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Gender in Public Relations by Marcia Steyaert & Donna Lindell
- 1. Marcia Steyaert & Donna Lindell GPRL 6202 - March 16, 2017 Women in Public Relations Gender in PR Marcia Steyaert & Donna Lindell GPRL 6202 March 16, 2017
- 2. Overview: The Issues Why are there so many women in PR? PR stereotypes The Pay Gap Is there a Glass Ceiling in PR? The Feminist Fallacy Is PR a real job? The Men of PR Now What? Updating Feminist PR theoretical traditions
- 3. 72% of those in the Public Relations profession are WOMEN {The Holmes Report} 90% of those enrolled in post-grad PR program at Centennial College (Fall 2016) are WOMEN 82.5% of those enrolled in post-grad PR program at Fanshawe College (Fall 2016) are WOMEN
- 4. Why are there so many women in PR?
- 5. Let’s watch:
- 6. Are women just better at/built for PR? TRUE or FALSE? (in chat box) Women are: ❏ More collaborative and social ❏ “People-pleasers” ❏ Better at multi-tasking ❏ Like working ‘behind the scenes’ ❏ Better at rapport talk (Tannen, 1990)/ PR is about relationships Or have we just been socialized to be this way, to THINK women are this way?
- 7. What comes to mind? Watch, then answer in the chat box.
- 8. “Are we Gladiators or are we Bitches!?”
- 9. ...or are we ‘bunnies?’ Stereotypes About PR Boredpanda.com https://www.bustle.c om http://margebakes.blogspot.ca
- 10. The Pay Gap (Grunig reading) Velvet Ghetto (1986 IABC study): Women in PR make less and have fewer opportunities than men Pay disparity between men and women: Appears after 5th year of work Women at 30 something: More education doesn’t = more pay 2017 Salary Survey: pay gap = 26% for agency/consultancy (source: Marketing Week)www.marketingweek.com
- 11. 30% of those in PR Senior Management are WOMEN (World PR Report)
- 12. Is there a Glass Ceiling in PR?
- 13. The Feminist Fallacy (Grunig) Two optimistic assumptions: 1. “As women become more visible in the PR work… they will achieve more prestigious positions and higher salaries” (p. 111) 2. Women will experience similar successes as men who advance Rakow (1989) suggests women aren’t getting ahead because they aren’t assertive enough, something picked up by Sheryl Sandberg and her “Lean In” movement.
- 14. The Glass Ceiling (Wrigley) Denial Gender role socialization Historical precedence Women turning against other women Corporate culture Negotiated resignation: Psychological process by which women come to terms with the glass ceiling. Five Factors:
- 15. Our guest speaker: Andrea Lekushoff, President & Founder Broad Reach Communications, Toronto Photo: The Globe and Mail
- 16. Is PR a “Real” Job? (Tsetsura reading) If the work is interesting, enjoyable and exciting - does that devalue it? Does PR have to be valued by men in order for it to be seen as a ‘real profession’? Is the PR profession devalued because of the characteristics of the work, or because it’s made up of mostly women?
- 17. The Men of PR Often excluded from socializing/after office hours activities Most PR firms have more of a female culture. “It is a different world for us.” Some experience outright sexism at work, especially in sectors like music, entertainment and lifestyle - Chen (2016) ‘Prince syndrome’: tiny minorities of men in PR treated like royalty Fretting over lack of men going into PR means they are sometimes fast-tracked to status and power Aldoory and Toth (2002): Men in PR offered more salary/compensation to recruit and retain them as a minority - unheard of when women are the minority - Golombisky (2015)
- 18. Should we make more of an effort to attract more men into PR? Why or why not?
- 19. Now What? Updating Feminist PR Theoretical Traditions (Golombisky reading) Feminist theories of PR too focused on: heterosexual, White able-bodied women practitioners, and to a lesser extent organizations, rather than publics or social influence and responsibility They can be updated by: defining gender as performative embracing intersectionality shifting goals from gender equality to social justice (Gladiators vs. Bitches) expanding the range of feminist philosophies beyond liberal and radical feminisms
- 20. Discussion Questions (Moodle) 1. Women in Public Relations Canada: Toronto Launch April 27. Would you go? Would you join? Is there a need for women’s-only professional association? Defend your rationale. 2. What would you do to attract more men into PR education programs? Or would you? 3. What strategies or advice do you have to overcome the glass ceiling in PR (perceived or otherwise)?
