Hello Everyone,
My name is Emily Moran and I am currently a junior at Marist College. As for PR experience, I am secretary of Marist Red Foxes PRSSA and I previously had an internship at THINK Public Relations. In the spring, I will be interning for Spring O'Brien, working mostly with business and financial clients. Like Courtney mentioned before, THINK PR is a fashion and beauty agency, run entirely by women. However, Spring O'Brien has a fair distribution of men and female employees. Even though the president of the company is male, the vice president is female. This is what interested me about Spring O'Brien, the fact that there is gender diversity. This follows the excellence theory in Public Relations that Dr. Van Dyke expressed in an earlier blog comment.
With this being said, I do think that the glass ceiling still exists, but I feel as if it is becoming less prevalent in today's society. As we can see from our internships, perhaps it is simply based on the type of PR we are exploring. The glass ceiling most certainly does not apply at THINK PR, but it could very well apply to a Sports PR firm. I think that it is important to assess this concept based on interest. How many female Sports Comm majors are there really at Marist? Yet, how many male Fashion Merchandising majors are there? This follows the idea that just because a company does not have a female CEO, does not necessarily mean that they are against a woman holding a powerful role in their company. Maybe a woman simply wasn't interested in that industry.
What I found surprising from the UC Davis "Glass Ceiling" Study, 2007 video is that upper level executive women are found more in Health care and Financial industries, whereas men upper level management is dominated in the Communications and Computer industries. I would think that Health care and Financial would be dominated by males, especially because I sense that at Marist College, finance majors tend to be more prevalent amongst men.
As a result, I would like to know if women are not holding top executive jobs because they do not want to or because they are truly being discriminated against due to their gender. Are we automatically assuming that a male got a job promotion over a female because he is a male? Or is there more behind it? I know for me personally, if I was a mom of three children, had a dog, and a household to run, I would not want the extra responsibility of being a CEO of a large PR firm. What does everyone else think?
-Emily Moran
Good point, Emily. I'm a father of four (and a husband, too!). I was fortunate to have a wife who was able to be at home ... working to take care of a busy household and take care of children while I focused on my Navy career (often deploying away from home for up to a year at a time). I have always felt bad that my wife gave up much of her career as a P.E. teacher (she did work full and part time for up to a year or two here and there). But we felt that it was important to have one of us at home with the kids instead of both working full time. Looking back, I see how much strain I placed on my wife and children by putting so much priority on my career. Succeeding in my career helped me get to where I am now, but I wish I had spent more time with my wife and children, too ... and given my wife more opportunity to pursue her career. It is definitely a tough juggling act. As you pointed out at the end of your post, you have to decide where your priorities are!
ReplyDeleteMark