Women in PR: Research and opinions about the status, challenges and future of women working in PR/Communications

Abstract

FREE DOWNLOAD: https://www.quadriga-university.com/en/research/profession-research/communication/women-pr

No matter where in the world (if there is research to track it), women make
up most of the workforce in PR/Comms. In Finland for instance, 89% of the
workforce in PR/Comms is made of women (Melgin, 2014), while in the UK
it is a little more than 60%.
While there is reason to celebrate the rise in popularity and demand for
communication specialists — and with this access to PR education — the
feminization of any workforce brings with it a variety of counter effects which,
in today’s day and age, require serious reflection and committed action.
These include gendered perceptions about the profession and perpetuating
bias which lead in turn to pay differences, discriminatory practices, career
progression hurdles and a potential reduction of talent pool.

dwindled (Fazackerley, 2020) and many practitioners' levels of pressure
and stress increased due to a higher demand for communication services
coinciding with the reduced access to support services including childcare,
this reader aims to reflect on the progress made so far and contribute to
keeping the discussion going.
Additionally, at a time of such confinement, this reader celebrates the
diversity (of origin, practice, language, thinking) through the diversity of our
contributors and the unity that technology provides. 16 chapters, 4 continents,
more than 10 countries.

Moreover, the research presented here is as important as the personal
experiences of our contributors, many of whom, you will find, having both
studied and worked in the field.

Full text

Page 4
No matter where in the world (if there is research to track it), women make
up most of the workforce in PR/Comms. In Finland for instance, 89% of the
workforce in PR/Comms is made of women (Melgin, 2014), while in the UK
it is a little more than 60%.
While there is reason to celebrate the rise in popularity and demand for
communication specialists — and with this access to PR education — the
feminization of any workforce brings with it a variety of counter effects which,
in today’s day and age, require serious reection and committed action.
These include gendered perceptions about the profession and perpetuating
bias which lead in turn to pay differences, discriminatory practices, career
progression hurdles and a potential reduction of talent pool.
Too often, communications has been considered a woman’s job because
“women are good at communicating” yet, even now, when the workforce is
made up by mostly women, leadership, top management and board positions
are occupied by men (Melgin, 2014; Risi, 2016). What’s more, research looking
into the feminization of workforces (PR is there with nursing, education
just to name a few) tends to ponder more on the precariousness of the
male status and its relationship and denition to womanhood (see Jennifer
Bosson’s conversation with Shankar Vidantem on Hidden Brain) or consider
softening feminist demands of equality and equity.
Too often as well, especially in pop culture and mass-media, PR women have
been described as using their sex appeal to win clients and get promotions
(Saltzmar, 2012) – Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, does that ring any
bells? – and equally too often the PR history books told the glorious stories
of self-branded PR fathers like Ivy Lee and Eddy Bernays either forgetting
women all in all or, when they included them, then referred to them either
as villains (Bessie Tyler and her work for the KKK, troublemakers – the
suffragettes) and activists or as objects and audiences of campaigns. Such
exposure has long-term and devastating effects. For once, this perpetuates
the image of PR women as being supercial, cute and intellectually inferior,
and sustain the perpetuation of female professionals’ depictions in terms of
PR girls or PR bunnies (in German PR Mäuse, mice). Moreover, when serious
allegations of sexual harassment emerge from the industry, such as Kristin
Demetrious notes in her chapter Surface effects: Public relations and the
politics of gender (2013), it is the female practitioners that are blamed and
shamed publicly. Now Demetrious’ two Australian cases might have happened
before the #metoo movement, but this is still indicative of the existence of
sexual hierarchies (see also Butler, 2010 cited in Demetrious, 2013, p. 20).
Foreword by Ana Adi
and Edna Ayme-Yahil
Beyond Feminization: Women in
PR Can Be the Key to a More diverse,
Ethical and Inclusive PR

