Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SuBRI)
Women in Public Relations Project (euprera)
Exploring the role of women in public relations in Europe
The challenge
Women in public relations is a topic that has been drawing attention since at least 1985 when the Velvet Ghetto study argued that women see themselves as technical staff, thus expecting to get paid less paid than men. The research on the position of women in public relations has continued since the Velvet Ghetto study, and some of the issues that are often recognised include the glass ceiling, pay gap, lack of mentorship opportunities and stereotyped expectations of leadership style, where leadership is usually seen as a masculine trait.
The EUPRERA project aims to explore women in public relations in the European context.
The Approach
Goals of the project are:
- To compare and contrast the position of women in Europe, by conducting comparative analysis among European countries
- To show the issues that women practitioners in Europe are concerned with and possible inequalities of women practitioners
- To discuss the specific issues that affect the work of women public relations practitioners within each country
In that, the project team will investigate:
- The position of women in public relations, focusing not just on businesses but also non-governmental sectors and politics
- The challenges and opportunities for women in public relations
- Bloke-ification as a process, and its relevance for public relations in Europe
- Women’s preferences in regard to work environment and senior management structure, e.g. would women prefer to work for women, differences between female and male bosses, etc
- Is there a European trend in a decline of women joining the profession? If so, why?
The impact
By identifying the current positions held by women in PR in Europe and exploring the issues that female practitioners experience, the project will develop recommendations for PR organisations that could be implemented to reduce gender inequalities and improve the diversity of the profession.
Outputs and recognition
- Topic, M and Diers Lawson, A (2019) EUPRERA Vol. 1 No. 1 - Women in Public Relations: A Literature Review (1982-2019). Project Report. Creative Media and Communications Research Ltd & EUPRERA, Leeds/Brussels
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