Female bosses may be a new concept for many men. Few decades ago, women were expected to be housewives. Today women are starting their own businesses or becoming CEOs of multi-million dollar PR agencies.
Many male executives, are not used to working with powerful women, whether they are powerful in terms of their work or powerful in terms of their personality. This could be a reason that men feel threatened and thus may not allow women to rise in the ranks.
Males are not the only ones to blame for the lack of female at the top levels in PR industry. Some women are just not comfortable with power. Thus many a times it is a glass ceiling that is self-created and women would have to push themselves out of this self-imposed ceiling.
A lot of great female businesswomen are present in PR world, but I don’t know how many feel comfortable in their role as a female businesswoman. Maybe, a lot of women work at the hands and permission of the male business environment. Even though women may yield power effectively, women (it is researched by psychologists) are not comfortable with power. This creates an internal conflict which can limit their effectiveness.
And then there are some smart women like Willibanks in business, who have understood this dilemma in the society. She has a largely female staff because she wanted to be surrounded by strong women. As a strong business woman herself with great business acumen she decided to partner with a male, Bill Elam, who is the other half of her strength. According to her, some clients only want to work with male executives, and WilbanksElam is able to cater to each client’s needs.
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Join Conversations in Public Relations as we meet Carolyn Tieger, 2005 Washington PR Woman of the Year and Partner and Managing Director with the public relations firm, Porter Novelli.
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