Gender and Public Relations: Critical Perspectives on Voice, Image and Identity

Julia Jahansoozi (School of Communication and Culture, Royal Roads University, Victoria, Canada)

Journal of Communication Management

ISSN: 1363-254X

Article publication date: 1 February 2016

941

Citation

Julia Jahansoozi (2016), "Gender and Public Relations: Critical Perspectives on Voice, Image and Identity", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 91-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-07-2015-0053

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


The Master’s tools will never dismantle the Master’s House (Lorde, 1984, pp. 110-111).

Christine Daymon and Kristin Demetrious’ edited book titled Gender and Public Relations signals an interesting and important departure from how gender within the field of public relations has been conceptualized and encourages us to consider how it is positioned within the socio-political and cultural contexts. Whilst gender issues have previously been researched (e.g. Aldoory, 2005, 2009; Grunig, 1988, 2006; Hon, 1995; Choi and Hon, 2002; Toth, 2001; Toth and Cline, 2007; Toth and Grunig, 1993) the focus has tended to been on salary disparities, the continued lack of women represented within senior roles despite more women working in public relations, and gender in the workplace. Daymon and Demetrious’ book is different. It is also a challenge to us in that it calls for a radical shift in thinking from the dominant functionalist public relations paradigm so that the current status quo pertaining to the essentialist view of gender and organizations is dismantled. A key aim of this book is to promote a more in depth exploration of the communication process as it relates to gender and reconstituting the social as well as strategic role of public relations.

The crux of this book is that it revolves around a tightly focused key question, which asks “what does public relations mean to gender” (Rakow, p. xii) and runs through the well crafted, and insightful 11 chapters. Whilst within public relations there is a small body of literature on gender it still remains underdeveloped in relation to other academic disciplines. This book attempts to address decades of research focusing on the dominant functionalist paradigm by championing critical perspectives, offering a diversity of approaches to better understand gender and other multiple identities we encompass in our daily lives. The purpose of this book is the “disruption of the status quo by calling attention to the absence of gender in much of public relations teaching” (Daymon and Demetrious, 2010, p. 1).

Within the Introduction Christine Daymon and Kristin Demetrious (2013) introduce their definition of public relations as a “communicative activity used by organizations to intervene socially in and between competing discourses in order to facilitate a favourable position within a globalized context” (p. 3), which sets the tone for the rest of the chapters. Throughout the book the editors and contributors have very clearly situated this volume within the anti-essentialist approaches to both gender and organizations, and encourage us to think about what the role of public relations is when it comes to thinking about whose experiences are excluded, included and dominant, which is one of many refreshing reasons to read this book.

The Volume’s 11 chapters share synergies and interconnect, with all exploring how gender intersects with other identities. Three of chapters were further developed from articles published in 2010 in Prism 7(4). Kristin Demetrious’ chapter 1 centres on the ways in which gender, power and sexual hierarchy are not only interlinked but also work to accept particular behaviours that promote inequality via an analyses of two work-place sexual harassment cases which questions why we are willing to perpetuate the absence of gendered relations in our curriculum. This is followed by Anne Surma and Christine Daymon’s Chapter 2, which focuses on an analysis of public relations practitioners as cultural intermediaries and their well-being, and especially how both men and women practitioners cope with their commitments (work vs personal), and specifically why women feel guilt in relation to their competing obligations. Chapters 3 and 10 both adopt an intersectionality approach, making the invisible visible within their analyses. Donnalyn Pompper’s Chapter 3 which offers a concise overview of critical race theory and intersectionality makes explicit the interconnectedness of social categorizations (race, class and gender) in rendering work-place inequalities as well as understanding public relations as a feminized occupation. In chapter 10, Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, Hua Jiang and Natalie Tindal focus on a health policy guidelines change that resulted in having a detrimental health impact within the USA. Utilizing an intersectionality approach with their analysis the authors identified how the policy making process complicates gender and other identities (such as race, class, age and sexual orientation) and that our multiple identities need to be taken into account when communication is implemented. Liz Yeomans’ chapter 4 explores gender segregation in public relations consulting relationships using the theoretical lens of emotional labour to question whose interests are actually being served. Chapter 5 provides an analysis of an advocacy campaign by Kay Weaver that not only shows the ways in which activist communication is gendered but also reveals the intercultural tensions and sensitivities around the depiction of the female body giving insight into the importance of recognizing the conflicting cultural values at play. Whilst Jane Arthurs’ chapter 6 focuses on two crises at the BBC that illuminate its approach to relationship management contrasting two BBC reputational cases – one which focuses on a masculine sexualized radio performance and another that explores a successful legal challenge regarding an editorial decision involving age discrimination targeted at female presenters. Insights from these cases go beyond the news media sector when it comes to women and age discrimination.

