spinaround

Women in PR's Future

2006-01-08T06:09:00.000-08:00

Education in PR enhances the likelihood that practitioners will practice excellent Public Relations. Since most Public Relations students are women and they are now the majority in the field, it seems that the quality of the PR work stands to some extent in women’s shoulders.
Much of the credit for progress in Public Relations goes to good professionals (men and women). Nevertheless, one may assume that because women have had to overcome stereotypical attitudes about their unsuitability for management, female professionals who secure management positions are actually more motivated toward achievement and self-actualization than their male counterparts.
Several studies also show that compared with men, women are more concerned with opportunities for growth, autonomy and challenge.
Although talking about men and women’s differences is reductive as we all know that there are no exclusive male/female characteristics, it is important to notice that it is all about good and bad professionals and gender has nothing to do with it.

...or Not To Be in the Velvet Ghetto

2006-01-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

In “The Myth of Salary Discrimination in Public Relations”, James G. Hutton states that there is no pragmatic and practical reason to support the idea of gender discrimination. The author accounts for this new viewpoint the lack of any comprehensive study on the topic and no solid scientific evidence.
Furthermore, Hutton maintains that fields like marketing and advertising or even medicine have larger salary-gender correlations but didn’t have made claims of discrimination.
In the 80’s, the salary gap was a reality but nowadays or at least for at least ten years ago (as Hutton states), this correlation is a myth as there is little or no salary discrimination.
Even if there is a gap between salaries, the author explains it through different variables such as work experience, hours worked, age and type of PR practiced. Thus, nowadays, gender seems to be replaced with experience and hard work issues. The author concludes his study by saying that it is possible that public relations salaries could include a “little” gender discrimination but compared with the factors mentioned above it is not that significant.

To Be in the Velvet Ghetto...

2006-01-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

Studies of women in PR state that besides the existence of a “glass ceiling” on promotions, there is also a salary gap. “There is a million dollar penalty for being a woman”, quoted Cutlip, Center and Broom in “Effective Public Relations”.
A recent survey held by the CIPR and analysed in PR Week showed that 31% is the wage gap between men and women. On average men earn £18,000 more than women, at £57,000 a year.
One series of studies (The Velvet Ghetto and Beyond the Velvet Ghetto) showed that women earned less than men even with the same level of education, equivalent years of professional experience and equal tenure.
IABC sponsored the Velvet Ghetto study (1986) and in 1989 to answer unresolved issues put together a follow-up study: Beyond the Velvet Ghetto. Both studies meant to measure the impact of women on the communication field and one of the results showed that women’s work is devalued by the business world and that they are paid less than men even in the same work position.

Glass Ceiling: Is it a Curse or an Alibi?

2006-01-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

Maureen Rice wrote in The Way Women Work that “the glass ceiling has gone the way of the chastity belt”. Furthermore, Rice evokes the results of a survey held by the Equal Opportunities Commission, stating that women considered themselves equal to men.
Still, if women think that the glass ceiling is removed, why all the struggle to evolve?
According to Rice, women themselves are to blame for not having the power. The glass ceiling “... it was a great alibi. While it existed, we could blame our lack of progress in business and public life, on everything but ourselves. (...) The fact is, women are mid-career dropouts, and if they aren’t in the top jobs it’s at least because they don’t want to be”.
Women, says Rice, have different aspirations for work and prioritise relationships, personal interests and families. Susan Vinnicombe, professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Cranfield School of Management, mentions in Rices’s text that for men success means promotions, salary rises and job titles. For women, it means peer respect, being able to use their knowledge, being personally fulfilled and being able to make a difference.
Rice also attributes to women the creation of flexible working. “Disenchanted by the structures and limitations of most organisations ... (women) just walk away from their big jobs ... (and start working) as consultants and freelancers”.

