Studies have shown a lack of gender diversity in B2B marketing leadership, which as well as making it harder for women to rise to the C-suite, is also having a marked impact on the overall culture at these businesses, which is negatively affecting female marketers’ careers.

Issues around unconscious bias, trust in female leadership, limited access to role models and lack of mentorship can have as much of an impact as formal policies around things like maternity leave and flexible working.

Neha Chohan, director of social and content marketing at B2B fintech firm Sokin, is careful with language when she talks about trust. She does not treat it as atmosphere or intent. She treats it as a working condition.

“In my previous roles, there was no flexibility,” she says. “There was no trust. The trust factor was missing.”

Sokin is headquartered in London, with teams split across the UK and Dubai. Chohan’s remit spans brand, demand, social, content and revenue contribution and she herself works from Dubai.

While she feels trusted by leadership to execute projects as she sees fit within her current role, this hasn’t been her experience in previous jobs, which she says made it difficult for her to progress and grow as a marketer.

“From the very first month [at Sokin], I was given a chance to do what I wanted to do,” she says. “There was a sense of, ‘Yeah, go for it.’”

For her, that trust is essential for women if they are able to lead with authority. It is also necessary if they are to be able to access promotions and progress.

“If I break down culture, it’s flexibility and authority,” she says. “Authority in the sense that there’s a voice for you. There’s a place for you—that hasn’t always been there for me.”

“I do welcome that flexibility in terms of time and space, and being able to work within a timeframe that works for me, or from a cafe if I see fit. If I can get the work done, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

There’s always this focus on the C-suite: one woman at the top and that’s seen as success

Rachael Hunt, Reuseabox

According to Chohan, across B2B marketing, the functions women occupy tend to be highly visible, but not respected by the wider business. Social, content and brand are often seen as supplementary rather than genuine growth drivers, she says.

“People take social very lightly,” Chohan says. “Some fun pictures, some captions, and that’s it.” She says this is outdated and dismissive towards those working in these role.

“There’s a full structure behind it,” she says. “There’s methodology. There’s strategy. I’m thinking about CFOs, long sales cycles, attribution. This is not decoration.”

Rachael Hunt, marketing manager at Reuseabox, a B Corp-certified packaging business, points to a similar problem in her own work.

“Long sales cycles make impact harder to prove,” Hunt says. “Especially in software.”
She describes marketing as the first function to be cut when budgets tighten.

“It’s always treated as a cost,” she says. “Even though it’s fundamental to growth.”
More broadly within the realm of B2B, the role of marketing has evolved significantly, she says, which has resulted in a greater need for education within the business.

“There’s a fixed idea of what ‘serious B2B marketing’ looks like,” says Chohan. “And social doesn’t always fit that box.”

She talks about constantly having to justify channels, creativity and experimentation.
“If I want to reach CFOs, people assume it has to be LinkedIn,” she says. “That’s just not how people behave anymore.”

She continues: “You need to be doing more than the typical webinars and thought leadership. For me, I want to break that myth of fintech marketing being boring, and I believe that will make a real impact.”

‘Visibility isn’t ego’: Female CMOs on navigating the challenges of B2B leadership

Flying solo

Working solo or in smaller teams can also have an impact on how marketing, and by extension the women working as marketers, are perceived, according to Hunt.

“I’m basically the marketing department,” she says.

“I lead strategy, I look after content, I execute,” she says. “I’ve never worked anywhere where there’s a social person, an email person, a paid person. It’s always been me.”

In small B2B businesses, that breadth brings visibility, because everyone in a company knows who you are, even if they don’t completely understand what you do.

“You get exposure to everything,” she says. “You’re a big fish in a small pond.”
Conversely, that brings the problem of a lack of mentorship that can be especially important for women securing more senior roles.

“Who do you learn from?” she asks. “Who trains you? Who challenges you?”
Hunt has noticed that these senior generalist marketing roles skew female.

“Women are good at juggling,” she says. “We organise. We keep things moving.”

Flexibility is about being human. Mental wellness. Physical wellness. Having a life outside work.

