Thursday, July 31, 2014
FW Test 2
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Welcome to the world of women
There never has been a better (or worse) time to be a male PR practitioner.
Results of my PhD study into The Predominance of Women in PR show that the industry has perhaps gone beyond the point of no return for achieving any semblance of gender balance.
Although the study is Australian, the similarities with the industry in the US and Canada are strikingly similar.
Depending on which way you look at it, the predominance of women in PR, which sits at 74 per cent in Australia, and approaching 70-plus per cent in the US, show, to many, that the profession in unbalanced. As far back as 1986, Cline predicted the figure would reach 80 per cent. That prophecy may be about to be fulfilled.
US Department of Labor statistics for public relations in 1960 showed 25 per cent of the PR workforce were women. This increased to 51 per cent in 1983, 65.7 per cent in 2000 and 69 per cent in 2002. At the same time, membership of the PRSA went from 10 per cent women members in 1968 to 15 per cent (1975), 54 per cent in 1990 and 60 per cent in 2000. Female participation in America’s other peak communications body, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is 76 per cent (Williams, 2002).
The United States Department of Labor’s 2004-2005 Occupational Employment Statistics Survey reports “employment of public relations specialists … is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2012” (OES Survey, May 2004). Similarly, the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics' Career Guide to Industries reports public relations jobs are projected to increase by at least 19 per cent through 2012, compared to a 16 per cent growth rate average in all other industries.”
Similarly, in Australia statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and my own census of the Perth PR industry both show 74 per cent of the industry to be female.
The trend is mirrored at US universities. “Since 1977 the majority of students enrolled in (US) journalism and mass communication programs have been female. In the early 1980s, national enrolment patterns stabilised at about 60 per cent female to 40 per cent male, and a similar ratio has also become the norm for graduates of mass communication programs
Prof Denis Wilcox, head of PR at the University of San Jose, told me in an e-mail last year: “In many of our classrooms now it’s almost like teaching in a women’s college,” he said. “About 80 per cent of our majors are women.”
In the four Perth universities I surveyed over a three-year period (2002-2004), the figures show 80 per cent female enrolment in communications courses. If that figure is narrowed to the two major universities which teach PR (Edith Cowan and Curtin) that figure climbs to 86 per cent.
This massive gender imbalance in student numbers may not bode well for males seeking to find employment within PR, simply because the numbers simply suggest a women will get the job. On the other hand, it may serve as a great marketing tool – a unique selling proposition – for those males willing to take up the challenge.
Covering the PR industry in Perth, Western Australia, which included four universities, government departments, non-profits and PR consultancies, the Study shows the industry still shows signs of increasing feminisation.
Before proceeding (and bringing down the wrath of female practitioners and students), don’t take that to be a bad thing. The best person for the job will (or should) get it. However, what concerns me is that the imbalance may not be healthy for the industry. Several eminent US professionals, notably Harold Burson and Dan Edelman both have expressed reservations about this phenomenon.
Burson, co-founder of Burson-Marsteller, was quoted in a 2001 edition of the Public Relations Strategist as saying: “Just as it bothers a lot of senior women the field, I am concerned that a decreasing percentage of men are filling public relations jobs. I believe there should be gender balance. Unless more men are attracted to PR it runs the risk of becoming a woman’s job.”
At the time, Jack O’Dwyer’s PR Newsletter reported that 70 per cent of Burson-Marstellar’s staff were women.
Edelman’s simple quote of 2000 (“We need balance”) is the opening statement on the front cover of my Thesis. However, views change, and Edelman, in a phone interview with me earlier this year, said he believed the number of women in PR had reached its zenith.
“PR certainly has disproportionate numbers, but I think it's as high as we can go,” he said.
However, there is still a danger that if the current status continues to exist the industry runs the risk of becoming “ghettoised”. This in turn has ramifications. It has been proven that industries that become feminised run the risk of lower salaries.
Lukovitz (1989) noted a salaries gap between men and women “as a result of past discrimination and the recent heavy influx of young women into the lower-salaried entry-levels of the profession” and raised concerns that this could flow on to “a decrease in status and salaries for the profession as a whole.”
