Women and PR – A Perfect Combination
In 2014, women made up 63% of the specialists in PR from what the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. 59% of PR management professionals are women, and those statistics may be low according to other reporting agencies, which say that the overall percentage of women in PR jobs could be as high as 85%. Add that to several CEO, Chairman, and founder spots being filled by women, even in some of the largest PR firms and holding companies, and it seems clear that women are just a great fit for the industry.
But it’s not all roses in the slots for those running the agencies. Lots of executive-level jobs are filled by women, but not as many in the top positions at the large firms. But that may prove to be to the detriment of those large firms because having hit that glass ceiling, many women choose to then go out on their own and start up competing agencies, taking their knowledge and sometimes other top women with them.
One reason many women may flock to PR jobs is that there are more of them available in a market hungry for more. Even better than that, on average a female PR specialist makes nearly $20K more a year than most women make in jobs of a similar level. It’s still nearly $20K less than what men make in the field, but it’s a big step up in pay.
What Makes Women So Good at PR?
It probably isn’t about the writing and editing side of things since those in the journalism field are split almost evenly between men and women, but there’s no denying that writing is a big part of PR efforts.
Of course, some say that women do so well in PR because they are usually better listeners and communicators than men. They are generally more social as well, but if it were just those abilities, the percentages would also be higher in other fields such as journalism. It might be that women have spent a lifetime learning how to set ego aside more to chase their dreams under the radar. And another factor could be that women are more likely to start in the bottom-rung jobs and work their way up the career ladder. In that process, they learn more about how everything works, who makes things happen, and how to form connections with those who move work forward faster.
Positivity and Creativity
PR offers a lot of opportunities to present information in a positive light. Many women like that aspect. Spending working hours looking for how to tell people about the great things a product or service can do for them means not going home angry and upset all the time. That coupled with the chance to get creative at work could translate to the ideal situation for many women. Women often multi-task better than men, so thinking about more than one client or campaign and planning what message to send, all while putting together a story to submit to media sources for a non-profit … well, that could be exactly what a woman wants to do in her working hours.
What do you think? If you are a woman working in PR, what makes your work the perfect fit for you?
