Hi Everyone,
My name is Stephanie and I'm a senior PR major at Marist. This is my second year involved in the PRSSA and I'm in the process of completing my third internship at the American Cancer Society. I'm excited to graduate in May and begin my career in the PR industry.
I've enjoyed reading other contributors' previous posts about gender differences in the public relations field. I found this to be a particularly interesting blog discussion to follow because the idea of inequality and gender differences within this so-called "soft profession" had never occured to me.
When Professor Van Dyke spoke to us about this blog discussion today in our PR Case Studies class I was surprised to learn PR was referred to as "soft". From experience I've gained in prior internships and classroom experiences, PR is far from soft. I find this industry to be fiercely competitive. Because of this, it seems as though only the thick-skinned are successful, similar to what earlier posts have mentioned. Having thick skin is not a quality I attribute to one sex over the other. Public Relations is a field in which professionals are required to be on the ball from everything to current events to trends on twitter. Being "on top of your game" is a characteristic that can be attributed to one's drive to succeed as opposed to their gender.
Ultimately, I believe gender has little to nothing to do with the level of success a practitioner will reach in the PR industry. I hope that in the future with women continuing to enter this profession and rise up to executive positions this will no longer be an issue.
-Stephanie Jackman
Stephanie, I completely agree with you about the PR industry being soft. It is extremely vigorous and at the NYWICI Student career Conference, many on the panel from the PR industry described it to be an extremely difficult job. They all said that you do large amounts of work and sometimes have no results from it to show your clients. Becuase of this, many on the panel said that within 4 years of being in the industry they got burnt out and had to take a break from it. I also agree you have to have thick skin so you won't get burnt out. All the people on the panel were women so I wonder if gender contributes to getting "burned out" and maybe that is why women don't climb the corporate ladder as often as men.
ReplyDelete-Alexis Murphy
Nicely said, Steph. And I for one think women are every bit as "tough" as men ... maybe more. As I said in my comment to Emily, my wife had the "toughest job in the Navy," taking care of a family and household (and sometimes working full time) while I was deployed away from home with the Navy. I would have had a hard time doing what she did. I also watched her deliver our four children in the maternity ward ... without any pain medication (P.S. Our kids arrived weighing an average of 8 to 10 pounds each!). I know I would have passed out! But my wife endured the pain. So who is the tougher of the human species? My vote would be for women.
ReplyDeleteMark
I thought it was very interesting as well to hear of PR as being "soft". When Professor Van Dyke said that, I immediately looked around the class to catch the males' reactions to it. They all seemed a bit startled and seemed to look down as if they were now ashamed of being a PR major and not a "strong man". But once we all began discussing how PR requires dedicated people who aren't afraid to back down off of issues and who are willing to take risks, the men in the room seemed to relax.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of PR as being soft even though I have encountered may women in the field, even in my own internship with CBS. While it may seem as if it is female dominated, there are many males in the field and I believe that both genders have very fierce workers who look to be the most creative in their company.
I think its interesting to see how PR has evolved from a once very male dominated career choice, to a female dominated one and I believe it will soon balance out because people are realizing that PR isn't "soft", its demanding.
-Danielle Sullivan