I've noticed as I browse through press releases and hear of big company mergers or projects that were done by PR agencies I see a lot of women in high status positions. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places but it seems that men are out of their league in this field. I looked into this a little more hoping to find some evidence that would balance this out for my confidence's sake, but instead found an article that makes it pretty clear how important women are in PR. Not necessarily as practitioners ( it didn't say one way or the other) but as a market that needs extensive consideration. "After all, there are 30.7 million women in the UK compared to 29.5 million men and, at all ages over 30, women outnumber men. It would be a poor PR company that wooed clients knowing that it can only convey a brand's message effectively to men.
According to Dunkley, executive and creative decisions are often made by men who fail to appreciate women's references and communication sources tend to differ from their own." (prnewsire.com, That special something, 4/20/07) That article is almost two years old, but those numbers are as relevant now as they were then. It makes more sense to me now why so many women are in these positions, because women know how to communicate with women! That is one additional piece of evidence to me of the importance of considering all types of publics when working in this field, and tailoring messages that will effectively reach target audiences without alienating others.
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I can see that this could be very discouraging. I think that it is an opportunity to bridge gaps of miscommunication between the genders. Even though women out number us, it is the men who own the companies and run the projects. I think that bridging the gap will allow for more balancing between the genders in the business world.
ReplyDeleteFaafetai lava. That's all I'm going to attempt to write in Samoan. You put my language skills to shame. I like your posts about PR related topics, this recent one about women is comedic. From your research you found that the PR industy is dominated by women. Do you notice the guy to girl ratio in your PR classes? It looks like there are a little more females than males. However, I don't feel this concern is enough to have a complex over. So what do you think about the PR industry, what with your newfound knowledge on the leading female demographic in this career? That was clever that you mentioned "the importance of considering all types of publics" in your blog. You seem to have a keen eye on PR related issues around you. Once again another interesting and PR savvy piece. Good job on the reseach as well as documenting where the information that you found stemmed from.
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