Gender And PR In Kuwait

This Christmas vacation as I decided to go back home to visit my family. I also decided to go and check out some PR agencies and Universities that do PR courses in Kuwait.

What I realised was that not only in the West there has been a recent increase in women working in PR agencies or women who will be entering the PR industries, but that there has been a growing interest in Kuwait as well as in generally all of Middle-East.

As I spoke to people from these PR agencies I came to conclude that the main difference between the West and the Middle-East especially looking at Kuwait, is that there are more women in the managerial position here in the Middle-East then in the West.

The reason for this being is that during the past five years the Kuwaiti government has given the women her full democratic rights which also meant that it gave the women the same rights as her male colleagues and that gave women the chance to advance in their careers and even reach as high as managerial positions.

And this does not only apply to the PR field, it also applies for other professions in Kuwait.

Gender Imbalance in Public Relations Industries

For 20 years now the public relations profession has seen a radical change in the ratio of men-to-women working in the field of Public Relations,. For 20 years scholars have studied the phenomenon, and for 20 years they have been talking about its impact on the industry.

I’m wondering if it’s now about time to do something about it.

Today, about 70% of the PR practitioners are women, but wait ’til you see the next generation. The latest figures peg PRSSA membership at 90% female. Those numbers echo and it’s been that way for nearly a decade. Mind you, not everyone who enters this field studies public relations in college, but the gender trend is clear no matter what your degree.

Researchers have investigated this gender shift since the middle 80s, and while their studies don’t tell us why men have abandoned the PR profession, they do offer some hints. Elizabeth Toth, U. of Md., made some interesting observations a few years back in an interview with SU Magazine.

First, she said, “that the reason why men left this profession is because they had many more fields to choose from and public relations was not as lucrative, so they went where the money was. As the men moved away, women began to find public relations a hospitable place to launch careers, a place that didn’t erect the barriers women find in many other professions, Toth said."

Secondly, she said, "Public Relations is considered a very flexible field in which women can balance family and marriage. Organizations seem to prefer women in public relations roles because they think they are better communicators, more nurturing and willing to listen and collaborate. I think organizations began to face pressure from affirmative action programs to hire women and train them for management positions, and public relations seemed like a safe place to put women as managers."

Considering this there’s a lot of good news in that, but organizational sociologists say it’s another way of oppressing women. You offer them a little bit and then they won’t want more.

Why does the gender of your communicator matter?

Because men and women view the world differently. That has more to do with socialization than DNA, I suspect, but there is no denying that men and women tackle PR challenges from different perspectives. Having both perspectives at the table is essential if the industry is to serve their clients and or employers in the right way.

Maybe I’m a lone in thinking this way, but I think the coming 90-10 gender imbalance is bad for the profession — and bad for both men and women. And I also think its time to implement a PR campaign to lure more young men to the field. And also to make a serious effort to attract students of both genders.

Since men are soon to be grossly underrepresented in this field, why not offer them incentives, provided that they can find someone to fund the awards? Why not make a similar effort in the interest of gender equity?

Also have people from this profession that might want to help by offering mentoring and co-op programs. Such programs could help employers deal with their own gender imbalances, also take in men with poorer professions but who have good communication and organizational skills.
I' am sure that most professionals are concerned about the gender issue in public relations and that they would like to see gender balanced in this industry, because both men and women have good ideas that they could bring into this field.

Books Recommendation

Here are some of the books that I would recommend if someone needs to read or learn more about this topic:

Andrews, P. H. (1992). Sex and gender differences in group communication: impact on the facilitation process.

Antonicelli, P. (1985). The role of women in P. R. In E. Denig (Ed.), A Georgraphy of Public Relations Trends (pp. 407-413). Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Broom, G. M. (1982). A comparison of sex roles in public relations. Public Relations Review, 8,17-22.

Bullard, A. & Wright, D. (1993, May-June). Circumventing the glass ceiling: Women executives in American state governments. Public Administration Review,53 (3), 189-202.

Cline, C. G., Masel-Walters, L., Toth, E. L., Turk, J. V., Smith, H. T., & Johnson, N. (1986). The velvet ghetto: The impact of the increasing percentage of women in public relations and organizational communication. San Francisco:IABC Foundation.

Creedon, P. J. (1991). Public relations and "women's work": toward a feminist analysis of public relations roles. In L.A. Grunig & J. E. Grunig (Eds.), Public relations research annual (Vol. 3, pp. 67-84). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Dejan Verčič, Danny Moss, and Gary Warnaby, (2003). Perspectives on Public Relations Research. Published by Routledge.

Larissa A. Grunig, Linda Childers Hon, and Elizabeth L. Toth (2004). Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice: How gender influences practice. The Guilford Communication Series, The Guilford Press.

Richard A. Lippa, (2002), Gender Nature and Nurture (2nd Edition). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Publishers.

Breaking Through Glass Ceiling: The Success Story of Ms Lynne Franks

In this blog I' am going to introduce you to one of the most successful women in the PR industry and who has broken through the glass ceiling successfully.

