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#StateofPR: Gender Inequality, Diversity and Qualifications Gap

[fa icon="calendar"] 14-Mar-2014 08:09:00 / by Iliyana Stareva

Research, research, and State-of-the-PR-Profession-2013-2014research again... That's what today's blog post is about again. For some reason so many relevant and interesting studies have published their findings all at once and I just can't withhold that information from you. And so today I am going to share with you my impressions from the latest 2013/2014 State of the PR Profession Annual Benchmarking Survey by the Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR).

The survey was conducted among 2,500 public relations professionals from the UK, focusing on issues and trends around current practice, standards, budgets, skills and career development.

For the first time, non-members of the CIPR also took part in the survey, broadening the scope and the representativeness of the research.

Overall, the study this year revealed that Public Relations is at a crossroads. Nevertheless, Stephen Waddington, President of the CIPR, believes that "what we see is a terrific opportunity for anybody that is willing to embrace change."

I welcome change. And I believe that there are some fundamental things in the PR business (well, frankly in any business) that should change - one is the issue of gender inequality, another is diversity, and third is qualifications.

In fact, these are three of the areas discussed in the findings that I want to talk about today. Don't get me wrong - there are many positive things and much progress made presented in the study. But advancing the conversation about these problematic areas and putting them in focus is how we are going to solve them.

Why these three areas?

Well, you've already seen how many times I've spoken about gender diversity and the difficulties women face when reaching for the top. It's an issue that needs to be vocally expressed again and again until it's solved.

Till some point, I also personally relate to the diversity issue - as originally Bulgarian, I am a foreigner in Germany. I am not native in the language, I come from a different culture. Believe me, fitting in is EXTREMELY difficult. And it has to be a two-way thing.

Finally, I chose the issue about qualifications because I think that practical excellence is based on a strong theoretical and academic background. Education and continuous learning, not just ambition, make up a career.

So, here we go with the findings:

Gender Inequality:

  • Again this year, just as in all the previous #stateofPR surveys so far, there is massive inequality in pay between men and women, with the mean salary for men being £12,390 greater than that for women (mean salary for a male public relations practitioner is £56,840 and £44,450 for a female practitioner).
  • At the highest end of the pay scale, men are twice as likely as women to earn more than £150,000 (7% for men; 3% for women).
  • At any professional level, men earn more than women when performing the same roles - a disparity that continues to rise with seniority.
  • Men are twice as likely as women to say that they are directors, partners or MDs (18% compared with 9% respectively).
  • Men (50%) are more likely than women (44%) to directly brief board members / senior staff.
  • More than half (56%) of board members with public relations responsibilities are men.

Diversity:

  • More than half of respondents agree that campaigns are more effective if practised by teams that are socially (67%), culturally (64%) and ethnically (51%) diverse or proportionate.
  • 50% agree that campaigns are more effective if practised by teams that are made up of a proportionate number of men and women. However, three in ten (28%) also disagree with that statement.
  • Practitioners working in consultancies are notably less likely than other professionals to agree that public relations campaigns are more effective when conducted by diverse teams in terms of ethnicity, culture, gender or disability.

Qualifications Gap:

  • Overall, there is a low level of academically or professionally qualified practitioners in PR and an overwhelming preference for "on the job" experience and learning as the most important indicator of professional standards (68%).
  • 76% practitioners hold an academic qualification; 44% have a professional standard qualification.
  • 35% believe that the biggest challenge to Public Relations in the next five years will be an expanding skill set required of professionals.

stateofpr-least-important-qualities-for-pr-professionals

And finally, here's something else not directly related to the above areas, but I still find it intriguing - seems that the PR industry is quite the stressful industry as more than half of public relations professionals feel under pressure:

stateofpr-career-and-job-satisfaction

Again, this is yet another research that highlights the massive inequality between men and women in the workplace. This is a serious issue and I, as a woman working in PR aiming to eventually reach the top, hope that I will be given the opportunity to really go for it.

Here's what Stephen Waddington said about the gender issue: “A truly professional discipline does not accept having a pay gap between men and women who are doing exactly the same jobs.” I agree.

I'm hopeful. Are you? What can we do?

 

Here's the infographic summarising the key findings:

(Click on the infographic for a larger view)

CIPR-State-of-the-PR-Profession-201314-infographic

 

Images and infographic from CIPR

Topics: Public Relations

Iliyana Stareva

Written by Iliyana Stareva

Iliyana Stareva is the author of Inbound PR - the book that is transforming the PR industry. She's also a keynote speaker and a consultant in inbound and digital for fast-growing companies and agencies. Currently, Iliyana is Chief of Staff to the EMEA President at ServiceNow. Before that, she held global and EMEA-wide positions at Cisco and HubSpot. She is also certified by the PMI as a Project Management Professional (PMP)®. In her free time, you can find Iliyana writing for her blog, dancing salsa or travelling the world.

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