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May 17, 2012
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Aloud promotes NYWICI members' professional growth, enhances the organization's image and helps attract new members by providing timely, insightful, occasionally controversial viewpoints on topics that are relevant to women's communications careers and encourage conversation.
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Recently, there’s been a flurry of discussion about the growing dominance of women in public relations. In a blog post last month, Peppercom CEO Steve Cody called it “unsettling and unhealthy” and warned that the large majority of female staffers at PR firms will scare off men. PR Breakfast Club took a light hearted approach, advising guys who want to meet women to get a job in PR.
The truth is, women have been “the new majority” in PR for a decade. We dominate on both the agency and the corporate sides. Everywhere, that is, but at the top. That fact, rather than the idea that men might be scared away from PR, is what bothers me.
Since Corporate Communications is considered a staff position rather than a bottom-line function at most companies, the low number of female communications officers in corporate C-suites is understandable. But, given our majority, why aren’t there more women running top PR firms?
There’s the Mommy track, of course. But, with so many women in senior positions at major agencies, that doesn’t fully explain it. Colleagues opine that we women are so busy making our clients and superiors look good that we don’t promote ourselves. Or, that many don’t really want the responsiblity of being CEO. Others blame it on clients, claiming they’re not that comfortable with a female chief.
In my experience, which spans five different agencies, clients care about their own account team, not who’s helming the ship overall. And, though there are plenty of women who don’t want the aggravation of the top job, many are up for the challenge.
Some say we’re getting there. They point to Marcia Silverman, who served as CEO of Ogilvy PR for seven years (but who will be succeeded by Christopher Graves on January 1.) At the largest firms, there's APCO’s Margery Kraus, Donna Imperato (Cohn & Wolfe), and Barby Siegel, who recently took the CEO post at Zeno. Melissa Waggener Zorkin, Jen Prosek, and Laura Tomasetti are CEOs of significant firms as well. But, they, in addition to Kraus, are entrepreneurs who built their own firms.
As I was pondering the shortage of women CEOs in my field, I saw the post by James Chartrand about her experience copywriting under a man’s name. She blogs that, as soon as she became a man, writing jobs came more easily. According to Chartrand,
There was no haggling. There were compliments, there was respect. Clients hired me quickly, and when they received their work, they liked it just as quickly. There were fewer requests for revisions — often none at all.
Chartrand’s experience is unsettling, because it focuses not just on the tangible rewards that one “man” enjoyed, but the intangibles that drive them, like respect. It’s hard not to wonder if her story has anything to do with how women are viewed, rewarded, and respected in even a female-dominated profession. In the end, her experience may have more to do with gender and the Web than with PR and communications. It’s impossible to replicate her experiment in the agency workplace. But, it makes me wonder if, with all the discussion about the feminization of PR, we’re still missing something.
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An interesting post and the subject of my 2004-2007 PhD (The Predominance of Women in PR). Just some brief comments. Yes, it is a complex subject. Yes, there is ample evidence that wages and conditions are lowered in professions which become too female-dominated (numerically). However, I don't think that will happen in PR. Any effects of the gender imbalance will be seen in the next 10 years. Dan Edelman said when I interviewed him: "we need balance". Interesting there's not many female pilots. I've moved on from the topic in the past few years. If you're interested, a copy of the thesis can be found at: http://people.aapt.net.au/~net/study I'm on Twitter @pr_doctor
Sometime in the mid-1990s, I had invited the CEO of Burson-Marsteller as a solo speaker at a public relations forum that our university held each year in the spring. After scanning the audience and a quiet moment at the microphone, he said he was surprised at the number of young women in the audience as public relations majors, and he was a little distressed. He hoped the field of public relations would not become like the teaching field. It seemed when women took over, the perception of the field was diminished and he didn't want that to happen to pubic relations, a field he had helped to build. That comment caused only a little stir from the group, which was about 75 percent female at the time. He went on to say that since the legal field had seen a surge in lawyers and layoffs, that his preference would be to hire these male lawyers before anyone else. After all, they were proven thinkers, writers and persuaders. Of course, he added, women are great communicators (is there a difference implied here?).
