Women in Higher Education Public Relations: An Inkling of Change?

Abstract

We used a national survey of 371 public relations officers in 4-year colleges and universities to examine environmental constraints, style of research, and certain personal characteristics to determine if they differentiate female and male practitioners. First, with regard to constraints, female public relations officers are most likely to occupy what we call the conscience of the organization role, whereas their male counterparts characterize a dominant insider position. Second, no differences in use or style of research were found by gender. Although this is encouraging, it is apparent that there remain environmental constraints—notably administrator expectations—that need to be addressed. Higher education was selected as the context to study in part because it is where we educate future practitioners. With regard to gender-related stereotypical expectations, colleges and universities are not practicing in their public relations offices what they are teaching in their classrooms. Findings are framed and discussed from both individual, liberal-feminist and collective, socialist-feminist perspectives.