Neha Chohan, Sokin

She has also noticed this momentum slows the further up the corporate ladder you go.

“At junior levels, marketing is very female,” she says. “As you move up, it drops off. Leadership becomes male very quickly.”

She’s open with how this makes her feel as a woman who is working solo.
“It’s disappointing,” she says. “Especially when so many of these companies are selling to women.”

She mentions how many more women are being brought in at the junior level across both marketing and engineering than previously, but neither are usually positions where they hold major decision making power within the organisation.

“We still take a long time to hire women into senior roles,” she says. “Even now.”

What frustrates her most is how narrow progress is allowed to look, and how companies will often stop trying after one promotion.

“There’s always this focus on the C-suite,” she says. “One woman at the top and that’s seen as success.”

She shakes her head: “There’s so much happening below that level. Director level. Manager level. That work doesn’t get celebrated.”

Sector experience

For Helena Buhr, chief product officer at marketing intelligence platform Funnel, authority arrived through a different route.

“This is my first CPO role,” she says. “I joined as a VP and stepped into it in January.”
Buhr spent years in consumer tech, including at Spotify and Meta, before moving into B2B, but she does not see a sharp cultural divide between B2B and B2C.

“In my experience, it’s more about the company,” she says.

She does, however, acknowledge tech’s persistent gender imbalance. “Tech is still very male,” she says. “And when you get into data and AI, that skews further.”

At Sokin, Chohan is part of a women’s business resource group sponsored by a male senior leader. She is clear that the goal is not solemnity.

“Every campaign around women feels heavy,” she says. “Very serious. Very emotional.”

That tone does not resonate with her, instead she wants to focus on the positive impact women in these roles can have.

“We already know there’s space for us,” she says. “I don’t want everything to be sad and symbolic. I want us to enjoy it.”

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What flexibility means

Chohan is also clear in how she talks about flexibility. She doesn’t have children herself and doesn’t believe flexibility should just be reserved for those who do.

“A lot of companies think flexibility is something you give to mothers,” she says. “Or to people who are pregnant.” She rejects that framing, adding: “Flexibility is about being human. Mental wellness. Physical wellness. Having a life outside work.”

Remote and hybrid working were not lifestyle preferences for her. They were non-negotiables.

“Before Covid, everything was onsite,” she says. “After that, I realised I couldn’t go back to how it was.”

There’s a fixed idea of what serious B2B marketing looks like and social doesn’t always fit that box

Neha Chohan, Sokin

For Hunt, flexibility sits alongside a different set of assumptions. She is child-free by choice, which she has noticed has had an impact on her career.

“I don’t have the stigma of maternity leave,” she says. “And that’s unfair, because so many women do.”

She has watched peers struggle to return to senior roles after having children.
“Not because they’re not capable,” she says. “Because the system isn’t built to take them back.”

Responsibility, she argues, remains unevenly distributed in part because of the culture around working fathers.

“Paternity leave is diabolical,” she says. “Until that changes, very little else does.”

Appearances of authority

For Hunt, authority has also been shaped by something rarely discussed in professional settings: her body.

She speaks openly about the size discrimination she has experienced throughout her career.

“I’ve had managers laugh about my weight behind my back,” she says. “I’ve had comments in meetings about food being left over.”

She is clear that these moments were not isolated but a pattern of behaviour that has followed her across her career.

“When I started talking about it publicly, male CEOs told me it doesn’t happen,” she says. “That’s simply not true.”

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She describes how appearance becomes a professional filter, and how women who break from those norms are often penalised harshly.

“Women are judged constantly,” she says. “It affects who puts themselves forward.”

She references 2016 research from the University of Exeter showing that plus-size women are less likely to be promoted and are paid less.

“There’s an assumption that we’re lazy,” she says. “So we work harder to counter it.”

The assumptions around women’s appearances, their work ethic, and the value of the work they do has long-term impacts on their careers and mental wellbeing.

Additionally, organisations are missing out on real talent if they do not do the work to change that culture of judgement toward women.

“Women are constantly judged,” Hunt says. “And that judgement follows you into every room.”