Has the perception of the field changed? Women have earned good money from the public relations field with some recognition, but why is this field any different than any other one. There was a national movement to get women executives on the boards of public companies called, "Where are the women?" The ratios of women to men on public company boards of directors are still small, despite women's achievements and rise in the business field. Where are the women CEOs? Women-owned businesses at one time were the fastest growing source of new hires in the U.S. Has this changed? In some research I conducted some years ago, my colleague and I looked at female radio personalities, hosts and news anchors in the New York area, and we found that males had been involved in the women's ascent. However, salaries and promotions differed significantly. Has that changed? I'm not sure that it has. More recently, another colleague and I produced a documentary called "Wings of Their Own," which traced the history of women pilots in the 20th century from the early days of flight. Try to find a photograph or significant information about Katherine Wright. You hear about the Wright brothers, but it was Katherine who put together funding from overseas to build airplanes--Curtiss Wright is a major aviation company, and where is Katherine's name. Where is her name in the National Aviation and Space Museum, a Washington, D.C., Smithsonian museum? Okay, there's a family photograph on the wall, but her contributions are not marginalized, they are mostly absent. Then there's aviatrix Elinor Smith (maybe 98 or 99 years old now) who was our greatest early pilot and daredevil. Yes, the new movie about Amelia has an Elinor Smith character. The public does not know about her. And, the story goes on and on.
NYWICI and its women are fabulous. Somehow we all know that. I'm at the university (and still work as a professional) to mentor young people -- both female and male. Somehow, we make a difference, but the change is extremely slow to implement. It comes over generations. Think women's vote and rights, how long did this take? I started my own business at an early age to control my destiny and still do. Of course, I have two wonderful daughters who now work in the communications field and have moved quickly with their excellent skills to top positions. They are young people with great talent and are valued by their organizations. They will get there, I believe, sooner than many of us did at earlier times. Let's also hope that our field is not devalued the way our Burson-Marsteller CEO lamented. Some of us will aspire to run companies, head to top positions and others will not. It's the same for males, but we will make our mark soon, I'm sure.
Thank you for your thoughtful response. Your mention of Katherine Wright makes me wonder how many other women who helped make history are also "lost" to history! Regarding PR, there's been concern, not only about a lack of diversity, but about the marginalization of the profession due to the predominance of women. (Although, as with teaching, it's not clear to me which comes first, the "feminization" or the decline in respect and compensation.) Either way, it's a fairly depressing scenario. Yet, I don't think anyone would say an influx of women has led to declining respect, or salaries in the legal profession, despite the problems that have come with a glut of lawyers.
In my mind, the challenges women in PR face are bound up with the industry's own issues, which are related to the relatively low barrier for entry, the fact that it has been a stepchild to advertising (though that's changing), and PR's persistent status as an inexact science.
I take heart by what you say about the time required for social and workplace attitudes to change, however. I, too, believe we'll get there, provided we really want to.
Great post, Dorothy. I totally agree our industry needs more successful women at the helm of agencies small, medium and large. I also wanted to clarify your comment about my blog. When I wrote about the overwhelming number of young women entering the PR agency ranks, I was really speaking to the larger population shift. It's my belief we MUST do a better job of representing the diverse audiences to whom we market. I see a better balanced male-to-female ratio is part of diversity. - Steve Cody
Here's hoping the recent emergence of women CEOs and entrepreneurs is a harbinger of things to come.
I think this issue is so complex that there isn't simply one reason but many factors. Personally, I decided to go out on my own because I finally figured out that I am the type of person who doesn't work well for others. Not to say I didn't learn a lot on the way! I think if women continue to make personal decisions based on what's best for them, men aside, we all win--but we do have to fight harder. Incidentally,our agency is women owned and an all female agency. We hire on skill and personality. We just haven't found a man who fits the shoe!
Great, thought-provoking blog post.
This is excellent, Dorothy. I think the same is true on the web. Women seem to be moving into top jobs at a slower pace, and the stagnation is hard to understand. And there doesn't seem to have been an increase in women leading mainstream magazines, either. I hope someone does an ind-depth study of these trends.
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