Female Public Relations Professors in Brazil: A Contemporary Liberal Feminist-Centred Study

Abstract

What are the academic experiences of senior professors in the field of public relations (PR) at the Brazilian universities? This chapter proposes the advance of knowledge on the theoretical framework of contemporary liberal feminism by refining the previous theoretical and methodological publications. This theoretical lens prevails in earlier works, with empirical studies grounded in industry and corporate environments – mainly done by researchers from the United Kingdom, North America and Scandinavia, while PR feminist postmodernism appears in European literature – all scarce in Brazil and Global South (Latin America and African nations). Moreover, studies applying female or male PR scholars in university settings are rare in national and international literature. Hence, we gathered data and analysed narratives from seven senior female PR professors from Brazil, using an interpretative qualitative approach. Thus, this chapter about the female PR academic experiences and everyday practices highlights the starting point for an onto-epistemological discussion to understand the liberal feminist educational-based context in a Latin American country. Henceforth, two conceptual-practical dimensions – feminist PR competence and feminist PR performance – along with three methodological recommendations are presented for enhancing the contemporary liberal feminism theme as a robust research domain in PR and Strategic Communication agenda.

Citation

Mariutti, F.G. and Gimenes Cesca, C.G. (2024), "Female Public Relations Professors in Brazil: A Contemporary Liberal Feminist-Centred Study", Bridgen, E. and Williams, S. (Ed.) Women’s Work in Public Relations, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 147-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80455-538-520241008