Throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s, the phrase ‘Women in STEM’ became an online movement highlighting the participation, achievements, and representation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). While that was the career archetype associated with the previous generation of working women, the current generation has embraced a new one: ‘Women in SPAM’ — Social Media, Public Relations (PR), Advertising and Marketing. Adding colour to roles once dismissed as non-technical work, Women in SPAM captures a generation of women running brand campaigns, analysing digital trends and driving internet culture behind the scenes. Looking beyond the glamorous portrayal of these jobs in mainstream media, members of the community share the ground reality of being a woman in SPAM.
Here, creativity is key and is rarely restricted to a brainstorming room. It is intertwined with data, strategy, deadlines, trends, and the demands of an audience that is constantly changing. Poushali Pammi (@poushclicks), a content creator, says, “Even before I pick up my phone, there’re a hundred different things going on in my head,” describing the lighting, angles, backgrounds, hooks and tone she considers before shooting. “One of the most challenging and most interesting parts of being a creator is that you’re never really just a creator. You’re the person who’s coming up with the idea, the script; you’re the person who’s shooting it, editing it, doing everything.”
For Shreya Anand, who is heading marketing at Sony Music South, creativity is an exercise in observation. “A big part of our job is simply to keep our eyes and ears open. You never know when a small signal, a statement someone makes, something an artist says, or even a cultural moment can open up an idea for a campaign. The job is to connect those dots and turn them into something that people want to engage with,” she says.
Not your 9 to 5
The constant engagement is what makes the work difficult to switch off from. Poushali says the line between her work and personal life can become blurry. “I can be having my coffee, going somewhere, taking photos, literally just taking a stroll in the park, and a part of my brain is always thinking, ‘Oh, this could be a video. This would make a good story. Oh my God, look at this, it’s so aesthetic.’ Sometimes, I don’t even realise that I’m working because I’m constantly thinking about content.”
For Amritha Balaji, founder of Diamond Dust PR, unpredictability is intrinsic to the job. “In PR, you learn pretty quickly that being prepared is important, but being prepared for the unexpected is even more important.”
Yet, the affection for the work can come with its own challenges. “When you’re a founder of a PR agency, I don’t think there’s really a clear line between work life and personal life — they kind of hold hands and walk together!” Amritha says.
For Samyuktha Adurthi, founder and director of The Brand Hypothesis, the pressure to prove herself came from being both young (starting the agency at the age of 18) and a woman in the industry. “There have been situations where I have felt the need to establish my credibility, my trust with them (clients) so that they do not underestimate me because I am a woman or because I am even younger.” She says this insecurity made her “overcompensate”, adding, “In that process, I affected myself and my mental health.”
She has also experienced instances where gender shaped professional interactions. “I have seen people who do not look me in the eye and speak. But if a guy from my team is standing next to me, they will look at him and answer my question.”
The experience, however, is not universal. Shreya says, “I don’t think that most of the situations where I’ve had to establish my credibility have been because I’m a woman.” For her, credibility comes through “consistency, the ability to take responsibility, knowing when to stand your ground and, equally importantly, knowing when to listen.”
Amritha points instead to an often-invisible expectation in PR — maintaining a polished exterior regardless of what is happening behind it. “In PR, you often have to ‘dress up and show up’. You could be going through a breakup, having a terrible day or simply running on three hours of sleep, but you still have to walk into an event, smile, network, crack a few jokes, and make it look effortless. Somewhere between doing all of that, you’re also expected to come up with a brilliant campaign idea!”
The breaking point
This pressure can feed into the beautification of burnout — where exhaustion becomes synonymous with hard work. Samyuktha recalls being proud of her own exhaustion. “I used to feel if I’m exhausted, that means I’m working so hard.” It was only later that she questioned her own thought: “Who told you that you need to be so exhausted and feel like you can’t even get up from bed in the morning to have validation that you have worked hard?”
Her definition of burnout is simple: “It begins when urgent work stops being an expectation and starts becoming the new normal.”
Shreya similarly rejects the idea that constant availability should define commitment. “When an industry does that, it can very quickly come at the cost of creativity, perspective and eventually, performance.”
For Poushali, stepping back meant reminding herself that not every experience has to become content. “The end goal is I don’t want to reach a point where I’m creating content so much to the point where I actually stop living,” she says.
Shreya believes the solution also lies in consciously creating space away from work. “Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is step away from the screen and have a life outside the industry — that is often where your next idea comes from.”
And just like that, the women who wake up every day and juggle their schedules with the same passion that they began with as freshers are eventually establishing that work-life balance isn’t about not working outside of the office, but even if the situation arises, the space of being available needs to be set by oneself.
Samyuktha Adurthi: Be financially literate, understand money, understand where and how to invest, how to save, how to take care of the money you are making.
Amritha Balaji: If there’s one thing I would tell women entering this industry, it’s this: value your work and charge accordingly… know your worth, price your work fairly, and don’t be afraid to charge for the value you bring to the table.
Poushali Pammi: If you want to be a content creator, don’t forget yourself. You have to live your life. You should be able to try things, you should do things, you should fail at it, you should have a lot of experiences, and those experiences don’t need to be documented all the time.
Shreya Anand: Don’t wait for someone to tell you that you belong in the room. Walk in, bring your point of view, ask the slightly uncomfortable question, and if necessary, take the chair. Make peace with your WhatsApp notifications. If you’re going to work in SPAM, your phone is going to have a more active social life than you do.