Do women dominate the PR industry? If so, why?

While I think women's prevalence in PR continues to remain strong today (the numbers certainly speak for themselves), we have seen a pretty significant shift in recent years.

For example, here in NYC, Madison Avenue agencies which have traditionally been dominated by males at the senior level, have seen an increase in the number of females who have taken over the ranks of executive positions since 2008. On the other hand, in-house PR executive jobs (i.e. people who run PR/communications internally for companies), which have traditionally slanted toward the female demographic, have experienced a rise in hires among the male demographic.

Among entry-level employees, our own agency has seen a split of approximately 55% female, 45% male over the past year (this is admittedly based on a very unscientific count of resumes). A few years ago this number was significantly higher in favor of females.

If you break down the PR specialty sectors, however, that's where some of the most interesting trends surface. Most of the fashion and consumer product-specialty firms that I know, for example, have experienced a surge among male applicants over the past year or so. These sectors have traditionally been dominated by females, and while they remain female-leaning, the trend line has risen in favor of males as of late. Other PR specialty industries such as technology and energy have managed to attract more female applicants recently, whereas these sectors were traditionally dominated by males.

More importantly, however, while the recent data certainly provides an accurate snapshot into the current PR jobs landscape, the bigger picture here is that the PR industry is one of the most difficult sectors to pinpoint. I would advise that aspiring PR professionals not get caught up in the "male vs. female" breakdown, and analysis of demographic hiring trends like they normally would in other businesses. Much of this can be chalked up to the fact that "capitalism" reigns supreme in every sense when it comes to PR. More so than any other industry I can think of, the cream rises to the top in PR at a much quicker rate, regardless of gender, educational background, etc.

If you have the "skills" to become an effective PR professional, you can do so at a much advanced rate than you would in any other profession. Within a few months, agencies can generally determine whether or not their new hires are poised to succeed, or if they're destined to fail. This can certainly be great news for some, and bad news for others.

A good agency will invest in a rising star and put that employee in a position of power, whereas in other industries that employee would most likely have to climb the corporate ladder regardless of his/her skill set.

I've seen PR professionals who have been in the industry for 6 months outperform veterans who have worked at agencies for decades. Additionally, several intangible factors come into play in the PR profession, such as client-employee chemistry, value of relationships with reporters, ability to think creatively, and so on.

All of these factors make PR one of the most difficult industries to pinpoint into a male vs. female discussion.