Endless topics: Weather, Web and Women

I was searching in the Internet about women in PR and came across with different people’s blogs related to women and gender issues. Everywhere you can find articles in magazines, books, films, online: from how to understand women’s behaviour, why they dominate in certain fields, how to get women voters etc. Women are large audience and nowadays many sectors (fashion, politics, economy) understand the importance of women's role in society. Having said that, however, there are some issues in regards to the women audience, i.e. companies sometimes think twice if it is appropriate hiring a mum with little kids. Women are not only managers, they are also mothers and wives.

Considering that PR is such a busy and challenging job, where sometimes you have to work until midnight, it can be difficult for mothers to combine work and family. When I interviewed some PR practitioners they said that it’s quite hard for them to find time for family and even for friends. Most of their friends are co-workers and people from the same circle. Many of them are single and do not face the same problems or have the same responsibilities at home.

Surprisingly enough, Larissa A. Gruning says that ‘married women and especially those with children have represented a major source of growth in women’s labour force participation’. Concerning the disparity in salary between men and women, Larissa Gruning adds that women in the middle of their career background ‘earn about 75% and women over 55 earn about 65% of the salary of their male colleagues’. These numbers shows that the job market is affected by different aspects and gender is a significant one. Is it true that in order to earn more and be promoted in the career ladder women should be young and have no own family? I am wondering how with such a hectic and busy schedule married women in PR manage to combine family and work? Do they have a little secret for doing that or are they new superheroes of our time?

Why Women Mean Business

I was doing some books research in a very well known bookstore few days ago and found an interesting one called “Why Women Mean Business” by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland. The eye catching part for me was that they discuss gender issues not from women perspectives, but from business' point of view, describing them as business issues. It seems that Womenomics is the new term in the business world to describe the importance of women’s role in the economy. According to the book, women make 80% of consumer purchasing decision in America. In Japan, two-thirds of sale in the car industry are affected by women, and when Nissan conducted a survey, it revealed that 80% of female customers would prefer to have women salespeople.

According to the book the Economist published a quote in 2006: “Forget China and India and the Internet: economic growth is driven by women” and The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has stated that ‘gender equality strengthen long-term economic development’. All this information can be easily applied to PR as well as to every business sector, where the gender issue takes part. The book, by touching upon gender issues in business, helps to analyze the women’s role in business market. This could help CEOs to reconsider and really understand what ‘motivates women in the global workplace’.

PR wish

Happy New Year everyone!

Wishing you a year full of happy moments and treasured memories.

List of PR wishes for New Year
· All PR campaigns to be successful;
· To get all big clients;
· Wish little crisis for companies, so that PR would be needed to fix them;
· For women: not only dominate in PR, but destroy ‘glass ceiling’ and salary gap;
· Wish all customers and consumers be attracted in products and services that being promoted;
· And so on... ;)

Little Miss PR

Nowadays, many people are concern about gender issues in diverse fields including PR. There is a lot of discussions about how the number of women in PR is getting increased, and some facts and figures confirm that. Yet, since PR is now more associates with women, I decided today to talk about how PR women should look like? Do they need to look like Samantha Jones from ‘Sex in the City’ or any other character? Who is she, who is a PR woman? I have been doing some research and came across with several articles how people were fascinated by women working in PR.

“Daaaarling, they're Absolutely Fabulous: Sophie, Sarah, Aurelia . . . so beautiful, so talented, so discreet. They can throw a party, spin a line, get you on the cover of Hello! (or the Guardian, or the Telegraph) and still have time to make an appearance at a little boy's birthday party. Effortlessly glamorous and successful, they seem never to court the blinding wattage of public attention, yet somehow manage to walk backwards into the limelight.” (New Statesman, magazine).

Articles of this nature and the same sort of films could influence women to feel more and more attracted to the PR field and this might be one of the reasons for the predominance women in PR. Thus leads to the question, is it true that the image and the look of a PR woman were created in purpose? Is there any propotype for being a PR woman?

To follow this idea, I carried out a little survey asking the recipients first which gender they associate with PR and second their perception of PR women. Several interviewees said that they automatically associate PR with women. A vast majority of them see PR women as confident, attractive, sociable and successful. Kevin Moloney in his book “Rethinking Public Relations” points out that usually journalists ‘jokingly’ describe PR as a ‘girly’ profession. Perhaps, this is why some people associate PR with women. Is this a prejudice or a fact?

Concerning the appearance of business ladies Niall FitzGerald, Irish businessman and Chairman of Reuters said:
“Women should stop feeling they have to be like men to succeed like men. This is going in the wrong direction. My advice is: do not seek to develop male strengths, just when female strengths may be in the ascent”.

Another interesting point was made by those I surveyed is that the PR field itself was divided into male and female dominated sectors. Many of them consider that Public affairs, Financial and Government PR are male dominated PR sectors, whereas Fashion, NGO, Consumer PR are mostly dominated by female PR practitioners.

Other interesting element to be considered is the public's perception of PR practitioners (no matter their gender): despite the fact how sometimes things could get difficult, hectic and 'hot' in the PR industry, PR professionals considered to be very glamorous, attractive and successful people.

