Why do women dominate the PR field but rarely hold executive positions?
- By Sarah Guenther
- Feb 24, 2017
- 2 min read
The field of public relations is undoubtedly dominated by women. Estimates average that anywhere between 63 to 85 percent of the field is comprised of women. Whereas public relations (and related communications fields) used to be made up mostly of men (a la Mad Men), now women are taking up the mantle.
Yet, while women make up a large portion of the industry, studies show that they only make up about 30% of CEO positions.
So now the question must be asked: why are a majority of the jobs in public relations held by women but the highest positions are held by men?
When looking at top executive positions across the board, studies show that it will take more than 100 years before parity is achieved in the job market in regards to women in top management positions.
While it’s not necessarily the case in every profession, historically it has been harder for women to break the glass ceiling, if you will, into the highest paying or top executive positions. Women only started entering the work force during WWII and then went through a period in which they were expected to stay in the home. Women have increasingly entered the work force since the 60s and 70s, but it can still be difficult to rise to the top.
Specifically for public relations, among the 20 firms around the world with revenues of $100 million or more, only 25 percent are run by women. According to Aarti Shah of The Holmes Report, “another notable pattern is that agencies rarely seem to pluck CEOs from the traditionally female-heavy consumer practice.”
On the bright side, more women are starting to move into management and top executive positions. This is especially true with PR as opposed to other fields, where the movement of women into executive positions is stagnant. At the same time, this movement tends to be centered in certain managerial positions and not necessarily in positions at the very top, such as that of CEO.
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