- 21. References Chen, Yuyu. (2016, April 15). Meet the men of PR. Digiday. Retrieved from http://digiday.com/agencies/men- in-public-relations/ Frohlich, R.; Peters, S.B. (2007). PR bunnies caught in the agency ghetto? Gender stereotypes, organizational factors, and women’s careers in PR agencies. Journal of Public Relations Research. 19(3), 229-254. Golombisky, K. (2015). Renewing the Commitments of Feminist Public Relations Theory from Velvet Ghetto to Social Justice. Journal of Public Relations Research, 27(5), 389-415. Grunig, L.A., Toth, E.L., & Hon, L.C. (2001). Understanding the Issues. In Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice (pp. 83-123). New York: Routledge. Kazan, Olga. (2014, August 8). Why Are There So Many Women in Public Relations? The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/why-are-there-so-many-women-in-pr/375693/ Shah, Aarti. (2015, April 16). Why Aren’t There More Female CEOs in PR? The Holmes Report. Retrieved from http://www.holmesreport.com/long-reads/article/why-aren't-there-more-female-ceos-in-pr Tsetsura, K. (2011). Is Public Relations a Real Job? How Female Practitioners Construct the Profession. Journal of Public Relations Research 23(1), 1-23. Wadlow, A. (2008, Nov. 17). PR Bunnies or Natural Born Communicators. Behind the Spin. Retrieved from http://www.behindthespin.com/careers/pr-bunnies-or-natural-born-communicators Wrigley, B.J. (2002). Glass ceiling? What glass ceiling? A qualitative study of how women view the glass ceiling in public relations and communications management. Journal of Public Relations Research 14(1), 27-
Editor's Notes
- MS: also mention that we want there to be lots of discussion so we assume that everyone has read the text and that; and while in areas we will encourage discussion in the chatbox, we hope that you will raise your virtual hand to comment with voice. All of the articles look at the issues of a profession flooded by women. We are going to focus on some of those issues.
- MS: this was based on a HOLMES report (2015 I think….check original source). This number also fluctuates, of course and in some texts it is as high 85%.
- MS: lead discussion. Get their comments. Some can go chat but we want a few voice. Ask Patrick. (I moved this from issues slide because it answers “why women have been welcomed into PR, Grunig p. 84): Sex-specific demand for women: Failure to attract men to PR Better buy: Surplus of women in entry-level PR jobs/men more likely to advance into higher paying managerial jobs New publics: Need for PR to address women who now own substantial portion of the country’s wealth Plus...opportunities for working mothers, more flexibility and ‘emotional labour” (gender ideology) therefore more suitable for women
- MS: ok, now let’s watch other’s comment on this question. Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r4WlUgVMmo
- MS: Based on discussion (pick up threads from the group conversation) From from the Pink Collar article: “Communication and multitasking, of course, are precisely the “soft skills” of emotional labor that define the post-Fordist work environment, especially within majority-women professions. In The Managed Heart, now the reference text on emotional labor, Arlie Hochschild describes this work as that which “requires one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others.” Along with flight attendants, waitresses, and care workers, among many others, publicists exchange affect for wages — specifically in the form of networking with colleagues, pitching media, and managing clients.” Why is do we see so many women in PR classrooms? Depends on industry: women more inclined to work on fashion, beauty accounts, while men more likely to work for IT, financial services and government (this, according to a 1999 survey of pr students, but anecdotally, you’d still see that reality today, and is reflected in the classroom of 2017. Frohlich also said it depended on organizational context as well: agency vs. corporate (male dominated and work-home conflict); and culture and structure of organization; Different job tasks: counselling, research, programming decisions, communicating with client and team, making media contacts (p. 237). Plausible that this could be influenced as much by preference as it is by stereotypes or by socialization From Frohlich, R.; Peters, S.B. (2007). PR bunnies caught in the agency ghetto? Gender stereotypes, organizational factors, and women’s careers in PR agencies. Journal of Public Relations Research. 19(3), 229-254. Looked at 2 aspects: ID of gender stereotypes and influence of organizational contexts -- agency or corporate. Looked at women’s “exceptional communications skills”; female attributes like orientation towards dialogue and consensus
- DL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37HMgEGJhao
- DL: Discussion prompts: What do those words mean to you? What does Olivia mean when she says them? Matriarchy vs. Patriarchy? What do we want to be?
