While we as female PR students know that we have everything it takes to run the PR industry we are backed up by authors such as Morris and Goldsworthy who say that women naturally have both the qualities of reasoning and empathy, which are key assets for a PR practitioner.
More importantly, according to the women in PR there are seven main reasons why there are so many women in the industry:
1.They are better, or natural, communicators (33%)
2.They multitask and organise better than men (23%)
3.PR is a soft career suited to women – as are teaching, human resources etc. (18%)
4.The have better and more sensitive “people skills” (18%)
5.They are better able to pay attention to detail and to look at things from different perspectives (15%)
6.They are better suited to a variety of practical administrative tasks (10%)
7.Women have greater imagination, intuition, and are sensitive to nuances (8%)
PR is now feminized, meaning that PR practitioners are more likely to be women than men. (Smith, 2005:1). If that is the case then is it not unfortunate that a ‘roles research’ that was done in the 1990s by Professors Glen Broom and David Dozier showed discrepancies in career progression, salaries and roles between women and men in public relations. If researches reveal results as such, then question arises regarding whether we women, despite having all the qualities to be better PR practitioners, lack the calibre to run PR or are the unseen societal strings tying us down from climbing to the top?
THE DILLEMA: Reputation & Career VS Family
Much of the PR industry, particularly on the consultancy side, is characterized by long hours, late nights, and hard work (Morris and Goldsworthy 19). While we women do have the ability to dedicate ourselves to our careers putting in the long hours and hard work what we can’t do is work late nights without putting our reputations at stake. Women who work late into the night often are perceived as the fast women. More importantly, while we can work hard and long hours as single unmarried women, as soon as we are married everything changes. As married PR practitioners, we are at some point through our career life faced with a question about ‘ whether we shall pick our family or our career.’ This is something that men are never faced with. While we have to pick either of the options men are naturally expected to be the bread earners.
THE STEREOTYPING OF WOMEN:
Women are raised with the views of becoming homemakers. We have been stereotyped for ages and it is due the values and the imagery presented to us that we refrain from making the change. James E. Grunigs book called Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management (1992.) addresses this issue in the chapter on Women and Public Relations: Problems and Opportunities. It states how women underestimate themselves and have self –confidence issues due to the stereotypical image.
To add light to that feminist approaches have highlighted a number of problems for women in progressing as far as their talents warrant. These problems include:
• An absence of mentors
• A lack of support from superiors
• Exclusion from informal networks
• Double standards for assessing performance
• A lack of training opportunities
• Outdated attitudes to female roles
• Ay and contractual inequities
• A lack of flextime and childcare
• Stress resulting from over adaption to male values
• Sexual Harassment
• Bullying
• A lack of female role models
• Senior women who “pull the ladder up behind them” and who appear unsympathetic to younger, junior women- the queen bee phenomenon.
THE TRUTH:
Although women are dominating the PR industry in number, they are lacking behind in their job status. This is because there are a number of reasons holding them back from achieving their deserved positions.
The debate in class stated 3 roles that are designated for a workingwoman: The wife, mother and the practitioner. While many argued stating that with help from family and friends it is possible for a woman to juggle between these roles, honestly how realistic is it that they would be able to do so.
Women who are married at an early age often have to take a career break for maternity leaves. On the other hand women who choose to follow through with their careers at an early stage and decide to marry later on suffer due to their overachievements. This is because despite their changes in attitudes, men still would not prefer to be with women who are more accomplished than them.
More importantly, companies and organizations do not prefer to promote women (of child bearing age) to higher, managerial positions because they might need the maternity leave at any point. Organizations in fear of having to pay them all through the leave prefer not to put them in senior posts.
Bearing the above stated facts in mind, one can easily see why women have been working in PR and not running it.
THE REVELATION: Can women change the norms and values of society?
“Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." ~Clare Boothe Luce”
No matter however much we want to change these aspects and ideologies of the society it is very unlikely that we can…This is because a woman shall always be playing the role of a wife and mother and no matter how hard she works it is the unseen strings of society which shall hold her back from rising to the top.
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