Superman or SuperWOMAN in the PR Profession?

By: Tafara Cameron

Rex Harlow, public relations pioneer and founder of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) said it best when he defined the term public relations as such:
“Public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound ethical communication techniques as its principle tools.”

Now imagine this definition being placed next to the image of a woman. Gender dominancy in the PR profession is very much alive. It has been proven that more than 70 percent of public relations practitioners in the United States are indeed women. Feminization in PR has taken over the field of PR. About 65-75 percent of all majors in mass communication and journalism programs are now women. The lack of males in this profession is a reoccurring truth. One may be wondering Why women dominate PR profession? Some reasons behind this somewhat surprising phenomenon is the idea that 1) women are more content than men when it comes to exerting two-way communication; 2) women tend to understand the impact of listening rather than dominating a conversation than man; 3) women take more risks regarding entrepreneurship even if there is a lack in capital.

Indeed women are outnumbered in other more “difficult” fields such as engineering, however, think of it in the concept of supply and demand and ethics, like anything in the United States, Diversity in PR is no different. Some managers may take what may seem like a positive for women and turn it into something more; should managers take into account to offer a man more money to do the same job as a woman in PR for doing the same job simply because he is a man? Everyone should just acknowledge the fact that women are Taking care of business.

I personally believe that if person is qualified to perform well in the workplace, then by all means may the best “man” or in this case “woman” be hired.