- DL: The term ‘bunnies’ came out of german study using in-depth interviews of 13 female participants from nine agencies. Their findings supported earlier research but also found that there was a new stereotype: the PR bunny. The comments were similar to the ones we saw in the video we just watched. But at the same time, there seemed to be a clearly evident stereotype of a female’s ‘lack of management competence’ (p. 241). These stereotypes lead to the glass ceiling, which we will discuss a bit later. The PR bunny stereotype was coined after similar expressions came up during the German study interviews: PR clone, PR auntie, PR waffler, PR girly, PR slut, Barbie Doll. (these accounts for the marginalization of the PR function and women’s reduction to physical attributes (sexism, agism, lookism) -- Hon 1995. Are you offended by these stereotypes? Is there merit to them? Do we use some of these attributes to give us an advantage, as the study found, to “outwit male dominance”. Are there instances when we deliberately use our feminity? {use Deborah W. anecdote} Author says: “there is a fine line between a successful use of “typical female attributes” and becoming the victim of the stereotype. DL: Reading: https://www.text100.com/2015/05/04/scandal-veep-pr-on-tv/: From above article: TV often portrays the PR profession negatively, like the example from Scandal when accepting lack of expertise took a back seat to hiding the truth for a client. Or, TV may position PR practitioners as if they’re superheroes, with the fate of the world in their hands. Either way, when these caricatures are good, they are really good. And when they are bad, they are really bad. In reality, PR can be an alluring and fulfilling profession. But in Hollywood’s eyes, it’s a much more — dare I say — scandalous and somewhat comedic profession, constantly fraught with moral and ethical dilemmas of the highest magnitude. Or, perhaps, it’s the single mindedness that PR professionals can only do two things: plan parties and leverage publicity opportunities. From ‘Pink Collar’: “According to Fortune magazine, publicists make 75 per cent less than advertising executives — their closely related but decidedly less pink-hued counterparts. As the magazine further elaborates, “In popular culture, ad execs are immortalized with powerful characters like Mad Men’s Don Draper, who positions Kodak’s slide projector for success in part by single-handedly christening it the ‘Carousel,’ while PR execs are portrayed by characters like Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones, who seem to do nothing but throw parties for a living.” The problem, however, isn’t just misconception — it’s also the failure to recognize that “throwing parties” (shorthand for the process of booking a venue, organizing entertainment, negotiating payments, securing media coverage, sending invites, monitoring the door, attending to guests, and overseeing cleanup) is still labor.” From Wadlow blog: (if more women in the industry, which then seen as ‘women’s work’ , which leads to stereotypes) This negative stereotype surrounds women working in the industry and makes it harder for them to prove themselves through their work. This is has an unfortunate affect on the public relations industry as explained by Doe: “PR babes whose qualifications lie in their looks rather than their brains…they’re costing companies credibility”. Do you agree or disagree? Do you think having a Masters in Public Relations will help change that image? Why did you take this program? For credibilty?
- DL: The Grunig article identifies as the primary issue: The Pay Gap the pay gap between male and female marketers has widened from 20.8% in 2016 to 22.4% in 2017 according to 2017 salary survey by Marketing Week. Other issues identified by P. 88 Grunig: sexual harrassment, lack of flexibility, powerlessness, excessive family obligations, tokenism, gender stereotyping
- DL: the same reason why women flock to PR, the female attributes like sensitivity, warmth, honesty, fairness or morality) are recoded as lack of management skills (Frohlich article) -- lack of assertiveness, poor conflict management and weak leadership skills -- which Frohich calls “the model of the friendliness trap” (p. 233). This leads to a vicious cycle between the emphasis on feminist values and the glass ceiling. The stereotypes of women as ‘natural born communicators’ could therefore turn out to be a ‘career killer’ (Frohlich article, p. 233).
- DL: Discussion prompts. Your own experience?
