Hello everyone!
My name is Alexis Murphy and I am the Vice President of the Marist Red Foxes PRSSA Chapter. I am a junior PR and Advertising student. This past summer I had a public relations internship in New York City and the CEO and two principals of the company were all men, and all the account executives were women. For the most part, it has been said that the public relations industry is mostly dominated by women but seeing these gender roles at my internship made me wonder if women just made up the lower level positions while men still held the higher level positions.
I think the gender gap most definitely exists in public relations. When I go for interviews for internships, most of the other candidates are females. I even notice this in my public relations classes. More women are in my public relations classes whereas more men are TV/Radio/Film majors or advertising majors. I feel that women dominate the fashion, travel, and hospitality industries of public relations. I think more men are involved in the entertainment industry as well as corporate communications, crisis communications, and financial communications.
I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's insights on this topic!
Alexis, your perceptions seem to reflect the current demographics in the public relations profession: the majority of the field is comprised of women but the minority males hold the highest-paying jobs.
ReplyDeleteI am adding another post to follow up on your comment and provide some information that might explain the trends that you pointed out.
Thanks,
Mark