Women taking top stakes in PR in Kenya

Hello again. After a long break to do my research which am yet to complete, I was excited to learn that more women seem to be taking top stakes in Public Relations in Kenya. It reminded me of a debate we had during my last semester at campus when some of my colleagues argued that women will only work in PR, but they will never run the industry.

How interesting to learn from part of my research that some of the qualities that were named in the debate have given women a boost to excel in this profession in the east African nation. It emerged that the situation is not different here in terms of who dominates the industry. Just like other developed nations or as past studies have shown, there are more women than men in PR in Kenya.

From the perception point of view many people tend to believe that women perform better than men in PR due to better communication skills they have. I know some may disagree with this, but as said earlier in one of my posts women are naturally good at building relationships, multi-tasking, persuasion etc.

Apart from women running top agencies in the country, many are holding top or leadership roles in corporate organisations. HHmm!....It left me wonder if many will still continue to say that women can never run this profession because they don't have qualities.....your comments, thoughts and feedback are still welcome as this debate continues.

Will women rule in PR? The debate

In my previous post, I talked about feminisation in PR. On this post I'll talk about the debate which really got people emotional in class. The motion: 'Women will always work in PR but never run it.' Mmhh! To start with, I think this statement is just too exaggerated. I opposed this motion because to use the word 'never' is not right. I mentioned briefly about this in my previous post, that I strongly disagreed because we had women running the industry even when it was male dominated. I gave some examples in my earlier discussion.

Those who supported the motion, gave a list of qualities and past theories to justify why women will never run the industry. Some of their arguments included discriminating gender qualities to handling of PR jobs, such as lack of self confidence, occupational stress, soft to be managers and many more.

It was rather sad to hear a fellow female pursuing PR to say that "a lot of women think they have it but they don’t." If we cannot believe in and empower ourselves as women who will do it for us? This puzzled me. Just because there are many men at top positions does not mean that women will never achieve the same. Having many women run the industry is just a matter of time as change is already in the works.

To explain how this process is gradual, we must understand that it's only in recent years we have seen more women in PR. Larissa Grunig in Perspective on Public Relations, explained this in 5 feminist phases showing evolution of how women got accepted in this field.

They include:
1. Male scholarship - The field was mainly predominant by men. Despite women's contributions, their roles were ignored.
2. Compensatory -Progress was noticed, women's contribution and experience was accepted.
3. Bifocal - Both men and women perceived to be separate and equal sexes. Women trying to self actualise themselves and overcome sexism at this stage
4. Feminist -- Women were more confident here and their activities became central
5. Multi focal --this phase redefines the field and develops understanding of men's and women's experience to achieve knowledge and practice that's truly inclusive.

This means women have made great strides considering that in the past they had no rights. Currently we can see many associations, groups and organisations exclusively for female PR practitioners such as Washington Women in PR (WWPR) and the Women in PR Group for Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

According to PR Week, articles and other studies, women now account for about 70 per cent in the industry, and many more are enrolling for degree courses in PR to equip themselves to add to the skills they already have. Fewer men are now joining PR. All this means women already have a strong base to fight the stumbling blocks to push their way to the top.

Feminisation of PR

I must say this session was real fun. The subject was about feminisation of PR and diversity issues. To begin with, the course tutor, Michaela O'brien asked students to think about what makes a man and a woman.

It was interesting to hear classmates name characteristics attributed to Masculine such as: leader, ego, dominant, independent, objective, hunter and assrtive. Some of those associated with feminine according to my peers include: emotional, sensitive, tender, soft, creative and adoptable.

The aim behind this was to show how society associates some of these characteristics with different sexes. After deliberations, students realised that some of these characteristics could apply to both female and male. And that stereotypes were very strong, just how peope look at others and perceive them differently.

How could some of these be applied in the PR profession. More of these was deliberated at length during a heated debate which I was taking part in. The motion of the day was "Women will always work in the Public relations industry but will never run it". I was on the opposing side. Firstly, I would like to say I found this statement not to be correct as we already have women running the industry even in the past when the profession was perceived to be male dominated.
I backed this with examples of women heading big PR agencies like Fleischman-Hillard, Edelman and Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

My colleagues pointed out some of the characteristics such as emotional, soft,...etc to argue that women tend not to have what it takes to be in leadership positions. Ooops! did this actually come from fellow female students!

However, according to Larissa Grunig (2001), she has noted that women were perceived to be better communicators basically because they tend to build relationships, communicate with others, consider feelings of others and empathise with others. check out for more on this in my next post.

How are women in PR perceived?

Equal rights is normally an issue at every workplace. The PR industry is no exception. Although, I feel that it may be slightly different in this profession. I may be wrong, but looking at the salary gaps for men and women in public relations, this calls for a bone of contention. Apart from salaries, battles in maternity leave and the infamous glass ceiling have been an issue for some time also. However, this may have changed in some companies, but still continues to be an issue for debate.

The other day I was talking to a friend about the rise of women in the PR industry. I asked him what he thinks about men and women in this profession, his answer was, generally, women tend to be better communicators and pursuasive as compared to men. It doesn't mean that men are not good at communication, don't get me wrong on this, but women seem to have better listening skills and are more sensitive in facilitating two-way communication.
For instance, women are seen to be good at consulting because they understand the value of relationships and emotions. Hey! hey! hey! Now, that’s not to suggest that men aren’t good at that -- Just that women tend to come by this more naturally, they are biologically hardwired to want to make connections with people and build relationships on trust and mutual respect, an important skill in consulting. Mmhhh...don't shoot me on this guys.

What expressions are used?
As Catherine Arrow points out in her article on PR Conversations "expressions such as ‘PR Poppet’, ‘Fluffy Bunnies’ and ‘PR Bunnies’ are rife, and these, along with other descriptors.., undermine and denigrate both the profession and women." This shift in balance towards women tends to lead to much stereotyping. In their study, Frohlich and Peters’ ("2007) in a journal of Public Relations Research, reveals the "evolution of a “PR bunny” stereotype that adds a negative touch to the female image as “natural born communicators.”

Another observation is that when some people think of women in PR they think of images of Lizzie Grubman or Samantha Jones in the Sex and the City. Stacy Nobles, management supervisor at Peppercom in New York, argues in her article on TV portrayals of women in PR are bad for our industry,published in PR Week (2005), that "to have her (Lizzie) as the face of PR is frustrating to those of us in the industry ... especially to the real "Power Girls." Mmhhh! What is your view?