Ms Lynne Franks is an author, entrepreneur and lifestyle guru which has a communication reach that stretches across the world.

Lynne Franks is one of the best-known public relations consultants in the world, a newspaper columnist, and a commentator on women's issues, sustainability, and consumer lifestyles.
She founded her first company at her kitchen table when she was twenty-one. After 20 highly successful years she sold her PR agency to focus on using her communication skills to encourage partnership between business and society. Leaving her London-based agency in 1992, Franks traveled the world interacting with multinationals, nation states NGOs and grassroots organisations.

She created the major UK event ‘What Women Want’ to draw attention to the changing position of women in society, prior to attending the Beijing women's conference in 1994; she was also in charge of UK's first women's radio station and has become a spokesperson on women's issues and socially responsible business practices.

Lynne is currently developing SEED – Sustainable Enterprise Empowerment Dynamics, a network aimed at training and empowering, particularly with regard to sustainable enterprise. SEED has also become the provider of one of the most internationally recognised women's enterprise training programmes, as well as a global network for women entrepreneurs. The SEED Handbook, The Feminine Way to Create Business is an excellent manual for any entrepreneur that teaches how to nurture and create business based on integrity, personal values and openness. This book has been translated in a number of languages.

Furthermore, Ms Lynne Franks is also the founder and president of Globalfusion, a communications consultancy specialising in ‘new marketing’ connecting people, ideas, businesses, and community

A Glass Ceiling In PR

The glass ceiling persists for women in public relations and communications management, despite increasing feminization of these fields. The Department of Labor (1991) defined the glass ceiling as; those artificial barriers based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevents qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organization into management-level positions.

The Report highlighted the absence of women in management. It's true that women have gained ground in PR Careers, but we can still notice that the Glass Ceiling still Exists.

Women in the PR industries have been facing for many years promotional issues compared to men. Recently I read a blog on women and the issues they face working in the PR profession, the blog mentions that even though there is a dramatic rise of women working in the field of PR, a major proportion of directors and chief executives are males and they continue to seize the high ground, especially we can see this in London based PR agencies who have male employees that have worked their way up through the industry since their domination during the 1980s. This basically affirms that the roles of women are increasing at the technician levels rather than at the managerial positions in the PR industry. The main question one must ask is will this change in the future or will women continue to carry entry level jobs?

The “glass ceiling” is playing an important role in the advancement of women in PR. Interestingly; there are relatively few important names of women in the PR industry. The names that I found who successfully broke through the glass ceiling was Margery Kraus, Marilynn Deane Mendell, and Kristen Grimm. I' am sure there is quite a few more names of women who made it finally by breaking through the glass ceiling, but this are some of the names that I found and also their success stories are interesting. I believe the reason why we can't find a lot of other women's names that have been successful in breaking the glass ceiling is due to the fact that men worked for a longer period in the work force, and this gave them the opportunity to improve and excel. Moreover the existence of the glass ceiling is preventing women to advance into managerial positions in their organizations. Will women be able to break through the “glass ceiling” finally and help in the advancement of PR? Will more women leave a legacy in the PR industry?

I think one day hopefully women will surmount the issues of the “glass ceiling”. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that by 2005 women are predicted to compose nearly half of the total U.S labor force, and they are not only more likely to work for pay, they are also spending more time at work then they used to before. Organizations no longer have the right to offer low wages and refuse to promote women due to the idea that they require costly programs, which include maternity and sick leave, flexible hours and child care. Women today rather focus on their careers, they no longer want to get married and have kids at a young age. Women today have higher education and work experience; which should qualify them and secure top managerial positions.

Gender Gap

I found several studies that indicate although the number of women practicing public relations has increased dramatically since the 1980s, but still women all over the globe do not receive the same salaries as men with the same educational background experience.

The gender gap means women are paid less and fewer reach top corporate positions in the PR field. I have written emails to some female executives in communications asking for comments. Their comments were that the reason why women don't want to comment on their salaries is because they fear of being drummed out. Women know if they even comment, much less complain, they will be branded as a bitch or whiner, or worse, a troublemaker that should be gotten rid of. As for the pay gap in PR, there's no doubt that women are seen as lesser or not "long distance runners" by the men in charge, regardless of how these men may act outwardly.

Though women are dominating the industry numerically, men still earn more than women. If looking at America men earn $20,000 on average more than women. Jim Hutton, Associate Professor of Marketing and Communications at Fairleigh Dickinson University, argues that the salary gap is justified because men often have more experience than women, they work longer hours, and tend to work in corporate PR, an area that pays more.

Also, a current survey in PR Week showed the average age of males in the industry is 37.1 whereas females were 32.4. The male population in PR is older, so that means that they would definitely have more experience then women, and as we know with any job the more you have experience the more likely you would get paid more. What really tends to happen to women is that most women at some point in their lives have to concentrate not only on their career development but also on their families and family life, while men tend to focus more on their careers.

