The PR industry in England and Wales seemingly has a problem with elevating women.

On the surface, this problem doesn’t seem possible — there are approximately 28,848 practitioners that identify as a woman, that’s 3,449 more than those who identify as men (25,399) according to CIPR’s PR Population Report — the industry is undeniably full of women.

Yet, CIPR’s Missing Women Study found that only 9,312 women hold senior director roles compared to 10,700 of men. Commenting in the report, Avril Lee chair of CIPR’s diversity and inclusion network said: “Women power PR every day but rarely hold the power.”

PR is an industry where talented women are available in abundance to progress up the career ladder, but time and time again they bang their heads against the industry’s abnormally thick glass ceiling.

Which begs the question: what’s the problem?

One obvious issue is the societal expectation of women to bear the brunt of childcare and elder care.

Baljit Gill, founder at Serani Communications points out: “For women who still bear a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities these expectations can become barriers to advancement. Unconscious biases about motherhood or work-life balance also contribute to fewer women being considered for leadership.”

As debates amongst the PR community around hybrid working splits, and the perceived importance of being present in an office rage on, it’s unclear whether this will be remedied.

New research from Pregnant Then Screwed found up to 74,000 women every year lose their job for getting pregnant or taking maternity leave, marking an increase of 37% from 54,000 in 2016. Of the 35,800 parents surveyed, it found 35.9% of women said they were “sidelined or demoted” whilst pregnant, on maternity leave or when they returned to work.

Indeed, there is an increasing number of women founding agencies and paving the way for others to follow. As discussed in PRmoment’s International Women’s Day special PR Insight, Gender disparity in PR made me a founder – now my agency works to accelerate action for women while this is a positive movement, it was born out of inequality.

Women facing gender disparity are leaving — oftentimes out of necessity rather than a burning desire to endure the strain of founding their own business — established PR entities to start their own agencies or go freelance.

Jo Carr, managing partner at Hope&Glory and president of Women in PR said: “Women are having to be strategic about their careers and say ‘I'm not going to sit in a structure where men rise to the top’.

“It’s a sign that women have had to say ‘I’ll do it on my own’ which is why there are also a lot more women senior freelancers.”

“Prejudice, discrimination and sexism is very alive and well in our industry, unfortunately. There are lots of progressive agencies that are addressing these issues with workplace policies, but there are tons of agencies that just want to maintain the status quo and don’t think there’s an issue. Usually the ones with an all-male leadership team.”

The value of having a supportive female leadership with inclusive policies in PR during pregnancy is highlighted by Rachel Chesters, founder and MD at Start Communication who explains: “Real progress for women in PR, comms and marketing isn’t just about saying the right things—it’s about putting them into practice. I’ve experienced this first-hand.

“I once accepted a senior management role in-house and told my employer I was pregnant on my first day. That was just how the cards had fallen – life, career and family pressures coming along at the same time. I was met with nothing but support, not just through pregnancy and maternity leave, but also in my return to work, where I was quickly offered the opportunity to step up as director of marketing and comms.

“That kind of backing changes careers. And, of course, it was women who championed me at that time. But I’m not naïve. I know that’s not usually how the story goes.”

But, motherhood and caring responsibilities do not apply to all women and that is only one aspect of the entrenched issue. CIPR’s data pointed out, 63.5% of respondents experienced gender-based discrimination or harassment, and described a “boys’ club mentality” within the industry that needed to be addressed.

"The lack of women in senior roles is down to the ‘isms’," says Effie Kanyua, founder at We Are Warriors PR. 

"The ‘isms’ discount women for their gender, age, ethnicity, being a parent or caregiver or going through menopause. The facts and stats are there, people hire and/or fund people that feel familiar, so the only real way would be for women to start their own businesses."

Gill adds: “A mix of structural barriers, ingrained biases, and industry norms continue to hold women back." 

Gill fears that it will “take generations” to completely eradicate this, and she says: "PR firms often favor traditional and often male associated leadership styles such as assertiveness and financial acumen over the collaborative and strategic skills many women bring to the table.

“Many women in PR receive mentorship, but fewer have access to senior leadership who actively advocate for their promotions. Since many PR firms still have male-dominated leadership teams, women often miss out on these crucial career-boosting opportunities.”

The problem is nuanced, but there is a resounding solution, as Megan Morass, co-founder and co-CEO at Full Fat says: “We don’t just need more women-led start-ups. We need affordable childcare, flexible employer support, a seamless return-to-work post-maternity and fast-tracked career growth after maternity leave to erase the motherhood penalty.”

Narda Shirley, co-founder at The Wilful Group adds: “In order to retain more senior women, agencies need to offer some of the same perks that come with self-employment – flexible time management, an ability to focus on what you are best at and outsource the other bits to a specialist. This could mean rethinking some of the roles in an agency beyond the classic hierarchy structure.”

Stephen Waddington, CIPR's report author and director at Wadds Inc says the metaphor of the glass ceiling used at the start of this feature and the notion of women actually having the ability to shatter it, doesn't track anymore. “There’s more than one barrier. Women don’t break through the ceiling, they work around it by going independent,” he says.

Kanyua concludes: "For existing global businesses with mostly white male senior management and boards, the only way to change the status quo would be to have targets in place of what they see a ‘fairer’ senior management workforce looking like. 

"There is no workaround, the soft approach DE&I fails because it always lacks the action and proof which means a lot of talk happens, but it's the same conversation the following year. A different strategy is needed, we’re in different times and realistically in some markets we’ll be going back 70 years if the government has its way. So we either slide backwards, or we push the accelerator and go for it."

It’s possible that PR’s problem with women in leadership may become a thing of the past thanks to the many who, as Waddington and Kanyua summarised, worked around the impervious glass ceiling and struck out on their own to create an industry that is more suitable for women.

Sadly, the problem still permeates PR and it should not just be acknowledged on International Women’s Day. It should be explored on a daily basis, especially by those inadvertently (or otherwise) feeding the power imbalance through antiquated workplace practices and cultures.

Focused and thoughtful workplace policies must become as ingrained in the PR industry as the systemic biases currently holding women back.