How to Break the Glass Ceiling

2006-01-02T04:33:00.000-08:00

As years go by it seems that there is progress towards gender equality. Nevertheless, several researchers agree that the glass ceiling hasn’t been removed, although women, armed with the right strategies, can break it.
Author Scott M. Cutlip offers tips to fight the disparity between male and female professionals. According to Cutlip “women have to get into the game and be as aggressive as any male counterpart”. Women must also develop management skills, “think like managers, talk like managers and communicate with other managers”. Finally, women should aim higher rather than undervalue themselves and should begin by asking for better salaries and negotiate other benefits aside from salary.
Helpful as they might be, these strategies do not seem the answer to gender equality. If women show aggressiveness, ambition and assertiveness, they will just be playing a men’s part or behaving as men expect them to behave in the workplace. By acting "tough", women will be perceived as a “fake” and as “role-players”. Being tough still sends the wrong message in the workplace. It seems that women want to be more like men and they are not showing their own best assets. Even nowadays, men can be ambitious but women are still seen and evaluated negatively when they show similar traits.

PR’s Top 21

2006-01-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

PR Week celebrated last year its coming of age with the 100 most influential figures of the industry during the past 21 years. Even though women outnumber men in the field, only 21 female practitioners were acknowledged and only one (Adele Biss) was on the top 10. Here is the list of the female PR super breed:

1- Adele Biss (founder and chief of public affairs of AS Biss & Co)
2- Lesley Brend (Founder and former chairman of the consumer PR agency The Red Consultancy)
3- Alison Canning (Edelman’s former president of international operations)
4- Jackie Cooper (founder of Jackie Cooper PR Agency)
5- Romola Christopherson (late Whitehall’s director of information at the Department of Health and associate of the Media Strategy firm)
6- Jackie Elliot (former PRCA chairman)
7- Lynne Franks (the fashion and lifestyle PR ‘guru’ immortalized as Edina in Absolutely Fabulous)
8- Jilly Forster (former The Body Shop’s communications director)
9- Margot James (co-founder of PR agency Shire Health; and Ogilvy Healthworld Europe regional president)
10- Angela Heylin (OBE) (former chairman of Charles Barker BSMG)
11- Lorraine Langham (MD of public sector consultancy Verve Communications)
12- Sandra MacLeod (Echo Research CEO and the first international board member of the IPR)
13- Dora McCabe (former head of PR for Cadbury)
14- Feona McEwan (WPP communications director)
15- Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Tesco group director of corporate affairs)
16- Sally Osman (BBC head of communications)
17- Jane Reed (CBE) (corporate affairs director at News International)
18- Maureen Smith (The Communication Group director for 20 years)
19- Sally Sykes (former press and PR chief of Manchester Airport)
20- Pamela Taylor (OBE) (Past President of the Institute of Public Relations and a founder Director and Chief Executive of Water UK)
21- Catherine Warne (MD of Red Door Communications and founder of the PRCA's healthcare group)

A Question of Emotion

2005-12-29T05:30:00.000-08:00

Richard Wright- Here’s an idea. I’m talking to Brad Rosen. You two could share the work. Five hotels, it’s a big job.

Samantha Jones- I know it’s a big job. (…) I appreciate your offer but I don’t need a partner.

R. W. - Reed between the lines Ms. Jones, I deal with a lot of business… men.

S. J. - What are you saying. Businessmen would be more comfortable dealing with a woman working next to a man?

R. W. - You have a lot to offer. You might want to consider working with a partner who isn’t so emotional.

From the Sex and the City episode - Belles of the Balls

But ... It is Not All Roses

2005-12-17T05:27:00.000-08:00

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.

