✅ Searching for the Missing Women in senior public relations roles
Corporate communications, public relations, media and management insight
We’re launching the Missing Women study today to understand the barriers to women's progression to senior roles. The survey explores women's experiences in UK public relations practice, including those currently working, those considering leaving, and those who have left the field.
The responses will help us understand the challenges and opportunities for women in public relations roles, particularly mid-career. They will inform further qualitative research and form the basis of a research paper to be published by the CIPR and Socially Mobile in Spring 2025.
If you’re a woman working in public relations in the UK, we would welcome your perspective. The survey will take you 10 to 15 minutes to complete and will remain open until 30 September 2024.
This isn’t a female problem. It’s an industry problem. The data speaks for itself.
66% of practitioners working in England and Wales below director level are female and 34% are male
The situation is almost completely reversed in senior roles, where 54% of practitioners are male and 46% are female
The shortfall in England and Wales alone equates to almost 3,000 missing women in senior roles within public relations practice, according to the PR Population report by Ben Verinder published by the CIPR in February 2024. It is based on an analysis of data from the 2021 Census in England and Wales.
We initially identified this issue through empirical data based on applications to the Socially Mobile programme. This ten-week programme helps practitioners from underserved communities gain management experience.
This issue has been well documented in the research literature for almost 50 years, yet change is slow.
The Velvet Ghetto study, undertaken by the International Association of Business Communicators in the 1980s, characterised the issue of the glass ceiling for women in public relations practice.
Larissa Grunig’s data analysis from the Excellence Study in the 1990s established that best-practice public relations teams should be representative of society. Many critical thinkers, including Jacquie L'Etang, Magda Pieczka, Lee Edwards, Liz Bridgen, and others, have studied and written about this issue.
It’s an intersectional issue that is compounded by socioeconomic and diversity factors.
The Socially Mobile Missing Women study consists of a literature review and a quantitative survey followed by in-depth qualitative interviews with three cohorts of ten mid-career women working in public relations practice or who have left the industry.
We’ve recruited a research team of Socially Mobile graduates with lived experience of inequality within public relations practice to explore the issue and identify interventions.
The research team consists of Rana Audah, Josie Shepherd and Isobel Wilson-Cleary, led by myself. The project is being managed by Sarah Waddington CBE and supervised by Ben Verinder.
Thanks to the CIPR Research Fund for supporting this project and enabling us to fund the research team.
Have a great week.
Management and public relations
🚌 SOCIALLY MOBILE DEADLINE: Friday is the deadline for a fully funded place in the final Socially Mobile cohort starting in September. The 10-week executive education programme supports corporate communications and public relations practitioners from underserved communities to gain management expertise and develop a supportive community. Source: Socially Mobile.
💡 INNOVATORS WANTED: PRovoke Media has opened nominations for its 2024 Innovator 25 lists, seeking individuals who have elevated the PR and communications industry through creativity, risk-taking, or social impact. Nominations are being accepted until September 6th for innovators in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific regions. Source: PRovoke Media.
Artificial Information
🤖 AI CONTROVERSY: Academic authors are outraged after discovering Taylor & Francis sold access to their research to Microsoft for AI training without their consent or compensation. The £8m deal raises concerns about authors' rights, transparency, and the future of academic publishing in the age of AI. Source: Bookseller.
⛔ COPILOT GROUNDED: Major companies have paused Microsoft Copilot deployments due to data governance and security concerns. Half of the chief data officers surveyed have restricted or turned off Copilot software, citing risks of inappropriate data access and control measures. Source: The Register.
❓ COMMS TECH SURVEY: The Global CommTech Survey 2024, supported by AMEC, CIPR, and ICCO, aims to benchmark the use of tech within public relations practice. It explores the adoption of general-purpose AI and application-specific tools. The deadline is 6 September. Source: Purposeful Relations.
Misinformation and fake news
🗳 FAKE PRESIDENT: Donald Trump shared AI-generated images of Taylor Swift, Kamala Harris, and Elon Musk to bolster his campaign. The spread of deepfakes and AI-generated content is complicating the information landscape for the 2024 US presidential election, with experts warning about potential impacts on voter perception and trust in media. Source: The Guardian.
🌪️ MUSK'S MAYHEM: Elon Musk's actions during Britain's 2024 summer riots, using X to undermine elected leaders, serve as a warning for the upcoming US presidential election. With reduced oversight on social media platforms and Musk's unchecked power, there are fears about potential chaos and threats to democracy in the volatile period between the election result and inauguration. Source: The Guardian.
Social media
🐦 BLUESKY RISING: News publishers are exploring Bluesky as a potential Twitter alternative, attracted by its decentralised structure and openness to working with the news industry. Despite its smaller user base, publishers, including The New York Times and Politico, are experimenting with the platform, seeing engaged audiences and potential for future growth. Source: Press Gazette.
📱 CROSS-POSTING ACTIVATED: Meta now allows users to cross-post from Facebook and Instagram to Threads, enabling simultaneous updates across all three platforms. While this feature saves time, the article cautions that tailoring content for each platform's unique user behaviour may yield better results. Source: Social Media Today.
🔄 CORE UPDATE: Google’s latest algorithm update focuses on showing genuinely useful content and better-capturing site improvements. Many publishers hope for recovery from past impacts. Meanwhile, publishers are reporting minimal impact from Google AI overviews. Source: Search Engineland.
Thank you to Charlotte Bass, Stuart Bruce, Julian Christopher, Alan Morrison, Maja Pawinska Sims, Andrew Bruce Smith, Sarah Waddington CBE, and everyone who shares and debates the stories in the newsletter via our Facebook community. You’re welcome to join us.