PR Girls and PR Boys
An interesting discussion took place in one of my classes the other day with regards to the number of females in public relations. I don’t remember how the conversation started, but it is one that I have heard before.
In our class of 25 public relations students, four of them are male. As any PR student knows, this isn’t uncommon. If anything, four is a little high. Still, I always wonder why this is.
Recent statistics show that 70% of PR practitioners are female. This is up from 50.1% in 1980 and 41% in 1979. Based on those numbers, the trend is obvious. One could argue that this increase has occurred in many sectors over the past forty years and is not restricted to public relations. Still, 70% is quite high.
For forty minutes, students in my class argued over the various reasons why females make up the bulk of public relations practitioners.
Some of the most common beliefs:
- Women are better communicators than men.
- Public relations pays better than other female dominated fields.
- The school system tends to push girls towards reading/writing and boys towards math. In other words, girls learn the core skill set needed for public relations at a younger age than boys.
- Women find public relations to be more welcoming than other business disciplines.
What do you think? Can we pinpoint it to a single reason, or is it a combination of factors? How will the statistics look ten years from now?
Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, pr students
No matter what the reason is, the outcome is bad for the profession:
* Women, despite significant gains, still make less than men across most industries, even when education and other factors are accounted for (Data): Now, depending on which economist you talk to, there are some potentially valid reasons for a difference in market-established wages. But if your whole industry is skewed heavily female (and the trend, BTW, is only accelerating in PR), then it’s reasonable to think average payscales will be lower than if the labor pool were more gender balanced.
* Homogeneity weakens what we provide: Women and men think differently — look at the cross-tabs of any wide-ranging poll and you’ll spot fundamental differences. Like other professions, in PR the best thinking emerges when ideas, outlooks and attitudes all jostle, compete and distill down to wisdom and strategy. It’s harder (not impossible, but harder) do that when you’re working amid a big gender imbalance.
* It also erodes outside perception of what we do: The bigger problem is more subtle: As the industry skews to ever-greater female dominance, PR runs the risk of becoming “a pink-collar ghetto” where the value of our profession - and those in it - is eroded in some circles.
Comment by Greg Brooks — March 19, 2007 @ 11:18 pm
It’s a great discussion point. Let me add two thoughts to the mix:
It’s not a specific issue for public relations. A large majority of medical students in the UK are also female. Do women make better doctors? Quite possibly. Will too many female doctors weaken the medical profession? Quite possibly. Same problem…
The explanation comes down to the higher grades achieved by young women than young men, who are thus ruled out of desirable university places.
So the problem for society is the creation of an underclass of underachieving males just at the time when there are fewer manual jobs and more jobs calling for communication skills, multitasking, people management etc etc.
Comment by Richard Bailey — March 20, 2007 @ 6:25 am
I will get hate mail for this, but are women better at deceiving others? I don’t necessarily agree women are better communicators overall, but women can be more persuasive. Unfortunately some women take it to the extreme.
Comment by Lauren Vargas — March 20, 2007 @ 8:54 am
Some females take the easy route out with communications as a major, it’s easy, no math involved and all there other girlfriends are doing it with them. Men are the math and science, women are the gossipers and communicators. Facts of life my friends…
Comment by RL — March 20, 2007 @ 9:34 am
There is a low barrier of entry into public relations. All you need is a college degree. As more and more women have joined the workforce over the past 30-40 years, PR was an easy professional industry to become a part of.
Comment by MB — March 20, 2007 @ 11:27 am
[…] Anyways, my first post went up last night. It addresses the gender imbalance in public relations today. There have already been a few comments posted. I can’t say I agree with all of them, but that’s the beauty of the blogosphere I guess. […]
Pingback by My First Forward Post « Fuzzy Gloves — March 20, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
Lauren Vargas - you just made me laugh like a drain. I just hope it was intentional.
Ed
Comment by Ed Lee — March 20, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
Interesting topic. Here’s my take: There are about 100 students in my PRSSA chapter, and probably 90 are female. Of that, maybe half want to be event planners–celebrity publicist is another common one. I’m unsure where this idea comes from. But for some reason, a lot of students at my university (especially women) think PR is more glamorous than I think it is. Maybe it’s our youth, the Sex in the City thing or Hollywood. Maybe it’s just the nature of PR in the media.
