It’s 2010 – where are the men in PR?
The last time I saw an even 50/50 breakdown in men and women in public relations, it was the 80s and I had BIG hair and was wearing suits with big shoulder pads, like this. Where have all the men gone?
At two PR events last week, the ratio of women to men was overwhelming. And this trend has been going on awhile. I found this article by Tom Martin that first appeared in PR Week in 2008. That year, the percentage of women in PRSSA was 89%. It’s probably over 90% now.
What’s the reason? I just think it’s the old pink ghetto phenomenon. Any career to which women gravitate eventually becomes less desirable (and less lucrative) for male graduates.
Some say it’s because women are better at establishing relationships. If that’s true, then there would be more prominent women speaking at social media conferences. Yet, most of the speakers in the very top rungs are male.
I can’t think of a single male PR person I’ve met that I didn’t like. I hate to generalize, but they all seemed to be good writers, very steady, and very personable in a quiet way. We need diversity in PR, not just to bump up the pay scale, but to ensure that the male viewpoint is properly represented.
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Comments
January 18th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Linda — I found this very interesting so did a quick check of the Phoenix PRSA chapter membership; we’re at 76% female, 24% male. Thinking back to my college days, there were very few men in my classes and those that were, wanted to go into sports journalism. I’m wondering with the change in the media landscape, if we’ll start to see a shift in this trend.
January 18th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Over this agency’s 30-year history, I can only think of 10 or so males who have worked here at one time or another. Anytime I speak to PR classes at NAU, it’s mostly female students. In fact, of the 23 students inducted into the NAU PRSSA chapter this past semester, only a couple were guys. It also seems that if you are going to find men, the corporate side is where most of them work.
January 18th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
When I was job searching in early ’90s, went years without one interview. Changed my resume to my middle name, which is feminine sounding, had 8 calls in a week (exact same resume that was dead for years). So tell me why there are so few men in PR?
Using the female-oriented name, when a man showed up for the interview – no kidding, interviews lasted 2 minutes. Called on the phone, I was told, “Oh, we were just checking to see if this was your phone number.” Those are the excuses employers gave.
Things seem to be changing in this economy, though.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Don’t you worry, I’m holding it down for the guys!
January 18th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Linda,
Well-timed blog post. I think this trend has been on a lot of people’s minds in recent years. I notice it all the time at professional development luncheons and local industry social events.
It didn’t fully hit me until I left the sports PR world five years ago (90% male) and entered the agency side (seemed like 90% female). I recall there being a better balance at my college newspaper in the mid-’90s where there were many talented, ambitious male and female scribes across the board – news, sports, op-ed, A&E (and yes, where I was all the guys wanted to write for Sports Illustrated or Rolling Stone). I point this out because many in-house PR & agency pros need those strong, versatile writing skills and have an affinity for applying them when they pursue PR instead of continuing down the journalism path for whatever reasons emerge.
As Abbie notes, this could be changing as a variety of seasoned writers and editors are switching, by choice or necessity, to the PR side. This new trend could certainly stand to alter the demographics and challenge generalizions about the industry and the skills and experiences of those who work in it.
I concur with Scott that you’ll likely find more men in internal/corporate communications positions. Perhaps part of this can be attributed to agency dynamics or work style / culture preferences?
Your point regarding the social media presenter percentages is valid, given that there are many women in PR leadership positions in the Valley; especially since social media has become a significant part of PR strategies and daily tactics on behalf of clients.
Just some food for thought:
1. Are men gravitating more to some of the technical elements of the vast spectrum of applications that come with the rapidly-expanding social media platforms?
2. Are they promoting their expertise more aggressively to assert their influence (there is a flood of experts for such a young segment of the marcomm industry).
3. Could there be a gender bias developing where the “hard & soft skills” are concerned with all of the programs that are being so widely adopted?
January 19th, 2010 at 7:33 am
Is it just me, or is this phenomenon somewhat exclusive for entry level through mid-level? In my own experience, I’ve noticed that there is a huge majority of women in PRSSA, but my managers at several agencies have been fairly balanced with men and women.
Either way, I think PR is portrayed as a more “feminine” profession (thanks Sex and the City) and that’s why more women are initially interested. It seems like the men jump into it later in their careers. I’d be interested to see some research on this subject. Thanks for pointing it out!
January 19th, 2010 at 9:46 am
We’re doing the work, making the products and signing the checks.
Okay, kidding, but seriously, the PR field lends itself to people who are better are massaging feelings, have greater empathy and are more horizontally (no, not sexually), rather than vertically, focused.
Those are traits that are TRADITIONALLY known to be a woman’s forte.
January 19th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Guess the guys are all too busy watching ‘Pants on the Ground’ remixes…
http://www.popeater.com/2010/01/14/larry-platt-pants-on-the-ground-remix/
January 19th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Tyler, if you worked for me, I’d let you bring me coffee. Now THAT’s empathy.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
When I was in college, I looked for the building all the women were going into and I ended up with a PR degree (actually, in all seriousness…I received a journalism degree
)
In real seriousness…
I’ve never worked for a male manager and have only had TWO male co-workers (that actually worked in the PR field) in 7 years or so.
I think a good balance (especially for an agency) is necessary for a number of reasons, many touched on by previous posters.
For me personally, I have six sisters so working and spending a majority of time with women is second nature, but I do know some males who were in the field who had a hard time with working with so many women.
January 19th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Linda, I fear you are correct about the “pink ghetto” factor.
But, what bothers me about the “feminization” of PR is that there are still not enough women CEOs of major PR firms. Most of us at the top are entrepreneurs who built our own companies. For more on this, check out the post I wrote for New York Women in Communications (http://bit.ly/5bDEne)
January 19th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
I do hope the tide turns, because I enjoyed working in a PR department at Data General that had 1/2 men, 1/2 women. Computervision had the same ratio. Then when I went to Gold Hill in ’87, there were slightly more women than men. I know working with all women can be tough for male PR professionals; I can only tell you that working as the only female in some tech co’s was also tough. Balance is good.
January 19th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Linda-
How do you like your espresso?
January 21st, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I was working at a PR firm when a front-page story on how there were “too many” women in PR was published. I looked around my practice group and, at the time, the number was something close to 50/50 men and women, and this was in 2000 or 2001.
So what was the difference? I worked in the Public Affairs practice group. My male colleagues had backgrounds in journalism and politics–and my background was in politics (typically a male-dominated industry). I think the focus of the practice group makes a big difference.
A few years ago, there was considerable discussion as to where all of the female PR bloggers were–the A listers at that point were mostly male. I speculated then that the cause there might be that the men had started blogging when you needed to know a bit more about html, file transfer, etc. than is necessary now, so it attracted those who had a bit of coding background–and typically, computer coding/science has more men.
The point of this apologetically long comment is that if there is a desire to even out the numbers, understanding these pockets and why they occur is probably a good first step.
February 15th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
More women are in PR because it’s not very difficult.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Women must be gravitating toward the careers that require mental heavy lifting.