- DL: Coupled with this fallacy is the denial there is even a gender bias problem.Why fallacy and denial exist: Feminism’s role in the glass ceiling debate: 2002 study found women reluctant to wear the feminist label (interestingly our own discussion board proved the same thing among some of us). “Mention of the glass ceiling sometimes conjured up feminism” (Wrigley, p. 48). “Women’s continuing reluctance to wear the feminist label could be the fault of feminists themselves, if they allowed the mass media to appropriate their agenda and idealogy. The popular press has portrayed feminism today to be in a disarray, with many women disavowing their ties to feminism because they believe it is too fractitious or not reflective of women’s experience today. What might happen to feminism if the debate were termed healthy instead of divisive?” (Wrigley, 2002, p. 48). Grunig says the same thing. As Anne Marie Slaughter says of Lean In: what happens when you Lean In? You fall down. This is as much a fallacy as the other optimistic assumptions.
- DL Theoretical concept: Negotiated resignation: explains the psychological process by which women comes to terms with the glass ceiling (study in 2002 of 27 indepth interviews and focus groups with women in PR). Five factors identified: Denial: “There can’t be a glass ceiling in PR, it’s all women!” “Glass ceiling won’t stay in place for long. Younger more liberal thinking women will take over!” “If I pretend it’s not there I can get past it.” Gender role socialization: How they’re raised; socialized to accept more limited views of success Historical precedence: Patriarchal system, ‘good ol’ boys network’ Women turning against other women: Corporate ‘bitch’ or Queen Bee Syndrome Corporate culture: Men threatened by women; women only for certain jobs; women leave for entrepreneurial opportunities to run their own businesses. .. Denial: personal blame, it’s not in PR, “there can’t be a glass ceiling in PR, it’s all women!; glass ceiling won’t stay in place for long, younger more liberal thinking women will take over (Wrigley, 2002, p. 37) and ‘if I pretend it’s not there I can get past it). Gender Role Socialization (how they are raised; socialized to accept more limited views of success) Historical precedence: patriarchal system, ‘good ol’ boys network’ Women turning against other women: corporate ‘bitch’ or Queen Bee Syndrom Corporate Culture: corporate vs. agency culture; very different (mostly smaller agencies): (men threatened by women, women only for certain jobs >> women leave for entrepreneurial opportunities to run their own businesses.
- DL We’ve brought in a guest speaker. Well, sort of. This breed of female entrepreneur has been called ‘open collars’ and mompreneurs (a term coined by a reporter in 1991). We asked Andrea Lekushoff, about being an entrepreneur, why she made that decision and they type of agency she is trying to create as a woman. She taped this segment for us: LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTw613s-N9k&t=75s (4 min 58 sec)
- MS: Is it the work - or that it’s mostly women in the profession? Going back to the Grunig article, the second issue identified was Declining status of PR: More women = perception of it as ‘soft’ career The authors of this Russian study also explored Stereotypical representations of PR as an enjoyable, easy, and dependent profession and PR as a woman’s job/a gendered profession “Non-serious profession - perfect for a woman” Used identity negotiation (social products) as a theoretical foundation of the prism of what constitutes as a real job. A real job reflects, supports or challenges the dominant work ideology (p. 4). Factors that affect perceived value of one’s job: enjoyable, easy or nonskilled, temporary or unstable, low probability of success, requires little trust, underutilize the person, not primary means of support: if these factors are present then the less real the job becomes. Author notes, that from other research, that pr practitioner are often under pressure to constantly prove their professional qualities and their place in the organization [this was certainly my case in corporate/DL]. In this study, political PR seen as a man’s job. The study reinforces the other research in this module on the contrast between agency vs. corporate (organizational structure and culture). At the end, the article suggests that a future study could ask men their perspective on these issues … i.e. can PR be perceived as a man’s job? This is a perfect segue to…..
- MS: What is it like for men to work in a field dominated by women? Anyone want to share their experiences? Just to throw in an added element: of the men that are in lifestyle PR: high proportion are gay. (See this in the classroom as well).
- MS:
- MS: Liberal feminists: Velvet Ghetto. Inequity is a matter of irrational prejudice that can be solved through rational argument (Grunig, p. 119): accept and learn to play the ‘game’ Marxist feminists: equal opportunity is not possible within the existing capitalistic economic and social system (Grunig, p. 120): need new rules, structural changes, even playing field … seeing this now with more flexible hours, move to entrepreneurships, work-life balance conversations Radical feminists: women’s oppression too deep rooted to be removed by individual action or social change; talk of eradicating sexism in education, family-friendly policies, rethinking the masculine ethic.
- MS Solution not being female only
- MS