Progress on gender equality in PR is slow and we’ve a long way to go
A new book tracks gender bias and the discrimination of women in PR over the past four decades. It’s a tough read.
Understanding and tackling the challenges that women in PR face in their professional and social lives is the key to realising equality in practice.
These are the findings of a literature review over four decades from 1982 to 2019 called Women in Public Relations – A Literature Review (1982-2019). Follow this link to download a free copy of the book.
The book has been published by Leeds Beckett University at the recent Euprera Congress in Zagreb. It’s a multi-author project led by Dr Martina Topić, a Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at Leeds Business School, UK.
It’s not an easy read. It will challenge any notion you may have that public relations is close to achieving gender equality and parity of pay or experience in the workplace. At least it did for this agency leader and middle aged white man.
The Velvet Ghetto revisited
A study called the Velvet Ghetto commissioned by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) first called out the gender pay gap in the PR profession in 1986. It suggested that women see themselves as practice rather than management focused and are paid accordingly.
The issue of gender pay has continued to be explored since the IABC study with notable work by Linda Aldoory, Bettina Beurer-Zuellig, Glen M. Broom, David M. Dozier Larissa A. Grunig and Elizabeth L. Toth, among others.
Other issues that continue to crop up over the four decades explored by the book include glass ceiling, pay gap, lack of mentorship opportunities and stereotyped expectations of leadership style, where leadership is usually seen as a masculine trait.
The bloke-ification of PR
A possible explanation for the lack of progress is so-called bloke-ification in which women adopt masculine characteristics to progress faster in their career.
It’s a theme that Topić has been exploring in her work on women in journalism. She believes the same issues apply in advertising and public relations.
“[Bloke-ification] and masculine culture as part of patriarchal social structure. Offices are predominantly structured around masculine way of working and doing things and around masculine behavioural and leadership patterns,” said Topić.
PR is a predominantly female occupation however there are still more men in senior roles.
In a recent article cited in the book Liz Yeomans argues that women continue to subordinate to “patriarchal ways of doing things.”
Yeomans suggests that the issue manifests itself as a focus on individual empowerment rather than the interests of women.
Both Yeomans and Heather Yaxley suggest there is a historical denial of discrimination based on gender among senior women in the industry.
Future issues for investigation
Women in Public Relations traces research decade by decade, recording progress along the way.
As issues such as chauvinism, education and stereotypes fall away new ones arise alongside the enduring themes.
Workplace discrimination and bias against women are the main issues identified in the last decade.
Discrimination includes female practitioners being kept in practice based versus managerial positions, glass ceilings, masculine workplace culture and diversity. Bias includes skills, power, stereotypes and criticism of liberal feminism.
Women in Public Relations calls on future research to investigate the hurdles that women face in the careers to address the root of the issue. It also calls for investigation into work culture and structures that have so far prevented gender equality in leadership in PR.
