Women in Public Relations in Europe: From Where to Where

(page latest updating: February 2010)

Research question or educational challenge

Women in public relations is a topic that has been studied b mainly by American scholars in public relations. For example, of those the Velvet Ghetto study (1986) assumes that women are more likely to perceive themselves as filling a technical role, paid less even when the other variables are controlled and that women’s dominance in a profession has consequences upon the profession. Later Prof. Toth and her colleagues worked on that issue as well.

The proposed project aims to explore women in public relations in the Europe context. In the study member countries of EUPRERA will try to analyze:

1. Why women enter public relations field?
2. What are the challenges and opportunities for them?
3. Which occupational levels do they occupy?
4. How do they view the future of public relations?

The scope of the study is not limited to women public relations professionals (consultancy and in-house) but also to the women public relations academics as well. For example, in Turkey the majority of public relations students are females and the majority of public relations academics are females as well.

The educational challenge is that it will provide a discussion on the topic of women and public relations across Europe and it will add a new dimension to the study of women in public relations in the global context. 

Goals of the project

The goals of the project are:

• To compare and contrast European PR and the USA public relations from the women (gender) perspective.
• To show the issues that women public relations practitioners are concerned with.
• To show the issues that women public relations educators are facing with.
• To compare and contrast European public relations within itself through the challenges and opportunities that women public relations practitioners and educators are dealing with in each European country context and finally.
• To discuss the specific variables that affect the work of women public relations practitioners and educators within each country.

The study will also be a mini history of public relations concerning women in public relations. It will consist of data regarding each country’s women public relations practitioners/educators and important women figures in the field of public relations in each European country that is taking part in the study.

The study’s contribution could be to the public relations profession. The findings could help to look at the future of the profession from another perspective and shape the future of the profession in advance.

Overall timeline

The project discussions can start in Spring 2010. March and April can be used effectively for discussion and finalizing the study and methodology. In May 2010, the kick-off the study could be done. Each month after that, there could be a regular monitoring report. Also till May, team members can provide literature on the topic (from their countries) regarding the issue that will be studied. The final report could be prepared for the 2011 Annual Congress of EUPRERA.
The number of countries participating in the study will affect the scope of the research and the deadlines as well. The above time scale is a rather good enough time scale for a study with many participant countries.

Important note: If the project proposals are finalized by September 2010 at the Annual Congress of EUPRERA, then October 2010 will be the kick off of the project suggested and the final project can be presented at the 2011 Annual Congress of EUPRERA. Since the project proposal will be shared at Ghent Spring symposium, the interested team members collaborate earlier.

Milestones

• Setting up the project team: This can be finalized if approved during the Ghent symposium or at the latest by the end of March.
• Meetings: Considering that the project will run for over a year, there could be three meetings hosted by participant countries for discussion of the study or interactive video conferences can be set up.
• Conferences: Assuming that the study will be finished by of May 2011, writing the final report can take up during the summer of 2011 and it  could be presented at the 2011 annual EUPRERA congress.
• Surveys: The methodology of the study will be discussed with project team members (mixed methodology) and finalized by them by the end of April 2010 or early May. Since the study will encompass many data (descriptive and other), there can be many papers produced out of the project, for example, country specific papers in addition to the final report.

Resource planning

The project proposal has not secured any resources yet. One possible project sponsor could be Istanbul University. They have a unit where they evaluate all projects from all other faculties of Istanbul University, for example, medicine, sociology, etc. There are special submission periods which can affect the starting time of the project proposal to EUPRERA. Moreover, the project suggested looks like a marketable project so parties interested in women’s issues and NGO’s that are interested in empowerment of women can be possible sponsors. Regarding budget items:

• The project needs technical support-website, video conference set up, survey administration.
• There could be public relations students involved in the project. Two from each participating country or team members’ students.
• Data entering is necessary.
• Publication sponsor for the whole study (the project energiser can work on that).
• The sponsor/s could also sponsor project members meetings (travel + accommodation) and or their attendances to conferences for sharing preliminary findings, for example June 2010 (IPRA Congress in Peru) or March 2011 (International Public Relations Research Conference, University of Miami)

Project energizer

• Serra Görpe, Instanbul University, Turkey (serragorp@yahoo.com)

How can Euprera members join the project? Who should join the project?

The project energizer (S. Gorpe) does not have to be the coach of the project, it could be someone else too. The project has to attract three more researchers from different countries. If the project title is encompassing Europe, it will be a true European study. If approved, I think that the project will benefit from prior experiences of project leaders who have realized projects for EUPRERA. UK, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands or Belgium are among the ones that come to my mind.

I personally think that who should take part would be based on what the suggested project needs.
It needs someone interested in the women’s studies, two people with strong methodological backgrounds in qualitative and quantitative studies, one person who will do the literature review and one person who will take care of the logistics and careful administration of the project. The participant team members can be responsible for more than one country analysis. Which team member will be responsible for which countries can be finalized. A team of seven team members, not including students, will be sufficient enough to carry it.

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