How might they know that in order to look like that (so called "glamorous, attractive and successful") so much effort and hard work are need to be done and PR is not all about glam and limelight. PR practitioners are normal people like you and me just a little bit obsessed with PR. =)

Applying Feminist Theory to PR

I have been reading a book called ‘Perspectives on Public Relations’, and recently I was particularly focused on the part dedicated to the ‘Feminist phase analysis’, written by Larissa A. Gruning. She defines and analyses 5 phases of ‘post-feminism’ applying it to the evolution of how women were accepted into the PR field.

The first phase is called male scholarship, where the field was mainly predominant by men. It also explains despite women’s contribution to the field their role was ignored and even considered as ‘hostile and patronising toward women’.

The second phase is compensatory. In this phase some progress are noticed towards accepting women’s contribution and experience. Larissa Gruning explains two main compensatory scholarships: ‘description of “women who have made it” and counting or census-taking’. She adds that such demographic studies helped to track women’s progress in the field.

In the third phase, bifocal, both men and women are perceived to be separate and equal sexes. Women are trying to self-actualize themselves and ‘overcome sexism’. However, Larissa Gruning says that ‘women end up being seen, once again, as less than or deviant from the (male) norm’.

The next phase, feminist, brought women more confidence and ‘their activities become central’. In this phase Larissa Gruning described that ‘Stereotypes are set aside. Largely because the methodology of choice gives women voice’. This scholarship also could be described as “postfeminist”.

The last phase is multifocal. This phase described as unrealistic. Nevertheless, the phase explores a relationship between men and women. ‘Multifocal research redefines the field and develops an understanding of men’s and women’s experience to achieve knowledge and practice that truly are inclusive’.

Looking at phases of feminism described by author we can see that women’s achievements in political, social and economic equality with their men peers did not come at once. This involved feminist initiatives and movements, discussions, debates, theories and philosophies.

It is interesting theory how feminist evolution could be applied to the history of women in public relations as the PR field in the past similarly was dominated by men. It’s only for the past 20 years the PR industry is seen to be increasingly feminised. Now there are many associations, groups and organisations exclusively for female PR practitioners. For example, Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR); CIPR Women in PR Group etc. Perhaps the video below will explain better how we got to the stage that today's workforce has the highest levels of employment participation ever by women.
Enjoy it!

Two views on gender-based issues

In spite of the fact that women are being dominated in the PR field, surprisingly enough there is a discrepancy in salary, promotion and the status between that of women and men. This topic has been the subject of discussions for some time. Larissa A. Gruning (2001) in her book “Women in Public Relations” explains several reasons why the salary gap exists:
1. Women has less experience and tend to be younger than men because of their later entry into the field of public relations;
2. Women cluster in lower paying kinds of organizations;
3. Women work in lower paying roles;

She also comments on glass ceiling in promotion and that this is causing salary differences between male and female PR practitioners based on the research conducted, where it shows that women in PR earn 38% less than men.
However, it seems that different sources say otherwise. Some admit that there is a big salary gap between man and women. Some sources say that the salary gap is no more than an exaggeration compared to other business areas. James Hutton in his article ‘The myth of salary discrimination in Public Relations’ says that some professionalized fields like medicine for example, despite having a large salary gap between genders do not claim to be discriminating. He also adds that by analyzing some figures in salary surveys there has not been a significant ‘gender-based salary discrimination in the PR field’. Please see related video below regarding Gender Wage Gap – Myth or Reality.




I suppose, considering that more and more women are entering the PR field and have their own successful business in PR shows that salary and promotion issues are becoming less of a concern. For example, Ketchum has three female partners in their Management Team; at Hill & Knowlton, one of the international communication consultancies, two practice leaders are female and core service leaders are women too. Most of them have been working in the PR industry for more than 20 years and have an incredibly wide range of experience working in different sectors of PR.

They seem very successful, dedicated and excellent managers. So the reasons for gender salary gap mentioned previously seem debatable. The male dominated Management Team is not only in the PR industry, other business areas like law, doctors, entrepreneurs and others are more associated with men.
When it comes to gender influence within communication issues, perhaps it’s more to do with how men and women see the world in different perspectives. This may be why it can affect solving PR challenges at different angles, which is even better when it comes to serve the client as ‘Two heads are better than one’.

Women with PR can rule the World

So why do more and more women choose PR as a profession?
Perhaps the majority of women feel that PR is their field as being comminicative, a good listener and less confrontational gives women more opportunities to flourish in this field.
Furthermore, taking into account that PR itself is quite glamorous and attractive as a profession, brings people to the limelight of the media, paparazzi and other types of audiences, this being combined with femininity has become the most appealing profession for women. We should also not forget that such films as "Sex and the City", "Bridget Jones's Diary" etc. attract more women to PR as they act like an advert for students who are deciding what to do with their life.

It is not a secret that women are good organizers too. Taking control of small, everyday crisises, they successfully manage to solve problems smoothly while being in their high heels. Basically, women are born already possesing the necessary PR skills from the beginning. This is why they do not need to try hard in order to be suited to PR requirements.

Women could rule the World if only there wasn't a tiny problem. As is often the case, inequalities in the profession tend to occur more frequently than one would desire. When it comes to managerial positon or salary or promotion in the career ladder - man are always one step ahead.......
-to be continued-