The remaining chapters 7, 8, 9 and 11 are linked in various ways. Ian Sommerville and Sahla Aroussi’s chapter 7 has linkages to both chapters 5 (advocacy) and 10 (policy) and is therefore particularly useful for those interested in researching NGOs and policy change. The authors analyze the public relations and lobbying strategies that were used by a transnational advocacy network at the United Nations Security Council examining the framing of discourse via the role of norm entrepreneurs in the media as well as lobbying, and the importance of including gender issues. Chapters 8 and 9 are linked by cultural influences and impact with regard to health issues or participating in a union. Marianne Sison’s chapter 8 focuses on women’s health and in particular with women’s reproductive rights where the emphasize concerns the impact culture has on gender when it comes to ingrained values. Sison provides a case-study analysis and contextualized media texts by drawing out the discourses and exposing how they linked with the construction of social identities and the intersections of gender, politics, economics and culture. In chapter 9 Maree Keeting draws upon critical theory to provide examples of how it is possible to develop effective strategies for building migrant women workers’ engagement with unions by addressing their broader needs. And finally, Kate Fitch and Amanda Third’s chapter 11 takes us back in time to the 1980s Australian public relations landscape. The chapter provides acute insight into the speedy feminization of the occupation and the fear this instigated regarding its assumed devaluation and pink collar status with regard to salaries. The authors explored female practitioners perspectives including the impact of feminization on professional identity, tensions connected to the professional status of public relations and women negotiating professional identities. The chapter also includes a section on industry responses to the feminization of public relations and the campaign attempts to attract more men into the occupation. I suspect similar findings are to be found elsewhere as much of this chapter resonated with some of my former industry colleagues’ experiences in the UK.

I found this edited collection to be like a smörgåsbord that provides a range of expert contributions from scholars whilst successfully portraying the negotiation of gender, other identities, diversity as well as cultural practice. The critical perspective explicates how power is used and makes apparent the inequalities that tend to go unchallenged and often are reproduced. The back cover of this volume states that “through the prism of ‘gender and public relations’, it examines not only the manipulatory, but also the emancipatory, subversive and transformatory potential of public relations for the construction of meaning”. I agree – it is a book that inspires change in how we look at public relations as an academic subject and how it is taught as well as a cultural practice.

The strength of Gender and Public Relations is that it offers a very clear critical orientation with a defined ontology. It offers both new and advanced researchers ideas and approaches to better understand the intersections of gender and other identities. It is definitely a book that should make its way into public relations curriculum and deserves space on your bookshelf.

About the reviewer

Julia Jahansoozi is an Associate Professor specializing in Public Relations within the School of Communication and Culture at the Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia. Previously she worked at the Universities of Stirling and Central Lancashire within the UK. Prior to gaining her PhD she worked in public relations practice in Canada and the UK. Associate Professor Julia Jahansoozi can be contacted at: Julia.Jahansoozi@royalroads.ca

References

Aldoory, L. (2005), “A (re)conceived feminist paradigm for public relations: a case for substantial improvement”, Journal of Communication , Vol. 55 No. 4, pp. 668-684.

Aldoory, L. (2009), “Feminist criticism in public relations: how gender can impact public relations texts and contexts”, in Heath, R.L. , Toth, E.L. and Waymer, D. (Eds), Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations II , Routledge, New York, NY, pp. 110-123.

Choi, Y. and Hon, L.C. (2002), “The influence of gender composition in powerful positions on public relations practitioners’ gender-related perceptions”, Journal of Public Relations Research , Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 229-263.

Daymon, C. and Demetrious, K. (Eds) (2010), “Gender and public relations: perspectives, applications and questions”, PRism , Vol. 7 No. 4, available at: www.prismjournal.org

Daymon, C. and Demetrious, K. (Eds) (2013), Gender and Public Relations: Critical Perspectives on Voice, Image and Identity , Routledge, London.

Grunig, L.A. (1988), “Women in public relations: an overview”, Public Relations Review , Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 3-5.

Grunig, L.A. (2006), “Feminist phase analysis in public relations: where have we been? Where do we need to be?”, Journal of Public Relations Research , Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 115-140.

Hon, L.C. (1995), “Toward a feminist theory of public relations”, Journal of Public Relations Research , Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 27-88.

Lorde, A. (1984), “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches , Crossing Press, Trumansburg, NY, pp. 110-111.

Toth, E.L. (2001), “How feminist theory advanced the practice of public relations”, in Heath, R.L. (Ed.), The Handbook of Public Relations , Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 237-246.

Toth, E.L. and Cline, C.G. (2007), “Women in public relations: success linked to organizational and societal cultures”, in Creedon, P.J. and Cramer, J. (Eds), Women in Mass Communication , 3rd ed., Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 85-96.

Toth, E.L. and Grunig, L.A. (1993), “The missing story of women in public relations”, Journal of Public Relations Research , Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 153-175.

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