Comment by PB — March 20, 2007 @ 2:25 pm
Last semester, a graduate of our program who is an account manager with a Toronto PR agency was asked by the students why he thought the profession was predominantly women. “I’ve never really thought about it,” he replied. Well, that surprised me. Being a male practitioner in PR today is much like being female teamster — not many of them around.
I have yet to see a study that confidently identifies the reason for the imbalance. Comments to your post, Scott, are representative of the varied, sometimes opposing, reasons for it.
Should we be worried about it? Yes, we should. Greg Brooks’s comment effectively demonstrates why. It was more than 20 years ago that IABC released its Velvet Ghetto report that expressed concern about PR being viewed as a reasonable job for women because senior management didn’t attach a lot of importance to the function. Although the report didn’t focus on the moving fulcrum between male and female PR folks, it does provide interesting observations that still resonate today.
Comment by Gary Schlee — March 20, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
This is a common discussion in our class and honestly we never really come to a solution. I think four boys in our class would be the maximum I have ever had in a PR class. I have had quite a few PR/Comm classes and although there are more women than men teaching me, it’s no where near 21/4. I have four classes right now and two of them are taught by men. Why is this trend changing? As a student at Auburn (I can’t speak for any other school), our PR major is located in the College of Liberal Arts. I know people not in PR or Communications say PR and Marketing as the same thing -even though they are NOT- but the Marketing major is in the College of Business. I feel like there is an increases pressure on males to get a Business degree, so they end up over in that college and steer away from Liberal Arts. I mean Liberal Arts contains crazy majors like English, Philosophy and Political Science. I don’t know if this is the answer to the fall of men in PR, but that’s all I can add to the investigation!
Comment by Evyan — March 20, 2007 @ 5:48 pm
Ah, a gender discussion. SWEET! Always makes for good fodder.
To throw another log on the fire: In what professions are men becoming the dominant gender? Is it possible that more women are entering the workforce overall, and just flooding certain professions that happen to appeal to the female psyche? (Not a factor of intelligence, laziness, or eyelash-fluttering guile — but psyche.)
Aaahhh … reading some of these comments … it’s stimulating, infuriating, depressing and invigorating all the same time. I simply conclude to continue to work my arse off to attempt to defend by example a) the PR profession as a whole, and b) women in any profession that requires strategic brainpower to do well. The only way we can combat these stereotypes — either tied to profession or gender — is to make a personal decision to be a “one” in (hopefully) “many” who will be personally responsible for improvement.
Comment by Erin Caldwell — March 20, 2007 @ 11:03 pm
[…] PR Girls and PR Boys - Why are there so many more women in the PR industry than men? […]
Pingback by Less is More, PR Guys & Girls, and a Cool Podcast About Building Relationships » Personal Insights on Web 2.0, Blogging, and Business — March 21, 2007 @ 1:05 am
Some excellent points. I wasn’t sure whether to post on this or not, but I’m happy I did.
Like Erin, I found reading the comments to be “stimulating, infuriating, depressing and invigorating” all at the same time. Very well put.
I don’t agree that communications is the “easy route”. I think that all depends on where your strengths are. Also, I don’t think female PR students would appreciate being called a bunch of “gossipers”.
That being said, I do agree that guys are pushed towards the math/sciences and women are pushed towards arts. I think we’ve all seen this happen first hand. It’s sad but it’s true.
Greg, a pretty dark outlook for the future of PR, but it does make sense. I never thought of it quite like that. Thanks for building on that Gary.
Personally, I find being in the minority is of some personal benefit. People tend to listen more when you speak and professors remember your name at the end of the first day of classes as opposed to the first week. Like Erin, all I can do is make a personal commitment to ensuring my voice is heard to ensure there is some ‘jostling’ of attitudes and opinions and hoping that the best ideas rise to the surface.
Comment by Scott Mac Donald — March 21, 2007 @ 8:20 am
Ed, it was intentional.
Comment by Lauren Vargas — March 21, 2007 @ 11:01 am
[…] UPDATE: I just noticed the Forward Blog has a gender debate going too. I guess as long as there are men and women on the Earth, this will never stop. How boring. Bookmark to: […]
Pingback by Strive Notes » Women work, so what? — March 22, 2007 @ 5:13 am
I was completely shocked & frankly, disgusted, by the majority of the comments on this post.
