Women in PR History

Anastasios Theofilou, Anastasios Theofilou

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000335972
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Public Relations
• Index: Business

The history of PR has received limited attention over the years, and especially the role of women in PR has been an 'untold' story thus far. This book is the first attempt, following research presented at the International History of Public Relations Conference, to shed light on the significant role that female pioneers have played in the evolution of PR.

This book explores the field in a way that will offer insight of the significance that women had in the evolution of PR, with diverse chapters that provide rich perspectives on women's contributions to PR throughout the years and across the globe. It opens with an overview of women in public relations. Later chapters focus on the case of Turkey, which seems to have a rich history of women in public relations, then on specific cases from Oceania (Australia), Europe (Spain), Asia (Malaysia and Thailand) and America (United States). The final chapter deals with the case of Inez Kaiser, who was the first African- American women to open a US public relations agency.

This book will add knowledge and understanding to the fields of PR history and historiography. Academics and researchers will find the volume appropriate for research and teaching. Practitioners will also find the book extremely relevant for training, short courses and professional practice.

1Re-examining the existence of the “velvet ghetto” and the “glass ceiling”

Examining the status of American women in public relations a generation later

Donald K. Wright

Introduction

The public relations (PR) industry has been concerned with matters of gender diversity for decades. In the United States, much of this interest began more than 40 years ago when the foundations of two of the world’s largest and most successful professional societies commissioned major research studies on the subject.

One of these was funded by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Foundation and became known as the “velvet ghetto” report (Cline, Masel-Walters, Toth, Turk, Smith & Johnson, 1986), while the other was supported by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Foundation and was referred to frequently as the “glass ceiling” report (Wright, L. Grunig, Springston & Toth, 1991). These major studies, plus research conducted by Theus (1985), Broom & Dozier (1986), L. Grunig (1988), Dozier (1988), Creedon (1991), Hon, L. Grunig & Dozier (1992), Toth & Grunig (1993) and Wrigley (2002), formed the basis of a considerable amount of research studying gender issues in the United States public relations during the 1980s and 1990s.

These works stimulated all sorts of discussion and additional research about gender and public relations practice, including concerns from one noted practitioner that women were in the process of inheriting the profession (Bates, 1983) and a series of other thoughts suggesting the public relations industry was being “hurt” by having too many women practitioners (Bernstein, 1987).

This gender research shed light on a number of concerns being faced at that time by women in the public relations industry; particularly, three major areas were cited. They were salary discrepancies between men and women, differences between the specific kinds of public relations work men and women were being asked to perform – more women functioning in communication technician roles and more men performing as communication managers and executives – and concerns that men held an unusually high percentage of the truly senior-level positions in American public relations.

The purpose of this chapter is to review gender research studies about American public relations in the 1980s and 1990s and then report on the current status, examining gender inequities in American public relations based upon salary, division of work, and the percentage of women now holding senior-level positions.

During much of the 1980s and 1990s, data indicated about 55 percent of those practicing public relations in the United States were male and about 45 percent were female. According to PR Week, the US gender division in 2015 was 70 percent female and 30 percent male.

Literature review

According to Toth (1988), the IABC “velvet ghetto” study worked off three assumptions. Firstly, women working in the public relations industry were more likely than men to perceive themselves as “technicians” rather than as “managers.” Secondly, even when other variables were controlled and both men and women were performing similar public relations work, women were paid substantially less than men. Thirdly, female-dominated occupations have diminished salary and status when compared with male-dominated occupational groups. Other public relations scholars of the same era reported similar findings (Wright et al. 1991, Theus, 1985; Broom & Dozier, 1986; L. Grunig, 1988; Dozier, 1988; Hon, L. Grunig & Dozier, 1992; Toth & L. Gruinig, 1993; Wrigley, 2002).

Reporting on the IABC “velvet ghetto” study’s results, particularly on the differences between female-dominated and male-dominated industries, Taff (2003) found little overt management and salary bias against women working in public relations but did report the existence of significant gender-based salary gaps. This study also found a “socialization process” was working against women, resulting in many self-selecting into technician (as opposed to managerial) occupational roles. Two noted public relations educators reported similar findings in a research project exploring the “velvet ghetto” in PR education (Zoch & Russell, 1991).

Work–life balance

More recent research emphasizing gender and public relations has focused on the topic of work–life-balance. A study by Aldoory et al. (2008) found both men and women generally believe balancing work and family is a “woman’s issue.” This research also found some of the female focus group participants (but none of the male respondents) blamed women for “making it harder on women.” Some of the women in this study apparently resigned themselves to the belief there was no such thing as a work–life balance. Additionally, both male and female participants in this study mentioned a perceived need to enact masculine career qualities, while both expressed the need for women to be more responsive to motherhood and civic engagement.

