But ... It is Not All Roses

Although women’s characteristics seem to be a perfect fit to the profession, they also account for the same reasons that keep them away of managerial roles. Men continue to make their mark at the top ranks of Public Relations and a major proportion of director and chief executives is still male.
Stereotypes like “women not taking their career seriously” or “women showing a lower job involvement as they have more responsibilities towards their families and households” places them in the “Pink Collar Ghetto”, as G. Bryant called it.
“The Pink Collar Ghetto” depicts the role segregation that women suffer. As some authors argue, female professionals are still stuck in technician roles and find it hard to advance from that position.
Hon, Grunig and Dozier in “Women in Public Relations: Problems and Opportunities” reckon that the workplace tend to esteem masculine attributes as most organizations are still ruled by men. The authors also think that “those in power are often willing to share their special privileges only with those who they perceive to be similar to themselves”.
Another factor that may account to the clustered technician role status is that women also prefer to play it safe, avoiding risk taking whereas their male counterparts are prone to take new and challenging chances.
Technical jobs are more fitting for women, some say, because they exhibit low involvement and seek positive contextual attributes like “working with people” or “being of service”.
Although there are more and more women at the top jobs in PR, the truth is that power itself, along with characteristics such as assertiveness, toughness and ambition are still nowadays seen as very masculine.