Results of my PhD study into The Predominance of Women in PR show that the industry has perhaps gone beyond the point of no return for achieving any semblance of gender balance.
Although the study is Australian, the similarities with the industry in the US and Canada are strikingly similar.
Depending on which way you look at it, the predominance of women in PR, which sits at 74 per cent in Australia, and approaching 70-plus per cent in the US, show, to many, that the profession in unbalanced. As far back as 1986, Cline predicted the figure would reach 80 per cent. That prophecy may be about to be fulfilled.
US Department of Labor statistics for public relations in 1960 showed 25 per cent of the PR workforce were women. This increased to 51 per cent in 1983, 65.7 per cent in 2000 and 69 per cent in 2002. At the same time, membership of the PRSA went from 10 per cent women members in 1968 to 15 per cent (1975), 54 per cent in 1990 and 60 per cent in 2000. Female participation in America’s other peak communications body, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is 76 per cent (Williams, 2002).
The United States Department of Labor’s 2004-2005 Occupational Employment Statistics Survey reports “employment of public relations specialists … is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2012” (OES Survey, May 2004). Similarly, the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics' Career Guide to Industries reports public relations jobs are projected to increase by at least 19 per cent through 2012, compared to a 16 per cent growth rate average in all other industries.”
Similarly, in Australia statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and my own census of the Perth PR industry both show 74 per cent of the industry to be female.
The trend is mirrored at US universities. “Since 1977 the majority of students enrolled in (US) journalism and mass communication programs have been female. In the early 1980s, national enrolment patterns stabilised at about 60 per cent female to 40 per cent male, and a similar ratio has also become the norm for graduates of mass communication programs
Prof Denis Wilcox, head of PR at the University of San Jose, told me in an e-mail last year: “In many of our classrooms now it’s almost like teaching in a women’s college,” he said. “About 80 per cent of our majors are women.”
In the four Perth universities I surveyed over a three-year period (2002-2004), the figures show 80 per cent female enrolment in communications courses. If that figure is narrowed to the two major universities which teach PR (Edith Cowan and Curtin) that figure climbs to 86 per cent.
This massive gender imbalance in student numbers may not bode well for males seeking to find employment within PR, simply because the numbers simply suggest a women will get the job. On the other hand, it may serve as a great marketing tool – a unique selling proposition – for those males willing to take up the challenge.
Covering the PR industry in Perth, Western Australia, which included four universities, government departments, non-profits and PR consultancies, the Study shows the industry still shows signs of increasing feminisation.
Before proceeding (and bringing down the wrath of female practitioners and students), don’t take that to be a bad thing. The best person for the job will (or should) get it. However, what concerns me is that the imbalance may not be healthy for the industry. Several eminent US professionals, notably Harold Burson and Dan Edelman both have expressed reservations about this phenomenon.
Burson, co-founder of Burson-Marsteller, was quoted in a 2001 edition of the Public Relations Strategist as saying: “Just as it bothers a lot of senior women the field, I am concerned that a decreasing percentage of men are filling public relations jobs. I believe there should be gender balance. Unless more men are attracted to PR it runs the risk of becoming a woman’s job.”
At the time, Jack O’Dwyer’s PR Newsletter reported that 70 per cent of Burson-Marstellar’s staff were women.
Edelman’s simple quote of 2000 (“We need balance”) is the opening statement on the front cover of my Thesis. However, views change, and Edelman, in a phone interview with me earlier this year, said he believed the number of women in PR had reached its zenith.
“PR certainly has disproportionate numbers, but I think it's as high as we can go,” he said.
However, there is still a danger that if the current status continues to exist the industry runs the risk of becoming “ghettoised”. This in turn has ramifications. It has been proven that industries that become feminised run the risk of lower salaries.
Lukovitz (1989) noted a salaries gap between men and women “as a result of past discrimination and the recent heavy influx of young women into the lower-salaried entry-levels of the profession” and raised concerns that this could flow on to “a decrease in status and salaries for the profession as a whole.”
