The Missing Story of Women in Public Relations

This study proposed to advance the research on roles in public relations by considering through a feminist analysis the breadth of roles that women perform under the managerial label. Although management and technician roles have been useful as parsimonious tools to educate future public relations practitioners about public relations, these labels have begun to develop values of hierarchy and power not found when they were operationalized.

Based on a sample of 1,003 respondents, we asked for self-report data on a list of 17 role activities. The resulting factor analysis of responses by gender indicated a two-factor construct that represented managerial and technical dimensions. Further analysis of the dimensions by gender indicated that a combination of roles existed; the women managers did "it all," for less money, and the men in technical roles more likely did managerial activities as well. The women technicians carried out technical tasks.     

Rethinking organisations: a feminist perspective

Organizational transformation was the theme of a 1996 meeting in Canada of men and women from Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, and Europe concerned with more equitable power relations between men and women. Gender parity policies and initiatives are necessary but not sufficient as long as the organizational culture remains antithetical to gender equality and adequate resources are withheld. Three salient structural aspects of organizations were identified by participants: the expectation that staff should place their employment rather than family at the center of their lives, a view of power as a finite resource linked with control and hierarchy, and a tendency to focus narrowly on a single purpose and course of action. Recommended, to change these factors, were linkage of the feminist goal of social transformation to the espoused values of the organization, clarification of the multiple meanings attached to the concept of gender and their implications for different organizational contexts, identification of instances of dissonance between an organization's stated values and its actual culture (e.g., pressure on employees to work long hours, to the detriment of family), and an emphasis on process as well as outcome.     

Metamorphosis: From ‘Nice Girls’ to ‘Nice Bitches’: Resisting Patriarchal Articulations of Professional Identity

This article explores the random strategies women adopt in resisting patriarchal articulations of their professional identity and the kind of organizational discourses women’s resistance brings about. The focus is on describing the context, dynamics of contradictory tensions and ambivalence inherent in situations of resisting. The article draws upon the authors’ own experiences in academia. In addition to participatory observation, the authors are using themselves as research instruments that enable them to highlight the emotions and ambivalent dynamics in the construction of gendered identities and power relations in organizations. The study indicates that there are several sets of rules in motion in one and the same social situation, such as the rules of organizational behaviour, rules of friendship and the rules of gender relations in public places. By describing two overtly sexualized discourses that women’s resistance brought about, the article highlights that organizational sexuality does not necessarily differ in kind or in degree from ‘street sexuality’ or sexuality in semi‐public places. The study’s findings argue that it is important to extend research to both informal and semi‐formal organizational gatherings. These liminal spaces are important sites of communicative struggles over organizational meanings and identities.     

Differential gender orientation in public relations: Implications for career choices

Women have entered public relations at a much faster rate than men over the last two decades. Studies of the field show some gender segregation in PR, so it may not be accurate to generalize about the profession as a whole. This study surveyed PR students to determine whether specialty areas are perceived as gendered and the characteristics associated with male- and female-oriented areas. Findings indicated clear differences between “female” and “male” specialties, with their associated characteristics supporting values delineated in the feminist theory of public relations. Further, the study found that students consider gender orientation in selecting career paths.     

A feminist look at social psychology / Una mirada feminista a la psicología social

This theoretical revision starts from the consideration that the gender perspective constitutes a critical, explanatory and alternative vision that comes from feminism and generates an analysis framework that takes into consideration and pays attention to the differences and inequalities between women and men in any activity or area of social development, research or public policies. The objective of this revision is to provide clues to understanding what gender or feminist social psychology is. To this end, firstly, we briefly describe feminist theoretical assumptions and the gender or feminist perspective, which constitute its starting point, and secondly, we analyse what it means to integrate these principles into psychology.     

Men's health studies: origins and trends

This article provides a brief outline of the development of men's health studies in the United States. Research on men's health is discussed within critical feminist theories that highlight the reciprocality of gender relations as well as power differences between men and women and among male subgroups. A relational theory of gender and health is used to identify both positive-gendered and negative-gendered health synergies that influence the health processes and outcomes of men and women. Several examples of gendered health synergies are presented to illustrate key concepts. Finally, some directions for future research and advocacy with reference to men's health are outlined.     

The Experience of Gender Change in Public Sector Organizations

The state has a twofold relationship to gender change in society, through its overall steering capacity and through the gendered character of its constituent agencies. It is therefore important to understand the experience of gender change in state organizations. The findings from a study of gender relations in ten public‐sector worksites in New South Wales, Australia are presented. There is a widespread consciousness of gender change linked with new labour processes, restructuring and new patterns of management. These changes are uneven and limits to change are visible. Gender is recognized as an organizational problem in specific circumstances, most visibly where men’s resistance to change appears. A number of mechanisms limit the consciousness of gender as a problem. Several trends, including the current strength of neo‐liberalism, converge to make the gender‐neutral workplace the principal goal of gender reform in the public‐sector workplace. This, however, limits the state’s steering capacity in regard to societal gender relations.     