Page 5
So how do we move on from here?
Considerable progress has been made in recent years, both in academia
and in professional circles, with research about and for women increasing,
and with professional bodies and associations paying more attention and
seeking solutions to the discrepancies that gendered views of the profession
and feminization produce. There’s Larissa’s Grunig work on the inuence of
gender on the public relations practice (together with Hon and Toth, 2013),
there’s Heather Yaxley’s incursion into the history of public relations and
the career experiences of women during the 1970s and 1980s (2013) and
more recently Liz Yeomans’ exploration of emotional labor in the context PR
agencies (2019). The Chartered Institute of Public Relations in partnership with
Women in PR (similar name, no relationship here) reviewed the gender pay
gap in the UK (2017) while the Public Relations Society of America has been
calling for more women in power since 2016 (Allen, 2016). More recently, IABC
EMENA hosted at the beginning of the year (2020) an event aimed “creating
a space to discuss how to build a meaningful career in communications”. And
yet, although progress has been made, both professionals and academics
agree that there is so much more to be done: to bring insight into how the
workforce is organized and how diversity and gender inuence practice
around the world, to identify strategies to avoid perpetuating bias, to nd
solutions to career progressions that are inclusive, to facilitate collaboration
and support development.
At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic when women’s research outputs
dwindled (Fazackerley, 2020) and many practitioners' levels of pressure
and stress increased due to a higher demand for communication services
coinciding with the reduced access to support services including childcare,
this reader aims to reect on the progress made so far and contribute to
keeping the discussion going.
Additionally, at a time of such connement, this reader celebrates the
diversity (of origin, practice, language, thinking) through the diversity of our
contributors and the unity that technology provides. 16 chapters, 4continents,
more than 10 countries.
Moreover, the research presented here is as important as the personal
experiences of our contributors, many of whom, you will nd, having both
studied and worked in the eld.
Melike Aktas’ chapter will provide you with a brief overview of PR research
on women and about women. Jenifer Boughey’s review of her master's
thesis highlights the personal journeys and stories of female practitioners in
or out of PR leadership, showing among others how important it is to give
women a voice and give them a platform to be heard. Amelia Reigstad’s
article reects on the ndings of her doctoral work revealing that gender,
stereotypes and ageism within public relations are signicant factors within
workplace communication. Liz Yeomans’ article discusses feminism and its
understanding and applications for PR by focusing on how senior PR women
working in PR agencies in the UK discuss their career experiences and
professional relationships, construct identities in relation to feminism and
gender equality. Talia Beckett Davis discusses the different career paths
→
Beyond Feminization:
Women in PR Can Be the
Key to a More diverse,
Ethical and Inclusive PR

Page 6
that women and men have in public relations, reecting on the inuence
on pay and condence that career breaks taken to focus on caring for
others family members have on women. The pay gap and glass ceiling
are also discussed by Carolina Carbone and Luz Canella Tsuji using data
from a preliminary study they carried out in Argentina. Begüm Ekmekçigil
Türkmen’s article provides an insight into her doctoral research exploring
career experiences of female PR practitioners in Turkey. The importance of
understanding context, culture and legislation are highlighted in Ramona
Slusarczyk and Amal Dib analysis and reection of PR practice in the Middle
East with questions about the challenges these pose in particular to female
practitioners being raised. Amanda Holdworth’s contribution discusses burnout
amongst female PR practitioners while Sia Papageorgiou provides a reection
on diversity both from her own experience as well as observations and
analysis of how diversity and inclusion are addressed in Australia. Articial
intelligence is also discussed here: rst Zora Artis looks at gender bias and
how it can be defeated (providing in a sense a response if not a solution
to the questions asked in previous articles) then by Kerry Sheehan and her
passionate call for PR practitioners to actively engage in discussions about
articial intelligence and their application and impact. Sian Rees argues that
“emotionally intelligent will help organizations to understand and challenge
their role in society and offer ways for a variety of brand stakeholders to
engage directly with an organization, and its employees, to challenge brand
inauthenticity and direct brands towards actions which support the public
good” (p. 114). In doing so, she provides a series of guiding principles for
social oriented PR practice. Amanda Coleman provides some useful advice
too on how empathy and humanity can be embedded in the communication
practice and improve communication in crisis situations. Speaking of crises,
Mike Klein reects on how COVID-19 might change gender dynamics at
work. Finally, Raffaela Gmeiner and Olga Kolokytha take a deeper incursion
into the world of music PR where women are scarce and provide solutions
to make them seen.
This reader also provides a series of solutions and guidelines to the problems
communicators face: revisiting how and what we teach about PR, considering
how we recruit and how we envisage career journeys and progression, bring
ethics, diversity to the center of the conversation by challenging the status
quo if it needs be.
Finally, this reader is your written companion and extension to the Women
in PR podcast (https://soundcloud.com/user-654979149) launched in 2019
(and planning a second series for the end of 2020) and featuring interviews
with practitioners and academics on topics ranging from missing voices in
PR history to wellbeing of PR professionals and access to the C-suite. And
very much like the podcast, this reader uses gender and feminization as a
pretext to revisit our assumptions about the profession and its professionals,
consider its past and present and imagine its future. In this sense, discussing
about women in PR is an attempt to think of a profession puts ethics and
diversity at the center.
→
Beyond Feminization:
Women in PR Can Be the
Key to a More diverse,
Ethical and Inclusive PR

