive advantage. 

Yet despite this recognition, more than half (52%) said that women account for just a quarter or less of their organisation's speaker bench. The business case is clearly understood. The action, it seems, has yet to catch up.

Who speaks for you shapes what people think of you 

To borrow a familiar saying, the person who speaks last often leaves the strongest impression. There is some truth in the idea that the last person we hear speaking authoritatively on a subject is often the one we remember, reference or turn to again.

And when men account for 74% of the people we see, hear and read about in the news, it inevitably influences whose ideas gain traction and whose expertise is recognised.

For businesses, the implications are significant. In good times, and particularly in bad, who speaks on an organisation's behalf matters. Yet the decision about who represents a business rarely gets the scrutiny it deserves. 

These are the people who can go on to become recognised authorities in their fields, shape industry debate, build relationships with important audiences and, ultimately, influence how a business is perceived.

There's also evidence that the person delivering a message can be just as important as the message itself. Research into science communication published in 2025 found that female scientists were perceived as more approachable, which helped strengthen perceptions of credibility and trust in the information they shared.

Of course, that's one study in one field. But it raises a question that every communications leader should be asking: are we giving as much thought to who delivers our messages as we do to what those messages say?

Why do we keep putting forward the same people?

If businesses recognise the benefits of greater diversity among their spokespeople, what’s stopping them from making the change?

Our research identified traditionally male-dominated industries, a lack of women in senior leadership positions, and established spokesperson networks as the biggest barriers to building more gender-diverse speaker benches. 

But there is another factor worth considering: the habit of relying on the same familiar faces simply because they have always been the spokespeople.

In reality, journalists are often working to extremely tight deadlines. They need someone who can respond quickly and confidently. When the pressure's on, it's tempting to fall back on the CEO or the familiar, media-trained expert. 

It's the safe option. But is it always the right one?

Several national and business journalists have told me they’re not always looking for the most senior person in the room. They want someone who knows their subject inside out and can translate it in a compelling way for a readership or audience. 

That presents an opportunity to look beyond the boardroom and put forward knowledgeable voices who might otherwise be overlooked.

A broader speaker bench doesn’t happen by accident

The starting point is understanding who an organisation is actually putting forward. Businesses spend time measuring representation across their workforce, but how often do we look at who speaks on their behalf? 

Audit your speaker bench. Look at who is offered opportunities and who actually gets heard. Then look beyond the obvious choices. Women with specialist knowledge and valuable experience aren't necessarily sitting around the boardroom table.

This is where our One More Woman campaign comes in. We're not asking businesses to transform their approach overnight. Instead, we are asking them to make one simple commitment: identify one more woman with genuine expertise, prepare her for media opportunities and put her forward. 

It sounds simple, because it is. But imagine the difference we could make if every communications team started doing just that.

So here's my challenge to everyone working in marketing and communications: the next time a media opportunity comes your way, think about who you'd normally put forward. Then ask yourself, is there an alternative option? Is there a woman whose expertise deserves to be heard?

Today’s visibility influences tomorrow’s authority

There is another reason why this matters now more than ever. The people quoted in the media today can become the experts AI and search engines surface tomorrow.

In short, visibility breeds visibility. If we continue putting forward the same familiar faces, we risk reinforcing the imbalance. And as AI increasingly draws on publicly available information to identify experts, generate answers, and make recommendations, there's a real danger that the gender inequalities already evident in media coverage will carry into the next generation of search and discovery.

Elizabeth Jones is senior director at With, a B2B strategic communications consultancy, and leads its One More Woman campaign to improve gender representation among expert spokespeople.

Further reading

Is AI phasing out the industry expert?

Why AI-generated reputations are never standing still

Time’s up: Closing PR’s gender leadership gap