Comment by Gracie Passette — March 22, 2007 @ 6:35 pm
Usually, this is a question women seem to ask. On the first day, the boys usually just look around the room and wonder “Where are the rest of us?” - I personally counted the number of males in the room within the first 5 minutes of PR school. Ratio was 8:1 I believe, or close to it.
But you know what? That was the last I ever thought about it.
Comment by Chris Clarke — March 22, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
What are the Universities and professional bodies doing to attract more guys into PR? Nothing.
This is a great profession for both genders - with potential to work in events/promotion and/or strategic management as you wish. You can select your industry, in-house vs consultancy, public/private or not-for-profit sectors, etc etc.
So why don’t the chaps see the potential? One of the seminars I teach at Bournemouth Uni follows a male-dominated accountancy class - but the notes are the board aren’t that different from the business matters we also cover. Why don’t more red-blooded men prefer to study in a PR class of smart young women than the sweaty environment of boring bean-counting blokes?
And PR isn’t necessarily “girly”. In my own career in automotive PR, I’ve made as much use of understanding maths and science as having skills in communications - believe it or not, these aren’t mutually exclusive in the modern world.
Comment by Heather Yaxley — March 23, 2007 @ 6:28 am
[…] As in the debate on gender in PR started by Richard Bailey, Bulgarian PR is female dominated - which has an impact on the value placed on the practice. I’m familiar with feminist theories through the work of one of my 4th year undergraduates from Bournemouth University. Unfortunately it seems that today PR is less respected despite - even because - it is dominated by young female graduates than when it was populated by unqualified men. Such women are all too often seen as much less able than the likes of Max Clifford and Alistair Campbell - who lie and spin with such ease. […]
Pingback by Professional public relations is a global affair « Heather Yaxley - Greenbanana views of public relations and more — March 23, 2007 @ 8:28 am
I think that it is a combination of factors, including women being better communicators, schools pushing girls toward reading/writing and perceptions of PR being a female-dominated field. Although men can be good communicators, I recently learned in a class that women are statistically better at communicating. This is not the only valued skill in the PR world, but it’s definitely one of the most important.
I also believe that some schools push girls to focus on reading and writing. I remember being told in elementary school that girls were good at reading/writing and boys were good at math/science. This probably did not happen at all schools, but it would be interesting to see a study done on younger students based on this topic.
Some males may feel intimidated to enter the PR field because it is mostly women. Although we like to think that no stereotypes are related to different fields, I believe that it will take time before we see more males in the PR world.
Comment by Liz R. — March 25, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
Great subject to talk about.
I am senior Communication major at The George Washington University, and the President of Influence PR, the student PR group on campus.
I am not sure that males are intimidated by the female-dominated PR field. I think it just doesn’t appear on their radar when thinking of possible career paths.
The majority of males in my classes are Business majors taking the class as an elective. PR is still viewed as a trade that doesn’t have a place in the C-suite.
To attract more males, I believe that the image of the field must accurately portray how business-oriented it truly is.
This could be done in a number of ways, but having PRSA do outreach at Universities in both the Communication and Business schools may be a good place to start.
Comment by James W. — March 27, 2007 @ 10:45 am
I just stumbled on this discussion and it makes me laugh. Women participate in things all our lives - school, athletics, organizations, etc and we often look around wondering why there are so few of us, or why we’re heard less or something similar(or if in an organization/club women/girl-specific we are usually shadowed or come in second priority behind the male counterpart). Male priviledge is everywhere, and it is incredibly difficult for men to seperate themselves from that statement and not feel personally attacked…. but I really would love it if men could just consider that for a moment. And if all of the women would not feel any need to apologize for dominating a field. Why can’t we? I think it’s wonderful and it’s empowering and inspiring to know as a woman that I have so many peers to grow, lead and expand the field of public relations with - we can shape our own futures - it’s exciting. Men have been doing it for centuries in pretty much everything, why is this a concern to anyone?
Comment by jordan — March 27, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
Definitely an interesting topic. I have just completed my PhD on this. Go to the web site, http://people.aapt.net.au/~net/study, for more information. The bottom line is that the best person for the job should get it, of course. But why more women than men in PR? Most of the commentators have the right feel for the reasons. One of the main reasons is that it’s about the perception of PR. Males just do not view PR as a “serious” discipline. And whose fault is that? The profession.
Comment by Greg Smith — May 4, 2007 @ 6:22 pm