In search of the Missing Women in public relations
A new report examines the gap of nearly 4,000 female public relations practitioners in England and Wales who have failed to advance to senior positions or have left practice mid-career.
The PR Population study by Ben Verinder, published by the CIPR last year, was an important piece of work. It used data from the 2021 Census to map public relations practice.
Important, because of its methodology and findings.
The study is the most complete analysis of the practitioner population of its kind. It directly reflects the population of practitioners in England and Wales rather than a limited sample of practitioners motivated to complete a survey.
The gender imbalance: A hidden industry scandal
But it's the story that it told about diversity, particularly gender diversity in public relations practice, that was the most important.
Two-thirds of practitioners working in public relations below director level are female and a third are male. The situation is reversed in senior roles. 54% are male and 46% are female.
It's an industry scandal hidden in plain sight. Women are failing to realise their potential mid-career.
A long-standing problem
We shouldn't be surprised. This issue has been known in practice for almost 50 years. The only surprise is that so little progress has been made.
We see the issue in every Socially Mobile cohort. The programme, which provides management training to practitioners from underserved communities, receives many applications from women returning to work after having a family.
The issue is intersectional and compounded for under-represented and under-served practitioners, including Black and ethnic minority practitioners, the LGBTQ+ community and those with disabilities.
I pitched a proposal to the CIPR Research Fund in the Spring last year to work with Socially Mobile graduates with lived experience of this issue to understand why progress is so limited.
We recruited and trained three researchers to each conduct ten interviews with women who have left the industry, are considering leaving the industry or have figured out a workaround.
The CIPR published the output from the project today.
We called it Missing Women.
Missing Women refers to the shortfall of almost 4,000 female public relations practitioners in England and Wales who have either left the industry mid-career or failed to advance to senior positions.
This report combines a literature review, survey data from more than 230 respondents and qualitative interviews with 30 women to explore the barriers to progress.
Barriers to advancement
Women face three distinct but interconnected barriers that hold them back.
Cultural barriers: The "boys' club" effect
Culturally, barriers persist through a "boys' club" mentality in leadership and the devaluation of public relations as "soft" work.
Structural obstacles: Limited pathways and inflexible policies
Structurally, women encounter limited development pathways, poor maternity support and inflexible working patterns.
Societal expectations: The caregiving burden
Societally, women shoulder disproportionate parenting and caregiving expectations and are more likely to make career compromises to justify the cost of childcare.
We identified a culture within the practice that exhausts women through constant pressure to prove their worth, manage impossible expectations and navigate gendered double standards. It impacts not just individual careers but also shapes the entire industry's approach to leadership, value and measures of success.
Solutions require systemic change
There isn't a single answer - if there had been, the countless interventions over the past 50 years might have been more successful.
Meaningful change requires cultural and organisational transformation in all areas: leadership, flexibility, life stage support, behaviour change, and structural and organisational reform.
It requires accountability, metrics and reporting to change cultural and societal norms. Unfortunately, I can find little evidence to suggest that the makeup of the public relations industry will change until this happens.
Acknowledgements
The Missing Women study would not have been possible without the research team of Rana Audah, Isobel Wilson-Cleary, Josie Shepherd, Sarah Waddington CBE and supervisor, Ben Verinder. Thank you all.
We would especially like to thank the women who participated in the study and spent time meeting with the researchers. We dedicate the report to you and hope that it gives a much-needed voice to the issues that you raised.
Reference
Waddington, S., Audah, R., Wilson-Cleary, I., Shepherd, J., Waddington, S. and Verinder, B. (2025) The Missing Women Report. CIPR.
