Searching for the Missing Women in senior public relations roles

A new research project is searching for the Missing Women in senior public relations roles.

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 to be published in Spring 2025.

If you’re a woman working in public relations in the UK, we would welcome your perspective. The survey will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete and remain open until 30 September 2024.

➡️ Complete the Missing Women survey ⬅️

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.

➡️ Complete the Missing Women survey ⬅️

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 Stephen Waddington. 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.