Eve ate the apple and the world spiralled, right? That’s the version we’ve all been handed. But what if, and stay with us here, Eve didn’t doom humanity… she just made a bold call?
What if she took a risk, challenged the rules, and rewrote the script because deep down she knew: progress doesn’t happen by playing it safe?
Fast-forward a few millennia, and women are still doing exactly that, reshaping the system, questioning old assumptions, and driving cultural and commercial change on their own terms.
In a world increasingly shaped by women’s voices, expectations, and purchasing power, Nine Entertainment Co.’s EVEolution program is stepping in to help marketers make sense of it all.
Designed as a long-term initiative, EVEolution is Nine’s way of interrogating what empowerment really looks like for Australian women today, and, crucially, what that means for brands hoping to stay in step.
Remi Baker, Powered’s Director of Insights and Innovation at Nine, says the project was born from a simple but urgent question, are we really making progress?
“It kind of all started off the back of a conversation at the end of last year,” Baker told Mediaweek.
“There was so much negative news around gender equality, so we put a survey into market to get a clearer picture of what Australians were feeling. The results showed a strong sense of inequality is still very much present.”
What the data shows
Nine’s survey found that 75% of women believe men still have more opportunities in Australia.
Seventy-two percent believe men are held in higher regard, and nearly three-quarters (74%) agree more needs to be done to achieve gender equality.
But rather than dwell in pessimism, EVEolution takes a forward-thinking approach, exploring where progress is happening, where it’s needed, and how brands can be part of that momentum.
“We didn’t want it to be doom and gloom,” says Baker.
“We asked things like: where are the opportunities? What does empowerment look like to Australian women today? And how can we help accelerate action in those different areas?”
A multi-layered approach to cultural insight
To answer those questions, Nine partnered with strategic research agency Fiftyfive5 and applied a cultural forecasting framework.
The process involved analysing 184 reports on gender and equality, scraping TikTok and Instagram for content women engage with, and running a 2,000-person national survey across genders.
The team also conducted 15 in-depth interviews with subject-matter experts from within Nine’s business units.
“We really wanted to understand what empowerment means to women right now, where they feel they’re driving progress, and what cultural shifts are shaping those perceptions,” Baker says.
From that, they surfaced ten distinct narratives of empowerment. According to Baker, this breadth was intentional.
“This is a complex topic. There are serious issues brands can help tackle, but there are also more everyday ways to show up, like how women are represented in advertising.”
Opportunities for brands to engage with purpose
One key takeaway for marketers? Women’s experiences are varied and nuanced. Baker says it’s not about taking sides, but rather recognising evolving needs and responding with empathy.
“Empowerment doesn’t mean disempowering others. Just because you’re championing women’s health doesn’t mean you’re neglecting men. It doesn’t have to be one at the expense of the other,” she says.
Women make up over 50% of the population and drive more than 80% of consumer spending. Baker encourages brands to ask themselves: Where is your opportunity to raise awareness or create change? Are you already helping? Could you partner with someone who is?
Real data with resonance
While EVEolution’s findings aren’t necessarily surprising to many women, they do affirm a collective truth.
“When we shared this, the response from women was basically a nod. It wasn’t, ‘Oh my god, we never knew this.’ It was more like, ‘Yes, this is exactly how it feels.’ That’s powerful,” says Baker.
She adds that the goal wasn’t to support a single brand or campaign, but to reflect a national conversation. “We didn’t want to look at it through a brand or product lens. We wanted to understand the cultural context Australians are navigating right now.”
“There’s a real hunger for this kind of research. We’re all drowning in data, but what we’re short on is insight,” Baker says.