The Missing Story of Women in Public Relations

Abstract

This study proposed to advance the research on roles in public relations by considering through a feminist analysis the breadth of roles that women perform under the managerial label. Although management and technician roles have been useful as parsimonious tools to educate future public relations practitioners about public relations, these labels have begun to develop values of hierarchy and power not found when they were operationalized. Based on a sample of 1,003 respondents, we asked for self-report data on a list of 17 role activities. The resulting factor analysis of responses by gender indicated a two-factor construct that represented managerial and technical dimensions. Further analysis of the dimensions by gender indicated that a combination of roles existed; the women managers did "it all," for less money, and the men in technical roles more likely did managerial activities as well. The women technicians carried out technical tasks.