Salary differences

According to Taff (2003), women in the US national workforce were paid 73 cents for every one dollar paid to a male counterpart in 2000. These financial inequities most certainly appear to have been carried over into public relations practice. As Hon (1992) and others have pointed out, career-long salary differences between men and women working in public relations can surpass $US 1 million. Toth & Cline (1989) reported the existence of what they called “unmitigated gender differences in median and mean salaries” between men and women working in the public relations industry.

Scholarship suggests the barriers faced by women run considerably deeper than financial ones (Hon et al., 1992). Dozier, Sha & Shen (2013) report that US households headed by women are significantly more likely than other kinds of households to be living below the federal poverty level. They also suggest the gender pay gap in public relations is impacted by other factors, including women having less professional experience than men, women tending to function in communication technician roles vis-à-vis male-dominated managerial communication roles and women being much less active than men in organizational decision-making, which is significantly related to income.

Women in public relations leadership

Another important historical difference between women and men working in public relations involves the reality men are more likely than women to serve in positions of organizational leadership; however, this might be changing. Based on membership in the Arthur W. Page Society (an organization advancing the executive role of corporate public relations managers), women appear to be moving into public relations executive positions at a faster pace than men. In 1991, only six percent of Page’s members were women, but that important statistic had grown to 44 percent by 2015. However, as reported in PRWeek, women continue to be paid less than men, especially at the executive level.

Other factors

Most of the early academic scholarship studying gender in American public relations was based upon surveys and interviews with members of the IABC and/or the PRSA. Both of these professional associations have membership numbers of about 22,500, but the majority of them are mid-to-lower-level public relations practitioners. PRSA is headquartered in New York, and IABC is based in San Francisco.

As we have pointed out previously (Wright, 1995, 1998), other research studying occupational roles in public relations has identified the role of communication executives, most of whom have direct access to the C-suite and, in many cases, report to corporate CEOs. These public relations people operate at a much more senior level than that reported in the PRSA and IABC role studies.

Closely linked to the expansion of PR occupational roles to include the communication executive role is the fact that public relations practice today incorporates much more than media relations, an important part of public relations practice that somewhat dominated the field three or four decades ago.

Methodology

The study’s methodology consisted of brief e-mail interviews with women holding truly senior-level PR/Comm. positions with Fortune 500 companies or major (top 25) public relations firms. All subjects were long-time members of the Arthur W. Page Society. The author of this chapter served more than 20 years on the Page Society Board of Trustees and was well known to the study’s research subjects. Anonymity and confidentiality were promised to all research participants, and interviews were conducted with 18 subjects during February 2020. Not every subject answered every question. On average, participants in the study had spent 34 years working in various aspects of the public relations industry. Questions focused on gender equity, salaries, occupational role responsibilities, and perceived differences between the way women are treated as public relations executives vis-à-vis men.

Page considers itself the world’s leading professional association for senior-level public relations and communications executives. The total membership numbers about 800 and consists of chief communications officers of global Fortune-ranked corporations, CEOs of the world’s foremost public relations agencies, and distinguished academics from top business and communication schools. The society’s mission is to strengthen the enterprise leadership role of the chief communications officer whilst its purpose is to unite the world’s best communicators to transform business for the better.

Results

The results section reports on some, but not all, of the more meaningful comments collected during the interviews. The discussion section examines how the results of the current study differ from results of public relations gender research from a generation ago.

Responses to the question: How has your experience as a woman working in the communications and public relations industry changed from the start of your career until now?

As I’ve grown in my career, I’ve found it easier to gain respect for what we do as professionals and how we do it. However, I have not seen as significant of an increase in the understanding of the position or its business value as I would have expected over a 30-year period. Because of this, it is still challenging for women to be seen as equal executives in companies where communications is considered a soft skill. Often, when female communication executives are fully respected as an equal executive partner, it is in spite of their communications leadership, not because of it.

At the start of my career, most of the leaders were men, but that has changed to include many more women in leadership roles or even the top communications role. I also believe more professional development and leadership growth opportunities exist now than when I began my career more than 30 years ago.

Today, women are in executive positions in most publicly-traded companies and many of the current top PR agency leaders are women.

Opportunities for women have grown dramatically since I entered the communications profession.

Responses to the question: Do you perceive any differences between how men and women are treated in the PR field?

I have not felt I was treated differently; if I was, it was to my benefit.

Absolutely! When a man is the senior PR professional, the communications profession often is taken more seriously.

Early on, my perception was that my male counterparts were brought into conversations earlier than my female counterparts, who tended to be brought in when there were actual tactics to be completed. Men were more relied on for a strategic view and women were more the “task takers” who created the communication and saw to the details of approvals and distributions.

Years ago I would have responded, “Yes” to this question but many things have changed and things are much better today than they used to be.

Responses to the ques...