Use of Scanning Research in Decision Making: An Examination of the Environmental Imperative and Power-Control Perspective

Environmental uncertainty provides the context for public relations practices. Arguably, environmental uncertainty leads to greater organizational responsiveness to those environments through strategic planning. This survey of 505 American Public Relations Society of America members indicated, however, that perceived environmental conditions were less important to management decision-making than how those conditions were translated or packaged as decision-making inputs through formal environmental scanning mechanisms. Environmental uncertainty had no impact on decision making, once the mediating influence of formal scanning was controlled.     

Woman,man, lady,horse: Jane Stewart,public relations executive

Public relations scholars know very little about the women who participated in formal public relations before the 1970s, not even about such women as Jane Stewart, who served as vice president and then president of Group Attitudes Corporation, an independent consulting firm that became a subsidiary of Hill and Knowlton of New York in 1956. Because she was virtually alone among women at the top consulting firms, Stewart was forced to perform a delicate balancing act.Jane Stewart prospered in the man's world of a Manhattan agency by accepting the conservative values of the field and the era. But she also developed a collaborative management style and maintained a female, if not feminist, perspective that at times gave her clients a different outlook on public relations problems. This article describes Stewart's career in the context of women's participation in formal public relations.The author is an assistant professor in the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.     

Experience of female public relations practitioners in Bahrain

The research addressed the gap in the literature about the experience of public relations practitioners in the non-Western society of Bahrain. The research aims to contribute to public relations scholarship by using a qualitative approach to study the experience of Bahraini women working in public relations. It used open interviews with Bahraini PR practitioners who offered rich insights on their “experiences” as women working in PR in Bahrain. The interviewees talked about various types of challenges when working in public relations such as cultural marginalization, relationship with colleagues, social domination, and marginalization of PR function. The research suggests combined liberal and radical feminist strategies to improve the role of Bahraini women in public relations. It recommends social and organizational reforms, in addition to empowering women to utilize their personality traits, communication behaviors and management styles.     

The Political Economy of “Transnational Business Feminism”

This article traces the emergence of a politico-economic project of “transnational business feminism” (TBF) over the past decade. This project – which is being developed by a coalition of states, financial institutions, the UN, corporations, NGOs and others – stresses the “business case” for gender equality by arguing that investments made in women can (and should) be measured in terms of the cost savings to families and communities, as well as in terms of boosting corporate profitability and national competitiveness. This article uses a feminist historical materialist framework to argue that TBF is facilitating the further entrenchment of the power of corporations to create “expert” knowledges about both “gender” and “development.” Using the Nike-led “Girl Effect” campaign as an example, it is argued that TBF is promoting a naturalized and essentialized view of women and gender relations that ignores the historical and structural causes of poverty and gender-based inequality. It is also helping to reproduce the same neoliberal macroeconomic framework that has created and sustained gender-based and other forms of oppression via the global feminization of labor, the erosion of support for social reproduction and the splintering of feminist critiques of capitalism.     

Power-Control or Empowerment? How Women Public Relations Practitioners Make Meaning of Power

This qualitative study examines how women public relations practitioners make meaning of power. From literature regarding power-control theory, gender, and empowerment, one research question was posed: How do women public relations practitioners make meaning of power? Results suggest that women practitioners made meaning of power as influence, relationships, knowledge and information, access, results-based credibility, and empowerment. The data extended power-control theory and scholarship regarding empowerment and uniquely added a gendered lens to the examination of power in public relations. Women practitioners actively enact influence, strategically forge relationships and gain and control information to affect their power.     

An exploratory study of transformed media relations dimensions after the implementation of an anti-graft law in Korea

The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, which went into effect on September 28, 2016, strictly prohibits gift giving to journalists, thereby making a traditional media relations practice in Korea illegal. A survey of 342 public relations practitioners revealed that providing monetary gifts, performing formal responsibility, building informal relationships, receiving paid media coverage, and giving and accepting informal support were found to be significant subdimensions of media relations. After implementation of the anti-graft law, public relations practitioners expressed a belief that the practice of providing monetary gifts would shrink the most and that performing formal responsibility would experience the most growth. The formal responsibility factor was significantly positively related to support for the new law and public relations ethics, while giving and accepting informal support was negatively linked to public relations ethics. Paid media coverage showed a positive relationship with public relations practitioners’ perceptions about difficulties of increasing outputs of media relations. Finally, this empirical study shows how new external regulations arising from implementation of the anti-graft law can affect the personal influence model of media relations in Korea.     