Page 7
Prof Dr Adi writes, teachesand researches topics relatedto storytelling, protest
publicrelations and corporateactivism. Prior to joining QuadrigaUniversity
of AppliedSciences and running theirexecutive MBA Communication&
Leadership program, Dr Adi has worked,lived and studied in the USA(with
a Fulbright scholarship),Belgium, Bahrain, Thailandand the UK (and travelled
farbeyond).
She has edited ProtestPublic Relations:
CommunicatingDissent and
Activism(2018, Routledge) and is
the host of the Women in PR podcast
available on Soundcloud, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and more.
(
https://soundcloud.com/user-654979149)
.
Reach out to Dr Adi on Twitter (@ana_adi), her own website
(www.anaadi.net) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anaadi/) .
Dr Edna Ayme-Yahil is Senior Director, Head of Communications, Brand and
Sustainability at SITA since 2020.
Prior to this, she worked at Panalpina, where she was SVP Head of Marketing and
Communications prior to the takeover of the company by DSV. Previously, she
led Communications at EIT Digital, the leading European digital innovation and
entrepreneurial education organization driving Europe’s digital transformation.
Edna has developed and delivered integrated communications and brand
strategies in large global companies and public organizations, including Nissan,
STMicroelectronics, Philip Morris International, and UNESCO. She is currently
a board member and former managing VP for the European Association of
Communications Directors.
Born in the United States, Edna has lived in Europe for the past twenty years
in France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Ana Adi
Edna Ayme-Yahil
→
Beyond Feminization:
Women in PR Can Be the
Key to a More diverse,
Ethical and Inclusive PR

Page 8
Allen, K. (2016). The need for more women in power. PRSA. Available from:
https://apps.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/11548/1128/The_Need_
for_More_Women_in_Power#.Xs0loMaxXfY
Demetrious, K. (2013). Surface effects: Public relations and the politics of
gender. Gender and public relations: Critical perspectives on voice, image
and identity, 20-45.
Fazackerley, A. (2020) Women's research plummets during lockdown - but
articles from men increase. The Guardian. Available from: https://www.
theguardian.com/education/2020/may/12/womens-research-plummets-
during-lockdown-but-articles-from-men-increase
CIPR (no date) Gender pay gap. Available from: https://www.cipr.co.uk/
genderpay
Grunig, L. A., Hon, L. C., & Toth, E. L. (2013). Women in public relations: How
gender inuences practice. Routledge.
IABC (2020) Women in Communication: Pathway to Success. Available from:
https://iabcemena.com/uk/women-in-communication-pathway-to-success/
Melgin, E. (2014) Gender imbalance: why is the female-dominated PR industry
still led by men? Available from https://www.ipra.org/news/itle/gender-
imbalance-why-is-the-female-dominated-pr-industry-still-led-by-men/
Risi, J. (2016) Public relations agencies are dominated by women. So why are
all their leaders men? Retrieved from https://qz.com/631499/public-relations-
agencies-are-dominated-by-women-so-why-are-all-their-leaders-men/
Saltzman, J. (2012). The image of the public relations practitioner in movies
and television, 1901–2011. The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture, 3,
pp. 1-50.
Yeomans, L. (2019). Public Relations as Emotional Labour. Routledge.
Yaxley, H. M. (2013). Career experiences of women in British public relations
(1970–1989). Public Relations Review, 39(2), 156-165.
References