However, according to Kathy Lewton, CEO of the Public Relations Society Association (PRSA), statistical tests show that gender still makes significant impact on salary though she couldn’t determine the percentage difference.

As I was looking at these studies, the issue of salary inequality between men and women in communications is not new news. What is so disturbing is that it is the same news that I have read now has been for the last 20 plus years, yes even I' am sure their has been an improvement in the salaries but still women don't get paid equally as their male colleagues. The other concerning point is how few top corporate or organizational positions are held by women (in the PR Week Survey, for example, less than one third of the top posts were held by women.

Even though now women dominate the public relations profession the difference in the average salary of males compared to female employees is statistically significant. We are dealing with far deeper issue and no easy solutions to the problem of inequality between men and women in pay and responsibility.

I hope to see in the future encouraging signs as strong women take over as heads of agencies and at younger ages achieve top corporate positions. If we are to see significant advances, agencies must take on a leading role in paying what the job is worth instead of differentiating between the male and female gender.

The table below is from PR Week's salary survey, this survey was conducted in 2002. This table includes factors such as age, experience level, education level, average hours per week, years in current positions, and finally years spent in the PR profession for both of the genders male and female.

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Why Do Women Dominate The PR Profession?

I personally think that women in PR have found a discipline where they can work and show self-confidence assertiveness, a risk taking attitude, and an accountability necessary for business success.

Here is a recent study on this topic:

Women In Business, which was conducted by the (University of Birmingham).

In an industry once dominated by men, women now out number their male colleagues and the trend shows no signs of abating. Have female professionals become a new PR super breed?

Women have definitely made their mark in the PR business over the last 20 years, to the extent that there is now a major shortage of men coming into the profession, and that's official.

According to latest membership figures released by the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), women now outnumber men by 60:40 - a massive swing since 1987, when figures highlighted the opposite at 20:80.

Looking at West to East of Europe, America, and even looking at my own country which is Kuwait or in general the middle east, women in PR are increasing, so what brought on this amazing phenomenon, which has seen the fairer sex starting to smash through the glass ceiling in this industry?

Have women become a super breed in the world of PR, and why has it happened in this particular industry?

One of the reasons behind the success of women PR professionals is undoubtedly the flexibility of the profession, as it provides the opportunity for career-minded women to have it all in terms of high powered jobs, while still balancing family life at least to some degree.

PR is probably one of the most fragmented professions in the UK and comprises a mix of in-house, independent and consultancy-based practitioners.

The emergence of electronic technology has also spawned the independent sector creating thousands of one-man band and freelance operators - who are predominantly women.
However at the top of the PR tree, men continue to make their mark.

This is particularly true among the large PR agencies if we were to look at London, where a major proportion of directors and chief executives are male and continue to seize the high ground, having worked their way up through the industry since their domination during the 1980s.

Outside London and throughout the middle management tiers, the gender gap definitely widens and women now dominate the market place.

While men continue to be in short supply at the entry level, a high proportion of those that are involved in the profession are operating at board level, but for how much longer?

So what is it about the profession that is attracting women rather than men, and what is the picture likely to be in another 20 years time?

Anne Parry, IPR Midlands group chair and deputy MD of Quantum PR in Birmingham says: "Breaking into PR still remains the hardest task for graduates eager to jump onto the PR wagon. When you regularly receive CVs from people even willing to work for nothing just to get their foot in the door, it certainly demonstrates how popular the profession has become, but like any profession, what the industry wants is quality not quantity, not to mention more men. The root cause of the problem is perhaps the perception of PR, which is still not being taken seriously enough and is often viewed as a bit girlie in certain quarters. Nothing of course could be further from the truth, as the role of PR climbs even higher up the boardroom agenda. Just like other industries, there are good and bad operators - and those involved in fluffy-type PR activities soon discover the advertising department is next door when it comes down to highly-complex business management issues requiring strategic initiatives to make a serious financial difference to the bottom line."

She believes that one of the reasons for the proliferation of women versus men at the junior entry level is their willingness to be totally hands-on, take on administration roles initially and work their way up the promotional ladder.

Also another reason why I believe there are a lot of women in this profession is because women tend to be more practical than theoretical, particularly when it comes to attention to detail, which are critical success factors behind award-winning PR campaigns.

Dare I say it, but one of the main reasons behind this growing dominance in the market place is that as a general rule woman are better than men at thinking on different levels all at the same time.

I could also argue that women are better listeners, more methodical in their decisions, less confrontational and less likely to go off in unproven directions - but in saying this I might be in danger of offending my male colleagues at University of Westminster and the handful of top PR men in some PR industries or agencies.

According to Gidon Freeman, editor of PR Week, the gender readership split for the industry's magazine has moved even more in favour of women with a 65:35 ratio, but he's not at all surprised by the breakdown. "PR is all about developing relationships and bringing influence to bear, which historically women have always mastered better than men," he says.

What this all means is that if you're male, highly intellectual with really good organisation and communication skills, plus the charisma and personality to make your presence felt, you've got a really good chance of making it big time in PR.