PR: a Gendered Profession

2005-12-12T05:18:00.000-08:00

In Why Women Dominate PR Profession it is said that PR “is still not taken seriously enough and is often viewed as a bit girlie in certain quarters”. Thus, if Public Relations can be seen as a “bit girlie” and female practitioners outnumber their male counterparts, what makes women more suitable for a PR role?
Biological and social attributes that distinguish women from men seem to be the root for being a great fit in Public Relations roles.
Anne Parris of IPR Midlands advocate that women tend to be more practical than theoretical and have more attention to detail, which are major assets to be a PR practitioner.
According to Parris, women are also better listeners, more methodical in their decisions, less confrontational, less likely to go off in unproven directions and are better than men at thinking on different levels all at the same time.
Gidon Freeman, editor of PR Week, reckons that “PR is all about developing relationships and bringing influence to bear, which historically women have always mastered better than men”.
Linda Hon, Larissa Grunig and David Dozier in “Women in Public Relations: Problems and Opportunities” go even further and argue that feminine values have been linked with to the two-way symmetrical communication, the model heralded as the most ethical and effective. This model invokes cooperation, collaboration and relationship building; all feminine principles that have been developed in the domestic sphere, a place well known by most women.

PR is Ab Fab

2005-12-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

Saffy - 'It’s only a fashion show. Major motion pictures are made, huge concerts are put on in stadiums, I mean for God's sake, 500,000 troops were mobilised in the Gulf and a war fort in one in less time. And without everyone involved having a nervous breakdown and being sent flowers. It cannot be that difficult!'  

Eddy - 'Darling, every troop didn't have to contain Yasmin Le Bon, the Generals didn't require big hugs after every manoeuvre, and the whole opperation did not have to be co-ordinated to rap and Japanese avant garde pipe music. Because you know, darling, I think if it had the outcome might have been rather different don't you? Mm?'

From the Absolutely Fabulous episode - Fashion

Are TV portrayals of women in PR deceitful?

2005-12-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

Does the allure and appeal of the Public Relations rely on the TV depictions of the profession? Is PR a popular profession choice amongst women because of the glamour and glitz that it might entail? In America, the face of Public Relations is still sex-crazed fashionista Samantha Jones of “Sex and the City”. In this side of the sea, the spokesperson for the profession is the airhead, binge-drinker and party-goer Edina Monsoon of “Ab Fab”.
Stuck with these transatlantic TV depictions of “professionals”, women in PR stand for numerous pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes, glasses of champagne and celebrity packed-parties where the words “fabulous” and “dddaaahhhhrrriiilllnnnnggg” flows out of everyone’s mouths. But is there work after all those parties?
Although the aforementioned characters are clearly and undoubtedly over-the-top depictions of women in PR, when people think of Public Relations female professionals, they still create the wrong idea. Stacy Nobles wrote in TV Portrayals of Women in PR are Bad for the Industry that being a “PR Girl” is not calling the media when P.Diddy attends a party or rubbing elbows with celebrities in swanky venues.
Nobles’ definition entails a different set of interests. “I make it my business to know my clients’ businesses”. Nobles talks about an “unglamorous, hard, strategic work” shaped to help enhance or repair a company’s reputation.
And by doing so, this PR woman’s day involves meetings with colleagues to craft the right messaging for a company, conversations with the media (and they are not about P. Diddy...) about her client’s businesses, phone calls with top communications and marketing executives, crisis management or counselling a client on how best to communicate with its publics.
Nobles finishes her account pledging for a real face for the industry as Public Relations deals with others’ reputation but still has an awful lot to do about its own.
Still, a question remains: PR, and particularly PR women, just needs a real face to brush off its bad reputation?

Is PR the new black?

2005-12-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

“PR is the new black”. Diana Vreeland, late fashion editor, coined the “new black” quote and used it whenever a new fashion trend was “le dernier cri”. Thus, all range of colours and key looks of the season were at some point the new black.
Nowadays, PR is a very popular profession among women. In a recent survey held by the CIPR and analysed in PR Week 62% of PR practitioners are women.
Thus, enjoying a huge popularity amongst female professionals, PR might be on its way of being perceived as a gendered profession. This weblog will try to explore the feminization of the profession. Is PR, in fashion language, the new black?