It's All About Power: Integrating Feminist Family Studies and Family Communication

Feminist family studies bring a framework of power and intersectional analysis to unpack the issue of gender in families. Moving beyond the concept of gender as either benign or simply one of difference between men and women, a feminist perspective offers a way of conceptualizing the multiple contexts in which families are situated and where conflict and care inevitably comingle. A feminist lens has challenged family scholars to investigate and understand individuals, relationships, family structures, communities, and society in more complex and contested ways. We argue that feminist family studies offers insights for the discipline of family communication in order to contextualize the ways in which family dynamics are theorized and studied.     

Reprivatized Womanhood: Changes in Mainstream Media's Framing of Urban Women's Issues in China, 1995–2012

After waves of women's liberation movements, the reform era has witnessed a puzzling stagnation, if not decline, in women's status in China. Among the existing literature on the changing public gender discourse in postsocialist China, few studies have substantially engaged with feminist critiques of the “separate spheres” as an analytical framework. In this study the authors performed content analyses on 202 articles drawn from 3 Chinese mainstream magazines between 1995 and 2012 to describe changes in media's framing of urban women's issues. Over time, topics on marriage and private relationships became increasingly predominant, while concerns over gender discrimination diminished in the mainstream media. The results provide evidence for a revitalization of traditional gender values attributing women to “private” spheres and reveal the media's repeated use of individualistic approaches to structural problems, suggesting an alliance between patriarchal and neoliberal ideologies in shaping public gender discourse while concealing structural inequalities in urban China.     

Effective Public Relations Leadership in Organizational Change: A Study of Multinationals in Mainland China

This study explored the role of public relations leadership during organizational change in 3 multinationals in mainland China. Based on 40 in-depth interviews, the findings suggested that the leadership of public relations unit or function during organizational change was shown through coaching middle management to manage employee emotions, providing communication training to middle management, communicating and reinforcing shared visions for change, and managing the conflicts between middle management and top management regarding change rationales, planning, and procedures. The leadership role of public relations managers was enacted through consulting CEOs' communication styles, exerting upward influence in change management, and acting as the different voice when decision making for change was questionable. Results of the study extended existing public relations leadership scholarship and shed light on some tentative dimensions of public relations leadership during organizational change: (a) coaching emotion management, (b) educating communication knowledge and skills, (c) reinforcing shared visions, (d) resolving conflicts, (e) exerting upward influence, and (f) acting as a different voice. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

Newspaper Editors' Perceptions of Public Relations: How Business,News, and Sports Editors Differ

In this study, I develop a feminist theory of public relations by explaining discrimination against female practitioners and positing an agenda for change. Thirty-seven "long" interviews and three focus groups conducted with female practitioners revealed that major obstacles for women are marginalization of public relations, problems stemming from male dominance at work, women's "balancing" act between career and family, and gender stereotypes. Solutions for overcoming barriers are proposed for society, organizations, public relations, and women.     

Public relations strategies for creating mass media content: A case study of the National Basketball Association

In the relationship among public relations, mass media, and the audience, it is often the mass media who are deemed the power brokers in their ability to potentially influence an audience. The agenda-setting theoretical framework operates from the perspective of the mass media having the power to transfer the salience of an issue to the public. Perhaps, however, to much power is granted to the mass media without the consideration of the processes by which mass media content is selected and framed. This raises the question: who sets the public agenda? Public relations practitioners have the ability to assist the production of mass media content through various proactive public relations strategies that are designed to promote and present the organization they represent in the most positive manner. A case study of the National Basketball Association (NBA) reveals several public relations and promotional strategies, which indicate that much of the creation of NBA related mass media content is directed by the NBA itself.John A. Fortunato is an assistant professor of Communication at Saint Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ.     

Contingent factors: Modeling generic public relations practice in South Korea

This study identified which contingent variables public relations practitioners perceive as influential to their practice in South Korea. They responded that a number of contingent variables influence public relations activities and emphasized the influence of individual and organizational level variables on their practice. Practitioners at the management level perceived organizational level variables as influential while the staff level indicated PR department variables as dominant to their practice. Public relations practitioners whose main function is government relations tended to acknowledge a greater influence of organizational level variables. Most notably, public relations practitioners cited the constraints of negative information release and conflict situations.     

“Outnumbered yet still on top,but for how long?” Theorizing about men working in the feminized field of public relations

The under-researched phenomenon of men working in the feminized field of public relations is investigated using the theory of gendered organizations and feminist and masculinity studies lenses. Survey, interview, and focus group findings illuminate the field's gender paradox wherein men report negative effects of gender-minority status at entry- and mid-levels and worry about a future when women will replace them at public relations’ highest management levels.