Why Are There So Many Women in Public Relations?
But the feminization of PR isn’t a product of some sort of mass hysteria (sorry) by female liberal arts majors. It’s very rational. Jobs for public relations specialists are growing at 12 percent a year—about the same rate at which jobs for reporter are shrinking each year. PR people now outnumber journalists three to one.
.. And the typical explanations—that women are better listeners, or more social—don’t hold up, since those skills are also necessary in journalism, where women don’t dominate.
.. Many of the women I spoke to seemed to genuinely enjoy portraying things in a positive light, which is the exact opposite of most journalists I know, who appraise every fact they encounter with the skepticism of an overzealous hall monitor. “Oh a special ranch for disabled ponies? How disabled are the ponies, though?”