Debate – “Women will always work in PR but will never run it”
There are certain assumptions about how a PR practitioner should act and look. Arguably the most famous PR practitioner is Samantha Jones, the fictional character from HBO's Sex and the City. Ooozing sex appeal, competent and self-assured, Samantha Jones managed to crack the glass celing, and runs her own PR company.
But, a reality check brings us swiftly back to terra firma. There is a broad spectrum of people's ideas, assumptions and attitudes as to a women's role in this industry. My experiences have largely found that while PR is overwhelmingly made up of women, all too often, men are running the show and women are caged in by a glass ceiling, concrete walls and the velvet ghetto phenomena. The Velvet Ghetto, a phenomonon explored in the 1980's by Dr Caroline Cline looked at salaries, attitudes, bias, and not being part of the gang.
The infamous Max Clifford is probably Britain's most famous self-styled PR guru. As a relative newbie to the PR landscape in the UK, I find that Clifford and Alistair Campbell are the most recogniseable PR/publicity figures.
What makes this an even more bitter pill to swollow, is that women are often paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same job.
References:
http://www.iabc.com/rf/pdf/VelvetGhetto.pdf
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